A few IT tips…

I have worked in the IT area for many years and I still flex my tech muscles from time to time. Even though I want to help people to have some tech detox, it hurts that many people really suffers with the present technology.

So, I would like to give you a few tips that may be helpful and I hope are easy to implement:

• Read manuals. Yes, read them… take your time to do it and do it. If your product does not come with a manual, look for it in a searcher like Google, for instance, Samsung Z4 Manual. Another way is to Read articles or watch videos that help you to handle the product; search How to and indicate what you want to do. And what you are going to use will be something permanent or it is key for your productivity, I strongly recommend a course.
• Chose passwords that are easy to remember, but that are difficult for others to guess. For instance, you can choose your pet’s birthday, but the date in a way that only you will be able to understand (12Nov2010 can be turned into BeforeThanksGiving). If you are a foreigner of a different language than the place you live or work, choose something in that language, and if you are visual, mix numbers and letters: M1x#s&L3tt3rs (Mix Numbers And Letters).
• NEVER save your bank or other sensitive information. Yes, every time I check my bank balance or want to do an operation, I type all over again… This is very important, since there is a big crisis in information technological security.
• If a website is not working, just wait a bit… If an app is not responding, just wait a bit. ¿Computer is too slow? Just wait a bit… Many problems get solved if you just wait a bit.
• DON’T CHANGE YOUR EQUIPMENT EVERY YEAR. Even though most people will tell you that if you learn to use a cell phone and you change it, it is very easy to adapt, that is simply not true. There is a learning curve and in many cases, it is increasing. I myself try to stick at least to the same brand of cell phones.

Hope these are useful and if you need more clarification, I may help you with that.

Problems and our inner dialogue: the need for reflection

How do you work? How do you improve your productivity? What is the way of dealing with children? Why to forgive others? 

There are many questions in people’s minds, creating lots of internal noise as we try to navigate the troubled waters of present society, making things even worse. Before, it was much simpler as you can see by these possible answers…

I work as I was told to.My productivity is fine, thank you very much, and I will stay at this company until my retirement no matter what.I speak, my children obey.Forgive others??? Are you mad? They should be killed. I just need my family.

Those were the simpler times and although many people would cringe when hearing some of this, it was like that in our civilization for millennia.

Now, in these very complex times, we may just sit down and cry over past times, or learn new ways…

I do my best in my work, learning as much as possible. I fail and I win, that is how it works. Sometimes it is boring, but I have to live. Will they fire me? I endeavor to improve my productivity. Or not… it all depends if I like my job or not, if my boss is nice to me or not, the money... If it is OK, I will make my best. My children… sometimes I hit the target and I am able to satisfy them. Other times… not so lucky. Wow, it hurt. It really hurt. What that person did… but I need them in my life. What would I do without friends or family? Maybe I can just ignore them and keep some distance. Forgiveness? That’s too divine for me.

That is a present possible inner dialogue.

Now, let’s put some silence in between… Let’s put some reflection between the question and that inner dialogue and see what happens.

Of course, first we need to understand reflection very well. It can be in the form of journaling, meditating or just talking with a good friend, but it means I take the situation as if it is my own reflection – I put aside too much judgement and I accept who I am, what the situation is, and I develop it internally, talking with myself and reaching to some conclusions; not final conclusions, but at least my hair is combed; that is, the situation is clearer in my mind.

By putting some silence, the inner dialogue could go like this, at least at the beginning:

How do you work?…SilenceLet me think deeply in relation to my work. If I don’t like it, why am I still doing it? No, I like it, it is just that there are times I don’t like it. What can I do to make those times more pleasant? To change my boss or even to change my job is not possible or at least it is not instantaneous. Maybe a better attitude is on my reach, so by changing the way I think, I am sure the results in my work will change too… How do you improve your productivity?…SilenceI understand productivity as gaining more by doing less. Often I just focus on one of the sides of that equation (doing less), but let me think it in a different way: What am I attaining by doing this work? There has to be something and this is why I am here. By understand it I can refocus my actions, thoughts and energy towards that. If I work thinking of my achievements, I am sure I can produce much more and much better… What is the way of dealing with children?…SilenceI like the saying that parents are the bows, but children are the arrows. I am just taking care of them and by doing that, I am creating a strong bond, but one day, they will be on the air. The difficulty lies in that they have issues and I am aware I am not really qualified to deal with them. What can I do? Well, I can be a good parent, I am a good human being and I can at least provide them with a space and time, so that they can solve those issues. I can be present… Why to forgive others?…SilenceIf someone does something bad to me, it hurts, and many people have hurt me. If I am honest, I have hurt many people too and I would love to be forgiven by most of them at least. I would love them to look at me with no hatred, with some understanding of my mistakes and situation and hopefully a few of them would even extend their arms and embrace me again. If it is so good for me, I just wonder how good will it be for them if my eyes don’t show any hatred, I am able understand them and look at them in a different way, I can even hold a few of them…

Try this and see the results yourself.

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.

Meditation changes your reality

In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Modi persuaded United Nations to declare June 21^st as the International Day of Yoga. Since then, important celebrations are held worldwide.

I practice yoga since I was 18, but… there is a but here. Almost all the times we talk about yoga, the image in people’s minds is of crossing legs or doing impossible poses. That is not my type of yoga.

Yoga is not only physical; its area is broad and wide. Its practice will depend on what you really want to do with your body, mind and spirit.

For the body, yoga gives a self-control that it is almost impossible to get from anywhere else. It is healthy, but it is not only healthy, it is a healing process. I know many people who practice a physical type of yoga and I tell you, it is wonderful, and even though I don’t, raja yoga also works for my body and I have experience healing many times.

For the mind, the best part of any yoga practice would be the meditation – would be as many people don’t meditate, they just jump into the exercise. That is the reason all great masters of yoga went to very isolated places for their practice, as meditation is revered as key to their success; the first stage of yoga is meditation – and that is what changes reality, as perceptions shift and the person experiences a renew in their lives.

For the soul, meditation reconnects you, after all so much is happening at present and although we are fully connected to the world, very often we find ourselves zero connected to the inner core: what do I really want? Ikigai, other philosophies and techniques try to make people stop and reflect, going back to their source, and so they act as a type of yoga.

When yoga helps you to connect with your own self, reality changes… well, reality will probably be the same, however as you are connected to the purest energy that exists within you, that energy pours through your life, changing your reaction to situations and helping you to focus on the good side of circumstances.

A yogi will look at reality with love, determination and courage, even though reality looks at them in a frightening way…

On this special day, and as much as you can during the year, spend some time in yoga and meditation…

Why it is relevant to discover who you are

Identity is all. Most people don’t know that because their identities seem to be quite defined, but as times change and reality offers different possibilities, maybe it is a good time to reflect on a simple question: Who am I?

An example: in Brazil, my birthplace, when people ask me my surname, or last name, I respond Gimenez; but in Colombia and Spanish-speaking countries, I had to adopt my other surname (from my mother), Bulk, due to the way Spanish-speakers write full names. It does not look like a big thing, but just think if the American ex-president John Kennedy was called John Fitzgerald in Colombia…

An identity is more than a number or an identification card; it represents you: your culture, your way of seeing things, your thoughts, emotions and your style. If you misunderstand your identity, you will feel as if you have lost precious time of your life.

In times of high use of internet and social network, I invite you to ask yourself the question: Who am I? In a reflective mood, wait for the answer that will come from within and let yourself be guided by this real identity.

Don’t let yourself be guided by the several different superficial identities that are currently defining people…

Do you believe in beliefs?

Many years ago, I was talking with a friend and at some point, he stated that I don’t believe in anything, instead I have knowledge… And my response was well, that is your belief…

That’s why you like something or someone, and you dislike other things and people; that’s why you are committed to some tasks and in relation to other tasks, you are fully lazy… Beliefs and beliefs.

Beliefs guide us every time and everywhere, you can’t simply avoid it or refuse its directions. Ok, maybe you can, by your will power, society or peer pressure, but it will be temporary and probably it will require a very powerful reason for that.

Probably the best thing to do in relation to beliefs is to understand them better. I have a video on the topic, but in general terms:

• Beliefs are not born by themselves; they come during our process of creating the personality and our value system.
• Normally beliefs are inculcated during infancy and childhood by a person’s family.
• However, families are not the only source. There are religions, spiritual groups, school system, community and society. Later in life, there is still some room to create more beliefs from the influence that comes from media, workplace or a group of friends.
• Most powerful than all is the belief that is created from a person’s own reflection. This self-generated belief is rare and since it is very precious.

You may notice two main flaws in this: first, most beliefs are created in a certain environment; second, they are created during a certain period of time. That means if we change environment or period of time, something that everyone does, the belief may not be right in a different circumstance. At least, it will be outdated.

If a belief is wrong or outdated, how to change it? The only efficient way is to create a new belief through a deep reflection. Besides, the person has to experience it in life and feel the attainments that come from it.

This new belief will be so powerful that will displace other similar views, allowing the individual to break their limits and experience achievements in other ways.

Changing others by changing yourself

Try to change someone and you will possibly fail. Possibly means 90% or more of probability of failure…

What to do then? If they are really doing something bad or worse, something that is hurting them or others, what to do about that?

There is a short tail, attributed to Gandhi in one of its versions. There was a mother whose child like sugar too much and that was causing damage to her health. She went to the Mahatma to ask help, as she knew her daughter liked and respected him. He just looked at the mother silently and then said: “Come back in one week.” Without understanding why the saint man would need a week to tell her daughter to stop eating candies and other things with sugar, she obeyed; next week, she was at the same spot along with her child. Gandhi welcomed both of them and after a while, he looked at the young girl, went into silence for a moment and said: “Child, sugar is not good to your health. From now on, stop eating things with sugar… Instead, eat lots of fruit.” Both, mother and child were very happy, they left the room and for the next months, the daughter’s health improved noticeably. It was then that the mother had a chance to meet the Mahatma, this time by herself, and she asked what was troubling her: “Mahatma ji, why have you taken one week to tell my child to stop eating sugar?” Gandhi smiled in a humorous way and told the woman: “Well, I had to stop eating sugar myself…”

Yes, the only way to change another person is what should be the simplest way: Change yourself. So, next time you see an error in someone, try at least for a week to not make any similar error and see the results of that effort.