Bridge 8 | "Selling" Santa Claus to town

The moment we learn that our red-hat Santa doesn’t exist is the moment we lose our childhood.

It is the moment that the magic world we live in, with all the love-sharing heroes and kind elves comes to an end. It is the moment that fantasy becomes reality and the world around us looks a bit more like the world we know today. That’s why we should cater a lot for the bridge from childhood to adolescence.

These days I am always thinking the way I learnt about Santa Claus. I think my parents did the best work in that and I want to share it with you briefly.

Few years before, I had a fight with my friends in school, where half of us were claiming that Santa was true and the rest claiming that Santa is a totally made up story. I was left aside, a bit of sad, wondering why parents didn’t meet in a conference or something to decide which story to tell to their kids and prepared my words in order to show them that I am not a child and as an adult I demanded the truth I deserved. (:

My mam told me then that unfortunately many many years before Santa did live and was a real giving person. And that was the reason people got inspired and continued his service under the mask of Santa Claus. They asked me sorry for telling that lie to me, but they told that it is important to Santa the kids to believe in him.

P.S. My side effect was to dream to become a Santa on day, but don’t worry, I woke up early!

Selfborder 7 | Something wicked this week comes

Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday and Happy New Year...

Why do in two out of three happy occasions we cherish the day and not the year?

To be honest I cannot find a single (pervert) reason that we do it. But for sure I find it wicked.

Who’s that person haven’t ever heard someone saying: “I don’t do Christmas, every Christmas I get depressed” or “Sorry for not picking up the phone on my Birthday, I was feeling a bit of under the weather”?

Our massive societies and economies are functioning like huge Military Services of Happiness. Anyone who’s not happy gets a strange look in the eyes from the people around or a huge tag as “Depressive” or “Melancholic” in a way that becomes almost discriminative.

If we open our eyes, we will see that people, without even understanding that, are naturally going against this order. Check most selling Hollywood movies and you’ll see that the feelings on sale are fear, excitement and painful tears. Is it happening accidentally that these are the feelings we are hiding when in public?

I am not sure if it is the Marketing Economy that pusses us to “Happiness”.

“Come on it’s your birthday, let’s buy alcohol till getting wasted!”!

Successes and happiness have a lot to celebrate while tears are for private parties.

What I am seeing is that people are in need of Feelings. Check all art pieces around and they scream pain, fear and anxiety. I am not sure if it is because we are trying so immaturely to hide these feelings or because we feel blunt when we do not have them.

What I am trying to say is that it is not important if we do not have a kiss on Christmas, it is not important if we will not party hard on our birthday and it is not at all important to have the most unforgettable New Years’ Eve. The important is our life to have the people, the level of joy and unforgettable experiences we want to.

We should not feel bad for ourselves or for the people who spend their “Big Days” of the year alone. We should feel bad when we/they are spending the whole year alone.

Readers Post 2 | No words from Elena Lambrou

Bridge 7 | 3 Seconds

Some days before I was in a conference that while discussions were held there was a strange rule that made my mind go bright!

Every time a speaker was finishing talking the whole table had to wait and count silently for 3 seconds. After a while, as we were used to that we started thinking about what had the other person really talked about.

It was like a mirracle! I found a small bridge for Selfborder 3 | Our brains have no bluetooth attached.

What if we stopped thinking about what we want to say and waiting for 3 seconds in all of our discussions?

Reader Post 1 | Random Thoughts from Danai Angelopoulou

I started writing this after a conversation I had about family.How important it is in our lives, how much they influence us while growing up, if we will keep the same model for creating our own family even if we know that something didn't work out, if we always seek for a ''family'' when we feel alone and we are away from home...

Thinking about being away from home, made me wonder how important adjustment is. Is it the same easy/difficult for a person to change house/country/language/friends/colleagues? Is it bad when somebody needs more time or even is reluctant to sacrifice his/her coziness and convenience for something better..or not...for something different, for a risk.

Thinking about time and risk. When do we settle down? Is there an age limit where someone should get married, have a permanent job etc. No there isn't, I am sure that is the right answer. Then why do people gossip about you if you don't follow these society norms?

Thinking about society norms. Why do many people give up doing what they want, saying what they think just because the others will criticize them? How strong can we be against the mass? Do we want to be against the mass? How sensitive or fearless are we against the ''rumours''?

Too many questions and random thoughts...

Danai has also posted on her facebook profile: 

«Βιώνουμε μια κρίση διότι χάσαμε την επαφή με την πραγματικότητα. Αντιμετωπίζουμε τους ανθρώπους και τα χρήματα σαν να παίζουμε βιντεο-γκέιμ. Είμαστε πιο ευγενικοί με τους γείτονές μας μέσω της οθόνης του υπολογιστή, παρά όταν τους συναντούμε στο δρόμο»

Translation: "We are experiencing a crisis because we have lost touch with reality. We treat the people and money like playing video games. We are more kind to our neighbors through the computer screen than when they meet on the street"

10th Border | What we never say cause it's private

Have you ever had a discussion that made you feel like the lyrics of Linkin Park song say: "I discovered I was not the only person with those things in mind?"

This post has to do with what we never discuss openly about Sex. I had an exciting discussion lately and understood that no matter if we discuss 24/7 about sex nobody gets to the point.

It seems probable to me that West-Cristiano civilization has created millions of taboos that seem to be a current reality. If we look time from a distance we can see that ethics was unfortunately a matter of religious perception and not a matter of intelligence and thinking.

We consider Human beings as progressed but I think that either we are just unable to think free or we are hypocrites.

A good example could be masturbation.

Who does talk about masturbation with friends?

Who does masturbate?

I never suggested to anyone to go out and tell in public about them private life, but my question is why we never share it with anyone? Why are we ashamed and why do we consider specific things as private?

Try, if you want, to have a chat with a friend of yours openly about your masturbation routines and you will see that pleasure can also be fun. 

9th Border | A matter of Respect

Our lives would be different if the word “Respect” would not exist. We wouldn’t leave our seats in the metro in order the elder to sit, we wouldn’t greet people with expressions reflecting health, we might never be standing up when professors were entering the place and we would eat all our food before dad reaches home.

Nevertheless, we all have thought about respect. The question I want to ask is: Should we expect others to respect us when we do not respect ourselves? Are we supposed to expect respect for our stuff, places, homes, cities, countries when we do not respect them?

Seldborder 6 | Intentions VS Outcomes

A lot of times we judge people, companies and everyone around, not for their actions but for their intentions. This is the new modern life. We judge not for what we see but for what we think lies behind actions.

This is cool. If we can do it correctly, we are The People 2.0. But what, if not?

What if it is just correct when a company starts a green campaign and no one says: “They do it to make more money! They are pretentious!” What if it is just correct when someone supports everyone and no one thinks: “This is the only way to have more friends!”

Wouldn’t in that case our lives be nicer? Wouldn’t we be better people and wouldn’t we have more and more people not doing good things because they would be criticized on their behavior wrongly?

Maybe yes, maybe not.

By the way check the new video of Katy Perry. Maybe her intentions will never be known but the outcome looks good.

8th Border | I am not a racist, do I?

Imagine that scene: You are on a journey with a bus. In the middle of the trip there is a 20 min break. You notice that everyone left the bus and decide to go back and make sure your stuff are not getting stolen. When entering inside you see an awkward gypsy woman sneaking next to her kid into a pretty luxurious bag while talking rapidly to a strange language you don't understand. How do you react? Someone's stuff are being stolen!

I kinda looked her into her eyes angrily. I was shocked. Having been burglared few weeks before seems to awaken into me rough feelings. I thought: "How bad it is to use your kid as a co-theft"!

She left the stuff there and rushed to go outside. I felt like not doing anything. At least she probably didn't steal anything and having her smugged from a whole bus in front of her son was a hell of a punishment for the kid.

I thought of asking people to come and check their stuff but none was close to the bus. I sat on my seat sad thinking about the disgrace and sympathy of our civilisation that gets people pushed to steal in order to eat a piece of bread and others to steal because too much is never enough. I sat there lone and sad to only understand a while later that that gypsy woman was just another passenger of the bus travelling with her kid!

I sat sad there forever. I understand that I am deceived about racism spread around us, about the racism I could have stupidly spread also.

Bridge 6 | People Love People

People Love People. How important are "People" in that phrase?


When I was a bit younger I suggested my grandma to put in the same box a chicken and dog! I thought that the outcome would be magnificent. A dog that takes care of the ingredients of your omelete and... who knows? Maybe flying also a bit.


My grandma hopefully seemed a hell wiser than me and told me that a chicken whould never believe a male dog saying that he will take care of her kids so she would never born these hush puppies.


So, I came up with a conclusion. Roosters love chickens, male dogs love female dogs as exactly men fell in love with women! What a kid!


I was raised with that kind of the idea considering anything else as paranormal activity. Lately though I got across with many new phenomena. A woman in Germany engaged to the Berlin Wall, a guy from Japan got married to a game boy character that was about to last as much as the batteries did and I was feeling fallen apart that never thought of getting married with the green rug in my room I am so much in love with.


In the beggining I thought: "Hmmm, weird people!". Then I made jokes: "What if the Berlin Wall cheat on his wife?". But then I saw a documentary on people finding love in the face of a plastic, not cheap at all, hologram of a real person, doll.


Almost a bit of desperate of look got in my eyes. How could I now say to my grandma that she just said to me 20 years before a freaky lie? Does she know that maybe a chicken will never give birth to a dog's child but might end up finding the only love left on earth on a dog's face?


The documentary I saw called "Guys and Dolls" depicts the lives of men that end up with the choice of a plastic partner. It is so easy to judge someone like that, so easy to stick the "Retarted" label on them, but what if we are all retarted?


We are retarted. Yes, we do. We don't understand that there are people around us that they need love and this need is a universal feeling. They prefer to receive it from the leg of a chair, than from none. 


We don't seem to understand that in the phrase "People Love People", the only word deserving to be written in capitals can not be touched by "...".


Guys and Dolls

 

Selfborder 5 | Shortage and Prosperity

Greek parents share the tendency to the question: "Do you have any complaints from me? Didn't we give you everything?"

I am not sure if you know the brand "Less is More" and I am not sure if their clothes rock, but I am lately standing up for the idea that there are times that a shortage really puts us in the shoes of the people that need our help the most.

A shortage like money, health, a family person, a favorite pet, a robbed house, a crashed computer, knowledge, etc. can only be led to prosperity by the support of a person that is not just prosperous but used to be in shortage.

If you were always in "prosper" of beds, you will not easily understand that when someone, who needs to sleep at your house at night, can even sleep on the floor.

Coming back to the parents that they want to give everything to their children, I would be considering an earning part instead of only receiving.

 Nevertheless, keeping a balance ain't that easy for no one.

Bridge 5 | Can we drop a border?

Dropping borders ain't that easy. Nevertheless, sometimes, technology doesn't keep us home and creates a home in every city. This came in my life few weeks before and from the moment I learnt it, I became a fun! I got my first surfer and I think I am going to do it again both ways. Couch and Surfing!

It's a website I advice without Parental Advisory suggested. It's success lies on something I call Web 2.0. The change in internet's history that put in front of the camera not some bits but other people. The change that turned people to learn again how to look to each other, eye to eye, even with the use of a screen and a camera. 

Subscribe now, live the moment before the dawn of Web 3.0. As few people claim, that that would be too late.

Links: 

www.couchsurfing.org (The website I joined)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CouchSurfing  (What is couchsurfing from wikipedia)

7th Border | Judge-mentality

I merely can ever keep a balance on how heavy I am. I never can keep the balance on when to stop building on the same joke and I always need another person to keep the balance of who I am and what I am standing for.

This is not a post on acceptance, although I keep in my mind one for the close future.

This is a post about the people in this world that know how to accept and not to criticize.

Leo Buscaglia has said that if every person had in them lives another person to accept everything as reasonable and completely ok would never be in need of a psychologist and could meet balance.

(After all, what are psychologists do? Listen, say yes and nod)

How easy it is to be a person that always accepts?

I guess more than what I can handle. Nevertheless, I am asking from everyone who reads this blog to always remind me when I become judgmental and disapproving... I don't like that.

Selfborder 4 | Procrastination

There are always a lot of reasons to put a leg off the couch and start something, but how many times do I find a million of reasons not to press the button, not to open the book, not to clean my room?

I believe that if procrastination was not existing I would be 10 years older, or at least had 10 years of more experiences!

There are so many times I tried to kill procrastination, but what I understood in the end, was that I was just procrastinating in order to really do what I had to do.

In the end, I find myself trapped in the 6th or 7th level of procastination (procrastinating by re-working on my procrastination again and again) as being the lead actor in Inception.

After all, I am procrastinating even now... Standing next to a dirty room, a closed book, without switching on the radio, buying the things I need from the neibourhood supermarket...

Does anyone feel the same?





That's what I mean...

Selfborder 3 | Our brains have no bluetooth attached

Lately, I have been thinking that we people are really alone.
The reason is not loneliness of our bodies but the incapability of our brains to communicate effectivelly.

We can see as far as we want to see, still we believe that we see clearly.
We can listen as deep as we want to hear, still we believe that we even see the meaning behind.
When we talk, we transcript our actions into sounds and we leave everything we wouldn't do just outside our door.

I don't really know if a bluetooth device attached to our brains would do any help at all.
I don't even know if opening wide up would be a good choice.

For what I am sure, is that I don't know...

6th Border | Money, Bridge or Border?

In life there are certaiin things that keep as closer to our friends, our past, the experiences we share, the same thoughts, hobbies, things we love etc. I was always thinking that Money are always a bridge to our friends. We use money and we drink a coffee in a funcy place together, we use money and we buy gifts, go on holidays together!

But what does it happen when money become a lifestyle? What does it happen when the gap between money is so big no visual bridge can cover?

When I was younger I was thinking that if I be rιch in the future I would buy a cosy house and a fast car for my family and friends so that we would all be happy? What is that deep in all of us that changed and these ideas never become true? What makes the money as the best gift and why do most of the childish dream we make now are chategorised as "childish"?

Life is also causing to be always in the mood of chategorising, judging and critising according to our ego and with ruler our selves. Money are one of the characteristics that make our lives difficult in order to judge others actions...

How many hotly disputed discussions on buying brands have I participated into? And in the end what? Are we all mean and bad or we just see as far as our brocken eyes can?

Bridge 4 | Listen to your friends

Everytime your mind is stuck, everytime you are idiot, listen to a friend, their suggestions work, ALWAYS!

Some of them:
"Create the beauty around you" J.Dereng
"Get some vitamins" A. Skryabina
"Don't look at her, their friends will kick your ass!" V. Kouloudi
"Why don't you stop talking over me?" E. Terzaki
"Stop hesitating..." S. Hovhannisyan
"Do what you love to" N. Gebes
"Are you wearing winter clothes?" K. Athanasiadou
"Do something creative to get yourself out of misery and you will be more than fine" B. Mezetziou

Random Thoughts | Copyright Democracy NOW

 I believe that  copyrights are created to destroy not only all the cheap home entertainment but also I believe that every kind of creativity on art is a proof that art is facing the unhealthiest state of all ages.

 Imagine if ideas could be copyrighted. Imagine if you are not allowed to redraw copyrighted materials, if you are not allowed to sing copyrighted songs, imagine if you are not allowed to eat copyrighted food!

Who can tell me that tomorrow some company will not wake up and make the whole world believe that we should copyright people, ideas, animals, food thoughts. If you have to buy first the copyright and then the material.

Who is paying the maintenance of the whole global copyrights industry? Us

Imagine how our lives would have been today if copyrights were existing from ancient years.

What if Democracy was copyrighted?

Well maybe that would be a good solution in order not to spoil the name of democracy when thinking of current Democratic countries, states, minds etc.

Copyleft NOW

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft

Bridge 3 | "Forever"

Yesterday I had the nicest day in the city of Thessaloniki maybe in a whole life... It was full! Full of people I never shared a lot of time people, full of emotions, feelings and new things.

Life is BORING! When we don't care about this, when we procrastinate and when we want to complain and not live...

In this fancy day I had I heard something so deep like the ocean.

"Forever" exists. When we don't take time into consideration.

Somebody could ask what's the new in it. If time is a huge and meaningless zero of course everything lasts forever!

What if we think that time is not a zero, it is something just not important to us. Think of it. How many things would become more amazing?

If you say to someone that you had an excitement of a second people would notice only the excitement. If you say that you had sex/made love with someone for just one night, the important thing would be that you had sex/made love. If you would say that I am positive but I dont know for how long I can stand like this, people wouldn't think that your positivity will last soon but would notice that NOW you are positive, NOW you need help, NOW you can give passion, NOW it is the life and there is no idea for what's next.

On the other hand, time can be really important but what if we don't want to take it into consideration? What if it is important for me to love me for a lifetime but it is more important that you love me NOW and NOW and NOW and NOW. 

What?

5th Border | "People are made to Talk and not to Scream"

Today, TV was showing once more the faboulus movie "The Green Mile". I couldn't watch the whole movie but I got on a spot that it was said: "Stop it! People are made to talk and not to scream".

I kinda liked this phrase, so as I always do, I did some chemical tests with my brain to prove to myself or not if this phrase is really true.

I thought that we scream when we:

• are scared
• want to make someone rapidly change a situation/action
• feel that we really need attention
• are pissed/nervous/mad at someone/something
• when we are so happy that we cannot take it anymore 

 Most of the ange reasons I came across looked negative ones and one tricky. Nevertheless I made myself change thoughts and move to the next channel. There were news (and as news are always sad) they were talking about the financial situation in Greece and the "negative changes" that we are going to face while saying that they are afraid that people will run against government.

At this time I was hearing so loud in my ears the phrase "People are made to talk and not to scream". I felt that all these years that the political situation in Greece (and in every "Greece" around the world) was like that no one was ever there to talk about it. Everybody was keeping mouth shut and maybe contributing in an own way in the same mess.

I am not saying that we should not scream now. I am saying that we should talk on time. As we also say in Greece, what you gonna eat is what you cook.

Nevertheless, let this be a big lesson for all of us, and the rest of the world, because after Greece, another country wil be waiting in this international economical jungle.

Bridge 2 | Grams of Love

Although English come out of my tongue difficultly anymore, I keep it in English…

Some days before I eavesdropped the "discussion" bellow:

Mrs A: Hello Mrs B! How are you?

Mrs B: … (no sound back)

Mrs A: Did you hear me? I asked how you are.

Mrs B: I said well.

Mrs A: Sorry, I didn't hear that.

Mrs B: That is not my problem!

The discussion moved on to almost a fight having the elder Mrs A saying to the younger girl that in this life she is not alone and she has to get along with the people.

I was shocked. Many thoughts crossed my mind. I said that girl is crazy, I though that maybe they were fighting before or that I didn’t hear well.

Finally I came up with the idea that the younger girl should have been reaching this level of reaction after a long time alone. What was that missing?

Everything. Most probably she could have been a person that is not receiving love so remains unable to give some back.

I am definite that all of us need some short of love. Some grams of this feeling. Aren't we? It was said that we live and we die alone. According to me this doesn’t mean that we are alone. This means that we are alone on these specific moments of our lives, not for ever.

The girl B proved out to be a psychologist! This new made think about another concept. What if there was a specific quantity of love that we all needed to receive and give in order to reach the ability of being balanced people? Imagine if we were going to our love doctors and they were telling us. This month you have received unbearably few grams of love or you haven't given the level of the love you should have, it is the time to go out and hug a bunch of people.

Unfortunately life is not always simple as mathematics. So there is only one way, let's try to spread our love to every direction possible. I am not sure we will succeed like that, but it could be a cool attempt.

Selfborder 2 | Real to Me

Listening to Brian Mcfadden song "Real to Me", I found the 3:43 minutes to ask myself what is real to me?

That's a tough question right?


Probably, our values, the ones we have and not believe or would like to, is what is real to me. So our "Ego" is the most real to us. When we act while thinking about ourselves.

At this point, I feel like giving my personal meaning about "Ego". We tend to say that this person, for example, is a very egoistic person, right? What does it mean? That this person cares only about themself. If we try to face it on the other side of the coin we can say that a person that is the least egoistic is doing things caring only for the others, right?

My question is: "Isn't someone doing everything for the others in order to see the same thing happening to them, too? Aren't we egoistically giving the penny for charity thinking that if we will be in the same place we will expect to get it back? Aren't we deep inside clap or approve a not so good attempt in order to receive the same for our attempt?"

If the answer is yes, what is real to me?



Wake up you might be dreaming,
wake up you might be dreaming now...

4th Border | Goodbye

I have read a few things in my life but never read or even heard what is the best way to say Goodbye. We are conquering the space and we do not have the appropriate words to say how fucking desperate we feel, how idiot and dull, how destroyed, heart-broken, emotionless, stuck, terrified that we will not possibly see again the same people, kiss the same lips, relax on the same shoulder, cry because we are inspired or motivated by them, feel the touch on the shoulders, taste the same hug in the difficult moment.

It is strange.

If I had the ability to ban a phrase that would be the: "Keep in touch!". NO! I don’t want to keep in touch, I to have you with me, next to me always there but what I have to endure to have you just in me.

I asked myself and my people around me. Is it better to cry for the ones you lose or celebrate for the times you spent with them? For sure the second, but what if I want to cry and celebrate. What if I want to have all the feelings in the same bottle? What if I want shampoo, conditioner, softer and cream in the same bottle?

There are moments that I make the thought I should not connect with people so that I would not feel bad to leave them back. I am loosing myself.

If someone has ever feel strong enough to shape the world I would ask them what about the people we love and they live far from us? What about them? The moment you have to run in order your tears not to be seen bumping burning out of your eyes, you always feel like the weakest existence on earth.

And what if we are? I mean when I feel I can change the world I don’t have proven results that I can do it, when I feel like I cannot bridge the distance path I have all the proofs there.

Bridge 1 - Homes

At the moment I learn how to reach home without getting lost on the way, I find myself without a home.

Is it destiny or maybe habit?

The importance lies maybe on what a home is. What is a home?

Is it the place where your friends are? The place where the ones you love are? The place with "your" stuff? Is it the place where you can hide? Is it the place that gives you the safety to accumulate all the adventures you had out of it? Is home the reflection space you take in a conference?

Ancient Greeks had one whole God responsible for the home "affairs". She was Estia. She was highly connected to fire. So was maybe for the ancient Greeks the warmth the main characteristics defining the home? I guess I don’t  know. What I know is maybe that home is a short of imaginary or created concept. If life is a game for example, as many people say, where is the home part? If life was monopoly, would jail be the home, or would it be the parking lot?

It seems on the other hand, that even home is a created  concept, many beings around us have the need of it. We are even putting our Gods in homes. We are amazing.

On the other side, home maybe is an idea that we give the meaning on it. That would be nicer. It would also make it easier to have more homes than one!

Nevertheless, I am on the process of rebuilding my home, and I hope that it will be the more creating, refreshing and self stimulating home ever.

With all the love somebody can have for the homes of the past.

Intro to Bridges

My profilers (test showing characteristics of someone's self) say that I am a around 99% of positive feelings person. Nevertheless, I just noticed that the name of my blog is hiding a negativity.

Instead of choosing aLifeFullOfBridges uncosiously I chose for name aLifeWithoutBorders.

That's the reason why I now decided with exception to my topics around Borders and Selfborders, to have topics on Bridges...

Enjoy

3rd Border | Age

Over the past 2-3 months I am playing a online game which, no matter if someone can believe me, has given to me the chance to make one step bridging the gap called "Age".

I decided to write about Age tonight because a person that I highly admire told me that she should have a certain approach to her parents because of their age.

When I read this words on my skype chat, I saw what my favourite writer (not because he was the best writer ever, but because he was writing as if being the best human ever) was meaning while talking about the fact that modern society is categorising the people according to age, by making bigger the generation gap while locking the kids away from the stories of the grandma, closer to the computer, by making age oriented types of entertainment, education and living.

The attitudde of the age is coming not because of the age itself but because the rest of the people treat us as if we belong to a certain category and we let them influence us. How many times do we say these clothes are for people younger than you? How many times do we hear: "Your age demands you being more serious" ?

I tried for a second to think how would our world be different if the Barrier "Age" would not be functioning for a while... How many people would sing louder on the street, sleep at a boring lecture, cry when they want to do, lough loud without caring if they are in a church or a library, how many people would be happier and how many would be more sad?

What about when we treat our family as a group of people of a specific age? What when we share with them what we would share with any other friendly (or not) figure of the same age? I would invite all of us (myself first), to stop putting firstly ourselves in any age format and also try to embrace a little bit more the people of other age groups.

Going back to the game I play, I got there the chance to play in a team of virtual players from the age of 10 till the age of Santa Claus (: and I really find it interesting. Very interesting indeed. Many times I am checking these people faces on Facebook and I am thinking that out of this virtual society 99% we would never had the chance to change a word, isn't that unfair?

The online game is ikariam.gr (available also in many other languages)
My aliance is FAIR
My favourite authur is Leo Buscalia for his book Loving Learning Living

Selfborder 1: "Giving to the people the importance they need"

Today I was having one chat around Talent Management and said to the people I was talking to that every single member has to be treated as the next President of the whole organisation. This is the only way to ensure that we will have an impact. Think of the values that you want the next President to have and make sure that you will give these values and these characteristics to your people.

Saying these words, not more than 10 minutes after, somewhere between the broken shower I was having I thought about something even more fascinating. It is great if we treat the very single person as the next President, but what does this mean? This mean that we all hide the ability to become the role models of the next President (we reach even higher).

This idea reached to a even greater sequence of thoughts. It means that when we inspire, motivate and grow (or sometimes NOT) - so we cultivate the next President(s). Which means that we all had the chance to affect the source (theoretically or practically) of the decision making process. Something which means that when in an organisation in order to reach the top you have to pass from all the minor levels that creates a more "democratic" process.

Connecting dots I reached to real life... (This is the place where I felt more ashamed of for the world we are building). I thought that most of our politicians are never passing from all the levels of a "let's say" social structure but most of the times wake up on the top of the hill. Politics, nevertheless, are not my kind of field to keep thinking for a long time (how bad? maybe I need to write another border for that) so I said - since I am trying very hard to be characterized as a solution oriented person (very nice subject also) I asked myself; "Easy to blame politicians, but what am I doing -me, myself and I- about this? Am I treating all the people around me as if they were the next Presidents?

The first answer that came to my mind very openly, widely, honestly and completely unbiased was "NO". I felt sad about this, I looked at my mobile phone and directly changed the photo on the "desktop" with the big TM (Talent Management) on my back and but one with background a bus. I felt really a tiny small humankind something engaged or better trapped in a small paper box afraid to look at my world around me. How do I want to be called Talent Manager when I am not seeing all the people around me as the next Presidents? Impact is not finishing after 17.30.

The only thing I could say to myself is to promise that I will try to become better, that it is not time to feel guilty but time to take the step forward, and not plan, but to then next step as if I was originally to be the one to do it.

In order to put aside the scary thoughts that were storming over my head (you are not a TM! You are not a good people developer either! You do not respect the world around you! You don’t know what is an opportunity no matter how much you talk about them etc), I decided to execute the plan I was planning in order to watch the next generation lap top I dream to buy.

Just before 12 steps before the stairs of the metro reaching at Duomo I saw this big Diesel advertisement (that I comment on another post) saying "Be stupid!" with huge letters. I smiled nicely since I had all these positive ideas about this campaign (please read the relevant post to understand what I mean  - find the link here) I smiled. But then I thought, but what if I am really stupid? What if all these people around me are totally, definitely without any exit stupid till death? I focused to all my thoughts of the day like a tape going back, and reached at the moment where I said: "You have to treat all the people around you like they are the next Presidents" and I said I am stupid! I understood that something was missing, and that was me!

"What if I am the next President? What if all of us was the next President and we knew it? How would our lives be? Would we eat the same food? Going to the same school? Wearing the same clothes? Making the same friends? Would we fell in love with the same people? Would we getting drunk the same times? Would we smile more to the people? Would we be happier? Would we manage to be the president we are dreaming of having?"

This black storm over my head started making my curly hair wet again. This was the first smart idea! It is not just the others! We are all the next potential presidents, or at least this is the way to see ourselves. It is not the time to underestimate the President, it is time to be the best.

2nd Border | "Don't Be stupid" one

Don't know how many of you have seen the new promo campaign of Diesel  (if you live in Milan even if you are blind I am sure you can find it somewhere written in Brayle - since you see it in the metro, on busses, at the street, on public screans, in your dreams etc.).

The main concept is that it suggest you to follow your heart, feelings, passion etc. It does though by provoking your feelings.

As Diesel says:

"Diesel Stupid Philosophy

Like balloons, we are filled with hopes and dreams. But. Over time a single sentence creeps into our lives. Don’t be stupid. It’s the crusher of possibility. It’s the worlds greatest deflator. The world is full of smart people. Doing all kind of smart things… Thats smart.

Well, we’re with stupid. Stupid is the relentless pursuit of a regret free life. Smart may have the brains…
but stupid has the balls. The smart might recognize things for how they are. The stupid see things for how they could be. Smart critiques. Stupid creates. The fact is if we didnt have stupid thoughts wed have no interesting thoughts at all. Smart may have the plans… but stupid has the stories.

Smart may have the authority but stupid has one hell of a hangover. Its not smart to take risks… Its stupid.
To be stupid is to be brave. The stupid isnt afraid to fail. The stupid know there are worse things than failure… like not even trying.

Smart had one good idea, and that idea was stupid. You can’t outsmart stupid. So don’t even try. Remember only stupid can be truly brilliant.

So, BE STUPID"

I found these words so stupid and relevant to our societies like never before (so much that I decided to promote it for free). It is somehow related also to my previous post. We create in our lives all these "SMART" actions and all the "STUPID" ones, so much that we minimise not our passion and will but our limits for creativity and so life.

Coming one step back, when I first saw this campaign I remembered my parents. When I was younger - even now, they have been telling (or sometimes yelling at) me; "Don't be stupid, don't do what we did, be smart! Do what he did and you will get this, you will get the other, you will not need to put so much effort in this way, care about yourself bla bla...". Things that they are also not finding proper, but life sometimes (if not most of them) turns the easy way into proper.

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For those interested in the campaign of Diesel click here.