Just Imagine: A TEDx Experience
Last June, Brigitte attended TEDxHouston and came back bubbling about the experience. It sounded good, but I still didn’t grasp what a TEDx event was really about until I attended TEDxDuke last Saturday.
It’s hard to put the TEDx experience into words – and I’ve been trying since I left the event that afternoon. At its most basic, the day consists of short talks and presentations by a wide range of people on a wide range of topics. Our central theme was “Just Imagine”. Because they fit so many talks into the day (we had 22 presentations and videos), each is relatively short, ranging from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. What’s great about this is that if one topic doesn’t interest you, the next one will start soon.
You’d be a fool though to tune out any one of the talks. I can say I benefited in some way from every single one of them. It wasn’t always the point they set out to make, but there was always something.
And now, some points from my favorite talks on Saturday:
- Creative Populism (Carl Nordgren): While the title is a little heady, one point that stuck out was the importance of searching enthusiastically for beauty each day because it both restores our souls and brings about a good mood that allows us to see more opportunity in the world. I’ve found that to be true – it’s hard to see anything positive when we’re feeling negative.
- Realistic Idealism (Daniel Wong): Another heady title but great content about his time performing service work in various communities and cultures. He said that overall, people want to be seen as people, not as a project or a problem to be solved . They want to be understood more than they want to be helped and they want to be seen for who they are, not for their lack or need. It’s less about providing/fixing and more about connecting. This was probably the most inspiring session of the day for me.
- Are We In Control? (Dan Ariely): Dan gave great examples of how we sabotage ourselves by not reaching our long-term goals because we don’t commit to the short-term requirements. He gave the example of his own illness where the doctors told him his liver would fail if he didn’t take shots for a certain amount of time. However, those shots made him very ill. He had to weigh the short-term discomfort with the long-term health of his liver. He recommended using short-term rewards to keep us motivated and also temptation avoidance by creating a consequence for not following through. This session resulted in the most immediate change in my thinking. I’m already seeing results from this.
- Falling Whistles (David Watson): David was aware of Falling Whistles (read more about them and view their amazing video on their site) and wanted to help but didn’t know what he had to offer at that point in his life. He thought about what he could do and realized he could find a way to draw attention to the cause. He and a few friends planned a cross-country bike tour promoting this amazing organization. He said two very important things: What can you do with who you are right now to best serve all of us? and The power of our dream was stronger than the fear of failure. So often, people think they have to wait to make a difference until they can donate a large sum of money or achieve this or that – this was a great reminder that we can all do something right now to make a difference.
There was only one speaker that my husband and I agreed afterwards seemed very flat. I don’t know if this person wasn’t feeling well or wasn’t used to presenting in that kind of crowd (though, as a professor, that seemed unlikely) but Mike summed it up perfectly by saying that the speaker lacked passion. In a day full of passionate speakers, that one session stuck out like a sore thumb. But even in that, I learned a lesson – you need to tune into those things that really matter and fire you up. You don’t want to be representing something you’re not passionate about because you can come across as lifeless.
If I had to sum up the lessons of the day, it would be that we need to be less fearful and more proactive, not waiting for something to fall into place before we start doing the things we feel passionate about or are important to us.
I plan to attend more TEDx events. I’m fortunate that there seem to be several in my area. I would encourage you to visit the TEDx site and look for an event in your area. And if there is none, or you’d like a taste of what to expect, either look back to my POW from Tuesday featuring a talk by Sarah Kay or check out some of the recorded talks on the TED site. I think you’ll find it to be time well spent, either way.
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