So that what?

As anybody else, I also get sometimes very stuck in loops of dreaming and giving up. But in order to make things happen, one has to get over the "passive" loops and move into action. Which I fail to do most of the time :-) But every now and then I realize there are simple formulas out there that could help, such as the one I just read in Dutch recently. So, once you have an idea and you what to make it happen and asked yourself the question "So that what?" - e.g. I want to make XY happen in order to impact my community in ABC way - you can develop your project around the 7 (Dutch) Ds:
Dromen - Dream
Denken - Think
Durven - Dare
Doen - Do
Doorgaan - Keep on doing
Delen - Divide
Doorgeven - Pass on
This sounds like it can ensure the decentralised continuity and growth of truly beneficial projects. Such as the Global Oneness Project. More on this later :-)

Long time no write

... no time.
Time spent on things I wish I actually did not spend time on. Many new creative ideas. Nothing is materializing. And the world goes round! Then times come when you meet those who are dear to you and have a great time together, but do not really have the space to have longer conversations with clearer conclusions. Then you realize there are unfinished projects at work, then you realize that you aren't devoting enough time to your home, your food, your health, basically nothing around you gets the attention it deserves. Step on the break. No effect.
Sleep less. Works, but productivity goes down. Call your mum, catch up with friends, clarify old misunderstandings, plan you summer holiday, plant a tree, build your community...oops, forgot to stay in touch with friends again.
What is so wrong with us?
Oh, adopt a child on distance since you do not have the time to go there ant build a village for them and provide them with safe drinking water....oooh, the summer is here, time to go out with friends. I still haven't finished the book I started reading months ago, even though it's one of the greatest books I ever came across. I should not be updating my blog right now but
1) finishing a proposal
2) taking a shower
3) cleaning the apartment
4) trying to catch up with friends
5) reading about environmental finance
6) enjoying the first spring sun
7) figuring out what to cook for friends who are coming over for dinner tomorrow
8) sewing my boyfriend's socks (oh, how ashamed I am when he takes his shoes off ....)
9) my back hurts, I should go to the gym. skipped yoga class on Wednesday again....
What a circle of should do, need to do, want to do...and I should also listen to the podcasts of getting things done. But I am ...not always up to noise. Sounds. I just like silence. And lots of light. And I like to see the end of me task list. I guess for that I should fundamentally restructure my life and go to a farm and be energy independent, have a bunch of solar panels, lots of flowers, a figue tree and a couple of orange trees, have a distant view of the sea and big piano that I want to learn to play and get down to it.
Great dreams!
Daring ones. And I hope somewhat positive ones. I am willing to share them. Would you like to join?

Sustainability twisted

So the other day I paid a visit to my former employer. I was walking down the corridor, greeting acquaintances and new recruits. I have noticed that they were largely ladies in the office. After all, this is an NGO. At some point I had to realize that out of the 20 women I have seen, 3 were pregnant. Hm, I thought to myself, in this place they must have an excellent maternal leave policy. I could not help it but mention to the HR director. Right when I did so a girl who has just started working gave me a laugh. She said:"You wish, when I started I had to sign a paper stating that I am not planning to have a child in the next two years!" I looked at the HR director with dibelief, saying: "I had no idea that an NGO promoting sustainability in the world can offer such unfair labour conditions. This is unsustainable." She smiled back at me saying:"And do you think it is sustainable for me to keep chasing talented young people and once they start working here they just go on maternal leave? Well, I do not think my labour conditions would be sustainable if I had to constantly keep recruiting new people."
I have to admit, she had a point. It is interesting how sometimes the individual sustainability (fair labour conditions of the HR director) go against the sustainability of the bigger unit (general labout conditions at the organisation). Hm...I guess eventually more men may start working at this NGO.

Wants and Needs

The entire science of marketing is set up to satisfy our needs, but also our wants. To turn our wants into perceived needs. To come up with something that we were perfectly happy without and first turn in into a desire and ultimately make us believe that we cannot go on without it.
The financial crisis has numerous negative sides, no doubt about it. People losing their homes, jobs, their future...many people are faced with conditions that they may have not thought would ever be possible. When one has to give up their lifestyle, they have to revisit the deeper self and re-evaluate the values, the needs and desires. It is possible that many of us will realize that there are many things we got used to using, but ultimately, they were not our needs. Simply our desires. A Magnum Temptation cannot qualify as a need. Food and drinking water does. As long as not everybody on the planet has access to it, why are we constantly coming up with more "potentially desired" products and turning our back to those who pay the price of our lifestyle?
I have to admit, that Magnum Temptation does taste great... Could it turn into a perceived need? Is the financial crisis the right time to revisit our definitions of wants and needs?

What we say - What we feel - What we do

I am using this picture even though I probably should not, as it is not mine. I feel bad, but I still do it. I say (write) the truth, because I think by lying I could get into much more trouble. What I do, feel and say are totally not aligned. I hope the holy tantric man in the picture is better off in this case. Making music is a much more enriching experience than talking. Believes me, who cannot play any instrument.
So anyways, the point is that sometimes we do things with a good intention, but it does not come across that well. At other occasions, we have the best talk, but simply would not move to action. And then there are the times when we say what we feel and we do it and we feel great about it. I would have to examine my memory a bit to discover when was the last time that happened, since more recent and not so positive experiences are currently obscuring my view (memory) of my glorious moments in the past ;-)
Anyways, happy Valentine's day to everybody!!!
Today is however Friday the 13th and somehow I feel it ...

Love is the new money

What a ridiculous comment, no? I saw it in the newspaper this morning and thought, how pathetic. And then I thought of the value of love and the value of money. And their measurability (which caused a bit of a headache since money is much easier to measure than love).
So then I looked at it again: Love is the new money.
Money used to have a value (an agreed one). Love has an absolute value. Love is a safe bet. Real, authentic, caring, connected LOVE. It's like an alternative currency that will never lose its value. Love (when money looses out on its importance) is becoming the new money. The sentence in itself suggests a paradigm shift.
A radical change. It seems that impatient idelists, like myself, wait every day for the paradigm shift. And by the way, if you allocate money with love, there would be no global South. Neither global North. Hmmm...there you go, food for thought

Creativity and Innovation

Did you know that 2009 is the European Year of Creativity and Innovation? Well, now you know :-) The official ceremony marking the commencement of this year took place in Brussels where at Vienna Vegetable Orchestra gave a concert (http://www.gemueseorchester.org/). It is a worthwhile experience to listen to a small piece by them on youtube.
I like this initiative because it comes across as a fresh approach to celebrating nature. Not only does vegetable feed us, but it provides us with leisure, with beauty. I guess most musical instruments were inspired by vegetables. And fruits. And animals. All the natural things surrounding us. It's a "back to the roots 21st century edition". It's creative and innovative, yet not tech. It's elegant, it's simple, it's natural....I am just not sure the artists eat the vegetable after they paly music on it...even if they don't they have my vote!

Professions

It is interesting to see how over time some professions disappear (the traditional hand labor) and others take their place (mainly in the service industry). Imagine somebody having worked at the counter giving our refunds for returned bottles in the grocery store. Just think about working there for years, knowing your customers by name, being part of the "grocery store community". Then one day they bring in the machines that sort the bottles and print receipts that allow your for a discount at the cashier. The person who worked at the counter is not needed any more. A machine has replaced him. Every day new machines seem to be taking jobs over from humans. I have to admit the washing machine is nice, I do not mind not having to wash the clothes in a river by hand. Machines are supposed to make our lives easier. To allow us to do other things that we otherwise would not have time for. But to what extent to they make us feel useless and superfluous and in the end just make us spend more time staring at the TV/PC screen and indeed be passive and superfluous in some respect?

New Year's Resolution

So, another year is over. This was a pretty exciting one for me. My first real job, my professional and personal learning, living happily with my boyfriend, being surrounded by great people, traveling a bit, having no REAL concerns in life.... Except for the question marks around the future. But those we always have, right?
Actually, all I wanted was to enter 2009 without any due to-dos from 2008. I think it worked quite well. But in order to maintain continuity, of course there were many things overlapping from 2008 to 2009.
This year I would like to read more, do more cultural stuff, speak less and learn to give and receive more and better feedback. And figure out how to bring "connectedness" to life in everything I do. I may need some guidance on this front.
How about you?

Learning Dutch

This post serves 2 purposes:
1) I can finally show off that I started taking Dutch classes - all for free, as my Inburgerings Cursus (I am going to be "citizenned")
2) Share a thought I had on Saturday when I was all excited to do my homework. So, there was this exercise in which I had to put the verb in particular form. One of them said: Ik ben een sigaret aan het roken. (I am smoking a cigarette.) So I smiled to myself. And then I realized, that in most language books the exercises are always politically correct and straightforward. I thought making me write a sentence about me smoking and me not being a smoker is maybe a bit of a stretch. And then I thought, how authentic it is from the authors of the book to use this sentence. And also, why is it that most exercises are not like this. That they are politically correct? Why is it that we want to show a great and noble and "non-smoking" image of ourselves when creating a book for foreigners who want to learn our language? Once they learn it, they're going to find out anyway what we really stand for... Is is hypocrisy or are we trying to live up to the image we want others to have of us?
I hope to know more by the end of the second book...

Guerilla Art Kit

I got this cool present from some frineds of mine, it's called Guerilla Art Kit - it's about making your environment nicer, greener, better and help others feel good in the greyness of everydays. You can make personal presents for others, spend time thinking about them and creating something for them. Not as convenient as Xlas shopping last minute at the mall, but I hope it communicates a different message to those you care about. Just like sending Xmas cards :-)

Health Insurance Company

So, as you probably know, health insurance rules are different in each EU Member State. Insurance companies' immunity and persistance makes moving around Europe sometimes hell. In some countries you have a public insurance, elsewhere a compulsory privave one and in other countries a combination of the two. You have to subscribe to them at different ages in each country and better bear in mind your (un)employment status as well as length of stay in the given country.
Yesterday I picked up the phone, ready to call my local health insurance and ask them to issue a confirmation of my insurance that will allow me to terminate my contract with the public insurer in another country. I was at unease, not wanting to go throught the whole explanation and getting the response "Why do you people move around so much". After all, one of these years (was it 2006?) was the European Year of Mobility, and yes, there are plenty of low cost airlines, only bureaucracy makes life hell at any destination. I just want a piece of paper with a stamp and signature on it.
So with these not so pink thoughts in my mind, I picked up the phone and dialled a number I found on the insurance company's website (I was sure they would transfer me 20 times before anybody will listen to me).
The phone rang on the other end and somebody (!) picked up after 2 rings. This person was not only real, but also fluent in English. After a 10 second short talk I shared my request with the gentleman on the other end of the line. He listened and asked for my postal code and house number. After he identified me, he said I can expect the English version of the requested document in 2-3 working days at my home address. I thanked him, still in disbelief, and hung up.
What has just happened? A massive insurance company finally got the message through to its employees: Customer first? Or was this person new at his job and did not have the longing to leave, yet? Or was he just kidding me...
I cannot be sure as the document has not arrived, yet. But I am hopeful. And still, laughing at myself as all my negative energy and preparation for war was in vain. At least I hope so :-)

A beautiful Sunday

Since today was an unusually beautiful day in Amsterdam, we went to the Amsterdam forest to a goat farm. I know its terrible, but since I lived all my life in cities, I never really had the chance to feed baby goats - and they are so sweet http://www.geitenboerderij.nl/.
We also cheered for some marathon runners (today was the Amsterdam Marathon day) on the way home and I was thinking this day could not get any better.
Until I got home and turned on CNN where apart from talking about Joe the Plimber - who by the way scares me with his attitude - I heard Colin Powel just endorsed Barack Obama. Wow! It was not really about me supporting Obama, more about finally thinking outside the box and not doing as one is expected to! My respect to Colin!
And after all this excitement, there's still a good book, a chat with friends and a delicious dinner awaiting me. What more on Earth could one wish for?

The Economist Newsletter

The Economist has always proved to be a reliable source of information on the world out there. I have subscribed to the free weekly newsletter quite some time ago and for some strange reason have not read it for almost a year now. Until tonight. I thought it provides synthesized, relevant information. And indeed, it does. Only this time, in the "Economy" section it did not talk about mergers and new businesses but about central banks saving the severely limping privately owned banks throughout the world. Indeed, what happened to capitalism and market forces...
Strange times...you can bid for Iceland on eBay...and Joerg Haider died in a car accident. Rather turbulent...but surprising?

Depression

I am so happy these days! I would say happiness stands in the way of reflection and deep thinking, but it brings positive thoughts, smiles and good intention to the surface. So I am happy about being happy. Even the sun is shining today!
When you feel down, you question everything, you feel like floating in uncertainty, not seeing the way out. Once you're happy you ask why would you be looking for a way out...a way out from where? To where?
And ulitmately, I think feeling happy is sometimes a matter of choice to ALWAYS LOOK AT THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE :-)
Cheers!

Goosebumps

First of all, I have heard of the great software called Thinking Rock that can capture and structure your ideas - I might get one of those if my mind lets me down many more times!
So, goosebumps: I have realized yesterday what when my team mates were writing with a particular marker on paper, I got the goosebumps big time. But when it was my turn to write, the marker made the exact same sound, but I did not mind. Another proof of how we are more tolerant with ourselves. Or maybe it is the proof of something else, but I do not know so if you know a shrink who has a good explanation, get him to write a comment. Cheers!

The Coercive Power of Good

Most of us know of people who do not do only good things to the planet or the society. People who have a vision that disregards certain parts of the system. It even seems that most people are prevailingly destructive. But somehow the system still sticks together. Somehow we are still trying to be nice to each other, to think positive, to be positive. In my view, that means that good prevails all that is not good. And that nothing is lost, even if sometimes things look hopeless.
So I feel happy, don't you?

Brilliant Idea

Last night before going to sleep I had this brilliant idea! And then I fell asleep. Since then, I do not remember the brilliant idea. They say if something is really important, it comes back to your mind. Well, this idea is still out there. Maybe it was brilliant but not so important? It would be cool to have a camera to take pictures of ideas. Then you just click and and save it and dial back to it any time you feel like it. Now writing the idea down is sometimes more difficult, as it normally has a context which can be rather time consuming to capture in words. That is why my idea escaped and may never come back to me.
But I have also noticed, that some of my ideas of which I think are really innovative and creative have already been thought of by someone else and there is an entire website, library, etc. written about it. But to me the ideas seem so great - only until I discover that I am not the original author of them...

Focusing

I read the other day that "focus is leadership". So true. If you pay attention to something, especially if you notice small details and remember them, you rule! Once someone told me at an interview not to use "yeah" again. And I really listened to this comment and did not use it again. I did not get the job - apparently I was too good since I learnt after one reminder.
But this is a tiny example. If you remember people's concerns, hobbies, family members' names etc. and ask about them, they will consider you a caring, nice person and will listen to you. Dealing with people who believe you care seems like a rewarding activity.
Focusing on small bits of information also helps us navigate in this world, too. But one only true active listening, and not mere downloading enables one to focus in as well as see the broad picture, the context of a conversation.

On Infrastructure

So we have roads. Airlines. We are mobile. And we have mobile phones. These things are supposed to connect us. Just like Facebook and LinkedIn.
And we have personal goals and clear opinions. We know for ourselves what we want and we do not want others to "manipulate" or "brainwash" us, or to influence our individual decisoin-making process in any way. So we consciously gather only information WE want to have, not the whole picture. This is called downloading. Individualised, disconnected pieces of information.
Now once set set out on our journey on our infrastructure to not just arrive at a particular (geographical) point, but also learn to live the journey, to talk to people and to listen to what they have to say, maybe we'll learn listening. And we'll phase out donwloading.
There is so much knowledge in this world, all around us. We should just learn to listen to it and use the infrastucture to mutual enrichment and to increase the quality of our lives...we have added quite a few years to our life, now it's time to start adding life to our years, maybe.