TED Talks: Greatest Hits

A business partner last night said: “I don’t wake up and turn on my phone, or watch TV, or check email right away. I try to keep it simple.” At the time,  several of us were waxing rhapsodic of the pre-pocket tech and internet days. Also, how teenagers know no other world. And then he continued,  “OK, well that’s not true, I do get my morning dose of TED for inspiration”.

TED Talks are just one more medium to add to the many morning intake. People often seek personal philosophical guidance in the morning. This is true, whether it is through religion, scripture, reading a story, meditation, prayer, mind-body engagement or quiet time. People seek temporal context in morning news TV, newspaper, internet and feeds, web surfing, tablet time. Or, people seeksocial engagement with morning coffee at the diner with the guys/gals, spouse and/or  kid quality time, the facebook rise-and-shiner, or other social media digests. And then, there are people who seek inspiration in either of the above.

My Rituals

Personally, I have yet to find my traditional morning ritual that I stick with. Instead, I bounce around in different mediums. Sometimes, its playing with trains, toys or some other activity with the family. Other times, I browse my tablet when feeling curious about various news or video feeds. On different occasions, it is mindless news digestion on TV. That one is probably more rare than it should be. Or if I need some fresh air, it will be some outside quiet time in a run, bike, walk, or reading or whatnot. And if the day gets going too fast, and there is no interstitial time, an east coast call to this mountain time zone starts me right up.

Though, I haven’t found my rhythm, I still do have a huge love for TED Talks, and I can definitely see why that particular business partner puts them in his morning ritual. With that in mind, here are a few TED Talks from over the last partial decade I’ve tweeted out as “greatest hits” and have found inspirational:

-mt