Reframe Your Mind

About a week ago, I performed a speech at my Dawnbreakers Toastmaster club. It was on the concept of reframing and it went over well - it may have been one of my best speeches to date although I find it hard to judge the quality of my own speeches.

In my speech, I told two stories on the concept of reframing and I'd like to share one of them now.


Back in the summer of 2008, I was working as an Orientation Coordinator for UBC. As part of being an Orientation Coordinator, we had to conduct information sessions and tours for prospective high school students.

A little background on UBC: it's an old campus. Many of the buildings are quite old and so you can imagine that there is a lot of construction going on to both improve the roadways and renovate the buildings. The construction at UBC garnered a somewhat negative reputation - it was noisy and disturbed classes (as well as people trying to sleep in) and it blocked pathways that students often used.

In any case, a fellow Orientation Coordinator had just finished giving a tour to some grade 12 students. During her tour of the important buildings on campus, one of the students asked about the construction going on at UBC. Rather than saying that the construction was noisy or that it often forced students to walk different paths to their classes, she said "UBC is constantly improving their campus".

For me, that was an interesting way to 'reframe' my perspective of construction on campus.

If you break down the word of reframing, you'll realize that it's definition seems to be to change the frame. What is a frame? It's a belief about the world that often narrows your view. By changing your frame, or changing your belief about the world, you'll open up your eyes to different views of the world and allow new interpretations to develop. Any time you're harboring negative thoughts about something like work, an assignment, a chore or your bad luck, think about the positives of the situation. You probably already know the power of positive thinking - reframe your mind.

Notebooks: A symbol for limitless potential?

The other day, I was at Staples looking for a large pad. Being particularly inspired by Demetri Martin and his large pad, I thought that I would do something similar for an upcoming speech for Toastmasters.

I was quickly sidetracked by all the stationary inside.

My thoughts immediately raced back to all my past Septembers, where as part of the ritual of starting school, I had to get new stationary. Stationary, for some reason, excites me and as I was walking down the aisles of Staples, I was trying to pinpoint what exactly it was about stationary that excites me.

At some point, it occurred to me that empty notebooks are amazing because they represent an infinite number of possibilities. Getting things done? Lists? Address book? Journal? Keeping track of what you've been doing? Drawings? Poems? Short stories? Anything is possible in the notebook.

I finally realized this because every time I do get a notebook, it takes me a huge amount of time and effort in order for me to break the clean blank slate of the first page. I smile now because I have a padfolio that I bought for myself to keep me organized yet the notepad inside has not been used despite there being several opportunities for me to do so.

Is it just me or does stationary excite you too? Why does it excite you?