New Year 3 – Self-empowerment...

You may not know, but the reason you fail to fulfill your purest and highest resolutions for this new year is that you lack power.

Power is what makes you overcome the different barriers that life usually places on us. It is therefore important that you generate a routine of self-empowerment. I share mine as an example:

• Every day I wake up to experience raja yoga meditation for almost an hour. Meditation may not be your thing, but there are several things you can do such as praying, reflecting or walking in the middle of nature, with a clear purpose.
• A short while later, I study daily; it is a spiritual class which objective is to give me elements to change my life and live it better. Instead of receiving news, usually bad, focus on receiving a knowledge that uplifts you.
• During the day, I meditate and reflect on the daily class or other similar sources of knowledge; it is important for me to maintain this state of consciousness. Looking for the continuous flow of knowledge that uplifts you is fundamental in your work, even doing breaks for your self-improvement.
• An important thing I found out and included in my routine is to serve others in some way. Volunteer service generates an enormous amount of power.
• Finally, I OBSERVE MYSELF DAILY; I see what I could change and find out what I couldn't. Self-observation, even if it is not followed up with decisions or changes, may transform reality.

Self-transformation: is that easy?

At so many places, people are talking about self-transformation as if it is the easiest thing anybody can do. Maybe not so much a complete self-transformation, more a constant advertisement of the possibility of change: Easy, very easy change.

I am in a self-transformation path and I should tell you it is that easy… and yet, so difficult!

The easiness comes from the fact real transformation is often going back to a natural state of life, and what is easier than being natural? A big part of a transformation process is to get rid of the unnatural parts of a personality and lifestyle.

The difficulty comes from getting rid of something so unnatural that has turned into natural due to its use.

For instance, a common aspect of self-transformation is a big change in the routine: getting up earlier, including exercises in the routine, starting to meditate, etc. In fact, all of these are natural, I assure you, but after a while of getting up late, not doing exercises and not meditating, all of these must be relearned.

Easy and difficult… that’s the challenge!

So, if you want to make a big change in your life…

1. Understand what you are going to change and how.
2. Develop the awareness of how natural is that state – a retreat, for instance, can help that realization.
3. Walk your path with that awareness and whenever things don’t go as planned or desired, just remember you are going back to a natural state.
4. Don’t struggle with your own inner resistance; instead, develop resilience by meditating, studying or other methods.

Good luck with your self-transformation!

Tips of productivity

To be productive gives you more than just an edge or a pay raise, it gives you a great possibility for improvement. It is important for me, not only because from a professional perspective, but also for my own development.

With this in mind, in this post, I will share with you some of the things I do to be more productive. They are generic attitudinal aspects and later I will make my best to go into practical details.

• Try and try and try… There is no right formula or right way to do things in less time getting maximum gaining, which is a definition of productivity. So you must try several times.
• Use your specialties. I am good with IT in general, so I use lots of spreadsheet, google calendar, etc. Check your specialties and work from them.
• Create categories in relation to what you have to do. I myself have EVENTS (once), PROJECTS (more than once) and TASKS (may be repeated).
• Organize your life in a natural way. If something is not natural, it will be hard to do it. A suggestion is that you check a very productive day looking for aspects in relation to what you have done, in which order and how. Then, just replicate that to other days.
• Establish a series of routines. People are scared of it, but for a productive person, a routine is something you can do without thinking much, enabling you to give energy to more important aspects of your life. How many people have amazing ideas while taking a shower?
• Manage negative disruptions. Although disruption in itself is negative, it is the terror of a productive person being interrupted by something and having to diverge their energy towards solving it. I use lots of slips of paper when I am interrupted; I note what I was doing at that point, so that I can continue later.
• Embrace positive disruptions. Yes, there are disruptions that are most welcome. Recently, I had the visit of my mum and sister, and it was great to stop the flow of my personal production and dedicate time to them… It reenergizes, revitalizes and it makes you see things in a different perspective.

Keep thinking…

By thinking we understand the world outside and we are able to take decisions based on our perception.

However, as our life develops, thoughts repeat and old experiences restrict our capacity of embracing the unknown. There may be a point when routine has taken over…

Routine is good, it works as a pipe that enables the water to reach the whole house; it channels our energy and makes life easier. Without a routine, a person would be like a hose connected to water, but with nobody holding on… lots of water, but no clear focus.

To prevent that, it is important to dare, to challenge assumptions and to experiment. It does not mean to refuse reality or go against things for the sake of it, just reshape reality.

The alarm goes off anytime we feel we are taking the same decisions as before without a proper reflection, anytime we feel routine seeping into our minds and our lives look less bright than the day before.

To help with that, let’s ask powerful questions that shake our beliefs, meditate or contemplate. Let’s allow the mind access to a new fresh source of possibilities every time.