7 TED Talks You Should Absolutely Talk About
- Viola Marchetti
- Nov 26, 2019
- 3 min read
Everyone's life is studded with moments of total desperation and a deeply-rooted sense of loss, often accompanied by the necessity to eat the equivalent of your weight into cheese fries. You know those days when your boss blames you even if wasn’t your fault, or you pour the coffee just bought on the newly printed documents? I am sure that someone out there can definitely relate to that. To be honest, there’s not much you can do besides lie in the bed eating pizza, but sometimes even that amount of carbohydrates is not enough if you are so down in the mouth. The harsh reality is that everyone deals with discouragement at some point in their life, because life is a pendulum that swings between the wish to conquer the world and the desire to go back to bed forever (cit). Luckily, nowadays with the internet the answer to all the questions are right at your fingertips, at all times. This means that the internet, besides being an inexhaustible source of procrastination that drags you into an endless cycle of binge-watching of viral videos of cats terrified by a cucumber, can also be an inspiring and innovative source of motivation to help you to have a career breakthrough.
In fact, just browsing the endless and limitless lands of the internet, I've just found a new antidote to destructive emotions: TED talks.
Who the fork is Ted? Well, in this case we are not talking about any cuddly teddy bear, least alone the famous Mark Wahlberg’s naughty Ted, we are speaking about Technology Entertainment and Design conferences. If you have never heard about any of them, they are short, inspiring and powerful talks, aimed to spreading ideas about almost all topics, from science to business to global issues. Here is my personal list of 7 most inspiring talks, which never fail to wake up my motivation and get me out of bed – and away from that amount of carbs.
1. Taika Waititi: Why humor is key to creativity
The impact: He discusses how creativity has helped him to express his ideas and led him to where he is today.
2. Elizabeth Gilbert: Success, failure, and the drive to keep creating.
The impact: Elizabeth Gilbert reflects on why success can be as disorienting as failure and offers a simple - though hard - way to carry on, regardless of outcomes.
3. Shawn Achor: The Psychology of Positivity
The impact: In this fast-moving and entertaining talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.
4. Sam Berns: My philosophy for a happy life
The impact: Born with a rare genetic disorder called progeria, Sam Berns knew he'd be facing more obstacles in life than most. This didn't stop him from taking charge of his own happiness. In this moving and inspirational talk, Berns lays out the three principles of the personal philosophy that allowed him to do so.
5. Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend
The impact: Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.
6. Stella Young: I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much
The impact: Stella Young is a comedian and journalist who happens to go about her day in a wheelchair — a fact that doesn't, she'd like to make clear, automatically turn her into a noble inspiration to all humanity. In this very funny talk, Young breaks down society's habit of turning disabled people into "inspiration porn."
7. Lizzie Velasquez: How do you define yourself?
The impact: In a time when beauty is defined by supermodels, success is defined by wealth, and fame is deified by how many followers you have on social media, Lizzie Velasquez asks the question how do you define yourself? Once labelled, "The Worlds Ugliest Woman," Lizzie decided to turn things around and create her own definitions of what she defines as beauty and happiness.
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