Brain Injury Dialogues reveals many invisible aspects of this disability; viewers see the wide range of deficits that survivors must face, both physically and mentally, and learn how no two brain injuries are alike.

It's an accurate, sympathetic, and empowering depiction of 5 survivors, including coauthor Rick Franklin. the film features interviews and commentary by disability experts, including notable disability advocate Zona Roberts and Cognitive Therapist/ Teacher Becky Stone of the College of Alameda.

Brain Injury Dialogues; Run time: 52 minutes, closed captioned, with an additional 25-minute bonus feature of TBI survivor and disability scholar Mark Sherry of the University of Toledo speaking with a
support group in an Oakland, CA public library.

The documantary is priced at $25, making it easily affordable for virtually every library, school, rehab or therapy center, support group, and of course individual survivor and their family and friends. The price includes postage and handling in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

I wish this was more detailed, but I'll do a web search for more information. Strikes me that well-produced videos could be a great resource for orientation and reference of brain injury survivors.

4. We aren't emotionally connected to what we're saying. We may be reciting a report or going through a scripted talk we've given dozens of times in the past, and our lack of excitement results in non-stop, often monotonal diatribe that leaves the audiences as bored as we are.

I've copied only the fourth reason, the implications of which stun me. Click through for five more reasons (and some fine analysis) from Rich Hopkins.

More from Rich on this topic.

As we approach the end of the year, it is a good time to reflect upon the meaning of our lives and work, as well as focus on the things that and people who really matter the most to us.  Of course, there are many folks who just want to put 2009 behind them with a “good riddance” sigh of relief.  Let’s face it, it has been a very difficult, challenging year; one that we’d probably like to forget.  The economic climate proved to be more of a perfect storm.  Like a tsunami, it generated monstrous waves that were intent on destroying anything in their path.  And economic concerns were not the only source of turbulence, fear, and insecurity during the year.  In this regard, I’m sure that the mass media’s “end of the year” reviews will provide many other examples of why 2009 is a year that deserves to be forgotten. 

More on End of Year reflection, this time from Alex Pattakos.

What are you going to do now to make sure you have your best year ever? What one thing will mean the difference in actually achieving your goals rather than chalking them up to yet another year’s unfulfilled resolutions? What can you do to enhance an aspect of your life that you’ve neglected in your single-minded pursuit of that elusive brass ring? Think about it.

Year-end articles with advice on how to make next year a good year are starting to pile up. This one is from Success Magazine. Click through for a list of 44 ideas. I see that number 44 is "Lower your blood pressure." I should have seen this advice a long time ago.

 

1. We say about 12,000 words a day. Unless you are in solitary confinement, or in a psycho ward, you say most of those words to other people, And you do it mostly at work, often trying to convince other people to do things you feel are important.  Most of the time you open your mouth you are a kind of public speaker. Yet most of us are ignorant of how our brains process speech, what separates a convincing person from a boring one, and what brain science has to say about listening and learning. We’re all speakers and we all benefit if we improve.
2. Good public speaking drives better thinking.  Speaking, and writing, is a forcing function for your thoughts. An opinion only in your mind seems perfect, but only when you write it or explain the argument to someone else that the details and nuances you overlooked become real. To speak about something forces you to think about it more clearly, which is good for you.
3. I’ve learned more from public speaking than almost anything else I’ve done.  By traveling around the world to lecture, I’ve met more interesting people, heard more interesting opinions, and been forced to rethink more thoughts than nearly any other activity. Speaking is a forcing function for many of the good things people say they want from life: dealing with fear, understanding themselves, making connections and learning new things.
4. Ideas do not sell themselves. From Edison, to Einstein, to Steve Jobs, if you have ideas, you will be speaking about them to others to convince them of their value.  It’s an unavoidable and essential part of the job of getting your ideas to the world. If you haven’t studied presenting, you are betraying your ideas as pitching and presentations are the lens through which your ideas will be judged. The best skill creatives, entrepreneurs and inventors need to learn is how to talk about their work to people who know nothing about their work.
5. We are teaching and learning all the time.  Speaking is often the means for sharing what we know with friends, children, students or even co-workers. By getting better at speaking we amplify not only our ability to share what we know, but our capacity to help people teaching us do it effectively.
6. We learn best by making mistakes, and in the book I make many of them for you.  I found most books on public speaking really boring, since they leave all the good stuff out. Namely what goes wrong, what happens back stage or between gigs, and that’s the focus of my book. It’s a narrative driven book, largely telling the stories of things going wrong, what I learned and how I got improved.  You get the benefit of all my embarrassments.
7. Funny, inspiring, business books are rare.  I fought hard to get the word Confessions in the title, since that gave me license as a writer to be completely honest, and share the same kind of perspective I’d share if I were out to a few beers with some friends who wanted to know all the big secrets. I worked very hard to make it a fun, fast paced, provocative read – unlike many books, this is one you’re likely to finish and enjoy it all the way through. The Wall Street Journal and Slashdot among other reviews, agree with the big upsides of the choice I made.

Scott Berkun titles this blog post "Why You Need A Publlc Speaking Book." I've seen a lot of traffic on the net about his new book, Confessions of a Public Speaker and think I need to pick up a copy. I really like his emphasis on Point 2, good speaking drives better thinking, and Point 4, you speak to convince others of the value of your ideas." In Toastmasters, I think we tend to overemphasize the technical and showy aspects of speechmaking and underemphasize our argument and content.