The world is in a bad state but everything will become worse unless each of us does his best” — Viktor Frankl A few years ago, I got more involved with my local communities. Work filled my life up to that point and I wanted to meet people where nobody cared what I did for a living. My volunteer journey evolved from volunteering to online tech communities to local initiatives....
Meters and meters away from home I find myself where there’s no time I opened the window for fresh air As I am in complete darkness That’s when Darkness itself entered the room An ancient caregiver of the land and time It just stands there, occupying its space Indistinguishable from its friend, the night When you seek darkness it's because you've trapped your light inside And there it lies, waiting for you to wake up Blind, looking for the outside morning light that never comes ...
More than one year ago, I decided that coffee (caffeine in general) wasn’t making me any good. I felt hostage to coffee: if I didn’t drink it every morning, I’d get a terrible headache, forcing me to drink it to avoid being in pain. It also made me feel more anxious during the day. Why was I doing this to myself? When I had to leave early and didn’t have time for drinking coffee, I would seek out for coffee right away....
One day, Roselyn got home and knew even before she opened the door that the cats were hungry. She had been late that day, and the cats have no problem in letting her know how impatiently they have been waiting for her. After feeding the cats and heating some leftovers to feed herself, she noticed there were two other cats in her home. Two shadows that looked exactly like cats, to be more precise....
Last year when visiting my local library (something that I love to do), an intriguing book cover caught my attention. It had a bright yellow cover with an interesting title: How to Be Perfect: The Correct Moral Answer to Every Question, from Michael Schur. I checked it out without any questioning. It explains the process Michael went through to produce one of my favorite TV shows: “The Good Place”. If you have ever watched shows produced by Michael Schur, you might antecipate that the book is funny....
The wind, with no excuses and surprises, takes over all the leaves from the trees. One day, I was walking somewhere and witnessed the wind taking the remaining leaves of a tree. All I could think of was: “wouldn’t be great if I could let things go just like that? A strong wind meets my past, removes all that doesn’t serve me anymore. For some time, I don’t carry anything, just nurture the roots of my core self to give space for a new season”....
The bar for offering customer service that doesn’t suck is extremely low these days. Nothing can be more frustrating than needing to speak with a person, only to have to waste time talking to a chatbot. Or, after getting past the chatbot, get frustrated with the lack of attention from the support team. In a world where AI (cough cough) is the answer for every problem, attentive customer service and human touch are what I desperately crave....
“I am having a hard time asking for help at my new job.” After a couple of hours of being stuck, I sent that message to my friend, Caroline. I shared how hard it was for me to be in a place surrounded by talented people. How I felt like I was not worthy of being there. I needed help but I didn’t want to show I needed help. After all, if I were good enough, I should have known how to solve the problem!...
When I decided to start Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT), I embarked on a quest: I wanted to find out why my brain was my enemy. I didn’t get it. If my brain’s goal was to keep me alive, why was I wanting to not be alive anymore? It didn’t make sense. I wanted to find out what was wrong with my brain. After years of therapy, meditation, and neuroscience research, I got to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with me....
Nothing kills confidence more than waiting to feel confident to do something. You will be waiting forever. Attention and Determination is what you need to achieve your goals – no matter how scary they are. Learning about the power of Attention and Determination made me fall in love with this series about achievement orientation from the First Person Plural podcast. It’s one of my favorite podcasts (after hexdevs, of course ;)....