At a recent workshop I attended, the keynote speaker referred to George Bernard Shaw’s quote about joy, and I’m still thinking about it.

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

I subscribe to Oprah’s daily feed and the topic of charisma caught my curiosity yesterday. What makes a person charismatic? In an article by Jessica Winter, the main qualities mentioned are: 1) a genuine like and curiosity about other people; 2) authenticity, and 3) ability to show your paradoxical nature.  From Winter’s article:

“…charisma hinges largely on expressiveness, control, and sensitivity, its magnetic power intensifies when you mix in mystery and contradiction, says Joseph Roach, PhD, a professor of theater and English at Yale. In his book It, Roach writes that a supremely charismatic person has two sides: He or she is warm and tough, strong and vulnerable, down-to-earth and one of a kind.”

I went to a blogger’s meeting last night and there was mention of www.weebly.com as a way to create an elegant website and blog for free.  It is worth checking out.  Time Magazine named it one of the 50 best websites of 2007.  See http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1633488_1633608_1633636,00.html

This book by Roger von Oech was required reading at a creativity workshop I attended many years ago. I just picked it up again today and on page 165 the exercise is “Are you creative?” and you check either the box for yes or no.  A major oil company had conducted research on what differentiated creatve people from the lesser creative ones. Engineers were asked various questions and after three months of study psychologists found the differentiating factor:

“The creative people thought they were creative, and the less creative people didn’t think they were.”