We are here to enjoy that we are here

by Sandra Ghitescu

Sunt mandra de prietenii mei. 23/11/2009

Filed under: Uncategorized — Sandra Ghitescu @ 3:45 pm

Some things are global, some are local. To each its own language :)

Am primit un mail care incepea asa:

Sunt mândru că sunt român…dar nu in Romania
de Cristian Tudor POPESCU

Cedez astăzi spaţiul meu de comentariu acestui text, primit la redacţie

Subject: Nu sunt mândru că sunt român! (vă rog citiţi)
From: bogdan dima

Bună seara, domnule Popescu.

Vă deranjez cu un foarte scurt gând aşternut pe hartie (mă rog, pe tastatura laptop-ului), referitor nu la articolul despre partidul ticăloşit, ci la aberaţia imensă (a câta oară?) a preşedintelui Băsescu, şi anume aceea că tinerii care nu se declară mândri a fi români sunt trădători. Deşi sunt departe de ţară (si asta pentru că aşa am ales eu!), ţin să îi transmit lui Traian Băsescu că sunt mândru că sunt român, dar MI-E SCÂRBĂ DE ROMÂNIA!

Si continua cu aceleasi argumente si observatii de analist lucid care in lipsa de altceva mai bun de facut, se da cu parerea despre starea de fapt.

Si mie mi-e scarba. Si eu sunt revoltata. Sunt revoltata sa primesc inca o mizerie “urlata” de un frustrat si citata de alt frustrat. Amandoi foarte destepti si fini observatori, desigur.


M-am saturat sa circule numai veninul celor care stau si asteapta sa le pice o solutie din cer. M-am saturat ca toate discutiile despre Romania sa se termine cu “n-avem ce face, politica-i de vina”.

EXISTA OAMENI CARE ACTIONEAZA. Gratis. Oameni care investesc timp si efort sa SCHIMBE CEVA. Pentru ca s-au saturat.

Optimism2009 – proiectul cuiva care s-a saturat de atata pesimism si s-a apucat sa FACA CEVA, o conferinta, deja la a 3a editie.
Pui de compuneri – proiectul cuiva care s-a saturat sa injure sistemul de invatamant si s-a apucat sa FACA CEVA, ajuta peste 20.000 de copii pe luna sa-si dezvolte imaginatia.
Yazee.ro – proiectul cuiva care s-a saturat sa se planga ca nu sprijina nimeni artistii romani si s-a apucat sa FACA CEVA – o baza de date a artistilor si evenimentelor culturale din Romania.
Ginger Group – proiectul cuiva care s-a saturat sa vada cum artisti buni nu sunt bagati in seama in timp ce se promoveaza toate mizeriile si s-a apucat sa FACA CEVA
Decat o Revista – proiectul unor jurnalisti care s-au saturat sa injure mediul de publishing si s-au apucat sa FACA CEVA – o revista adevarata
Hydra Society – proiectul unor oameni care s-au saturat sa mearga la conferinte si sa vada aceiasi 5 speakeri incompetenti si s-au apucat sa FACA CEVA – conferinte altfel si lecturi publice in cluburi.
Circulinar – proiectul unor oameni care s-au saturat de shaorma si cartofi prajiti si s-au apucat sa FACA CEVA – stand-up cooking, mancare sanatoasa si creativa.

Si inca multi MULTI altii. Aici am mentionat doar cativa dintre prietenii si cunoscutii mei, de care sunt foarte mandra. Lista poate continua la nesfarsit.

Puneti mana pe internet si descoperiti oameni care FAC LUCRURI BUNE. Promovati-i pe ei, trimiteti povestile MISTO prietenilor cand va plictisiti la job si vreti sa mai dati un forward.

Na: Daca trimiteti mailul asta la 5 prieteni, o sa-i puneti pe ganduri.
Daca trimiteti la 10 prieteni, o sa starniti o discutie.
Daca trimiteti la 20 de prieteni, o sa-i dati cuiva o idee.
Daca trimiteti la 50 de prieteni veti ajuta revolutia culturala care se intampla momentan doar pe internet.

Hate something – Change something. Altfel iti creste tensiunea si colesterolul degeaba.

PS: si folositi Bcc cand dati mailul mai departe, ca poate nu toata lumea vrea sa-i circule adresa personala de mail prin toata Romania.

 

creative2business 23/11/2009

Some things are global, some are local. To each its own language :)

Miercuri 25 noiembrie are loc o nouă întâlnire Romanian Managers. Entuziasmată de ultima întâlnire la care am participat, mi-am unit forțele cu Rucsandra Pop și ne-am întâlnit cu Conectorii Ciprian Trandafirescu și Vlad Nedelcu pentru a explora oportunități comune pentru “triburile” noastre.

creative2businessAșa s-a născut creative2business, o inițiativă care propune întâlnirea dintre creativi și oameni de business pentru a produce bani și schimbare socială împreună. Pentru că noi știm să creștem idei bune, iar ei știu să crească afaceri de succes.

Pentru întâlnirea de miercuri, am dezvoltat un atelier interactiv de networking. Va fi o experiență dinamică și fun în care participanții vor descoperi și dezvolta legături neașteptate. Pornind de la această experiență, vom povesti mai multe despre ce este creative2business, cui se adresează și ce putem face împreună.

 

Brain fitness: Theatrical Improvisation 17/11/2009

I attended an improvisation funshop with Ioana de Hillerin at Life After Work and it rocked my brain.

I’ve been addicted to “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” – awesome improv show – for a while now.

Watching these guys making up a whole show from the top of their heads is quite entertaining. I was sure there are techniques and principles they follow, since we’ve established that creativity is a skill, not a talent. So when I met Ioana at the first Life After Work gathering, I knew I had to check out her funshop.

We started with a couple of warm-up exercises. One of them made me realize how badly I’ve been mistreating my memory lately. The key to remembering stuff is presence and connections. Chances to remember new things are slim if I’m not fully present in the here&now of the moment and if I don’t try to connect the new information with one of my existing ‘databases’. Note to self taken.

The improvisation exercises were hilarious. Kids, do try this at home: talking in questions only. It’s amazing how our minds are primed to give answers each time we are asked a question. Trying to answer with another question felt like trying to move an elephant with my bare hands. I tried it at home with my partner and discovered that I talk less when I use questions rather than answers or statements. It made me think about all the noise I put out in the environment, all the irrelevant things I say during a conversation, and of course, all the outside noise I submit myself to each day. Questions rock, they’re such a pleasant way to discover the world and the people around you. So less saying and telling, more asking.

A couple of rules for good improvisation

  • Tell a story.
  • Never negate what someone else has said, build on what you get.
  • Bring yourself on stage, with your experiences, your thoughts, your emotions, your beliefs.
  • Make challenging propositions, don’t waste people’s time.

 

I’m not going to divulge all of Ioana’s tricks :) If you wish to challenge your paradigms, open up to fresh perspectives, keep your brain fit with something completely different, I strongly encourage you to take improvisation classes. It’s also a great public speaking practice and definitely a funny and energizing personal development tool.

For me, improv is the new charades. Learning its rules is as fun and exciting as it was to learn how to juggle. I have a secret plan to be as contagious about it as I was about juggling. So trust me on this one too and get improvising! :)

Photo source and more info about improvisation shows here.

 

Creative Meditation Experiment 10/11/2009

Filed under: Professional — Sandra Ghitescu @ 4:05 pm
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CreativityCreative Meditation is a technique I discovered recently. It combines traditional meditation techniques and guidance with lateral thinking guidelines, resulting in a fun way to boost your creativity, to turn any of your problems into challenges and coming up with multiple possible solutions.

Because of the classical western education, our brains are formatted to have a dominant left hemisphere (the rational mind) and a somewhat atrophied right hemisphere (the home of creativity). In order to enhance creativity, one needs to pump up the right side of the brain and learn how to make both hemispheres work together, in tune. Lateral thinking techniques and brain fitness exercises are one way to do it. Meditation is another way. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. By combining them, I think I’m onto a way to speed up the process and get better results more quickly. Finding that Creative Meditation is practiced in other parts of the world gives me confidence that my personal discovery is not so personal after all, but one of those ideas that just hangs out there, waiting to be discovered.

I’ll be conducting my first Creative Meditation experiment Thursday, November 19th starting with 19h00. The location will be announced in the week of the experiment to those who have shown interest to participate. If you wish to try it out, please comment on this post and don’t forget to fill out the email address field of the form. I will work with a maximum of 10 people, so move quickly if you’re interested :)

What you’ll get out of this experiment:

  • a new way to use your brain, with a dominant, creative right hemisphere, supported by the rational left brain
  • a way to connect to the world of great ideas
  • a source of energy and joy
  • you’ll discover aspects of your inner world that can help you overcome obstacles creatively
  • you will learn how to escape the constraints of physical reality and tap into the endless resources of the field of possibilities
  • several solutions to a practical challenge you’re facing right now

Photo source.

 

reCreează-te – funshop de creativitate @ Life After Work 04/11/2009

Filed under: Professional — Sandra Ghitescu @ 3:09 pm
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Some things are global, some are local. To each its own language :)

Life After WorkUna dintre cele mai simpatice întâlniri din 2009 a fost cu echipa Life After Work. Sunt o gașcă de oameni sătui să vadă lumea ofilindu-se în fața televizorului în fiecare seară. Sunt de asemenea în filmul “hate something, change something” așa că s-au pus pe treabă și au creat acest “after school pentru oameni mari” propunând activități simpatice și amuzante, de la fotografie, dezbateri, bijuuri hand-made, improvizație, expresivitate prin dans și… creativitate și juggling.

Eu încep de luni 9 noiembrie, cu un funshop (WORKshop FUN = FUNshop) de creativitate pe care abia aștept să-l țin.

Vă aștept cu mic și mare, să ne amintim împreună că a fi creativ este o abilitate cu care ne-am născut cu toții. Dacă nu mă credeți pe cuvânt, abia aștept să vă demonstrez live!

Later edit: Review la primul modul reCreează-te, de Funky Psychologist.

 

Simler – It’s too good to be light 27/10/2009

Filed under: Professional — Sandra Ghitescu @ 9:58 pm
Tags: , , ,

Simler MonkeysRyan’s welcome message on Simler said “careful, it’s addictive”. It’s not addictive. It’s time consuming in the beginning because it makes you think before you hit the post button. You eventually discover that if it’s really a thought worth sharing, it can wait until after you finish your work.

In its “hot cousin days”, Facebook tricked me into shouting stuff out there, hoping that like minded people will hear it and shout back. It sort of worked. One year and 780 friends later, I discovered that aside from my actual friends (you know, those people you hang out with when you’re not at the computer), I can name maybe 5 more like minded people. I’m grateful to have found these guys in my community, Facebook was perfect for this.

After a couple of days of trying out Simler, I discovered a new way of reading people, which feels just like listening before joining in on a conversation. I’ve spotted at least 10 like minded people in less than a week. Why am I so sure we’re like minded? Because when you share humor, you share everything. Duh :)

 

Optimism2009 Reloaded 26/10/2009

Filed under: Professional — Sandra Ghitescu @ 3:24 pm
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This Friday I’ll be attending the Optimism 2009 Conference. It’s a great gathering, initiated by Evensys, aiming to encourage positive attitudes, projects and actions.

The first edition was one of the richest events I’ve seen in Bucharest over the past few years, inspiring speakers who prepared inspiring presentations. The “User Generated Optimism” session was also a great plus in my opinion. I’d like to see more event organizers offer some time to enthusiastic supporters of the event theme, you never know where you can find your next big idea or keynote speaker. I’m sure the second edition will be even better, since the focus will switch from defining optimism to inspiring and developing positive projects.

There are still some invites available, so hurry up if you want to join the positive wave! Also, I’ll probably have an interactive intervention with Dan Dumitrescu, so there’s another reason for you to get optimistic with us :) It’s gonna be fun, we promise!

 

Simler – the next big thing 23/10/2009

Filed under: Miscellaneous, Personal — Sandra Ghitescu @ 10:26 am
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Disclaimer: This post is about Simler and why I think it’s the smartest social network I’ve seen so far. It starts with how I see the evolution of social networking. I’m no expert, so I might get the terms wrong or mess up the actual chronology. I just like to watch, and this is what I think about what I’ve seen over the past few years.

First there were bloggers. Then there were people with blogs making so much noise that it became difficult to find a good read. Now there are awful bloggers, mediocre bloggers complaining about how bad the awful ones are, bloggers who mind their own business and great must-read bloggers.

Then there was LinkedIn. That’s so serious and stiff that I don’t even want to talk about it.

Then there was HI5, now it’s for kids. And MySpace, for people who can’t write but want to share stuff. Now it’s for music. I’m sure there are some HI5 and MySpace enthusiasts who would crucify me for this statement, but nobody would care.

Then a lot of people figured out that social networking is the bomb and now, with stuff like Ning.com, I’m sure there’s a social network out there for people believing that each time a baby laughs, fairies are born. They probably organize virtual clapping sessions to revive the poor fairies killed by ignorant non-believers.

Then there was Twitter, for people tired of sharing crap on blogs and social networks. Thank you Twitter for teaching us how to be concise. Now it’s… well, it’s Twitter. Same hierarchy as for bloggers.

Then there was Facebook, Twitter’s way hotter cousin if you ask me. I can elaborate on this one, but not now. At the end of the day, you notice that the hot cousin is kind of bitchy and not that smart (alright with the quizzes and the gifts and the pets already!), so you take a deep breath and learn how to use TweetDeck,

simlerEnter Simler, a social network built to connect people with similar interests. With tags. Plus posting, and commenting, and sharing, and adding friends. But basically, it’s all about tags. It’s not about showing off and having the coolest profile. It’s about discussing stuff you are interested in. The conversation happens ONLY on the topics you’re interested in. No more noise. Peace at last. Seriously, try it. Of course it can be yet another way to waste your time at work, but Simler doesn’t kill people, ignorance kills people.

I would almost bet that the way we will use Simler is going to change the way our brains are wired, just as blogging, tweeting and facebooking have done over the past few years.

LATER EDIT: two more must-reads about Simler.

http://utahpulse.com/press_release/simlercom-officially-opens-general-public

http://carisamiklusak.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/simler-new-niche-social-networking-site/

 

Projections and the energetic economy of relationships 18/10/2009

evil-boss-mentalswitchcom-21Let’s say I have a boss who seems a very authoritarian fellow. He rarely smiles, he employs irony quite often, he tends to snap when things don’t go as planned and he’s ruthless in arguments. Each time I go to his office to ask him for something, he frowns and responds in two syllable words. He only seems to give praise or positive feedback when you are on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Working with him each day isn’t easy. In order to cope with the stress of such a different personality, I need to give meaning to the situation, to tell myself something which will help me “digest” what happens at work.

If I’m the overemotional, oversensitive, mothering type, I might come to the conclusion that this guy is just plain mean. Some days I will be extra affectionate hoping to warm him up, other days he’ll get the best of me and I will step into the victim/ martyr role, feeling utterly sorry for myself and hoping that one day he’ll change.

If I’m a superficial socialite, I might conclude that he’s just not getting any and leave it at that. Maybe I’ll day dream about giving him a piece of my mind or the day I’ll be a big shot manager myself and I’ll buy his company… or something.

If I’m a young professional aspiring to be a ruthless manager one day, I’ll probably think that managers need to be tough, he’s just playing the part. I will follow his every move and observe his every step and take careful notes on the secrets of success.

If I’m into psychology and I know a lot of smart stuff about the human psyche, I’m quite positive he’s acting like this because of his authoritarian father, an Oedipus complex, a dramatic transactional analysis scenario. I could argue in technical terms that he’s a heartless bastard – i.e. he has almost no emotional intelligence, he can’t be in touch with his feelings because of a traumatic childhood in which he decided to block all emotions, hence he has no ability whatsoever to empathize with anyone. Ergo, he’s technically heartless. I’ll try all my arsenal of assertive affirmation and other psycho-tools, maybe also attempt to psychoanalyze him over a coffee break.

If I’m a new age urban Buddhist, I’ll assume it’s just karma, or that his aggressive behavior is caused by all the responsibilities and worries of a man leading others. I’ll burn some incense and pray for him.

What this small platoon of projectors tends to forget is… the facts: the boss “rarely smiles, he employs irony quite often, he tends to snap when things don’t go as planned and he’s ruthless in arguments. Each time I go to his office to ask him for something, he frowns and responds in two syllable words. He only seems to give praise or positive feedback when you are on the verge of a nervous breakdown.”

How is it relevant why this guy acts like this? I used to tell myself that by understanding someone you have better chances to communicate with them. Which I think is still true. But trying to understand is one thing, thinking that you really know what’s inside their head is a whole other thing. Projections do help make sense, but they can lead to nonsense in a flash.

energie(1)Also, can you imagine the amount of time each and every one of them loses in the process of feeding their projections? You can picture (i.e. project about) the discussions they have with their colleagues and friends, the complaining, the planning, all the energy that goes into figuring this guy out and building strategies to handle him. I wonder how much work they get done… Ha! Maybe the poor boss has good reasons to be nasty after all :)

Bottom line: I no longer care why people around me act the way they do. The only thing that matters to me is the “energetic economy” of the relationship. If I get more energy than I spend, then the relationship is worth keeping. If I spend more energy than I get out of the relationship, I either try to reinvent the way I work with that person (for example communicating more by e-mail if the live encounters are too tiring) or I just let go.

Photo source 1.

Photo source 2.

 

Ideas: ownership vs. action 29/09/2009

Filed under: Professional — Sandra Ghitescu @ 2:49 pm
Tags: , , ,

Movie Yoga CoverWhen I saw The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I thought it was an amazing source of learning and I started thinking about how one could use movies to teach stuff. A couple of months later I heard about a trainer who used LOTR videos in his leadership program. Now, a couple of years later, I learn there’s a book called Movie Yoga, which shows you “how every movie can change your life”.

I remember fondly the times when I used to feel ownership over all ideas I had. I felt disappointed if I learned that someone else had already thought of the same thing and abandoned the idea I was in love with 5 minutes earlier. If I told people about my idea and someone else would actually do it, it felt like theft so I stopped sharing ideas for a while. If someone gave me an idea about things I was doing, I rarely used it because “it wasn’t mine”. Yep, I was quite an idea terrorist back then :) Probably because all ideas I had were fortunate accidents. Ever since I’ve learned how to “call” ideas and get them anytime I need them, things have changed.

Idea CloudNow I know that ideas have lives of their own. They seem to just hang out somewhere, come to certain people at certain times, looking for the right person – the one who would actually do something with them. My conclusion is that nobody really owns an idea. I only own the result of an idea I acted on, but not the idea itself. I share 80% of the ideas I have but don’t plan on doing, in the hope that they’ll trigger action for someone else. The other 20% are on my todo list. If one month later they don’t get done, they get shared.

I think any good idea’s raison d’être is to change the world/ life for the better. It really doesn’t matter who has them and who does them, as long as change for the good happens.

Photo source.