Common-nication

Corporate Piglitics

Puck Forporate politics. Sacrificing a larger good for a smaller (temporary one) is love incomplete. True love is not solicited.

be gud. live laif.

Love for money

Hugh Macleod is an inspiring individual. Not that I want to become a cartoonist or imitate him (he´s too good for that) but now I don´t just write my ideas and put them on t-shirts. I also draw them (the whole visual thinking concept is very ¨me¨ too).

So...here´s my statement about love for money...love incomplete.

Remember...enjoy life.

What is missing

Months ago I drew my vision of incompleteness. Listening to Jack Johnson this morning, decided to share it. Laif is gud.

PS.
Looking for a place to link the word ¨incompleteness¨ to, I came across this. Turns out a scientist by the name of Kurt Gödel said this in 1931:

If an axiomatic system can be proven to be consistent and complete from within itself, then it is inconsistent.

I´ll take it to everyday life, with the excuse of Mr. Gödel:
You do, say, feel etc. with your own set of beliefs. In order to prove it consistent and complete you need to use a more consistent set of beliefs than that of yours. In order for that set of beliefs to be convincing, its consistency must have been proven without using yours.
ERGO, since love is been proven consistent by itself, why not place it as our core value?

Time here to mention the great way in which Collective Soul expresses it in their song ¨Listen¨.

Oprah Winfrey nails it as well: "I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear."

In your opinion, what is missing in the world to make ourselves complete (i.e. achieve our full potential)?

Rather ¨deep¨ morning. ;-)

Laif is gud. Cheers,

Thought of the Day - The life you love

I´m thinking today: loving the life you don´t have is a big source of unhappiness.

I guess this is another way of saying ¨Love the life you live, live the life you love.¨ But I wonder: why do we, humans, so many times end up confused and unhappy with our reality? I think we have been told too many lies. Lies about being a perfect human being (Hitler), lies about being someone you´re not or go to hell (oppressive ways of understanding Religion), lies about the sources of poverty (21st century Socialism in the form of utopian projects of politicians like Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero...to name a few).

Our full potential resides not in living a utopian life but in getting the most out of our current reality.

Yeah, pretty obvious. But time and again we get stuck.

What are the sources of unhappiness in your life?

Full Potential

Having written a bit about achieving full potential and being convinced as I am that getting there is paramount for living a gud laif, it was very refreshing this morning to see a post by Chris Nel on Tom Peters´blog.

Words of wisdom. Hell yeah, let´s get over 20th century management and start redefining business relationships. Base them not on control, but on TRUST. Distrust is one of those lame self-fulfilling prophecies (I thank my boss for teaching me how to identify one).

For all it´s worth, let´s base our lives on trust as a means to achieve our full potential and that of the people around us. Genuine trust. The kind that allows me to genuinely know you and by which I believe in who you are and what you say. When I have questions, doubts, I openly talk about them with you, because I believe in you and trust you...and because it´s the best thing for both of us, not just me.

Yes, it´s that simple...and it still gives you the butterflies, huh?

El Morro

A fortress teaches us to have a strong foundation.
This is ¨San Felipe del Morro¨, built in San Juan, Puerto Rico by the Spaniards half a millenium ago. I took the picture last Saturday on a boat ride with two of my cousins. Its a different angle than what you´ll normally see in postcards or tourist guides.

When you look at it, the fortress tells you about the many hurricanes, the gunshots, the fires it´s been through. And still, there it is, in the same place, still magnificent. Seems like everything it went through made it even stronger. Why? Because it has a strong foundation.

What do you hold on to when times are tough?

I agree

Michele is one of my mentors and she´s kindly lent me a book called ¨Leadership is an art¨ by Max De Pree, former CEO of Herman Miller.

I am eating up the book, and there is one word I can use to describe what I think about his view on leadership: agreement. I´ve tried to express it in the photo above (that´s the book with the shadow of my face projected on it...trying to give the blog an artistic touch ;-)

The book starts talking about achieving your full potential, to me the cornerstone of a good life. Then he goes on to statements like these, which should be ¨graffittied¨ in some managers´ office walls:
¨To make a commitment, any employee should be able to answer ¨yes¨ to the following question: Is this a place where they will let me do my best?¨
¨Would you rather work as a part of an outstanding group or be a part of a group of outstanding individuals?¨

He asks this, because trust is a result of understanding the different gifts people bring to the table. And trust, like full potential, is built and achieved by people, not structures.

So...what structure in your life is preventing you from achieving your full potential? Is it external...or internal?

Words...

If you were to define your day in words, what would you say?

Here´s my Today:

vision, values, alignment, future, dreams, paradigm shift, renaissance, innovation, screw the hierarchy, change, new, flexibility, Ali, sinchronicity, systems thinking.

What was your Today?

Thought of the Day - Connect

1. Connect. If you don´t do this often and wish you did check your peace of mind level.
2. Before attempting to connect, listen.
3. Corolary for life: If you want to share your life with someone, make sure your families are alike. And that he/she thinks this is important too.
4. Corolary for business: If you are going to partner with someone, make sure the ways in which you plan to change the world are ALIGNED.

2007

Feliz Año Nuevo. Happy New Year.

My only resolution is to continue to make sure everything I do brings two things to my life. I´ve come to accept that worrying about the future is trying to outsmart God. So, the best way to live life is based on PEACE (of mind) and FLOW. Good things have come my way since I adopted this mindset and, better yet, many more will come (there´s purpose, alignment, etc).

I wish you the happiness that comes to your life when these two words are the basis of your actions. Happy 2007 and God bless.

Thought of the Day - Flow

Achieving your full potential is being able to FLOW in what you do.

Drumming analogy to life and business:

You start playing...you FEEL the rhythm, you´re totally comfortable with that beat...your mind stops telling arms and legs where to hit...they do it naturally...your muscles begin to relax...there´s no effort involved...suddenly you are smiling...FLOWING. You´ve achieved not your best drumming yet, but you are at your full potential of realization.
The same in life and at work. Flow. When you are there, you know. When you are not, you regret.

Here...my favorite drummer.


Got flow?

PS. Driving back home from work listening to Incubus works good as idea generator. Even more so after a co-worker you respect says good things to you.

Change the World

How do YOU plan to change the World?

Seriously...

How do YOU plan to change the World?

I think it starts with ¨how do I plan to change my world?¨, but even before that, just like a friend of mine said the other day:
¨Discovering YOUR truth shall make you FREE.¨

Again, it starts from within. ACCEPTANCE.

And speaking of positive impact....out of curiosity:

How does YOUR COMPANY change the world? Don´t give me the mission statement. What is your Company´s truth?

UPDATE: Or...what is YOUR lie? Asked gapingvoid style. I´m going to make a t-shirt that says:
¨Hugh MacLeod says it better¨ and send it to Hugh. He´ll probably think it´s lame and give it away...or wear it.

Nativity

He IS born. Everyday is Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone. Peace and Love, from within.

Muse...

...come back. I miss you.

;-)

Command-and-control Management & Oppressive Religion

Command-and-control management and oppressive religion. Two ways of generating fear and distrust. The two recipes for mediocrity.

There´s a common approach in both of them:

Oppresive Religion: Ok, there is a God that is watching your every move and this is WHAT you must and must not do in life, and the terrible things that will happen if you don´t obey.

Rather, tell me ¨you are already saved, the God I talk about wants you to be happy, and this is HOW he suggests you live...by the way, He loves you infinitely and, really, it is in his best interest that you enjoy this life to the fullest. It´s ok if you screw up every once in a while, you´re only human, just don´t do it on purpose.¨

WHAT: kill, steal, fornicate, hate,...
versus
HOW: Attentive, naturally, passionately, thankfully, curiously, openly...



Command-and-control Management: Ok, I am your boss/supervisor, I am responsible for your acts in this company. Here´s the Decalogue of things you must and must not do during the time you are in this building.
Rather, tell your employee HOW to better develop his or her talents at work, and how by achieving their annual goals, they will contribute to the success of the Company.

WHAT: code, corporate style, position, title,...
versus
HOW: pride, passion, creativity, desire to achieve.

Adopting the first approach shows lack of trust in the human being. If you don´t trust the people in your Company, why would you have them there in the first place?

Who do YOU inspire?

Who do you inspire?

This is a thought I have put on the t-shirts I make. Interestingly enough Kathy Sierra recently blogged about inspiration . And she gave a loooot of good places to read about it (thanks Kathy!).

Let´s not only look for inspiration but also ask ourselves that. We look for inspiration in numerous places, people, events... It would be nice to at least make the effort to spread that inspiration unto others.

So…who do YOU inspire?

gUd LaiF Manifesto

I have been thinking about this for a while. Hopefully it will continue to evolve.

I decided to post it when Hugh Mac Leod asked for Manifestos to change the world in 500 words or less. There is a lot of inspiring stuff you can read here.

So here it goes:

I declare that, in order to change the world, there are a few things we can start with. Around love, lack of fear and peace of mind.

Please, as you read it ask yourself ¨What if everyone, starting with myself, put this into practice?¨ And ask yourself again ¨Is there any reason why we cannot do this?¨:

1. LOVE is the only currency to exchange for our actions. You do something and you are paying with love. Something is done unto you, and it is done with love. Nothing wrong with this. More efficient than money.

2. Fear of failure is Evolution´s bottleneck. Fear represents LACK OF TRUST. In what? In life, yourself and what you can achieve with the two.

3. Kill your EGO. When you do things without the need to feed your own ego, something strange and beautiful happens. We all know it, we´ve all done it. It´s just that we forget it very often.

4. It´s all God´s copyright. Ideas are born in us for the benefit of mankind. Adopt a ¨wikipedia state of mind¨. Knowledge is for sharing.

5. World peace begins in your mind. From a school fight to the forgotten wars in this world. Everything begins with somebody not having peace of mind. Why? How can it be solved? Refer to point #1.

6. Declare yourself UNCOOL by materiali$tic standards. Yes, it´s always about the material aspects. Enough of being cool on the outside. This would save us a lot ¨relationship inefficiencies¨.

7. Who do YOU inspire? Inspiration feeds our desire to change things. We look for inspiration everywhere. When we find it, who do we pass it on to?

This can be summed up in the following: be gud . live laif.


What are your answers to the 2 questions above?

Patience

Patience is Wisdom´s secret weapon.

You have a goal and a strategy to get there.

Then obstacles come in your way and the path becomes elaaaaaaastic (the finish line seems further away) and the desire to quit or postpone says ¨Hello, can I help you?¨

What do you do? Persevere with patience.


Focus + ¨everything happens for a reason¨ mindset + patience = you name it

What would you name it?

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.