Perspective can change everything

Check this short video. Isn't perspective amazing? Whatever you think it is, it is not, and however you think something is, it is not.

Check now this other video... This is also a perspective. When a TV show changes a shelter dining area into a five-star restaurant, it is an amazing experience for people who sometimes don't have amazing experiences every day.

Now, check your own life. Yes, make an experiment of changing your own perspective and I am sure your life will change.

What if I think as a person 20 years younger? Or 20 years older?
What if I think as a person of the other gender?
Let me make a case in favor of that person who creates so much trouble for me... Let me see what his reasons are.
What if I could not afford to have not even a computer? What would I be doing right at this moment?
If I were a millionaire, what would I do?
What if I was born in a different country and I was brought up in a different religion? How would I behave, eat, dress, etc.?

It is a powerful change game. Do it, a couple of times every year, and you will master your own change eventually.

Hey, you are on stage!

Many years ago, a famous Brazilian actress stumbled upon a rug during a play. Without losing her style, she looked at her uncle, performed by another famous actor, and said: Uncle, I have told you many times to be careful about this rug!

It was an improvised and brilliant moment. For us, who are also actors on this world stage as Shakespeare used to say, many times the rug is not where it was supposed to be. But, different than that actress, we often react badly to unexpected challenges.

This awareness can be helpful, that we are all actors and we are on stage, all the time. That will make us take every step with care, love, compassion and energy.

Whether we are with our family or in our workplace, we will be conscious that any thing we say will be recorded by their powerful minds and memories, and that will shape their relationship with us. Any error we do will be seen, heard and felt.

Hummm... Ok, that can take you to a very paranoid stage of mind. It requires some balance by using your private moments in a very worthwhile way. Even when you are just having fun, remind yourself that will help you to make better decisions or it will strengthen the bond within your family. A hero is always a hero, but relaxing, enjoying and being yourself is extremely important.

So, check your lines for today. These are some questions that can help you:

• How prepared am I to face this situation? Which kind of training, coaching or resources do I need for that?
• What will be my attitude when I meet a person? How do I want to express my feelings and needs to them?
• If anything happens outside my schedule, something I am not prepared for, how will I deal with it? If I realize I couldn't deal, what should I do, during and after the situation?
• How do I want to feel at the end of this day? How to reach to that point?

Ready for an Oscar award from life? It is waiting for you...

How to be a coach for yourself and others

After their victories, many athletes thank their coaches for their success. Why is that?

It is clear the athlete has won, not the coach. It is clear the talent, intelligence or capacity belonged to the athlete who won, not the coach. Why to thank him or her?

Everyone has potentials, but many times it is not properly developed. We got stuck into so many things that we just let our potential to be dormant whilst we are doing our own business. The coach's task is to help an individual to live that potential fully and to show that to the world.

For that, the coach would use many different techniques and skills. There will be an intense training and constant corrections, besides lots of celebrations every time that potential shows itself in a practical form. Without a coach, an athlete as good as they are, will be just another athlete, just another person.

Be your own coach and also help others using that attitude.

• You yourself must have some things clear, like the potential of someone, you or another person, and their dreams. As a coach, your success is your coachee's success.
• When there is a challenge, focus on the potential. The reality is there, you don't need to think of it or make others think of it. Just focus on the possibility of overcoming the challenge.
• Create a routine for training. Don't make excuses, don't accept excuses. Help in such a way the training happens naturally.
• When there is a drawback, talk. Dialogue helps things to be clear and the inner barriers to be removed.
• Never lose hope, never get disappointed. No matter what, potentials go back to their original state, that is, they go back to sleep. When things get bad, just go back to training and dialogue.
• A success has to be celebrated. Celebration helps to make the potential part of the individual, a feature or skill that will be easier to use when time comes.

Evolution depends on you

After studying about evolution in school, my first thought was: Why did we stop?

Yes, in terms of science and technology we are evolving. There is no doubt about human greatness when you see the first moons of Pluto or a vaccine for Ebola.

Yes, as a community we are more open to embrace differences. And it seems we run faster and are older than our ancestors.

However, when we see the killing on the name of religion or ethnicity, or we hear on how violence is increasing inside the otherwise safe home, we see a different reality.

In fact, we have lost so many values along the time. Take HONOR for instance and try to find it around. It is extinct, living in our memory of what our grandparents used to say, books and movies.

In fact, we have lost touch with our spiritual side so much and our own humanity. We are destroying our environment - not the governments or big companies, WE - and it seems there is no way to stop it.

My realization is that if we want to really evolve, stopping the killing, violence, recovering values and our natural environment, we have to work on our own evolution. I am not saying here we should drink medicines or change our arms into bionic ones; I am talking from inside.

Different than a natural evolution, human evolution happens on a total different level. It starts inside from a realization and normally from one person or a small group of people. Then it spreads around until it reaches the whole world. We have that already: when someone realized enslave another person is wrong or the other gender has similar rights. But we need more and we need it faster.

Otherwise one day, we will be the case of study, not some birds or tortoises.

Do you know where your heart is?

What really makes you get up every morning? Is it that job you hate? Or the boring school? Boring neighbors then?

As humans we need motivation all the time, so much that the most interesting thing can make you feel empty and thirsty for other experiences if you don't feel like doing it.

But it is not possible to have motivation coming from outside all the time. In fact, most of my life I felt as I was demotivated to do something by other people or situations. So, it is time to find motivation inside...

Yes, within there is something that help you to move on or keep you doing something that others feel is useless. Some people would call that your purpose in life, your mission. Other people will make reference as my guts or they will think it is their intuition. We can also call it your heart, because it is what makes you move around and feel alive.

By identifying where your heart is, that is, your inner motivation source, you will have many advantages in your life starting with enjoying every moment, no matter what is happening or what you are doing. After all, some things will give you pleasure, others attainment, some will give you a lesson and there will be situations when you will have all those at the same time.

How to do that?

• Past. Think about those things, situations or people that made you feel special, appreciated, very loved or honored. Now, reflect on your inner self; remember how did you feel or which thoughts were in your mind that time. It is quite possible they were similar even though situations were different, and if that is the case, you have found your heart!
• Present. If you wouldn't need money, what would be your job? That will give you a very important clue about your inner motivation. Try and use it in practice by being a volunteer and check your motivation behind. After being certain, just apply that in your day-to-day life.
• Future. How do you see yourself in the future? Visualize it. Check your relationships with others and your inner state (blissful? happy?). That shows you what you really want in life and it can act as a powerful motivation source too, working as a ruler against which you compare how you feel when you do what you are doing with your ideal inner mind state.

Remember one thing: when your motivation is inside you, you will enjoy everything that happens in life, no matter what it is. So it is worthwhile to find it out and to live by it.

Embracing roses and thorns

Many years ago, this song was a big hit. It talks about relationships and the reality of life, in contrast with our dreams and ideals.

As human beings we have the incredible ability of dreaming. It is proofed now that other species do the same, but up to this moment, I don't think any dog will follow their dreams... And that is exactly what we do.

It reaches a point when we are not even aware of reality, following images, voices, ideas, thoughts that don't even exist in real form, and it is something ALL OF US have done at some point when looking for a job, starting a new company, getting married or having children. We literally put reality aside and invest our time, energy and money on the intangible for the horror of mothers, fathers, future spouses and, of course, mother-in-laws.

Reality is made however of roses and thorns, good wonderful moments and horrible instants. It is made of inspiration and aspiration, expiration and transpiration. Cut the thorns and you will have a very tame rose, but it won't be natural.

Natural is the acceptance and appreciation. Natural is to prepare yourself for the reality as a whole. Look around you and you will see not only people who can live with their thorns, but for whom they are their personal reason for success. How many heroes do you know who didn't face at least a thorn? How many inspiring people you know who have only dealt with the roses of life?

Just breathe deeply, open your eyes and follow your dreams, while embracing these wonderful thorns and storms and tragedies life has for you!

The power of love

A symbol in the 60's, spiritual, religious and humanitarian people still believe in the intangible power of love. Well, even Harry Potter, finally was able to believe in it (sort of...).

But, what does that mean? How much money does this power can produce? How many friends can you conquer or customers can be satisfied?

Believe me, love can make all the difference and it affects your life much more than you think about. For a better understanding, I propose several dimensions for this concept, each one clarifying love and its power in a different way. By knowing this, you can take advantage of this huge power.

The first dimension I identify is the individual one as love is what helps in building very strong bridges between people. In this way, you can see its use in a team or a negotiation. Love can be also the healing factor whenever a relationship goes wrong.

But for that dimension to work, you have to comprehend a second dimension, which is the expression of love. I have a friend, Dr. Roger Cole, who wrote a book on the Mission of Love, by the way, an excellent book!! He commented to me at some point when we travelled together in Ecuador where I was helping as a translator, that love really can't be find in this world. What you can find is mercy or compassion, and other qualities, virtues or values that are in themselves expressions of love. So, when a co-worker is having problems and you try to genuinely help or you get into a negotiation process with a win-win mind set, you are using the power of your own love...

A third dimension, very important to understand, is in relation to the attributes of love. Let's be honest, love became a very cheap word and many times is misunderstood with sex or lust. Love as a power works as a trigger for growth, solidarity and relationship, which I've put as total different dimension due to its importance. Yes, it is love that enables nature to live again after a very hard winter. It is also love that makes you extend a hand to a strange and help them. So, whenever your love enables others to grow or enables you to help others that means love is power.

As I try to show here, love is not something too abstract or a little hippie... The power of love is real and it is inside you. Just use it in your life and see its wonderful results.