Kevin Cottam

Kevin Cottam is an elite figure skating coach and choreographer, and has the great responsibility to do the final talk.

Have you have ever had the experience that you were so concentrated so much you completely lost track of time? How can you get 'in the zone' and reach such a state of flow? It's all about connection. Connection to your mind, body and spirit will help you to get into the zone where everything goes automatically

Visualisation is key for connection with your mind. As a figure skating coach, Cottam told his athletes to recreate the image of their performance in their head before they stood on ice. It's a common tactic used by athletes. The great Olympic swimming champion said he already finished the race in his head before he jumped into the water. 

Breathing is the second crucial aspect. How many people pay attention to your breathing, unless a TEDx speaker makes them reflect on it? When we don't breath, we don't live. A connection with this vital energy source is fundamental to get into the zone.

Meditation is another method the achieve this. Seek your internal knowledge and reach your spirit, says Cottam: "you deserve to be the best. Connect with mind, body and spirit and get in the zone". That's where the magic happens.

Work/life storified

In addition to our enormous buzz of tweets, Facebook posts, pins on Pinterest and blog posts here, we're also following everything that happens on Storify.

To experience the Work/life session in short soundbites, we made three stories:

• Happiness at work at TEDxGhent
• Personal stories count
• Work/Life

Leo Bormans: do worry, be happy!

We are in crisis, left behind. But is the glass really half empty? Leo Bormans will answers the question. Leo Bormans believes in the lessons of positive psychology. Of course, life is not a party. But it really matters how you think.

As he says, "when you smoke, you get lung cancer. When you become an optimist, you get happier. Why wouldn't you want to be an optimist?".

Leo Bormans is the author of the World Book of Happiness, a best selling inquiry in the science of happiness. Going beyond common believe and philosophy, he asked hunderd professors in fifty countries what the lessons science is teaching about happiness - in max 1000 words. One only needed two: other people!

Happiness is decided by so many factors, such as relationships, health and freedom. Money is not important as many think. Both on the individual and the country level, it doesn't really improve after a certain minimum treshold has been surpassed. Mexicans, on average, have ten percent of the wealth of the French, but they are happier.

Your life is decided for fifty percent by genetics and for ten percent by luck. That means there is still fourty percent you can affect! Focusing on the positive, without ignoring what can't be ignored, is the best strategy to cope. What you focus on is what you get. So do worry, be happy!

Anna Coote on the 21 hour work week

We are back after the break here at TEDxGhent. And we start our session Work/Life with Anna Coote of the new economics foundation. A 'recovering workaholic' herself, Anna Coote tells us why she believes a 21 working week can change our society and our lives for the better.

Time is money, goes the expression. But also: money can't buy you happiness, or love,  as the Beatles say. We deserve to dedicate our time to creativity, innovation and above all: the people that matter rather than being locked up in the treadmill of work.

Anna Coote does not propose a draconious law prohibiting working more than 21 hours. It should be a gradual decrease, taking into account hours have already decreased enormously over the last decades. Hundred years ago, 60 hours was normal. Now, 40 hour is the standard.

21 hours is not such a crazy idea as it seems. The great economist John Maynard Keynes believed that continuous increases in productivity would make it possible to only work 15 hours a week in the 21st century. However, as producitivity rose, we prefer to get more money for our work rather than spreading the jobs more equally.

An urgent need for redistribution of labour
Anna Coote believes in the urgent need to redistribute paid and non-paid work. It will be good for the environment, the economy and for ourselves. Redistributing jobs will help women to build a career and help fathers to have more time for their children.

And consider, there is no evidence that long hours are linked to prosperity. Productivity even decreases after 40 hours! But of course, there are concerns about lower pay, problems for employers (who have to hire more workers) and the general attitude to public.

To conclude, this is not just a story from Utopia. Following the publication of a report in two years ago, Anna Coote received a lot of emails, including one from a specialist law firm that had embraced the 21 working week. They were even more successful than competitors where 70 hours were normal. Maybe 21 hours is the key to a new economic system.