Thank who?

So today is Thanksgiving. A good opportunity to think about the people who have contributed to who you are at this moment in your life and let them know you are grateful.

Here´s me:

I thank God for giving me life.
I thank my parents for showing me how to live it. My sister for being such a caring individual and a fighter.
My family and friends for the lessons I´ve learned from them and the good moments.
And the special people who, at this time in my life, are making it the best ever.
You for reading. Who would you thank?

P.S. Just a few thoughts while we consider this....
- Do THINGS rather than PEOPLE come to our mind while thinking about who we are and how do we understand happiness? (i.e. is it based on our possessions rather than our relationships?)
- How long have those people been around us? (i.e. do we build long-term relationships? What are they based on? Trust or submission? Respect or Non-aggression?)
- Do we give back what is given to us? How?

Happy Thanksgiving.

Keep going

Somebody told me this the other day and I think it´s great:

Winston Churchill once said ¨If you´re going through hell, keep going¨.
BRILLIANT.

So much for making a big deal out of bad moments. Keep going!
(I guess I could use this today, when hangover has taken control...)

:p

God´s copyright

Ok, so I came across this thought and I like it.
IT´S ALL GOD´S COPYRIGHT.

Please stop worrying about copyright ownership, patents, lawsuits, etc. It´s not important. Knowledge IS for sharing. It´s all about giving, not taking anymore. I love the way Hugh MacLeod puts it (another Hughnality. By the way, don´t forget to check out the apocalyptic views of the conspiracy theorists that commented on that post...sad). Thanks Hugh. That is one of the reasons why I am optimistic about the future. Technology, web 2.0, etc. are making it easier to give the best of ourselves to others. Copyright ownership? Making money in the process? It´s not important.

PS. I googled this ¨God´s copyright¨ point of view and didn´t find any entry. There must be something out there, right? Can you help me find it?

Oh, and yes...I see another t-shirt coming out of this. :-)


UPDATE: Another great way to say this loud and clear, by Doc Searls (via Matt Mullenweg).

Lessons learned

A co-worker and friend of mine once taught me, and often reminds me about, the importance of the ¨lessons learned meeting¨. She is a very disciplined and competent project manager (PMP certified) and always performs a lessons learned meeting when concluding a project.

Our team has adopted the strategy and, not only after completing a project but weekly, especially when something doesn´t turn out as expected, you can hear somebody in the team say ¨Ok, so what´s the lesson learned?¨.

I believe this is a powerful tool for everyday life. There is a lesson to be learned in EVERYTHING that happens. The most important lessons are the non-obvious ones. Allow yourself to take the time to ask the question and think about it. When you answer it, immediately ask the next one: ¨Does this bring me closer to where I want to be?
Again, it´s all about ALIGNMENT.

I see another t-shirt coming out of this one.

Purpose?

With this ¨start with chapter 2¨ approach on my first post (which I think is a great one, by the way), I haven´t introduced this blog yet.
Why do I blog? What do I blog about?
I think blogging is a great way to enter this ¨global conversation¨ the web is becoming. I write about life in general, and then try to make a contribution. How?

A few years ago I thought:
- Conversations are the best way to share thoughts, feelings, etc.
- We all deserve a good life, but often don´t know how to live it.
- T-shirts are a powerful way to start conversations.

Why not put together the three: life, t-shirts and the desire to live a gud laif? I established my mantra: be gud. live laif. Why written like this? I couldn´t decide wether English or Spanish, so I opted for writing it in English the way it would be read in Spanish (you get the idea...).

And so the idea was born. Every once in a while I make t-shirts with thoughts on them. Thoughts about life in general, generally those that I believe contribute to living a better life. That´s the reason the brand name is gud laif. Some are statements, some are questions that want to trigger additional thoughts. Then those t-shirts become conversations when worn by someone.

By writing these thoughts on a blog and inviting you to join to the conversation, I want to take this a step further. I want to start a small yet global conversation on life...and make t-shirts.

Welcome.

Two simple questions...

Ok, so I was thinking about these to simple questions I asked myself the other day...

- Everyday, I put a lot of effort into...what?
- What is important to me?

When I talk about Project Portfolio Management in Companies I normally mention that ¨it gives you the tools to answer the question: are we doing the right things...the right way?¨

In order to set your Company on its way to having an optimized portfolio of projects, there are two questions you have to answer very clearly:
- What am I doing? What is the set of projects I am investing my time and resources in?
- What are my business objectives?

What you are looking for in your answers is: ALIGNMENT. Simple? Would you bet half the companies out there can say that what they do everyday is ALIGNED with what they SHOULD be doing according to their business objectives?

What I am trying to say is this: how much time do we lose doing things that are NOT important to us? And more importantly....WHY? But that´s another story, worthy of another post.

So, think about it. Share your thoughts. What is important for you? What are you investing your time and skills in? Is what you are doing EVERYDAY aligned with what is important to you?

Do you see a gap? Do you plan to close it?


I see a t-shirt coming out of this...

Better beginnings

Interesting post from Kathy Sierra on how to start presentations, books, etc. It´s good to reconsider everything and break with the traditional formalisms that exhaust presentations and the public.

I´ve chosen this as my own ¨Start with chapter 2¨ strategy. Welcome.