It is about time we turn to magic

Not long ago, I was part of a team organizing a big event here in Bogota and a suggested topic was The Magic of living aware. I was surprised because at least one person was against particularly one word: magic.

Yes, there has been a long time negative publicity in relation to that word, which evokes in many people’s minds images of goats’ heads or black candles, but magic is something present everyday: you are feeling sad and just after someone smiles at you, all that sadness flies away; you are jobless and out of the blue, an opportunity comes; your marriage is in serious danger and all of a sudden your spouse is gentle and caring again.

There are more:

• If you don’t find this time of magic in your life, go to Humans of New York and you will be able to find it in someone’s life who has overcome the unbearable or who was a hero for a few hours.
• A Syrian refugee going to Europe, in his very long journey, arrives at a country that has not been very welcoming for immigrants. He was part of a small group of illegal immigrants and they were found by a policeman who, in his broken English, checked if they were immigrants. When they confirmed, he asked them to get on his car. After a short trip, they reached his home and – magic! – they were given a space to stay for a while, food and some comfort in their hard journey.

But a magic scene in life is not like a miracle, there is always a reason behind: the person who smiled at you is someone you love but maybe you forgot, and you have been searching for job for a long time when the call comes in; not to mention the fact you have been working on yourself and trying to be more understanding in relation to your partner and the policeman in the Syrian’s young man’s story was in the war and he knows its horrors…

But still, it is magical since you can’t demand someone to smile, that your job search has results, your partner changes their mind or the horror of the war left whether scars or open hearts.

So, I think it is time we trust more on the power we all have to turn the impossible into possible. I would like to invite you for the next weeks to merge yourself into that magic stored inside your mind…

For this week, please, remember some magic moments that happened with you and share with all of us…

This is a series of posts on MAGIC…

The eyes of a leader

In the year 86, I have met one of the greatest leaders I have ever known. Much before I heard of all theories and examples of female leadership, before I even thought about studying the topic of leadership, she was already performing it, and very successfully.

I then ask myself: what went wrong with leadership? News and social perception indicates a big lack of leadership in the world, and I guess Dadi’s method could be used to recover a bit of that.

Dadi Prakashmani was the leader of Brahma Kumaris, a spiritual university originally from India, to which I am part for almost 40 years. Her smile and energy used to motivate anyone just by seeing her and probably that is the first thing all leaders should take into account: smile…

But I would like to focus on her eyes, from which you would experience: you are the most important person in the world and I am your friend.

Her eyes used to see others’ specialties, even when they were wrong; of course she would notice others’ errors and correct them, but the feeling was that it was like a mother: I love you no matter what, but I must correct you because I want you to be the best.

Last things I could see in her eyes that could be helpful for any leader:

• There used to be a deep calmness that could calm us very deeply, more than anything we have experienced.
• At the same time, there was such a power; it was as if she was telling: you are going to win, don’t worry about that.

What do you see in your own eyes, leader?

From beyond sound, into sound

Are the levels of stress increasing?

Probably so, and I guess you have been feeling stressed for one reason or another; it is quite possible you have more than one reason to be stressed and you experience it many times in a single day. Or hour.

There are many ways to control it or even to heal the sensation, but there is a very simple, cheap and wonderful method linked to meditation: Silence.

Yes, silence… not the silence that comes because you cannot speak or the quietness that is there simply because you don’t have anybody around. Purposeful silence is a wonderful relief for stress, and if you give it a chance, can help you in healing.

A silence with a purpose comes because you are complete at the moment, as you have done all you could. Therefore, it means rest and recharging at the same time.

So, whenever you have to get into an activity that you know will stress you, just go deep into your own silence first. If it is a very difficult conversation or finishing a project you don’t have any idea how to do, just go into silence first.

Maybe you have gone through that very stressful situation, so it is time to go into silence and recover, replenish and empower yourself.

You may meditate or just walk in a park, the important thing is to be totally quiet and let your mind to process; by doing so, fantastic responses and experiences will come up…

Techniques that help with productivity: delegation and empowerment

One way to improve your own productivity is to distribute responsibilities and actions around, and this can be done using two techniques. They can be done in different moments or in a sequence, starting with the first one and moving to the second one, according to the time, process maturity or simply as an experiment.

The first one is DELEGATION. You know, when a parent sends their kid to the grocery store; the kid is not really responsible yet for the transaction and any mistake he commits it is the parent’s responsibility. Delegation is a very powerful educational tool and it helps to develop a sense of responsibility with the load, particularly the emotional one. But to delegate specially to an adult, it is important:

• To have it clear the responsibility is still yours and any error committed by the person is YOURS, so are you ready for that?
• To never blame the person for a mistake, even though you have explained about it 100 times… Sometimes it takes 101 times to make it perfect.
• You have to do a constant follow-up and check-up of the process; you cannot leave it like that. Meetings are an excellent method for it.
• To sustain the person not only as a professional, if that is the case, but also as an individual. Talk with them, listen to them and encourage them.

DELEGATION is often used in a boss-employee, parent-child or teacher-student situation, that is, when it is very clear the other person is not capable for any reason to take over a responsibility. But, what happens when they are expert?

EMPOWERMENT is a technique used to basically create new leaders or at least new bosses. It is when the child is big already and they take over the responsibility of doing the monthly shopping for the house. In this case, empowerment comes as a natural and organic successor for delegation.

But if we are talking about workplace situations or a group of friends, or even within the family but in a different context, empowerment shouldn’t be used lightly. I know many people from a newer generation feel they are expert in some aspects, but experience is not something you can get from a college or by reading something; it comes with time.

This technique implies that the responsibility will be transferred to that empowered person, and so the leader has to have a very good leadership capacity to understand when to empower and we will talk about empowerment later. In terms of productivity, either of them will help you by doing more things in a much better way.

I hope this helps you to be more productive! This was the last one on this series…

https://lookingformorethanjob.blogspot.com/2019/06/tips-of-productivity.html

To meditate is very productive

Many people nowadays talk about the benefits of meditation in terms of productivity and several companies are investing in creating spaces for this practice. But much before all of that, I was already meditating…

To meditate gives me three important things that I think closely are related to productivity:

• Concentration. I will be clear and confess that my concentration power if very poor… but meditation helps in terms of increasing it. When I meditate, I develop a powerful habit of thinking of one thing only, or very few ones, which is useful when I am working or any other situation that implies productivity.
• Detachment. It is not a Zen attitude, it is something fundamental to have a good work life and yet, keep the balance with the rest of your life. But, if you like philosophy, it is said in the Gita: All the time your hands are doing, your mind should be on God.
• Power. If you go beyond the relaxation that meditation provides and the sense of abstract, you will find that to meditate is an excellent recharger. The reason is that connects you with some more powerful source, giving you power just like when you think of someone you admire, you feel stronger.

Now, you may ask which type of meditation is the best. I do raja yoga, and I love it, but I am aware people are different and it is important you do the type of meditation with which you get more benefit.

I hope this helps you to be more productive! Check my post on productivity too.

https://lookingformorethanjob.blogspot.com/2019/06/tips-of-productivity.html

For a better productivity, you need to study

For me it is not only about being productive, it is about life… After all, if you are really productive, you will be able to live even better.

I am constantly paying attention to new articles and studies on productivity, prioritization and anything that helps me to have my job done in the most productive way and to live my life in a better way.

So study and research are integral part of improving productivity as better methods keep emerging and by going deeply into the subject, it is possible to conciliate the various areas of a person’s life.

If you can, get enrolled to a course, but if not, just browse videos, articles and books on the subject. Ah, very important: APPLY whatever you read that touches you. I am sure you don’t need any more theory in the shelf of your head, right?

I hope this helps you to be more productive! Check my post on productivity too.

https://lookingformorethanjob.blogspot.com/2019/06/tips-of-productivity.html

The art of prioritization

To prioritize is totally linked to the idea of making decisions. That means when I am prioritizing I am helping myself to make better decisions, but also when I prioritize tasks, I am training my own capacity to make decisions.

The first thing you need is CLEAR CRITERIA. Why would I do this task first? Why to postpone this task? How do I know which task should be before this one?

I have 3 criteria for prioritization and that is something I change from time to time – before, I had only 2. It helps me to canalize my energy in a better way and, I must say that this system has been for a while now and it came from a very old method: try and try and try… It is possible these criteria tune with you, but you have to create your own criteria, according to your life style, personality, time availability, etc.

My main criterion reflects what will generate impact in my life. I make a conscious effort to understand the tasks from a perspective of its impact: How will this affect my present professional option? What will be the effect of this on my health? In which way will this help me with the present change I am going through? By asking questions, you can understand which tasks should be performed before and which ones after.

As a balance, my second criterion is related to the easiness of the task. I have noticed in myself and others that as the easier the task, there will be more enthusiasm for it. How many hours will I spend doing this? How much of this task I can perform by myself? What is the level of weariness I will feel after finishing the task? Sometimes, I have to split the task into small subtasks, so this criterion is very important for me and it helps me to avoid distraction: the more difficult the task is, the more I try to avoid it.

My last criterion is new for me and I am still working with it. The idea behind it is that every task should contribute something important for me or for others, and I give more marks for those tasks that contribute to others. What is the reasoning behind it? As an IT guy (retired), I realized I give lots of attention to small details like ordering my folders, so this type of tasks has been put as a very low mark as it only contributes to my personal state of mind…

But my IT skills are very useful, so prioritization for me it very easy, but complex enough to create interest: I sum up all the criteria and order it in a spreadsheet by total, impact, contribution and easiness. Then, I start working on it, fulfilling every task.

I hope this helps you to be more productive! Check my post on productivity too.

https://lookingformorethanjob.blogspot.com/2019/06/tips-of-productivity.html