To Inspire, Be Inspired

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Saturday February 28, 2009 · 9:14 PM PST

2009/02/28 · 21:14

How do you inspire someone? How do you get your employee, or your friend, or your child excited to put in the hours, sweat it out, and do what it takes to accomplish something memorable?

I think a lot of people have this question. A google search for 'how to inspire' turns up 18,100,000 results, with the top one being a Business Week post on 'How to Inspire People like Obama'. It talks about rhetorical devices, body language, and vocal delivery. What this and so many other management articles about inspiration seem to miss is that in order to be inspiring, you must be inspired.

kbal11

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Sunday February 15, 2009 · 7:53 PM PST

2009/02/15 · 19:53

Sitting inside, listening to the rain and reading about the tragic losses in the lives of the four men comprising Abraham Lincoln's Team of Rivals, I am struck by the tragedy of the performance we are playing.

kbal11

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Sunday November 02, 2008 · 10:41 AM PST

2008/11/02 · 10:41

Where can you find a universe of voters going 73-12 Obama over McCain? On Facebook.

And you can be a key part of getting out that vote. The theory is simple: Status messages are among the most visible things on Facebook. Updating your status is immediately seen by all of your friends.

By donating your status to get out the vote for Barack Obama, you agree to have it set in a coordinated fashion on Election day with thousands or millions of other Facebook users (127,000 right now, and growing exponentially through viral channels), spreading that GOTV message throughout all 100 million users of Facebook.

As with all viral growth, early differences in growth make huge difference. If you have a facebook account, take 5 minutes to join in, donate your status. It doesn't substitute for making calls or knocking on doors, but its easy and could make a big difference.

Moveon's 'All in your head' mocks McCain on economy

kbal11

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Saturday July 19, 2008 · 12:54 PM PDT

2008/07/19 · 12:54

I just got an email from Moveon.org; they've released an entertaining new video titled 'All in your head' that uses clips of McCain, Phil Gramm, and Bush to show their views that economic problems are all psychological.

I've tried to embed the video, but in case it doesn't work for you, the quick links are:

On Moveon's site

On Youtube directly

Watch it! Spread it! Digg it up!

Full text of their email below the break...

kbal11

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Tuesday April 08, 2008 · 9:24 PM PDT

2008/04/08 · 21:24

By now, none of us is a stranger to action. Throughout this campaign, we have all done things that seemed foreign and difficult to us. Walking door to door, each time working up the courage to knock once more to bring a message of hope and change. Calling strangers halfway across the country, when it sometimes seems hard enough to talk to our friends and neighbors. Dealing with frustrating computer programs, trying to bring order out of disorder, and putting in more hours than might seem wise.

We have done all this because we believe that Barack Obama speaks the truth when he talks about the fierce urgency of now. We believe that we must act now, or continue to watch our world spin out of control into partisan bickering, violence overseas, and environmental destruction. We believe that as Gandhi once said, we must be the change that we want to see in the world.

I'm writing this diary to ask that you follow this belief into yet another arena.

kbal11

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Wednesday January 09, 2008 · 11:33 AM PST

2008/01/09 · 11:33

After one of the Blue Majority blog posts, I donated some money (not a huge amount) to the Mark Pera campaign through ActBlue. I've done this for a few candidates, and don't expect to ever hear more than a thank you letter.

Today, however, I got a call on my cell phone from a number I didn't recognize, with a 708 area code. I've been getting a lot of calls like that recently because I'm very involved with the local Barack Obama volunteer effort, and many people have cell phones with out of state area codes. This time, however, it wasn't a volunteer, but rather Mark Pera giving me a call to thank me for my donation and talk briefly about how much he appreciates bloggers who have taken up his cause!

kbal11

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Thursday December 13, 2007 · 5:04 PM PST

2007/12/13 · 17:04

Today I met with about 40 like-minded souls in Palo Alto, California to deliver a petition to our representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) (or at least her reps at the local office). We asked her to step up and enact legislation make it clear to President Bush that he does not have authority to go to war with Iran.

kbal11

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Monday December 10, 2007 · 6:47 PM PST

2007/12/10 · 18:47

Once again today, we stand on the hilltop looking down upon a political scene where despite the turnover, little has change. The steps forward are halting, and despite our best efforts, the rotten stench of corruption and the sounds of horsetrading of lives for cash are all that reach us.

Hunter's heartfelt call for leadership echoed through the blogosphere this morning, demanding answers where we have none. How can we move beyond this dismal state? Where do we go from here? Do we even understand where we are?

That last is the question I wish to attempt to chip away at after the break. Where does the power lie? How stand things now? Where are the weak points in our stance that we need to shore up, and the weak points in our opponents that we must attack?

kbal11

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Sunday November 18, 2007 · 12:06 PM PST

2007/11/18 · 12:06

Disclaimer: As you can see from my previous diary entries, I am volunteering for Barack Obama's presidential campaign, so I am not an unbiased observer. This diary is in part a request for information from those who are more engaged in the other campaigns.

I've been talking with a variety of people about grassroots politics and grassroots support for various politicians, and have been wondering for a while if I could find any quantifiable evidence supporting my anecdote-driven belief that Barack Obama has dramatically more grassroots support than any of the other presidential candidates.

This has been brewing for a while, without coming up with a solution, but just today I think I may have stumbled across something...

kbal11

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Wednesday November 14, 2007 · 3:45 PM PST

2007/11/14 · 15:45

One negative on Hillary, the other neutral. Thanks to Daily Show for the idea on the second one.

kbal11

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Thursday November 08, 2007 · 9:37 PM PST

2007/11/08 · 21:37

Tonight I went to an organizational meeting in Palo Alto for volunteers for the Barack Obama presidential campaign.

It took me something like two months from when I first started thinking about getting involved (and signed up for an account on my.barackobama.com) before I actually got involved in doing something like this in person. I don't know if thats typical or not, but thinking back on it made me realize that there are probably tons of people who are interested in the presidential campaign but haven't yet made that step to volunteer.

Before I get on to describing the event itself, let me say that I had a blast tonight, and am really jazzed about getting more involved! So all of you out there who are looking in from the edges, trying to decide whether to get in the pool, jump on in! The water's warm!

kbal11

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Tuesday November 06, 2007 · 6:16 PM PST

2007/11/06 · 18:16

Some people I've talked to don't understand why I'm so down the Dems letting Mukasey through... Thats their right I guess. But I can still make fun!

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To Inspire, Be Inspired

Lighting the way

How to GOTV millions in a 73% Obama universe

Moveon's 'All in your head' mocks McCain on economy

Bay Area Obama Supporters: A call to action

I just got a phone call from Mark Pera

I delivered a petition today

Assessing the Scene: Part 1

Grassroots support: Where are the events?

Political Cartoons: A couple HRC spoofs

My first political volunteer event

Daily political cartoon: The Tyranny of Low Expectations