If you’re interested in change, as I’m guessing you are, you’ve probably heard the name Seth Godin. I’m an unabashed fan; suggesting that when a new book becomes available, you run; not walk, to get your copy.

I’m going to hand it over to Seth here to tell you how to not just get a copy of his latest, but how you can become part of a bigger experiment. An experiment called the Domino Project.

Enough from me; here’s Seth.
Domino Project

Reading Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus slammed home for me something I already knew, but hadn’t crystallised in my mind. We don’t have a financial crisis; we have a productivity crisis. We (and I’m talking mostly North America here, but yes; you’re guilty here too Australia) don’t really produce anything anymore. I know that’s a gross generalisation, but in general, we outsourced out productivity to China.

What did we do in the meantime? We watched TV. We watched lot’s of TV.

Clay’s estimation is that Americans alone watch 200 Billion Hours of TV each year. Yes, that’s a “B”.

I don’t know about you, but that number floors me. That’s more than 2 million years of TV watched cumulatively, by Americans; every year…!

I know. I’m not done…

Clay also says that the average person born in 1960 has already watched 50,000 hours of TV; and will likely watch another 30,000 hours before he or she checks out. Let me do the math for you. That’s 5.7 years of TV watched already! Another 3.4 to go…

This can’t go on. I know some of you thought I was joking when I wrote about “Throwing away your TV” (It’s in the e-report “Your Move”; top right hand corner at www.warren-macdonald.com).

No, I was not joking.

Questions for you:
I’m praying that these statistics don’t apply to you, but if they do…

1/ How does that make you feel that you’ll likely spend 3.4 years out of the next 30 or so watching TV? Is that really what you want to do?
2/ Imagine what you could do if you decided on a path, and dedicated the next 3.4 years to making it happen? Imagine what you could achieve?

So, armed with the above information, and having settled on what it is that you’ll do with your additional 3.4 years (or more if you were born after 1960), you need a next step. A first step. I’ve done the work and figured it out for you:

Step 1/ Throw away your TV.

That should get you on the right track to move on to step two…

ps
I’d love to hear your thoughts on ideas on what we might do collectively with all this new-found extra time. Clay’s book talks about Wikipedia being built with just 100 million hours of human thought. What else could we create with the 19,900,000,000 hours left over?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

The name Bill Phillips will be familiar to many as the author of the bestselling Body for Life, the New York Times bestseller first released in 1999. Body for Life has helped over one million people all over the world take control of their bodies through exercise and nutrition, giving them a framework around what to eat and how to work out effectively. Bill’s new work (rest assured, it is a body of work) Transformation: The Mindset You Need. The Body You Want. The Life You Deserve takes us on a very personal journey on what he has learnt in the years since. In a nutshell, how consciousness and spirituality form the building blocks of our physical selves. That not just happiness, but our very wellbeing, is an inside job. That until we are well on the inside, we can’t be well on the outside.

What Bill is outlining so clearly with this work is something that resonates with me on every level; that we must take responsibility for creating our own reality. That we must become more conscious, not just of what we eat and how we exercise, but of what enters our bodies in the form of advertising, the spaces we inhabit, and our very thoughts. He’s obviously a big believer in my favourite quote: When You Change the Way You See the World, You Change the World. Beginning with your own…

Bill has set himself the goal of taking the US “from worst to first in terms of health and wellbeing” within ten years. That is an enormous goal, but you know what; if anyone can do it I believe Bill can. That being said; it’s not actually up to Bill. It’s up to each of us. Bill has provided an outline, a blueprint that is quite simple; though it won’t be easy to follow. Nothing worthwhile ever is. The steps involved will take commitment and a huge amount of courage. Bill thinks you are up for it though. So do I.

Do yourself a favour and grab a copy of what I believe is one of the most important books of the decade; and make sure to share it with those you love who need it most. Here is the link again: Bill Phillips’ Transformation.

I mentioned Seth Godin’s new book Tribes a few weeks back and want to urge you again to get hold of and read this book. There’s never been a more important time to take charge of our lives, and to do that, we need to lead; even if we’re leading nobody else but ourselves…

Here’s a video (again, for those that don’t like to read) of Seth’s presentation on the book.

Wow, this sustainability thing is really starting to get legs… (sorry, couldn’t resist thatJ). Everywhere I turn people are talking up green, which is great, but I have to admit to being a bit skeptical. If you’re doing it with integrity; great. If you’re doing it to jump on a bandwagon; forget. Myself and others will out you; we’ll make sure word gets out at your effort to deceive us. I’ve just read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, and have to say, I thought I was pretty switched on when it comes to food, but this book really opened my eyes to the lengths we’ll go to screw each other. Its time we educate ourselves to what is really going on; it’s a major step towards creating our own reality, and as such, putting us on a path to a sustainable future.