Ice Chip #82
In his book pictured to the left, author Charles J. Sykes offers life lessons that are generally missing from the curriculum for most children today: honest advice about what they will encounter in the “real world” post-schooling and how their parents can help them best prepare -- with honest challenges, rather than cushy self-esteem talks. His 50 lessons are frank, sometimes harsh, and often hilarious...
This week's Ice Chip is an exercise in re-framing the message, where appropriate for each of the lessons listed below. If you
are interested in picking up a copy of Mr. Sykes book, please click .
(Note: These rules are often attributed to a talk given by Bill Gates. That is an urban legend. They are from Mr. Sykes book. So glad I researched this.)
Take a look at these and focus on re-framing the life lesson by eradicating those “(K)notty Words”.
- Life is not fair - get used to it!
- The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
- You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
- If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he’s not going to ask you how you FEEL about it.
- Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
- If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault , so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
- Don’t let the success of others depress you.
- You are not perfect, and you don’t have to be.
- Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
- Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
- Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
- Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
(Personally, I like the rules. There is an opportunity for some great discussion.)
From a Remember the Ice perspective, I have that one question, again. How would you re-frame each of these?
The essence of the message will live and breathe freer when the “(K)notty Words” are gone. From my perspective, these become paradigm shifting concepts when those words are gone and the message is allowed to carry on, free of linguistic encumbrances.
Send me your comments and re-framed sentences and who knows? You may receive a copy of my brand new eBook: “(K)notty Words” in Action
Empowering Regards,
Bob
Ice Chip #81 – Remember Your ICE
In this week's message I have the honor of introducing you to a great humanitarian and creator of a wonderful life saving concept. Some of you already know about this, and some of you may have already figured it out by the title of the Ice Chip.
Give up?
Let me fill you in.
The concept is: ICE for your cell phone. In Case of Emergency.
Hence the message this week: Remember Your ICE.
Here is the scenario. There is an accident. The Emergency Response Team arrives on the scene and begins to assess the situation. They find you unconscious. Fortunately you have a cell phone, and you put your preferred Emergency Contact Person, with a phone number, in your Contact List as ICE. Paramedics around the world are trained to look through the contacts of cell phones and spot the ICE number. This could save a life.
Let me introduce you to the creator of this wonderful concept.
Here is the story from the BBC back in July of 2005.
A campaign encouraging people to store personal details on their mobile phones to help identify victims of accidents and disasters has taken off since the bomb attacks in London. Users are being urged to enter a number in their phone's memory under the heading:
ICE - In Case of Emergency.
Paramedics or police would then be able to use it to contact a relative. The idea is the brainchild of East Anglian Ambulance Service paramedic Bob Brotchie and was launched in May.
Mr. Brotchie told Radio 4's Today programme: "I was reflecting on some difficult calls I've attended, where people were unable to speak to me through injury or illness and we were unable to find out who they were. "I discovered that many people, obviously, carry mobile phones and we were using them to discover who they were.
"It occurred to me that if we had a uniform approach to searching inside a mobile phone for an emergency contact then that would make it easier for everyone."
Mr. Brotchie said his idea had spread as far as the USA and Australia and had gathered pace since the 7 July 2005 attacks.
He has urged mobile manufacturers to take it on board by adding ICE headings to phones before they are sold.
So my plea to you is to Remember Your ICE and put your emergency contact information in your phone. Both Nancy and I have.... will you?
I had the privilege of speaking with Bob earlier today, and shared my desire to tell his story. I hope you will share it with your loved ones.
Empowering Regards,
Bob
Ice Chip #80.5
"(K)notty Words" in Action!!
It's Here!!!
The latest eBook from Remember the Ice is all about awareness...and smiling: and having a few chuckles; and even an outright guffaw. It is about recognizing dis-empowering words in written displays.
Think about the places you see instructions, notices, signs...
Places like: convenience stores, billboards, brochures, road signs, marquees, yard signs, menus, restrooms, kitchens, clothing stores, fishing docks, license plates, beach signs, gas stations (petrol for our friends in other countries...), banks, equipment warning signs, revolving doors, tweets on twitter, websites, marketing materials, newspapers, restaurants, etc.
These locations have "(K)notty Word" signs/announcements/scripts etc. Here is the fun.
The book is comprised of over 150 photos of these written messages. Your mission: and I hope you will accept it, is to order your copy; and get to work re-framing the "suspect (K)notty Word" languaging, and come up with an Empowering Alternative for each photograph.
The first 100 people who send me there Re-Framed messages, on the accompanying workbook that will be emailed with the eBook, will receive a free copy of the original eBook form of Remember the Ice and Other Paradigm Shifts.
Then I will take the 10 best workbooks (Word Document) pf Re-Framed messages and they will each receive a personalized copy of the original book. Shipping is on me. This is a Free gift!
Then one grand prize winner will be chosen at random and he/she will receive an Audio version of the book, on 4 CDs, read by yours truly! Again, shipping is on me. AND I will arrange an hour phone consultation to answer questions the winner may have about the concept of Remember the Ice. (Skype call if the winner is outside the U.S.)
So what do you say?
Get your copy at the special
introductory price! Only $6.97
Thank you again for all of your support and interest in Remember the Ice.
Hope you like the new eBook.
Empowering Regards,
Bob
Ice Chip #80
"(K)notty Words" in Action
A fun eBook from Bob Nicoll, Author of Remember the Ice and Other Paradigm Shifts
The new eBook will be released on Wednesday August 18th. It is a fun book designed to raise you awareness of "(K)notty Words" and give you hands on practice at re-framing the messages in the book.
We hope you will have a look and want to get your very own.
Here is the cover.....
eBook Cover
We also want thank all of you (with iPhones) who downloaded the "Ice Chips" App. Hope you are enjoying it. Remember, it is a FREE App. Ice Chips
Remember, once you have loaded it; just touch the icon and give it about 3-4 seconds to go to the Ice Chip message for that day. Only one message per day. If you skip a day, the messages will wait for you and continue in the proper sequence. You will never miss one of the "Chips" even though you may take a few days away from your phone.
We are working on making the App available for Android phones as well. More on that as news becomes available.
Some of you with iPads had some difficulties. Our understanding is that Apple is having some issues finding some Apps. We will keep you posted on this as well.
Thank you again for all of your support and interest in Remember the Ice.
Details on the book in the next 24-36 hours.
You will love it!
Empowering Regards,
Bob
Ice Chip #79
Ice Chip #79
"Ice Chips" iPhone App is Here!
This is a special day for Remember the Ice and I wanted to share the news. If you have one
of these:
You can download the "Ice Chips" App.
Here is the cover page of the App:
Here is the Home Page of the App:
And here is an example: Ice Chip 1 of 365:
I am delighted to share this news with you. If you have an iPhone, you can go to the app store, and search for Ice Chips. You will see it is a Free one!
Hope you will get it, and comment/rate it. Thank you in advance for your support.
Have fun with this one,
Bob