Beyond the lack of job

After about two years plus, I feel I am again getting job, with companies employing me and my skills. Yes, during those years I have got small things, never starved, but it was never something big enough for me to change that computer or "go dental".

It was when I realised I was not getting enough to call that an income, that I have decided to start this blog - that is the reason for the name, as I understood at that point my focus was really not to get a job. It was - and is - much more than that.

This period, which I am still living, has been one of the most productive periods of my life. I am now positioning myself as a provider of knowledge and wisdom, more than just blogging or "twitting", "facebooking", etc. I have clarity about myself, what I want for my life and what I want to give the world.

It has been a time of deep reflection about what my real values are, what is really important for me and what is not. It has been a time where despair brushed my life, but I reacted meditating more, studying more and reflecting even more (and yes, guys, sending cv's and proposals were also part of that time...).

I won't miss this time when it is over, I must be honest, but probaly I will miss the energy it generated.

Now, wouldn't be wonderful if everyone who is now complaining they don't have a job do the same? Yesterday, watching an old tv series, one of the characters was saying that you should so something - if not for money, then help the community.

That time - the time when you lack a job, you are sick, you are alone - that time is so valuable for your own growth. As I said before in this blog, it is the time of sowing, and now I see that with hard work, it does not matter much what kind of hard work you are doing, crops come even before time.

Take care.

Spirituality in a non-spiritual place

In most places, being spiritual is not proffitable.

That means not only spiritual places shouldn't go for profit, it also means that if you are going for profit, then you should not be spiritual.

Well, for many years now, that has been changing. Probably from the time Covey got into the workplace, talking about "weird" things like values, things in the business area in most countries in the world are changing.

The main reason for that is the high levels of stress, corruption and challenges the world is facing right now. That is making leaders in general starting to allow that kind of speech in the "sacred place" where money used to be the only god.

I am lucky to live in a country where spirituality is integrated to day-to-day life. That goes from offices being inaugurated by priests to CSR statements where values are in the top priority. But, I know that beyond our borders that is happening too, and very fast.

Acts like the fact that the President of Brazil started to "clean the house" and took out corrupt ministers, or the Prime Minister of United Kingdom considering to include HAPPINESS as an indicator of economic success are showing that the world is changing towards a more spiritual direction.

Still, there is a question hardly anyone can answer immediately: what is spirituality?

I have a personal answer for that. For me, spirituality is the awareness of being more than matter. If you look around, all you see is matter - in fact, the eyes you use to look around are matter by themselves. So, to awake for the reality you are much more than anything you can see, that means you are coming to terms with your own spirituality.

Being practical, that means to value the intention more than the gift. It means also to relate to the core of others' personalities instead of its surface. By now, you probably see why it is so difficult for a company to embrace spirituality.

After all, companies ARE MATTER. But the fact is that only when you connect to spirituality via values, meditation, prayers or an awareness campaign you can overcome the present issues I have mentioned before.

Just to clarify, that means a spiritual person never gets stressed, cheat or does something against nature right? Well, spirituality makes people quite humble to say "YES, we still do wrong things."

Main difference is that spirituality gives you an answer to those wrong things, and the opportunity and power for you to put them right.

See you soon!

Types of intelligence

In the present state of the world, which kind of intelligence can bring real success?

To answer that, you can of course refer to Gardner's work with his brilliant research for many years on the topic of multiple intelligences. Or, if you don't want to go into the academic model that much, you can refer to Goleman's work - Goleman did not research as much as Gardner, but has picked the one intelligence he found the most importante: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE.

Decades later after Goleman's results being published in his best-seller Emotional Intelligence, the world got quite used to the term. People talk about that, there are courses and seminars to develop it and lots of money flow to consultants' pockets who take advantage of that particular need.

But, is it still the main intelligence required? In practical terms, E.I. should influence some key areas of organisations worldwide:

• Team work.
• Sales.
• Leadership for managers.
• And many others.

However, if we think practically, the reality is that consulting is still working with teams, sales are still hiring training, managers still look like they require LOTS of leadership and etc.

It is not that it did not work, but things change and time has passed by. Now, another kind of intelligence is needed.

I would dare to say that what people need more and more is Spiritual Intelligence. Just like one of the early definitions of Emotional Intelligence was the capacity of managing your own emotions and connect to others' emotions, we could say that Spiritual Intelligence is basically the capacity of managing your own spirituality and connect to others' spirituality.

Why is Spiritual Intelligence so important? Because the issues of modern life seems far deeper than emotions. If we think organisations are like icebergs, Goleman was succesful to point beneath the waterline, but now that is not enough, you have to reach its base.

We will talk about spirituality in the work environment later.

Take care yourself!

As a consultant and coach, I help organisations to embrace its people' spirituality.

When science fails

Nowadays you can have all you want, and talk to anyone you want. However, the big tendency nowadays is to live alone. Also, you have medicine in its state of art. And never before we had that many sicknesses.

Somehow, humans have tried to replace whatever they lack with science and its children, like technology. But it is not working. Yes, it gives you a temporary feeling that you are getting what you want, but then, after a while, you realise you still don't have it. And you cannot get anything only using science.

You can talk to people using science, but you cannot communicate with them only relying on science. You need to trust them too, you need patience, perseverance and a bunch of other values which will enable you to really forge a relationship.

You can use medicine - by the way, you should! - but you won't be healthier because of that. Real health starts from lifestyle, from the way you think and see the world, and your own relationship with your body and other people's bodies.

Science is good, and I use lots of it in my day-to-day life. But I am aware it can't replace reality. Reality is still outside this blog, this connection and this computer.

As an author, I like to provide new perspective.

A symbol of status

During a training I've went through in Barcelona, Spain, I was given a notebook. It did look like a very common one for me, nothing really special, until they started to use its brand as an example of status, or people wanting to take the course just because of it. Check about that in YouTube, where there are lots of examples of that specific brand.

I was surprised because not only I never heard about that (sorry for it!), but it really didn't look, well, a symbol of status for me. It is just a simple notebook, nothing really fancy or special.

I was reminded of old movies where they used to show tribes where to have status meant to have a bigger mouth, or a bigger piercing in your nose. Isn't it strange how we define status?

How much do you buy things just because they will give you status?

On the other hand, when you use something so much, and it is practical and useful, it is natural that becomes part of your life. Objects are there to help you to be a better man or woman, to help you to understand life in different ways.

When I realise fully the reason to use objects, then naturally I will become someone happier and greater. In fact, I will get a status nothing else could granted me.

As a coach, I help people to feel great!

The leadership mystique

One of the things thay attracts me a lot towards leadership is a sense of almost magic in that. True leaders can make people do things they would not believe they could and they transform our world in a way that only a magical person could do.

The drawback in that idea is that when leaders are not present, people really don't dare to do anything out of the ordinary. It is like living in a sunless world, cold and boring. Or worse: even the easiest crisis turned to be terrible in a world without leaders.

However, a few years back, when I was just starting to research on the topic for a brief time when I was a professor in a prestigious university near Bogota, I remember clearly one factor out of many that defined leaders: they create other leaders.

In fact, the real mystique in leadership is when leaders are able to create other leaders. In that way, even when a leader leaves, the sun is strill bright there.

The question is, why is it that even big leaders are unable to create other leaders? That is one aspect that all leaders should pay more attention. Leaders are not born as such, leaders are generate by an intricate powerful education process.

Until leaders are able to create other leaders we will have to endure a cold weather in the leadership landscape.

As a coach, I can help in developing a leadership which is sustainable in the long term. Do you want me to help? Just get in touch.

A chai in the morning

In many different countries, the term chai is already know as tea with (or "in") milk. However, there is no chai as in India.

Some days ago, drinking chai in the mountains of Northern India, I was thinking about its recipe. It is pretty simple: you boil milk, add tea herb, sugar as you like and spices (ginger is probably the most used). ¿Easy? Yes, but for some reason...

Well, nobody prepares a chai like Indians do!

It is just like the Southamerican arepa or the Brazilian farofa - you can have the recipe, but there is something deeper. Genes? Not sure, but there is something more than the recipe, definitely.

In the same way, every person, every community or country, has a chai recipe, something which is unique to them, which cannot be replicate by anybody else. It is the "special" speciality everyone has, something we have been preparing and cultivating inside our beings for years and years.

For me, human kind is like a vitral: not only it is beautiful as a whole, but each piece in itself is a wonder.

Your chai can be the way you speak, a skill, art, the fact you know how to cook pizza or smile, not matter what happes around you. Perhaps it is the way you deal with stress, your profession, love or being a mother. Your chai can be the fact you know stadistics by heart or you sing in the shower.

And that chai has a deep effect in everything that happens around you. It is the colour and shape of you, in the vitral of humanity.

Well, do you recognise your own chai?