Listen, do and change the worlds.

"Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply."
- Stephen Covey -

Listening is a learning skill, and can be therapeutic if you will do it without interfering. Just listen intently, for the sake of listening. Do not say anything, even if you want to. Listen until the end, then think for few seconds. Ask if you need more details. This will show to the other person that you respect her/his point of view. Do this at last once per week, listen to someone just for the sake of it. Try to notice what happen and what that person will say after this experience. In learning how to know yourself better, you will learn how to change other's life.


"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is a bit late, but we are still at the beginning of this wonderful year. We matured into 2017, we went through our New Year's resolutions and most likely we left them somewhere behind. Or we are still doing them, even if not with so much power as in the beginning. Because, if you do not know, there is a power in the new beginnings, there is a relentless energy that can help us to do the things easier that just by sheer force of will. But, in order to do this, we need to master another art, we need to learn how to create and maintain beneficial habits. Anyway, this is a story for another time.


"If you want to touch the past, touch a rock. If you want to touch the present, touch a flower. If you want to touch the future, touch a life."
- Author Unknown -

How can i change the world, she asked me. One person at the time, I answered. It was true back then, it is still true now. We are not alone, solitary existences, even if so many try to convince us. We are all but drops in the humanity ocean. We need to loose ourselves into it, even if we live as individuals. We need to aim to help as often as we breathe. To actively look for it. Nothing less.

Quote of the day

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
(Edmund Burke)

According to the research of Phil Zimbardo (Stanford Prison experiment ring a bell?), 5% of the people act as evil doers, 5% of the people transform in heroes, and the remaining 90% are just passive bystanders. They are the ones that can change the world, if we can tip the balance towards a heroic attitude. And the difference is done by one thing only, action. We can all be sympathetic, we can all feel empathy when someone is in pain, or is not treated right, but empathy plus action equals compassion. And sustaining compassion actions with every occasion, even if you got something to loose, this is heroism. Let's change the world together.

Want to know how?
You can begin here, on this website. Learn. Act. Surpass your yesterday Self.

Kind regards
G.

Last day at work - new beginnings

Today was my last day of work, in a place that make me grow, despite the dificulties. In the end, no place is perfect in the real world. And as a parting gift i give a red rose to every woman and a fancy pen to every man that worked with me in the past months. Why, would you ask? Because i can. I couldn't help myself to notice their reactions, and just this bit, the way in which you accept an unexpected gift, make me know more about them than i could learn in the whole amount of time of working together. I had so much fun. Fat or skinny, young or old, didn't matter to me, every one of them get their gift, and their reactions varied from: "why?" or "must cost you a fortune to do this" to hug without being able to say a word ( in fact she said after a while that nobody ever did something like that there ). I told them that it was a privilege to work with them and after that i just left. Nobody knew that it was my last day at work there until i told them. But at least something very amusing happen. Being the time to end the shift, everyone was going home smiling, full of hope, holding a rose as a personal trophy and we got even random people on the street noticing that and smiling back.
Who was thinking that one person can generate such a shift in a very solid pattern of daily thoughts through an apparently insemnificative act ?

P.S. This is not only a selfless act, but also a variation of the Stop technique developed by Gurdjieff at the beginning of the 20th century.