I’m at TEDx Portland, the first Portland TED event.

The first speaker today was Greg Bell, very inspiring. Here’s my notes from his talk.

• What if you started your day by clapping for each other?
• The cynics and the negaholics are winning.
• We need to ask ourselves different questions. if you ask yourself lousy questions, you get lousy answers.
• Ask yourself:
• what’s going well?
• Even the negaholic can find something. “At least I woke up.”
• When you wake up, it sets the tone for your day. And when you go to sleep, it sets the tone for your dreams.
• Before my toes hit the ground, I set the tone for the day: What’s going well?
• “I am from another planet…. I grew up in Texas.”
• I grew up in a house with no indoor plumbing. We were so poor. So poor you can’t even imagine it.
• But we never knew it.
• Because of my grandfather.
• A brilliant man, it was like living with socrates, aristotle, and plato all in one.
• he would farm the land. my job was to bring water to him.
• he always had a big smile on his face, and he would drop a pearl of wisdom.
• love and wisdom multiply.
• crossroads
• important for us to think about
• which way do we go in our lives?
• three roads of battle: with ourselves, each other, and nature.
• you are a miracle. everybody in this room is a miracle.
• when you point to yourself, you point to your heart. follow your heart, clear your mind, and 
• giant timber bamboo. the farmer will water the seed for a year, and see nothing. they water it for another year, and another year. but then it grows 1 1/2 feet per day to a height of 90 feet. one grove grew at 4 feet per day.
• Water The Bamboo: Feed your dreams.
• people will diminish your dreams. “what are you doing over there?” they don’t see anything. tell them to mind their own bamboo.
• grandfather said “everyone gets an acre. take care of your acre.”
• we have to be a bit more patient than our instant gratification society.
• it takes time. 
• no farmer in the world would ever dig up a seed to see if it is growing.
• be a bamboo farmer.
• have patience, persistence, discipline. 
• None of are perfect. We need courage, because there is doubt in us.
• Bring your heart and spirit to your life.
• You have to have belief. How do you do that? How you talk to yourself. What your language is like. 90% of conversations are with yourself. Change your language.
• All great things start in your head.
• Confucius said “every great journey starts with a single step.” but really it out to start with a compass or a map or someone to follow. where are we going?
• Happy people like what’s happening. If you make your values your habit, then you would like what’s happening, and then you would be happy.
• find something you can do in the next 24 hours, 48 hours around your values. one thing, no matter how small. you will be happy.
• We have math classes, and science class, but we don’t have relationship classes. What do you care about more, algebra or relationships?