How many times during the day do you think something to yourself? Probably more than you think. The truth is, you (yes, that person in the mirror) are the biggest influence on howyour life turns out. And if we can’t change our thoughts, we very well can’t change our actions, now can we? So let’s make sure the following thoughts get shut down before they even start.

1.) I can’t/it’s too late/I’m not good enough/it doesn’t matter anyway/what’s the point. Yes, all of these excuses fall under the same category and all of them are collectively number one on this list for a reason. Don’t sell yourself shortbecause your mental guestimate of your abilities is inaccurate. You are just as capable and deserving as anyone else, and it does matter or you wouldn’t be having this conversation with yourself right now. Your body is an amazing thing; if you want it to stand up, walk across the street and talk to the cute guy in the coffee shop it will do it. The only thing stopping you is your mind.

2.) I don’t have time. Everyone thinks they don’t have time, but then something comes up and they end up making time. So make time now! Research has shown that the average person can find an extra six hours (six hours!!) in their day if they were to prioritize their tasks and work more efficiently.

3.) I’ll do it someday. Why someday? Putting it off until “someday” conveys the idea that you aren’t able to do it now, and why? Is there really something standing in your way? Right now, at this very moment, you are the oldest and wisest you have ever been, while at the same time being as young and able as you have ever been. Don’t waste time dedicating part of your life to “someday.” Do what makes you happy now.

4.) I could make a fool of myself. Yes, you could. You could also trip and fall walking through the grocery store, so do you stop going to the store? No! And the reason: because you’ve been to the store and not tripped and fell enough times that your mind doesn’t recognize it as a realistic threat. There are many opportunities to make a fool of yourself (many of them you are enormously overthinking), but if you avoided all of them you would be a hermit. Live a little bit and let yourself make mistakes. The fear of being a fool is not keeping you from being one; it’s keeping you from living, period.

5.) It didn’t work out the last time. Circumstances changeand people learn, including you. If you let your past determine your future, your future is going to be an exact replica of your past.

6.) Well if so-and-so thinks it’s a good idea… Honestly, it doesn’t matter what so-and-so thinks! It matters what you think! Granted, everyone needs a little advice from someone else once in a while, but constantly needing someone else’s opinion causes you to forget to have one of your own. After all, if so-and-so has a different opinion than you, and you always go with their opinion, what’s the point in even having your own?Do what you want to do, regardless of what others may think.

For many people, art is considered just a hobby. Painting is something you do on a lazy Sunday afternoon while drinking a delicious cup of espresso and calmly looking back on your workweek (which is almost a myth in itself, as very few people have ever had the time to do this). The fact is though, art is so much more than previously thought, and here are just a few examples why:

1.) Art facilitates communication. Art is not a math problem, meaning there is no right or wrong answer. No one argues with you if you prefer one painting to another. Sure, they may ask why, and then voice their own opinion, but yours is not discounted in the process. Because of this, people are naturally more apt to openly communicate in an artistic forum.

What’s more, the act of communicating itself is like a flood gate, meaning open communication about one thing often leads to open communication about another.

2.) Art facilitates self-expression. Ever heard the phrase, “A picture is worth 1,000 words,”? Of course you have, and for good reason. Some things are just too difficult to explain, but a picture can make it all seem clear. Here’s a great example:

If you’ve ever seen the music video for Foo Fighter’s song “Best of You”, you can see there is an incredible mashup of emotion. The video shows pictures and words symbolizing such emotions and concepts as fear, anger, hopelessness, sorrow, innocence, regret and beauty. What you might not know, however, is that the director, Mark Pellington, was allowed complete creative freedom by the band as a way of coping with his wife’s death. The resulting video is basically a blueprint of his grief, set to the soundtrack of the band’s song “Best of You.” It’s riveting, and you can see it here.

3.) Art encourages tolerance. It is impossible to judge in a roomful of art. You may not like a particular sculpture, but you have no idea as to who made it. A beautiful painting can be made by anyone, whether they are black, white, gay, straight, developmentally impaired, old, young, republican, or democrat. In the world of art, we are all equals.

4.) Art facilitates team building. Working on a group project at work can often be deceptive. If each member of the group breaks off into individual jobs, they may not actually feel like they are part of a collaborative effort. A group painting, however, is instantly collaborative. Just by looking at it, you can see the individual brush strokes, and if the people in the group had been changed, the brush strokes (and the entire painting itself) would be a different final result. Collaborative art projects team members to work together in an environment where their contribution is noticeable and immediate.

5.) Art is fun. Not often enough are we able to do something that we actually enjoy, and especially something that is crucial to the development of specific skill sets. Add a little art in your life and see how it will most certainly change you for the better.

I’m sure we’ve all heard plenty of inspirational quotes, and we’ve probably got a short list of a few that we consider seriously significant. But every once in a while (read: now, while you’re reading this article for the first time), a collection of quotes comes along that is more than just quirky banter. These quotes are keepers; meaning they are actually much more useful when applied to your daily lives than when applied to paper.

1.) “It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” – Charles Darwin

As important as this quote is, its principal may be one of the most overlooked.Working together is essential for progress. Businesses aren’t run by a single individual; they’re run as a team, and the most successful businesses are due to successful collaboration within that team. The more ideas you have floating around, the more options you have to choose from.

2.) “Politeness is the poison of collaboration.” – Edwin Land

Collaboration require honesty, and politeness is often a nice way of being dishonest. If you don’t like an idea, speak up, and explain your reasoning. The more you hold things in, the more you are robbing the group of useful feedback.

3.) “The secret is to gang up on the problem, rather than each other.” – Thomas Stallkamp
It can be easy to move focus of a meeting to the individuals instead of a problem itself. It doesn’t matter who says what idea, or who has the biggest problem with a specific policy; if it’s one person’s problem it’s everyone’s problem.

4.) “We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some are bright, some have weird names, but we have to learn to live in the same box.” – Anonymous

You do not always get to choose the people you will be collaborating with, but you still must learn to work together as a team. But don’t look at it in a bad way; for all you know that annoyingly bright crayon that sits in the office across from you could have some fantastic ideas.

5.) “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro

Think of this as a pointillism painting with each individual, uniquely different dot representing a part of the picture. The picture itself wouldn’t come together without all the individual dots. The reason there is a picture at all is because of a very specific combination of different point of color.

6.) “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

In addition to the previous quote, just think of all the things we can do better together! One person protesting on the street looks like a crazy person, but 50 or 100 or 1000 people protesting the exact same thing in the same place creates a sense of organization and purpose. It’s the reason petitions and boycotts so often see results. Working together gets a message across.

7.) “Few things in life are less efficient than a group of people trying to write a sentence. The advantage of this method is that you end up with something for which you will not be personally blamed.” – Scott Adams

People need ownership. They need to be able to tackle something with a sense of responsibility. Delegation is incredibly important when collaborating. Instead of assigning one large task to a group, consider breaking it up into smaller tasks that will be assigned to the individuals in the group.

8.) “Gettin’ good players is easy. Gettin’ ‘em to play together is the hard part.” – Casey Stengel

Sometimes a team’s chemistry is more important than the actual skills of the team members. Since this quote is in reference to baseball, I’m going to stay on that topic. The teams that make it to the post-season are not always the teams with the best players, they’re the teams that have figured out how to win with what they got. There is no room for egos in collaboration.

9.) “The purpose of life is to collaborate for a common cause; the problem is nobody seems to know what it is.” – Gerhard Gschwandtner

Before the task of collaborating can even begin, it’s important to have a common goal in mind. Without it, everyone is going to be running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off! Identify the task everyone needs to be working towards, delegate, and begin problem solving.

Change is happening all around us.  Consider the “Bakken Boom” we are all experiencing in the Dakotas and Montana.  There is so much to do.  So much to remember.  So much left undone.  We need the people around us to do their part.  When they don’t, it frustrates us and we have a limited set of options; do it ourselves, yell, yell more, or leave it undone.  It doesn’t matter if you are drilling, driving, cooking, or selling – you need to get through the massive amount of change and get others to do their part to make the change happen. What if you could get people to make the changes you envision with minimal pushback?  What if they looked forward to the change? Sound impossible?  Implausible?

Perhaps not.  People change for two reasons – because they want to or because they have to.

We all know that we need to use the stairs more than the elevator or escalator (things that what we have to do).  We all know we should eat more salads and less hamburgers.  Why don’t we?  There are many reasons.  Instead of trying to identify all of the potential reasons for not changing (and then trying to fix them all) we can do one sure thing.  Engage your creativity and create interest for the people who you need to change – help them move from “have to change” to “want to change”.  Change can come quickly and much easier than you think if you help your people into, through, and past the event with a little fun!

Volkswagen, the people’s car, has a great project to show just how easy it can be to change behavior.  Look at the dramatic numbers showing the change!  Instead of the default option, 66% of the participants made a different/better decision because it was fun.  That’s AWESOME!

Enjoy, this short (two minute) video on changing our behavior.

Best wishes in your challenge to change!

Be sure to connect with Russ via his Dream Big Consulting Synergy Station Directory listing or his website for other content.

“Cultural Resource Management” – wow , that’s a big governmental sounding term!  So, let’s just call it CRM for short.  CRM is the process we use to determine if archaeological or historical properties (that’s sites more than 50 years old) are within a project’s “Area of Potential Effect”.  (Yes, I know, another big governmental sounding term – but APE works for short).  Bear with me, I’ll get through the dry stuff quickly !

The CRM process is required by the regulations set forth under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. This process is required when public lands or funds are involved in a project that will have potential ground disturbing consequences.  Through the process, prehistoric and historic sites are:  identified, documented, and evaluated for eligibility into the National Register of Historic Places.

Reports are issued to the federal or state agencies involved as well as the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).  Recommendations are given by the CRM specialist (that would be me) concerning whether or not there are potential negative effects to significant archaeological sites, and what actions can be taken to avoid those effects.  The agencies involved then determine whether they agree with this assessment.

So why is the CRM process relevant to the Bakken?

Given the checkerboard nature of the state and federal lands sprinkled across eastern Montana and western North Dakota; public lands in the path of the Bakken exploration and production progression is going to happen.  In order to access roads, power transmission lines, well pads, or pipelines to receive clearance for placement on public lands, the CRM process must completely run its course.

A modified process known as a Visual Impact Assessment (VIA) is also required for projects, such as cell towers, whose signals are under the purview of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  As the Bakken business grows, so shall the need for communications.

The Bakken is under the international spotlight, and now, more than ever, the need for professionalism and cooperation is needed to insure that the industry grows in a manner that complies with federal and state regulations.  To accomplish this goal, the CRM professionals are vital now, and in the future of the Bakken oil play.

To learn more about CRM, Hope Archaeology, Inc., and Shane be sure to click the link to Shane’s Listing in the Synergy Station Directory.