The other day I saw a mother duck with about a half dozen little newborn ducklings trailing behind. The site was wonderful. The mother was guiding them away from the housing complex with its dangerous roads and towards the safe haven of the slough, a tidal marsh and bird sanctuary. The mother stepped up on and over the curb, the final hurdle to get to the slough. Each duckling tried to follow. Each of the six ducklings made it except one – the last one. He climbed, slipped, and fell on his back.

Ducklings attempt the curb climb

The little fallen duckling became absolutely helpless once on his back. He squeaked and squeaked but his mother did not come back to help. The mother and other ducklings just kept heading towards the safety of the high reeds and water. The little duckling’s legs flailed. He made every attempt to roll back over and upright but, to no avail. My worry was that if the little creature became separated from his mother, he would die. However, I remembered reading years ago that with some animals, if the mother detected the scent of a human on them, the baby animal would be abandoned. I wasn’t sure if this applied to ducks.

I found a stick (in the picture to the right of the last duckling), and used it to upright the duckling. The duckling made it back on his little webbed feet. I had hoped he would continue on the path up and over the curb to the safety of the reeds and his mother. Instead, he walked in the opposite direction back onto the busy road and to the houses. So I tried to communicate the right direction to the duckling by steering him toward the curb. It didn’t work. He just ran to a puddle in the middle of the road and stayed there.

Duckling moves to puddle on asphalt

I stayed with the duckling while my girlfriend ran inside to Google whether it was safe to handle the duckling for the ducklings’ sake. She came back in a few minutes to say that she couldn’t find much about mother ducks abandoning ducklings after humans touched them. I then gently lifted the duckling and brought him up to the banks of the bay. The duckling seemed to like the cover of the reeds and stayed there for a few minutes. We hoped that the mother would here the continual squeaks that it made and would come back to get him.

We watched for a while until we thought the duckling was relatively safe. We wanted to leave the scene as soon as we could so that the mother would not be stopped by the sight of us. We left the duckling in the safety of the reeds close to the bank of the bay and near to where we last saw the mother.

Later when we came back to the scene the duckling was gone. No sign of the duckling or mother. We had hoped our plan worked and that they reunited. The question is this:  did I do the right thing by handling the duckling to take it back closer to the mother where it was safer among the reeds?

Close-up of the lost duckling

Did my handling of the duckling help the situation or hurt it? Would the mother duck accept the duckling back? I’d like to know your opinion. We just wanted to help the duckling. Comments welcome.

Water color by Herb Reed

• Creating Linkworthy Content http://bit.ly/cefdpJ #
• Zen Practices in Social Media http://bit.ly/an6dTS #
• Business, Graphics, & Google Tools You Can Use « Bright Pelican http://bit.ly/cThnJJ #
• #Business Tip: Lost duckling. What’s the right thing to do? http://bit.ly/a76CeJ #
• Lost duckling story. http://bit.ly/a76CeJ #
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• Jim Carroll- Futurist, Trends & Innovation Keynote Speaker | 10 Great Ideas http://shar.es/mj3eL #
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• This Tuesday & Wednesday @kron4news: Presidential Visit May Slow Your Drive Around the Bay Area bit.ly/dd5XPG rt@bluelp85 #
• RT @mashable HOW TO: Use Twitter Lists http://bit.ly/2niV5F #how to #list #lists #
• How Companies Develop Great Leaders. Creating a culture of leadership. (Bloomberg) http://bit.ly/cM1Pyl via @NewCommGlobal #zappos #
• Bright Pelican: In play and work, true motivation is activity as its own reward http://bit.ly/c5nlEW #
• Bright Pelican: In play and work, activity as its own reward – true motivation http://bit.ly/c5nlEW #junto @openworld @CoCreatr #
• Figure Out What Works For You And Then Stick To It http://bit.ly/9xcGNa #
• Junto: Discussing Ideas Worth Spreading @ http://emergentbydesign.com/2010/03/22/junto-discussing-ideas-worth-spreading/ #
• RT@NewCommGlobal RT@jessechou: The List Of Startups Launching At TechCrunch Disrupt http://tcrn.ch/dn1z7I #
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• Internet IS changing how we think. ‘Streambeds’ 2 gather useful Tweets excellent! rt@openworld http://is.gd/crxrm #flow #narrativefractals #
• Liberating the entrepreneurial spirit for good #flow http://www.flowidealism.org, very good idea via @openworld http://www.openworld.com #
• “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”–Jim Rohn #
• 106 Delicious Water Color Illustrator Brushes – excellent free brush download by colorburned.com http://bit.ly/9I05wf #
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• Hi @openworld some cool UI concepts here. What u think? rt @PsychodudeCom Popular images tagged with “infographics”: http://bit.ly/ErIQC #
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• Adobe Illustrator Tutorial: Symbol Sprayer and Symbolism Tools – http://bit.ly/cdiVaF #
• How to make work fun and structure a brilliant business model. Tami Simon – Sounds True http://bit.ly/dzeI7Z #
• RT @innovate: 8 Traits of Ineffective Leaders http://bit.ly/c8jkYB #
• RT @CoCreatr: RT @mparent77772: Warning Signs Of Full Spectrum Collapse Are Everywhere http://bit.ly/cXmauL #
• RT @innovate: 100 Awesome Quotes on What It Takes To Innovate – http://su.pr/7SqvJg – Mitch Ditkoff – #innovation #quotes #leadership #
• Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: June 2010 – Smashing Magazine http://su.pr/1Va32q #
• The importance of beta release, community and collaboration http://vimeo.com/9290664 @openworld #Junto #
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The flow of water at Yerba Buena Gardens

Another word for true motivation is “autotelic”. The word Autotelic comes from the word “auto” meaning self and “telic” meaning goal or purpose. An autotelic experience is one that is engaging. The goal of the work is self-fulfilling. The activity itself is the reward. You’ve probably experienced this yourself when you were totally into an activity you love. Many people may have this experience while gardening, or surfing, or hiking, maybe sailing, or cooking. While in this state time passes quickly. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, an expert in the field of positive psychology, calls this state “Flow”.

Wikipedia describes Csíkszentmihályi’s work this way: “In his seminal work, ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience’, Csíkszentmihályi outlines his theory that people are most happy when they are in a state of flow— a state of concentration  or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. The idea of flow is identical to the feeling of being in the zone or in the groove. The flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation,  where the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing. This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns are typically ignored.”

In Daniel Pink’s book “Drive, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”, he lays out the theory that it is not money, external reward, or even the threat of punishment that really motivates us. What really lies beneath, or our true motivation, is the desire for autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Pink’s website states it this way “The secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.” What we really want is to create for ourselves and others as much flow as possible.

From Daniel Pink’s book “Drive”: “For example, Stfan Falk, a vice president at Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications concern, used the principles of flow to smooth a merger of the company’s business units. He persuaded managers to configure work assignments so that employees had clear objectives and a way to get feedback… The flow-centered strategy worked well enough that Ericsson began using  it in offices around the world… Falk moved to Green Cargo, an enormous logistics and shipping company in Sweden. After two years of managerial revamping, state-owned Green Cargo became profitable for the first time in 125 years-and executives cite its new found flow-centricity as a key reason.”

Kinkaku-Ji Temple in Kyoto, Japan

Putting Customers in Charge of Design http://ht.ly/1LHv9

Using Zen Practices to Increase Your Organization & Productivity http://bit.ly/aFqCRt

Sign Up form design – best practices & design review | Unmatched Style http://bit.ly/dl9I5L

“Keep it real simple. Do one thing and do it the best you can.” -Harry Snyder, founder in-N-Out Burger

@CoCreatr The Role of Relationship Space in Value Creation by @jdsutherland, meet @Venessa.. http://amplify.com/u/64nz

15 tutorials that explain how to use Vray effectively

Here is a list of 15 vray tutorials. It covers everything from materials and shaders to illumination and rendering settings.

01) Critical vray  settings
02) How to create realistic grass
03) How to create a lampshade material
04) How to setup a sky scrapper rendering
05) Night exterior illumination
06) Daytime exterior lighting
07) How to render a scene with hdri
08) Night interior rendering tutorial
09) Snow with vray displacement
10) Chrome, silver, stone and glass
11) How to use hdri in vray
12) How to render a liquid in a glass
13) Gamma 2.2 or Linear Workflow (LWF)
14) Vray studio lighting tutorial
15) How to create various reflective shaders and caustics

15 Essential Vray Tutorials – 15 Vray Tutorials at CG Digest

Make Watercolor and Marker Style Portraits with Illustrator by Miguel Cardona

Miguel Cardona is an Interactive Art Director / CoFounder of Dumbwaiter Design. His article “Make Watercolor and Marker Style Portraits with Illustrator” is an example of link worth content.

Miguel writes an excellent “how to” article about a very specific way to use Adobe Illustrator. The technique makes your Illustrator drawing look like watercolor. The tutorial is an excellent reference for illustrators who are interested in making digital media look like watercolor, something would interest many watercolorists. The usability of an article is one of the most important factors in making linkworthy content.

Here are some other posts on linkworthy content you may find useful:

Creating Linkworthy Content by SeoBook
http://ht.ly/1GAiW

How To Write Great Website Content by Blogcritics Culture http://bit.ly/eFpsf
Connected separate blogs with pages by multitalentedmommy at WordPress Forum http://ht.ly/1H1RM
Make Watercolor and Marker Style Portraits with Illustrator by Miguel Cardona  http://ht.ly/1IAi0

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

Tribal Leadership:
Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization
by Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright
(recommended by Tony Hsieh)

Good to Great:
Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
by Jim Collins
(recommended by Tony Hsieh and Meng Tan)

Presence:
An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society
by Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers
(recommended by my friend Ken Otter)

Your Brain at Work:
Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long
by David Rock
(recommended by Meng Tan)

Books & posts by conference speakers

Delivering Happiness:
A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
by Tony Hsieh

Just Breathe:
Building the case for Email Apnea
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-stone/just-breathe-building-the_b_85651.html
by Linda Stone

Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation (video)
http://www.transpersonalscience.org/vidgoldin1.aspx
by Philippe Goldin

Wisdom 2.0:
Ancient Secrets for the Creative & Constantly Connected
http://www.sorengordhamer.com/Homepage_1.html
by Soren Gordhamer

28 Tools for Managing Followers in Twitter
http://tinyurl.com/kufwlm

A photographer who paints with light. Beautiful work! Damien Doumax http://bit.ly/NoH0i

Two Questions to Help You Gain Perspective: Take time to reflect. http://bit.ly/Y19N5

30 Great Examples Of Drop-Down And Sliding Menus 
http://tr.im/uIQ0

Twittersphere with purpose and intention – share Resources & Collaborate
http://ow.ly/j0HB

Awsome Kite Surfing Video. Favorite of mine. TopHat Bernie
http://bit.ly/2gJCYS

Real meditation is not about mastering a technique; it’s about letting go of control.” Adyashanti

Kiteboarding Tips – How to self land your kite
http://ow.ly/j9Xt

10 Traits of Highly Effective Twitter Users
http://tiny.cc/S6wxc

Twenty-One Top Twitter Tips
http://fleck.com/Q9AxY

26 Spectacular Tutorials,  Photoshop 
http://bit.ly/nryzq

101 Awesome Portfolio Sites
http://bit.ly/nGV7l

How to get started as an illustrator
http://ow.ly/jbj3

Kiteboarding Tips -North 5th element kiteboarding control bar setup
http://ow.ly/jbmn

New Free Wind Application for your iPhone or iPod Touch:
http://tiny.cc/W91Xa