This month’s theme for Video of the Week is “Humorous examples of bad communication.” Let’s face it, people are always mis-communicating and sometimes, it can be quite funny and entertaining. But most importantly, it’s memorable so you’ll be able to retain the lesson.

This week’s video comes from the Helen Tate Show, a British comedy that consists of various sketches involving a cast of recurring characters. In this video, Helen Marsh, the “I can do that woman,” is asked by her boss to find a translator to speak to a group of people from various foreign countries. Since Helen has that “can do” attitude, she volunteers to act as the translator. Here is the clip:

Now why on earth would I include something like this? Simple, this clip provides a perfect example of how not to communicate. Helen babbles in various accents that are stereotypical for the country of origin of each person she is talking to. In real life, this would be highly offensive and grossly inappropriate (although in the video, it’s quite funny). Most sane people would never consciously do this, however we may subconsciously do this to some extent.

In all my programs that cover interpersonal skills, I discuss mirroring – imitating someone’s physiology and communication style to create rapport. We often mirror others without realizing it – I used to catch myself doing this all the time. I always stress is to not copy accents, as well as other things such as stuttering and mispronunciations. Unless you’re extremely skilled at building rapport, the other person will think you’re mocking them.

Related posts:

1. Video of the Week – February
2. Video of the week: Inspiration from TV & Movies
3. Video of the Week – Alive by P.O.D.
4. Video of the Week: TSO – Wizard in Winter

Many of the clips that I’ve used for this feature have typically been videos that are very male oriented. So for a change of pace, we’ll look at some videos from the Disney Princesses. Now Disney has created a new multibillion dollar brand around their princesses which includes movies, clothing and even changes to some of their popular theme parks. Weddings are a huge business for the theme parks (ever visit the Wedding Pavilion at the Grand Floridian at Walt Disney World?) so Disney Princesses aren’t just for little girls anymore -- the company recently shifted their marketing mix for the brand to also target adult women.

So here are two videos that I felt were worthy to be this week’s video of the week.

Disney Channels’ Circle of Stars – A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Disney Princesses – If You Can Dream

Another upbeat and positive song, this time performed by an all star cast of princesses (including many of their original voices). This animated video includes Ariel, Snow White, Mulan, Jasmine, Belle, Sleeping Beauty and Pocahontas. Although geared towards a female audience, any Disney fan will enjoy it.

Related posts:

1. Video of the week: Inspiration from TV & Movies
2. Video of the Week – February
3. Video of the Week – Alive by P.O.D.
4. Video of the Week: TSO – Wizard in Winter

Many goal setting exercises have you look ahead to the winter of your life (sometimes as far as your deathbed) and ask you what you would have hoped to have accomplished by then. The point of it is to get you take a look at your life and see if the things that you’re doing are accomplishing the goals that mean the most to you.

When I’m at the end of my life, I imagine myself looking back at the various chapters of my life with “My Way”, that popular song written by Paul Anka and immortalized by Frank Sinatra, playing in the background.

Certain lyrics from the song stand out in my mind:

• “Regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention.”
• “I did, what I had to do and saw it through, without exemption.”
• “To think, I did all that…”
• “Yes there were times, I’m sure you knew, when I bit off more than I could chew.”
• “But through it all, when there was doubt. I ate it up and spit it out.”
• “I faced it all, and I stood tall.”
• “For what is a man, what has he got. If not himself, then he has naught.”
• “To say the things, he truly feels. And not the words of one who kneels.”

As you can see, I’ve quoted almost the whole song. Each verse is full of inspiration and reminds us to live life to its fullest and live to meet our own goals. Too often, we’re working ourselves to death to meet goals that were given to us by other people (our parents, our bosses, our spouse, etc…). Or we’re working towards a result that seems like the next logical step, but isn’t what we really want.

A classic example comes from the work/life balance dilemma that so many of us face. I often ask young workaholics that work twelve hour days and complain that they don’t have time to spend with their families “when you’re 80, are you going wish you worked more hours or wish you watched your kids grow up?” Sometimes, they try to justify it by saying their success at climbing the corporate ladder provides their family with all the good things in life: a nice home, a good education and dream vacations. I then point out that the one thing they don’t have is a parent to be there to watch them kick the winning goal, win the spelling bee or perform in their school play. It’s a trade off and only we can decide what’s right for our situation.

I came across a video of Tony Robbins where he mentions a guy that attended one of his events said that he was trying to earn $7 million dollars so he could lay on the beach in Fiji (Robbins runs some events from a resort he owns in Fiji). One of the Fijians that worked at Robbins’ resort overheard the conversation and replied “I get to lay on the beach every day and I don’t need even a fraction of a million dollars to do so.” It’s a great example.

So without any further delay, here’s a video tribute to Frank Sinatra set to “My Way.” I hope it will inspire you to make sure that you’re moving in the direction that you truly want to be moving in.

Related posts:

1. Video of the Week – Alive by P.O.D.
2. Video of the Week: TSO – Wizard in Winter
3. Inspiration from The Disney Princesses – Video of the Week
4. Video of the week – Josh Groban – “Believe” from “The Polar Express”

I’ve always like the music in the song “Alive” by P.O.D. (which stands for Payable on Death) but when I listened to the words, I liked it even more. The first two lines of the song are “Every day is a new day, I’m thankful for every breath I take.” Here’s a video that shows the lyrics:

My interpretation of the song is that of rebirth – overcoming a challenge and really living. The music is very powerful (the first time I heard it, I was in the gym) and makes me think of extreme sports. WWE did a video using the song for Duane “The Rock” Johnson back when he was at the peak of his wrestling career and it showed clips of both his in-ring and out of ring successes. This is one of the songs I love exercising to as both the music and lyrics inspire. Here’s a surfing video set to the song:

Related posts:

1. Video of the Week – February
2. Video of the Week: TSO – Wizard in Winter
3. Inspiration from The Disney Princesses – Video of the Week
4. Video of the week – Frank Sinatra “My Way”