A Life in Five Chapters

Chapter 1.
I walk down a street and there's a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. It takes forever to get out. It's my fault.

Chapter 2.
I walk down the same street. I fall in the hole again. It still takes a long time to get out. It's not my fault.

Chapter 3.
I walk down the same street. I fall in the hole again. It's becoming a habit. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

Chapter 4.
I walk down the same street and see the deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

Chapter 5.
I walk down a different street.

- Author Unknown

Think of an important aspect of your life you are working on. What chapter are you in for that part of your life? What could you do to move forward?

Shaun

TV Week Off

This is a little late, but there is still time to turn the TV off. We are approaching the weekend of TV Turn off week. http://www.tvturnoff.org/ We get hit with 5000 marketing messages a day, let's pare that down a little this week if we can. What could you accomplish this weekend without TV?

Shaun

Be the First to Crack the Da Vinci Code Judge's Code

The story on CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/04/27/vinci.code.ap/index.html

The British judge who presided over a copyright dispute involving Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code novel has apparently inserted a code into his judgment and lawyers are scrambling to decode it.

The Actual Judgment:

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/images/judgment-files/baigent_v_rhg_0406.pdf

Shaun

Achieving Balance

We talk and talk about finding balance between work and life like it is the Holy Grail. Once we figure out the magic formula to balancing our lives, we will be done.

I am in my third week of a Yoga class and I have a long way to go, but I am having great fun listening to some of the philosophy that comes through. Here are some thoughts I picked up from Yoga class to take the pressure off a little when looking for balance:

1. Balance is fluid, it is always changing.
Life is dynamic. Few people have lives that are so predictable that they can find a perfect balance point and be done with it. We are forever making adjustments to our balance. The key is not perfection, but grace.

2. If you lose your balance, do not be mad at yourself and say "I cannot balance." By even attempting to balance, you are building the skill of balance.
Expect challenges and barriers when building a new skill. You probably will not move from a hectic lifestyle to a serene lifestyle overnight. Frankly, there will be times of imbalance. Rather than being upset, notice the lack of balance and adjust and take reasonable steps to minimize or avoid imbalance.

3. Do not stretch further than a medium stretch, only try modests improvements, relax and then you will be able to slow stretch further.
Many of us are highly competitive people in a highly competitive world. We will likely attempt to compete against ourselves and others even when trying to achieve balance. But that is unproductive. Meaningful long term change can best be achieved incrementally as we prepare our lifestyle for a change. Granted, there are times we need to kick a toxic habit, job or person out of our lives and it happens quickly, but most of the time we can slow down and make the changes we have laid the groundwork for which will enable us to make stronger, more lasting changes.

I am still working on my balance, but I am much more at peace with the process now. Best wishes on your journey!

Shaun
Shaun G. Jamison (c) 2006 All Rights Reserved

The Challenge of Self Knowledge

I was talking with a lawyer friend of mine about the consequences of really examining your beliefs. Later that day I reading this quote from Brookfield's Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher: "Who wants to clarify and question assumptions she or he has lived by for a substantial period of time only to find that they don't make sense?"

The challenge of discovering what we believed was true isn't or is no longer true for us is that knowing suggests action and action is even harder the discovering a disturbing truth.

It is not my aim to discourage people from self-examination, only to suggest that one have a certain respect for the seriousness of seeking an inner truth. It is not for the light of heart.

Shaun

Why do People Journal?

I am writing my dissertation on journaling and did an informal survey on journaling. Here are the results:

Informal Live Journal Survey

What led you to begin journaling?
Venting/improve mental health (3)
Referral by friends (3)
Easier than handwriting
Organizes thoughts
Likes formatting
Gift from parent
Noticed community reading comic
Desire to contribute, keep up with community
Track health issues
Reading other people’s postings.

How often did you journal?
Intermittently based on need to share (5)
Daily (2),
Everyday/night (2): sometimes several entries a day
Very seldom – but often comments on other journals

What tools or techniques helped you to journal?
Semagic (3)
Paper (2)
HTML skills
Program that allows posting from desktop
Firefox plugin to help keep track of journals and keep me logged in
Deepest Sender
Journal client
Stay true to speaking style in writing, art, color, poetry and other writing techniques, , Routine of writing each night
Write about dream upon waking

What benefits did you receive from journaling?
Make friends (7)
Keep up with friends (4)
Mental health/peacefulness (3)
Support network
Introspection/self knowledge (2)
Get other viewpoints/perspectives (2)
Review earlier entries to reflect (2)
Inspire others
Physical/spiritual health
Experience diversity
Organize thoughts
Track health

Journal Survey

Hi, I am planning on writing my dissertion on journals. As part of my exploration, I am taking a journaling course and my assignment is to ask people who journal these questions, if you would be so kind as to respond:

What led you to begin journaling?


How often did you journal?


What tools or techniques helped you to journal?


What benefits did you receive from journaling?

Thanks, Shaun

The Echo

Lest we forget we are always being watched as role models, I offer this vignette with my six year old daughter:

I bought some drinks: some iced tea and some pink lemonade a while back. The kids wiped out the lemonade quickly and one morning my daughter asked for pink lemonade. I informed her in my patient, sympathetic voice that unfortunately they drank all of the pink lemonade.

Did this elicit a temper tantrum or resignation? Neither, you see I am trained as a lawyer and apparently, I still exhibit lawyerly behavior. Watch what happens next:

My daughter walks confidently over to the cabinet and opens it to reveal the pop stored there. "See this! This is all adult pop." She then picks up one variety of pop in one hand and another in her other hand as exhibits. "When you go to the store, you think about what you want to drink, not us kids." She then opens the refrigerator with a flourish. "Nope, all boring adult pop in here too! You need to start thinking about us kids!"

I got her the pink lemonade . . .

Shaun

Shaun G. Jamison (c) 2006 All Right Reserved

Anything I Dream

We have had glorious Spring weather here in Minnesota and not a minute too soon! My youngest daughter was taking advantage of the weather by making chalk drawings out back.

She draws with such enthusiasm. I complimented her on her drawings and she told me with seriousness and conviction: "I can draw anything I can dream."

Wow! Isn't a great how kids can believe such simple truths? As adults in the "real world," we allow ourselves to get caught up in details and busy work to distract us from our real vision. We become realists and pessimists and disdain "dreamers."

The assumption behind our derision of dreamers is that they never accomplish anything. If that were true, I wouldn't want to be a dreamer either. I aim to dream big and to take action on my dreams, because "I can draw anything I dream."

What are your dreams?

Shaun

Shaun G. Jamison (c) 2006 All Rights Reserved

Personal Tendency Test

This is a great resource from the University of Exeter: http://www.services.ex.ac.uk/cas/employability/teamdev/ It is a fun test that seemed to really nail down my tendencies some of which were nice to hear, like being creative and facilitative and the others, well there is some improvement needed. Shaun

Old Tricks for New Challenges

I have been having some trouble getting organized lately. I am writing my proposal for my dissertation and as you can imagine, it is a complicated process. My essential problem is that whenever I got working on something, I would have to move my articles and notes or someone would do it for me. I did not know where things ended up half the time. Then, if I had some time to work, I could not find anything or I would use up my time getting organized.

It turns out inspiration comes from odd places sometimes. I went to a continuing legal education course and the speaker was talking about the trial notebook. It is a great way to organize for trial so you do not end up fumbling around. Did I get the message? Not yet. Then I got a call about an old client file. While I was looking for it, I ran across an old trial notebook I had created. Did I get the message? Not yet.

My plan to organize involved moving a table downstairs and maintaining all of my work on the table away from the high demand, high traffic areas of the house. This room I plan to use also houses my old law office files which reminded me of the trial notebook. Finally, it hits me. Why should I invent a new system?

So I took my papers and notes and essentially created a trial notebook for my dissertation. A trial notebook is essentially a systematic way of filing trial preparation documents in a folder. The trick is to create or borrow helpful categories and get your documents filed into those categories. You might be thinking, we that is nothing special and, well, you are right. It is just that I was trying so hard to think of my dissertation as a new challenge instead of a variation of one I have already faced. A dissertation involves the research, digesting, organizing, sythesizing and presentation of complex topics. A trial is very similar.

Well, now I am finally organized, so it is off to the next challenge!

Shaun

Copyright Law & The Distance Education Classroom

A book review I wrote was recently published. If you are an academic that need or wants to get something published, a book review is a great place to start.

Shaun