Love, Laugh, Live

I have read many books so far. Several hundreds of them. But on Monday I started reading the BEST one ever!

Now you are probably wondering what the book is…but I am not going to tell you. YET! (follow my next posts and you will find out)

But what I do want to share with you from the book is how to get out of you comfort zone. FAST!

Short Answer:

DO something outrageous! Something you would normally not even consider doing.

Okey, now just before you start putting this into practice, here are some examples of outrageous behaviour:

(I wouldn’t like you to go and start blowing up buildings or anything like that)

- stare into people’s eyes in public transport (the bigger and more confident they are, the more this will push you out of your confort zone)- and remember, staring is LEGAL!

- go and ask somebody to pay for your lunch. To make sure you follow through, go to lunch with no wallet.  So you really need to ask somebody otherwise you do not eat.

- on the street, ask an atractive looking person of the opposite sex for their telephone number (in case you are married, or bound to get married like I am- go for a less atractive person

- go to a ticket entry place (may it be museum, cinema, gallery, etc) and ask  for a free admission

- and feel free to add

Now, just before you go on thinking this is just adolescent play (because that is exactly what I thought as well when i read them), TRY in ON! DO it!

Get out of your confort zone and have fun!

I can almost guarentee that after you do it, you will have a great feeling of achievement, no matter the result. It is the DOING that matters!

Oh, and let me know how it goes!

Howdy-dooo!

I would like to start this post with a question:

Has it ever happened to you during a self development training or presentation (or maybe while reading a self development book), to say to yourself:

“Oh, but I already know that. Nothing new for me”

I know it has happened to me several times. But the question that I hardly asked myself was:

“And what did I do with what I knew?!?”

Because we can be very knowledgeable…we can read and know about a lot of things that could improve our lives and make us happy.

But knowing is just NOT ENOUGH! Actually, i would go so far as to say that you are better off not knowing then knowing and just doing nothing.

Because if you don’t know how you can improve your life, then it is like you own the best computer in the world. But you have no idea what you can do with it, so you only use it for watching movies. That’s all.

But if you know how to make your life better, happier, more beautiful, it is like you know you have the most powerful computer. And you also know how you could use it to the best of its potential. You could even use it to CREATE the movies you had only watched before!

But because you just don’t take the ACTION of learning how to use it, how to install and run the programmes you need, you just stick to doing what you have always done: just watch movies.

Let me give you an example from my personal experience- because I also used to be just watching the movies a LOT myself!

Somewhere at the beginning of last year, I really wanted to go on an internship in Asia, in the field of training and human development.

And I knew a bunch of people that had found internships in Asia, so I knew it could be done (I knew my computer was a powerful one).

But, after looking a bit around (yes, in this case I did take a BIT of action), I found there was no internship on training and human development.

So I STOPPED!

Too hard!

And it wasn’t until, two weeks later, I took the decision that I will not give up that easily. And then I started writing emails to my friends, acquintances, joining internship portals, looking on the websites of different training companies. And after probably hundreds of emails send out and tens of hours looking, I FOUND it!

Exactly the internship I wanted- and it only came after ACTION, ACTION and again ACTION!

So now I will have THE question for you:

What is the thing that you know would improve your life (may it be personal or professional) and that you can start taking ACTION towards RIGHT NOW?

Ho, ho, ho!

Asa, ca sa am o introducere in Spiritul Craciunului care se apropie cu pasi foarte repezi…

Craciun care va fi anul acesta unul cu totul diferit: 30 de grade afara , soare, nici pomeneala de brazi sau de zapada, pana acuma nu am vazut nici un mos Craciun cu barba si haine rosii cum sunt pe la noi (pe aici au tot felu de zane si alte minuni )
…singurul lucru care imi aduce in suflet spiritul de sarbatoare sunt colindele care rasuna pe strada si in magazine!

__(‘Read the rest of this entry »’)

Today I finally decided to get seriously started on a project that I have been thinking of for a long time: a public journal…a place to share the everyday lessons that people and circumstances around provide me with…

So here goes my first one:

I was talking to Valentina- a good friend of mine, and we were sharing different experiences that have shaped our lives.

One thing led to another, and Vali told me about how difficult a recent event was to her… her father had passed away just one year ago…

And as she was speaking, with her voice shivering, I could feel her intense pain…but at the same time, there was a lot of peace in her words, as she later told me: “I am at peace because, even if it hurts me so much that he is away now, I was there to tell him how much I love him! And it was the first time in my life that I actually articulated the words: I love you, father!”…

That was when it suddenly dawned on me: I have two most wonderful parents…that have raised me the best possible way and have always did their utmost to make sure that I and my brother didn’t lack anything…an they are both ALIVE!

…and all of the sudden I realized how lucky I am!!..and I felt totally grateful…

And one of the next thoughts that came to my mind was that I had not told them how much I loved them…and how much I was thankful for all the sacrifices they had done for me…

I had taken it for granted that they would be here for ever…and that I had more important problems (like what place should I travel next, etc)…so why should I even think of giving them a call show my appreciation?!?…

Funny thing how the sudden awareness that I could be very well be in Valentina’s shoes…and that one of them could not be here any more…made me think of reaching for the phone right there and then to call them!!

It was pretty much like that story :

There was a kid who was crying and shouting that his parents had bought him a normal pair of Nike. NOT the newest pair of Nike.

And as they were coming out of the store, with tears running down his cheek, the child saw a man, sitting at the corner of the road. The man had NO LEGS!

Then he stopped crying.

The lesson that I took from this event: to be grateful for the wonderful parents that I have. And even more generally speaking, to be grateful for the great friends and family I have…and show and tell them how much they mean to me much more often…and if possible, with every occasion!!