Gratitude-A-Day Jan 24, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for luck. A little of it never hurts.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 23, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for restful sleep. This might be a repeat but the last two nights I've slept very well and it makes such a big difference in my day to have a good night's sleep.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 22, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for motivation. The urge to do something can come in many forms and I'm in the middle of a wave of it for a specific project. I was wondering when and how it was going to kick in this time and it arrived yesterday afternoon like a wave. I'm glad it did.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 21, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for a fresh coat of snow. At this time of year the snow can start to look pretty dirty. A fresh inch or two every few days keeps things looking nice. Today, we're getting that new cover.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 20, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for a gorgeous winter morning. It's bright, sunny and crisp. I love these winter mornings.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 19, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for sleep. I've been running a little empty the last few days and this morning I was able to sleep in a bit more. I'm also cutting my schedule back today to lighten things up a bit. I'm hoping that puts the spring back in my step.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 18, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for mindfulness practice. The class I mentioned a couple of days ago has had the expected effect of spurring me to practice on a more regular basis and has also introduced a new element to my mindfulness practice which I really enjoy. This new element is mindfulness of feeling states when a thought comes up - pleasant, unpleasant or neither pleasant or unpleasant. This is tricky to learn to start to incorporating into my practice but I'm learning a lot from the process and what it's illuminating for me.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 17, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for being re-inspired in my interest in renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean technology. I'm spending the day at the Local Energy / Local Opportunities:
The Second Clean Energy Resource Teams Conference in St Cloud Minnesota. The last few months I've been busy working on lots of other things and I'd kind of lost track of this thread in my life. It's great to reconnect!

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 16, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for the opportunity to participate in a class on Mindfulness of Feelings that started last night. I take a class like this about once a year and this one started last night.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 15, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for a new way of understanding long established behavior patterns. Every once in a while a new idea comes along that helps me understand myself better and yesterday provided one of these moments in the form of the book The Two-Step: The Dance Toward Intimacy. Of course the ideas in this book aren't the answer to everything but they provide a new thread of understanding.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 14, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for the potential for a nice snow fall this evening. It's been a very warm and brown winter and I'm hopeful that we might see some good snow this winter.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 13, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for a full day ahead of me. Not sure what I'm going to do with it but I'm happy that I can make it my own.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 12, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for learning and the clarity that can come from new understanding. Now the trick is going to be putting that new clarity into action on a regular basis.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 11, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for a different start to my day. I was at Al's breakfast in Minneapolis when they opened at 6 AM this morning and now I'm next door at Espresso Royal to get my day started. This is very different from my normal morning routine and it's a fun change.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 10, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for the future. I've been planning for and thinking about the future and I'm feeling optimistic about it.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 9, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for great conversations. I had one last night and another this morning. Both touched me deeply and provide motivation to be the best person I can be and to not accept an average life.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 8, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for a good night's sleep. I had a wonderful and intense weekend. Sleeping well on Sunday night was the perfect way to cap off the weekend and I'm in a fantastic mood this morning.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 7, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for so many things - it's been an incredible 24-36 hours. Far too many to list out so I'm going to pick just one. Today, I'm grateful for the gift my mom gave me this afternoon - "Go for it!" This is the best gift I've ever received from her and it will continue to unfold throughout my life as long as I draw breath. Additionally, as a recipient of this gift, I'm now empowered to pass it along, which I look forward to doing someday.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 6, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for a strong feeling of excitement and optimism about the future. Lot's of different things are contributing to this feeling today. I'm not going to list them out here but each of these by themselves would put a smile on my face. In this case the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 5, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for being able to learn and change. This is something that I experience in many areas of my life but I had a specific experience with swimming over the last few days that has highlighted the joy I find in learning something new.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 4, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for dancing. Last night I touched the joy that comes from dancing and was reminded why I sometimes go out even when I know "I shouldn't."

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 3, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for the combination of dynamic conversation and great food.
Great food seems to lead to more interesting conversation and as the conversation gets more dynamic the food just keeps tasting better.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 2, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for taking action in the face of my fears. The pattern is that the most difficult, challenging, and scary things are often the most rewarding. I'm not much for New Year's resolutions but this pattern has been top of mind as the new year started and is something I intend to continue to explore.

Gratitude-A-Day Jan 1, 2007

Today, I'm grateful for a great start to the new year.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 31, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for fun. Simple as that.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 30, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for self awareness and the opportunity for reflection. This last week has been emotionally exhausting and I'm planning to spend some time today reflecting on the source of these feelings.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 29, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for productive days. I got a lot accomplished yesterday and that pile of work that was looming yesterday feels much more manageable today.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 28, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for self-determination - at least to some extent. I have a pile of work I'm facing and I'm glad that I have the opportunity to determine how to approach it rather than having it dictated to me how I should do things.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 27, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for generosity from others. Generosity helps to soften my perception of the sharp edges that can, at times, seem to dominate the world.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 26, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for having an opportunity to be gracious. I'm not going to explain the details about this but it feels good and I know is the right thing to do.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 25, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for being alive. This sounds a little simple to my ear but it's how I'm feeling this morning.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 24, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for wonderful friends. I've been around a number of people that a really care for over the last week and I feel fortunate to have such a wonderful group of people around me. For me this is the holiday spirit.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 23, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for rhymes. I like word play, though I'm not very good at it. I just heard the song "Bullet" by Rhymefest and realized I was grateful for the wordplay in songs and poetry.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 22, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for my physical therapist and the gift she has given me this holiday season of being able to ride, run and hopefully race - really race - again next season. This is such a big thing - it's hard for me to contain my excitement!

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 21, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the inspiration and motivation that comes from having something new emerge in my life.

Altar Boyz

A couple of weeks ago I alluded to receiving an offer for free tickets to a show. The show was last night and it was Altar Boyz. It's a spoof on boy bands (think NSYNC, or the Backstreet Boys) as well as the trend in evangelical churches toward the inclusion of pop music and youth culture in their salvation campaigns.

I'm not a theater reviewer, a huge fan of boy bands or a deep well of knowledge about saving souls but here are a couple of thoughts:

• The singing was great. I guess I was a bit surprised by the quality of the performances. At times they really drew me in and I could feel the power of their performance.
  
• Of the five guys on stage Mark stole the show. His "attention to detail" came through in everything he did and provided never ending entertainment. Abraham's character kept growing throughout the performance and came in a close second to Mark who started off strong and finished just as strong.
  
• The dancing and choreography was excellent. As an amateur dancer I was fascinated by some of their hip-hop moves.
  
• Best song of the show - "Something About You" If you see the show you'll understand what I'm talking about!
  
• The show left a lot of room for interpretation. Was this a spoof or was it a subtle way to save more souls? I'd be really interested to know how other people respond to it. Did it offend you? Make you laugh? Make you think about going to check out a mega church some day soon?
  
• There were some really funny moments. This is a show to talk about after you leave the theater and laugh at some of the jokes again a second or third time. If you decide to go make sure to go with great company, I know that put a shine on the experience for me.
  

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 20, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for sleep. I'm getting off to a groggy start to the day but I'm sure I'll perk up soon. The grogginess makes me really appreciate my soft warm bed and I'm already looking forward to crawling back into it this evening.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 19, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for darkness. I was awake for a bit last night around 2:30 AM and it was very dark. Not quite complete darkness but by keeping my eyes closed it seemed that way. I really enjoyed this time as it forced me to tune into my other senses and experience them without the visual filter. This isn't the only time I've had this sort of experience - just the most recent.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 18, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for kind people. I had a really nice experience last night and it was the result of the kindness of a number of people.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 17, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for my neighborhood. I love all the different energy that exists just within a few blocks of home. I went to a couple of different areas of the city recently and it allowed me to realize how great my neighborhood is.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 16, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for having a family that is open to exploring new ideas.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 15, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for self-determination. Sure, in many ways the concept of self-determination is a fallacy as we're all dependent on our communities, but every day I'm discovering new ways to determine my own life course that I hadn't know were possible.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 14, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for gift giving. I tend to be a bit of a humbug when it comes to giving holiday gifts. This year I'm exploring a different approach to this holiday tradition and I'm grateful for the opportunity to play in this way.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 13, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for great storytelling. This time it's inspired by the film The Fountain. This film reached deep inside of me. Here is another article in Wired Magazine about the movie.
I tend to agree with the some of the comments about this movie that you will either love it or hate it - no middle ground. Problem is that I don't know if I love it but I know that I loved experiencing it. Not sure that makes sense but it's what the film did to me.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 12, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the spell of warm weather we're having in mid-December. I've gotten out for a couple of nice bike rides in the last couple of days which is pretty amazing for Minnesota at this time of year.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 11, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for synchronicity in my work life.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 10, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the combination of patience and learning. These go together in a special way. It's very difficult for me to rush real learning. Some people seem to be specialized at cramming (for a test, project at work, learning a new skill) but that just doesn't work for me. A little bit every day really adds up to something special for me.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 9, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for being able to sleep in. I was up late last night and slept in longer than I think I have for years.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 8, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for sunny winter days. The crisp sunshine puts a smile on my face.

I need to admit that this morning when I was trying to figure out what to write for the Gratitude-A-Day post I drew a complete blank. Over the two months I've been doing this activity today is the first time that has happened. It was an empty and discouraging feeling to not feel grateful for anything. A couple of hours later that changed but it was still a powerful experience.

A Must Read For Anyone Interested in Innovation

I picked this one up from Joel Splosky's Reddit page. If you're interested in innovation, particularly within large companies, this is a must read.

Engineering Management Hacks: "Extraordinary contempt and defiance beyond the normal call of engineering duty"

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 7, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for my new physical therapist. My knee has been bothering me for about 1.5 years and I believe that this new person I'm working with might be getting me on the right track to a solution. This is a huge emotional lift to feel like I might be able to get back on the bike, x-country skis, and maybe even running again.

Or maybe...

I just realized that the blogger swag might not be for this blog. I contribute to a couple of other community blogs and maybe it's for one of those. I'll probably never know for sure so I'm just going to pretend that it's for this one.

An Important Milestone In The Life of a Blogger

I guess I've reached some sort of level of exposure through this blog as I received my first offer for blogger swag yesterday. Here is a short excerpt of the email that I received:

I am the marketing director for ______, producer of the hit off-broadway show ________. _____ is a fan of your blog and would love for you to come see ____________ in Minneapolis at the __________ Theatre.

I'm not going to tell who this was from yet but watch for an honest review of the event on these pages in the near future.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 6, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for music. Specifically, music that has the power to evoke emotions. Last night while I was ending my day I listened to one of my favorite classical pieces - Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3. This music seems to always take me through a range of emotions and I'm always amazed by the dynamics of the piano. I've seen this concerto performed live one time and it was amazing to watch the pianist's fingers fly across the keyboard. Each time I hear it now I imagine sitting stage right so I can see these fingers at work.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 5, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the healing touch effect of close embrace dance position in Argentine Tango.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 4, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the environmental leadership that seems to keep coming out of Wal-Mart. Yes, you read that correctly, Wal-Mart. Read this to find out more about what I'm talking about. Each time a new bit of news comes out of Bentonville on this subject it gets a little more impressive.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 3, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for courage. Courage is expressed by people in so many ways most of which are never acknowledged by anyone else. So here is one big blanket Thank You to anyone who has silently shown courage to do what they believe is right.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 2, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for my dad. We had a great conversation over breakfast this morning and I'm thankful that he is my father.

Gratitude-A-Day Dec 1, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for radio with soul and passion. I'm speaking of The Current from Minnesota Public Radio.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 30, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the nights I get enough sleep. Last night wasn't one of them and I'm dragging a bit and it's only 11 AM.

Million Dollar Baby

I just watched the movie Million Dollar Baby this last weekend. I remember when it won an Academy Award I was pretty surprised because it's a boxing movie. Isn't it? Well, I won't give it away but in my opinion this movie is about so much more than boxing. Boxing provides the foundation for a story that reaches deep inside some of the most difficult decisions that we have to make in life. If you haven't seen it I would recommend it but be ready to stretch your emotions.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 29, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for central heating. Winter is arriving today in Minneapolis. Up to this point it has seemed like a warm November to me but today is the first cold day.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 28, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for having the courage to ask for what I want.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 27, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for having just the right amount of pressure that gets me in action.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 26, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for dance. Another great night of Tango last night and tonight will be a mix of Tango, Salsa and Cha Cha.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 25, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for people that are willing to just go for it. I went to an improve show last night and the main thing I came away with is that what made the best actors the "best" was their willingness to just go for it and not be self-critics or get embarrassed.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 24, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for drums. Part of our family Thanksgiving yesterday turned out to be an impromptu drumming circle. It was the highlight of the day for me.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 23, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for an opportunity to listen to my friends and family share stories about the things for which they are thankful. This is Thanksgiving day and I plan to listen carefully.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 22, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for choice. I'm talking about the opportunity to choose what is right for me and other's opportunity to choose what is right for them. I'm not sure why this stands out for me today. Some days when I sit down to write this daily post I really struggle to identify something that I'm grateful for in that moment. Today, it was easy, but kind of mysterious why this idea is so top-of-mind.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 21, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. The Gratitude-A-Day practice I've been doing provides a different perspective for me on the meaning of the holiday.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 20, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for live music. I was fortunate to have two live music experiences yesterday. The first was a chamber orchestra at First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis and the second was a live Tango music at the Loring Pasta Bar in Minneapolis. Very different but both great in their own way.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 19, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the opportunity to pursue a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Sounds kind of lofty but it's a quote that I saw that stuck in my mind and I'm grateful to live in a country where I have the freedom to do this.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 18, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for having a full day ahead of me. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed this morning with too many things to do and having a full day to get things done is inspiring.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 17, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for teachers. I had a wonderful experience last night as a student at an Argentine Tango class and it reminded me of the value of passionate, thoughtful teachers.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 16, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the morning sunshine. I know I've written this before but a sunny morning always seems to get my attention.

I want to be there!

Thirty minutes of lights out.

The times in my life when I've see a big sky are part of the few moments where the natural world helped me to understand who I am. I can imagine that a city wide star-gazing would only help to heighten the impact.

Don't get me wrong: I love nuclear energy!

I love this quote by William McDonough which I found on the Z+Blog.

"Don't get me wrong: I love nuclear energy! It's just that I prefer fusion to fission. And it just so happens that there's an enormous fusion reactor safely banked a few million miles from us. It delivers more than we could ever use in just about 8 minutes. And it's wireless!"

-Leading ecological thinker, architect and Cradle-to-Cradle author William McDonough

I wrote about William McDonough in this post on his book Cradle to Cradle,

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 15, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the courage of people to speak the truth even when it is difficult or dangerous.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 14, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for creativity and ingenuity. I had a technical problem this morning and I thought I was going to have to buy my way out of it. But with a pair of tweezers and a safety pin I was able to fix the problem and save a few $.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 13, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for dancing. Last night was a great evening that started out with a bit of argentine tango and ended with salsa and cha-cha. Nice mix and balance.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 12, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for stories and people sharing stories about themselves.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 11, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the sunshine. It's a nice pick-me-up this morning when I'm otherwise tempted to crawl back in bed and sleep a few more hours. Seeing the sun shining outside inspires me to get up and get my day started.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 10, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for fresh fruit in the winter. On this day when we're supposed to get our first little bit of snow here in Minneapolis I was having breakfast and had the option of fresh fruit or toast with my omelet. I was struck by the ability to choose fresh fruit this time of year that isn't in the form of an apple.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 9, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the internet. The power of this tool for sharing information and ideas is pretty incredible and for some reason it's on my mind this morning.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 8, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for one more summer like day before winter sets in. Today (Wednesday) is supposed to be a high of 69 degrees with sunshine and by Friday the high is supposed to be 37 with a chance of snow!

WorldChanging Twin Cities

I've recently taken on a new project as a contributor to the web site WorldChanging Twin Cities. This is a local spin-off of WorldChanging and it's grand opening will be November 8.

There will be a party to celebrate the kick-off of this new site as well as the recently launched book Worldchaning: A User's Guide for the 21st Century. Here is more info about the event:

On Wednesday, November 8, the Worldchanging team will be in Minneapolis for the Twin Cities stop on the book tour, with an event at Brant Kingman's studio in Northeast Minneapolis. Doors open at 7 pm. Program starts at 8 and runs for about 45 minutes and then a DJ will carry us into the night.

November 8th: MINNEAPOLIS

Kingman Studios
1901 Grand St. NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418 USA

It'll be a great way to shake off any remaining election night hangover and meet inspiring people and explore visionary ideas for the future.

Come join the party! And feel free to bring friends and family or forward this invitation to anyone that might be interested.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 7, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the right to vote. I know I mentioned this a couple of days ago but today is election day and it's at the top of mind again.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 6, 2006

Today, I'm grateful that my car wasn't towed. The city is cleaning the streets near my apartment and my car was parked in a location that was marked No Parking starting at 7 AM this morning. I realized at about 7:30 that I had forgotten to move my car and ran out to see that it was still there and I didn't even have a ticket. Usually, the tow trucks and police cars are there by 6:50 waiting to start ticketing and towing but not today!

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 5, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for hypertension medications. About 6 years ago my doctor first noted that I had elevated blood pressure. Over the last 6 years I've tried a wide variety of methods to lower my blood pressure without medication and none has been effective. I recently started taking an anti-hypertensive medication and I feel much better (calmer) about my health future as a result. I realize that this medication isn't the perfect answer but it's the right thing to do at this time and I'm grateful for it's existence.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 4, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for coffee shops and coffee shop culture. I love going to coffee shops and working, reading or just people watching.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 3, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the work that Planned Parenthood has been doing for so many years providing sexual health education and services to so many women and men. I was fortunate to attend the Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota Annual Gala event last night. It was an incredible event with more than 1500 people in attendance and an line-up of great speakers including Al Gore. He spoke eloquently on the need for science and reason in our policy decisions and how that relates to the discussion about freedom of choice. It's a very complicated issue and requires open discussion and introspection. I'm grateful that there are so many people living in my community that feel the same way.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 2, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for having the right to vote.

Gratitude-A-Day Nov 1, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the fabulous friends that have responded so enthusiastically to events in my life. Your support is priceless and fuels my fire. Thank You!

The Author Noticed!

I wanted to share that Dan Pink, introduced in this post from a couple of days ago, found out about my new project and mentioned it on his blog. See the post from October 30 if it's no longer near the top.

This really surprised me and I'm still a little bit stunned. My surprise is due to having never had any interaction with the author of a book I've read other than the book itself. This little mention by him really helps the book and the author to come alive in a distinct way.

I think it's great that Dan is staying engaged in the community that is interested in this topic and it's fun to get noticed!

Thanks Dan!

Gratitude-A-Day Oct 31, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for insulation and indoor heat.

Note: The high temp dropped about 35 degrees from yesterday.

Gratitude-A-Day Oct 30, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for advanced medical technology.

Note: I'm on my way to get a CAT scan of my head this morning.

Gratitude-A-Day Oct 29, 2006

Today, I'm grateful for the opportunity to explore the role of gratitude in my life in a free and open way.

Notes: It's tought to pick just one thing!

Gratitude-A-Day

I'm starting a new daily (hopefully) ritual that I call Gratitude-A-Day. I got this idea from Dan Pink's book "A Whole New Mind" and this is one aspect of a series of activities I'm calling "Right Brain Play". I hope to post a daily note here about something for which I feel gratitude. This is going to be a bit of a challenge for me as I've never felt very comfortable with this type of ritual. Over our family Thanksgiving dinner someone will usually bring up the idea of going around the table and sharing what we're grateful for. I clam up in the face of this opportunity and usually just listen. I'm interested to see how this goes!

Here are a couple of links that I used to get me started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratitude

http://www.gratefulness.org/

http://www.thehappyguy.com/articles/gratitude-journal.html

Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy

I watched the movies The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy last weekend. I was expecting that these were going to just be typical spy action flicks. Was I ever surprised!

These are two of the best character driven, action, suspense movies I've ever seen. I was so in to them that I took the time to watch all of the special features and watched both movies again with the director commentary on. I've never done this before, ever. And with these I couldn't get enough.

Is Energy a Wicked Problem

Wicked problems are the types of problems that get my creativity going and my whole mind engaged. Here is a brief description of what a wicked problem is (for more discussion see the links below):

From http://www.cph127.com/cph127/2006/02/dont_worry_abou.html
"A new class of problems arising from extreme degrees of uncertainty, risk, and social complexity...Not only was there no clear answer, there was not even a clear understanding of the problem they were trying to solve."

"Wicked problems go beyond these in terms of difficulty, largely because they are inherently social in nature. Rittel identified several key aspects which, once listed, you will likely recognize as features of your toughest business decisions (this is not an exhaustive list, I'm paraphrasing a bit):

1. There is no definitive statement of the problem; in fact, there is broad disagreement on what ‘the problem’ is
2. Without a definitive statement of the problem, there can be no definitive solution and therefore no “stopping rule” signaling when an optimum solution has been reached. In actuality, there are competing solutions that activate a great deal of discord among stakeholders
3. The only way to really understand the problem is by devising solutions and seeing how they further knowledge about the problem (thus reversing the normal flow of thinking: with wicked problems, a solution must come before the problem!)
4. Solutions to wicked problems are not right or wrong, merely better, worse, good enough or not good enough. There is a high degree of subjectivity and each stakeholder brings their own perception to the table, causing discord.

Because they are so difficult to identify and define, wicked problems tend to go unaddressed, even if there is an underlying sense that something needs to be done (though about what exactly no-one can say)."

Also check out http://richardsona.squarespace.com/display/ShowJournal?moduleId=412462&categoryId=28834
for more discussion about wicked problems.

Now to the question posed in the title to this post; is Energy a Wicked Problem? Let's test it against the four criteria from above:

1. There is no definitive statement of the problem; in fact, there is broad disagreement on what ‘the problem’ is. I believe that this applies in regard to energy as we seem to still have substantial disagreement on things such as peak oil, global warming, oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas, energy cost, fairness of energy accessibility, etc even if the camp dismissing these concerns is growing smaller every day.
   
2. Without a definitive statement of the problem, there can be no definitive solution and therefore no “stopping rule” signaling when an optimum solution has been reached. In actuality, there are competing solutions that activate a great deal of discord among stakeholders. Again I believe this applies to energy. Do we focus our attention on bio-based solutions (ethanol, algae), technology based solutions (solar, wind, geo-thermal) or conservation based programs (energy star, insulation, fuel efficiency in cars, etc)? How do we know when we've achieved reductions in emissions that will halt things such as global climate change and how do we know when we've reached fairness in access to the new technologies and capabilities that this effort produces?
   
3. The only way to really understand the problem is by devising solutions and seeing how they further knowledge about the problem (thus reversing the normal flow of thinking: with wicked problems, a solution must come before the problem!). We are seeing solutions to a whole host of differently defined energy problems popping up around the world. Only after the solution exists do we really get a sense for its ability to change the landscape and therefore the nature of the problems we dealing with. There is no silver-bullet solution to these problems even though each new innovation looks like it may hold that promise.
   
4. Solutions to wicked problems are not right or wrong, merely better, worse, good enough or not good enough. There is a high degree of subjectivity and each stakeholder brings their own perception to the table, causing discord. Should we power our cars with corn and soy based ethanol or with electricity generated by wind and solar? Both will work, at least to some degree. Do we need to only pick one?
   

My feeling is that Energy qualifies as a wicked problem and that the more we try to simplify the problem (and therefore the solutions) the more difficult it is for us to design solutions that have any impact. I believe that acknowledging up front that this is a wicked problem will allow us to recognize that a diversity of solutions and approaches is the only way to approach this task.