Not Your Usual Resolution

T’is the season for New Year’s Resolutions. I personally am not the biggest fan of the ole New Year resolution. Eat less, exercise more, be nice to puppies and small infants…. these are just some of the things that we promise ourselves yearly that we will - without a doubt - carry through with.

“Ach pbbttt!” my Irish-mother-in-law would say. And you can’t argue with the simplicity of that logic. How many of these things do we actually stick with once the grind of post-holiday life kicks in? Why can’t we just be better, thinner, happier version of ourselves forever, and ever, and ever without the muck and the fuss?

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I spent a few days recently travelling with Ian Hill, our ACE ambassador, on the ACE Ignite tour. Not only is this tour a celebration of our new ACE communities, it is also an opportunity to ignite the communities into further action.

The Ignite Tour is as what one community leader in Trochu said: "A pat on the back and a kick in the butt at the same time."

Part of this call to action was a very inspirational talk by Ian Hill. Ian, an award-winning philanthropist and businessman, often centered his speech on the power of the individual. “Imagine,” he said, “what your life would be like and the life of your family, if you woke up tomorrow and decided to be 10% better. What if you aimed to be a better mother, a better husband, a better neighbour?”

“Now imagine,” he continued, “if everyone in your community woke up that day and decided the exact same thing. How much better would the quality of everyone’s life be then?”

I heard variations of his speech as we travelled together over those few days. By day three and possibly ten speeches later, I finally stopped and thought to myself: “hey – maybe its time that I figured out how I could be a better person and a better citizen.”

Some are clearly slower on the uptake than others.

So here is not one … but ten resolutions that I plan on making in 2010 to not only better myself but to better the quality of life of the people around me. 2010 is going to be fierce!

Janet Naclia's 2010 New Year's Resolutions

1) I will stop and make a meaningful connection with at least one person every week in my neighbourhood. And I don’t mean some fluffy, quick nod of the head… I really want to know an interesting fact, idea, or value relating to the people around me.

2) I will listen earnestly to someone else’s opinion everyday without judgment. I will make sure to take one positive thing away from each of these encounters even if I think they are full of crap. Oops – scratch that last bit. I’ve fallen off the wagon already and I’m just at number 2!

3) I will spend extra time every day scratching the bellies of my basset hounds – even when I feel like I don’t have the time or the patience.

4) I will make every effort to improve my mind with new ideas and rise to all challenges. An engaged mind is a benefit to my family, my employers, my friends, and my community.

5) When I workout, I will give it my all no matter how much I think I might upchuck. This is purely in respect to those who are nearly upchucking next to me.

6) I will always stop to help those in need – the lady who looks lost on the street, the mini-van stuck in the snow bank, the gentleman looking for the last dollar for his bus ticket.

7) I will eat fewer pastries because I know they are bad for my cholesterol. I didn’t say I would STOP eating them, though. Who am I – superwoman?

8) I will spend more quality-time with my parents. Because, you know, I really like them. Maybe I’ll get my mom to teach me how to make pierogies.

9) I will make an effort to speak to my very dear ‘out-of-town’ friends at least once a month. No matter what! I have that unlimited calling plan and I just don’t know why I don’t use it more.

10) I will increase my volunteer-work because it really does feel good to help others. They don’t just say that so you get out there and volunteer. It’s true. It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Do you have any resolutions you would like to add? I would love to hear them… especially if they involve basset hounds…. you know, doing good in the community.

Memphis and Me

I had the distinctive pleasure last week of participating in the ACE Communities Ignite Tour. This, essentially, is a series of launches for the 10 brand new ACE Communities who came on board this September.

The tour involved visits to 5 rural Alberta communities (the 2^nd stage of the tour happens in January) where Ian Hill, the ACE Ambassador, presented to them their ACE Award and then had in-depth conversations with community members. Never having experienced an Ignite Tour before, I went along to soak it all in.

What I experienced was a real grassroots movement, in the trenches, eating home-cooked meals, meeting with community members and discussing salient issues. It was absolutely exhausting, enlightening, and I loved it!

This tour really got me thinking about my work with ACE. As the Creative Cultural Liaison, it is my aim to have a true impact in these communities in regards to the arts, culture, and heritage. It is a huge task and, in my personal opinion, the best job around.

The question I have been batting around in my head since my time on the tour is how exactly does one influence the ‘creative’ side of a community? Especially since, as I learned, each community is so unique.

Luckily for me, great minds have already been working on this very question. In my research regarding what I like to think of as the heart and the soul of community, I came across the Memphis Manifesto.

This document was created at the Memphis Manifesto Summit – an event hosted by Richard Florida, author of Rise of the Creative Class and How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, and Carol Coletta, host and producer of the award-winning public radio interview program, Smart City.

Held in Memphis in 2003, this gathering of the creative class called ‘The Creative 100’ was a group selected from nominations from across North America. Coming from 48 cities in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, the Creative 100 wrote this manifesto for their own communities and for all communities seeking to compete in today’s economy.

I am encouraging all who have even the smallest interest in creative communities to read this manifesto. I’m so committed, in fact, that I have included it below in this blog as well as provided a link to the document in its entirety.

Basically, this document is 10 points… 10 points!... easily read… that can help any community become a community of ideas! Consider this my new personal manifesto.

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The Memphis Manifesto: Building a community of ideas

Preamble:

Creativity is fundamental to being human and is a critical resource to individual, community and economic life. Creative communities are vibrant, humanizing places, nurturing personal growth, sparking cultural and technological breakthroughs, producing jobs and wealth, and accepting a variety of life styles and culture.

The Creative 100 are committed to the growth, prosperity and excellence of communities, and all who live and work there.

The Creative 100 believe in the vision and the opportunities of a future driven by the power of ideas. Ideas are the growth engines of tomorrow, so the nurturing of the communities where ideas can flourish is the key to success. Ideas take root where creativity is cultivated and creativity thrives where communities are committed to ideas.

Creativity resides in everyone everywhere so building a community of ideas means empowering all people with the ability to express and use the genius of their own creativity and bring it to bear as responsible citizens.

This manifesto is our call to action.

Principles:

The Creative 100 are dedicated to helping communities realize the full potential of creative ideas by encouraging these principles:

1) Cultivate and reward creativity. Everyone is part of the value chain of creativity. Creativity can happen at anytime, anywhere, and it’s happening in your community right now. Pay attention.

2) Invest in the creative ecosystem. The creative ecosystem can include arts and culture, nightlife, the music scene, restaurants, artists and designers, innovators, entrepreneurs, affordable spaces, lively neighborhoods, spirituality, education, density, public spaces and third places.

3) Embrace diversity. It gives birth to creativity, innovation and positive economic impact. People of different backgrounds and experiences contribute a diversity of ideas, expressions, talents and perspectives that enrich communities. This is how ideas flourish and build vital communities.

4) Nurture the creatives. Support the connectors. Collaborate to compete in a new way and get everyone in the game.

5) Value risk-taking. Convert a “no” climate into a “yes” climate. Invest in opportunity- making, not just problem-solving. Tap into the creative talent, technology and energy for your community. Challenge conventional wisdom.

6) Be authentic. Identify the value you add and focus on those assets where you can be unique. Dare to be different, not simply the look-alike of another community. Resist mono-culture and homogeneity. Every community can be the right community.

7) Invest in and build on quality of place. While inherited features such as climate, natural resources and population are important, other critical features such as arts and culture, open and green spaces, vibrant downtowns, and centers of learning can be built and strengthened. This will make communities more competitive than ever because it will create more opportunities than ever for ideas to have an impact.

8) Remove barriers to creativity, such as mediocrity, intolerance, disconnectedness, sprawl, poverty, bad schools, exclusivity, and social and environmental degradation.

9) Take responsibility for change in your community. Improvise. Make things happen. Development is a “do it yourself” enterprise.

10) Ensure that every person, especially children, has the right to creativity. The highest quality lifelong education is critical to developing and retaining creative individuals as a resource for communities.

We accept the responsibility to be the stewards of creativity in our communities. We understand the ideas and principles in this document may be adapted to reflect our community’s unique needs and assets.

For the Memphis Manifesto in its entirety, please see:

http://www.norcrossga.net/user_files/The%20Memphis%20Manifesto.pdf