By George Alexandrov on Saturday, August 19, 2006

She is watching one of the best documentaries. It is incredible and the truths that it revelas in facts are astonishing. She feels a growing ball of inspiration in her, which gains mass with each second of outrage she feels. She know she must do something about it. The movie ends and she rushes to the phone to talk with friends and perpetuate the message of the movie. At this moment her body and mind are willing to give everything they are capable of to crush the injustice she just learned about.

She wakes up the next day. It's Monday again. "Wow, what a great movie," she thinks! Her mind is still quite disturbed by it.

Work.

Another phone call with a friend about the movie. "If I only had the time, I would..."

More working days and weekends.

In a month she still remembers the movie and how great it was, but the electric moment of passion is no more than a dry distant echo.

What does it take for us to be consistent with our own passions?

By George Alexandrov on Friday, August 18, 2006

I hadn’t experienced timelessness for a very long time. The most time I remember being in this state was during childhood and my teenage years. And it happens less and less with time.

 

So what is timelessness? It is that state of contentment where you feel just balanced, just right with whatever you are doing at the moment and it feels as if time has stopped, as if you are outside of it. For me this happened yesterday. I had a very nice dinner with a wonderful friend of mine and then, I started walking home. I had a great time, it was a perfect Chicago night, and nothing mattered. I was walking through the streets of beautiful Lincoln Park and everything seemed perfect. I did not rush anywhere, I wasn’t feeling nervous that I had thins to do. I just was.

 

This was the state of freedom from all the everyday constrictions that we put on ourselves. It was the same state when we were little and playing with the other kids just immersing ourselves into the game and not caring about time, problems or the grownups. It was the same state when were teenagers doing some cool or crazy (I will not specify, but you pick examples from your experience) and we didn’t care.

 

Have we forgotten how to be children? Have learned too well the skill of stress that keeps us away from experiencing timelessness?

By George Alexandrov on Thursday, August 10, 2006

 

I have felt many times like the Headless Fly so I felt the urge to write about this as an effort to stop being it.

 

When we don’t have a plan we are like a headless fly. This is true both for small things like tasks for the day and big things like starting your own company, or organizing an event. Flies without heads fly back and forth until they hit the wall and react by flying to another direction until they hit another wall. To put it in human terms we can run around like crazy, which creates the delusion of being super busy. And at the end of the day we have done nothing, nada, zero, zilch! Have you felt like that at the end of the day? And yes, sometimes your head may hurt from that mindless reactive bouncing around.

 

The negative key word here is reactive. If we don’t have a plan (however small it is) we react to whatever comes as it becomes our plan for the minute or the hour. This is not productive and at best we will be surviving by doing management by crisis. We may still advance dealing with matters this way, but reactivity is slow paced and takes a lot more energy than being proactive. Proactive in this case is willingly writing your plan (for the day, the event, the company).

 

We must put the effort of putting a plan together first. Every single day. We can just sit down at the beginning of the day or the night before for 2 minutes (2 minutes and no more!) and scribble a few items on a postit. These must be items that we consider important and we must be physically capable of doing all of them day. Don’t plan more than you are capable of doing. Two minutes and the plan is done!

 

You don’t have to use postits; they just happen to be what works for me at this point. You can use your favorite trusted system, which can be outlook or something else. Just write it down and have it out of your mind. This will make you feel much less stressed as you won’t have to constantly remember this and that and a thousand other things. If the system you use is trusted you will notice your plan during the day and you will magically stop worrying that you may forget something. You will also loose the guilty feeling created by the bunch of things constantly screaming at once from your sub-consciousness “get us done!!!!” They will be tamed down on the postit.

 

Having a few things written down subconsciously makes them your priorities for the day. No matter how reactive your nature is, it is likely that you will better manage to resist not doing the other “urgent” things that pop up during the day. The only exception may be if an alligator attacks you at the office or in your living room. Then you will have to definitely make fighting it your immediate priority ;-).

 

Have the plan? Now let’s get these things done. If you put more things that you are capable of doing then you may not be able to finish them all. So, again, make sure you get only the ones you are physically able to do for that day. Then set your mind in the morning that you want to do these things. If you don’t want to do them, well, maybe they are not as important as you thought or you are very good at making excuses. Aren’t we all? Remember YOU put these items in your plan, which means that YOU want to do them for YOURSELF. That’s what’s called being your own boss.

 

This same mini system can work for the larger time span, such as if you are starting your own company. Sit down and do that plan and don’t rely on your brain to remember everything. Maybe you should use a system better than a postit unless you want to have your house interior in Pale Peach, which I heard was not fashionable this year. But it all boils down to putting the effort of planning and doing. We just have to write the plan and then do it – hour by hour or day by day. Let’s put that head on our shoulders.

 

I am starting to finally understand what my mom has been saying forever: “Foolish people try to remember everything; smart people write things down.”

 

Nothing else will save us form being the Headless Fly unless we are wizards, have enough money to hire a personal manager, or have the luck of bouncing off the wall at just the correct angle every time to keep us going forward. But even if we are that lucky, there is still the possibility that the next bounce will be off of Life’s fly swatter and not the wall.

 

(Just got my Technorati Profile)

By George Alexandrov on Tuesday, August 08, 2006

You never expect when and you can never guess what is going to make your day. It was totally cool when a couple of hours ago, just at the end of the day, I saw a friend of mine with whom I have not been keeping in touch very regularly due to his work schedule. I was sitting next to the window at the Caribou on Broadway when a familiar face passed by, stopped, stepped a few steps back looking at me from outside with a big smile on his face.

I will not disclose his name as I didn't get permission form him to write about this, so I picked the letter M to refer to him. It was wonderful to see him again after a month, and chat about this and that and catch up. The first thing he told me was to explain why he couldn't take his smile off his face at all. I learned that he had found the most awesome person he had ever met. He had never felt such connectedness and reciprocation with anyone before, and with time it was only getting better.

It is hardly sufficient to describe M as happy - he was blissful. His smile could be seen form miles away, and he was radiant with joy. He was dancing with Life. It is so wonderful to meet happy people, especially when you know them as you feel closer to their happyness. Oh my god, if everyone could be only a fraction as happy and content as he was, the world would be paradise.

It doesn't happen so often when someone else's hapiness or success can make one's day. But this evening, M's happiness totally made my day!

I will be happy to hear you comments on what has made your day recently.

By George Alexandrov on Thursday, August 03, 2006

Thought and Action are the two inseparable essentials of one's development.

The following refers to me as much as it refers to anyone in the world, including you!

I have been thinking recently about many ideas, both business and social, etc. Dreaming too. I lot of it. And what do I see in retrospect? Little has changed in my situation for the past 7 years. At 20 I had the same goals as I do now - having a stable business, being more or less financially independent... maybe by the time I reached 25. But I find myself at 27 in the mental position of 20 and not quite the future I dreamed of. Are you feeling like that, no matter what your goals are?

After doing some thinking and analyzing myself I came up to the simple conclusion that what it takes is not only thinking but action too. Duh!!! Everyone knows this. But it takes living and thinking for a few years to fully realize and obtain the full meaning of this simple truth. Its like knowing about it and knowing it.

Someone once said "People are defined by their actions." I would alter this that people are constantly redefined by their actions. If you only sit and think, and do nothing you may develop the greatest ideas in this world. But if you do nothing after that, it's like you never existed and may have spared your time doing something else but thinking.

Anyway, I have been doing a lot of thinking. And dreaming. And the image of me being successful does make me feel nice. Thinking and dreaming are essential as they help us formulate our goals and figure out exactly what we want from life. However that only brings us half way through. In order to complete what we want to achieve we have to get our hands dirty. Action. Do it. Instead, a lot of us tend to continue thinking and over-thinking. By actually doing things that bring us toward our goals we start making your thoughts real and material. We have been given the gift of transforming our material world by action guided by thought.

No one can get us where we want but us, so it is important to stop the self-delusion that our dreams one day will magically become real. I am so tired of hearing people say if I had so much money I would .... or One day if I win the lottery I would .... or I want this and that. What are you doing about it? This will not happen, unless you do the specific actions to make the ideas in your head real. 

Do not over-think scenarios that may never happen in a 1000 years to discourage yourself. This is equal to looking for an excuse not to do action. It is an excuse brought by our enemy laziness. It sounds blunt but we are all lazy more or less. Laziness is the worst disease in this world and we all have it. Swallow that ego and acknowledge it - to yourself, not to anyone else. To one extreme people can die because of laziness, but more commonly they never become who they have the potential to be because of it. Laziness is cured by action, and only action. Nike has said it very simple - Just do it. And I would add now.

We all think that magic is a concept from the fairy tales. I disagree. We have been granted the power to transform the energy of thought into material energy and end results by action. You are a magician and the strength of your power of action may even surprise you. Why not start doing your magic now?

P.S. In relation to achieving goals I should comment a little bit in the future about achieving end results vs. way of life.

By George Alexandrov on Tuesday, August 01, 2006

What is cruel? Well, last night was one of the hottest nights in Chicago. So I had to sleep at 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) inside after the air conditioner broke down. Was that cruel? Yes, by any means! But there is always crueler. And it is realizing one night, no matter how high the temperature is, that all your best friends are in different time zones.

Toronto, Sofia, London, New York, and Phoenix - every one just went all over the place. I can’t even call you after a glass of wine one night, even after the weather cools down in Chicago - you are either deep asleep or busy after work!!!! Damn it! I suppose I could get the airplane ticket and visit you but whose credit card should I use; even better - whose green card should I use? Yeah that's life at this point. Only at this point, I should reaffirm. Of course there is the comfort and it is the one of having my sweet-che every day. However, friends are friends and there is no substitute.

I miss you wonderful people more than anything I have ever missed in my life so far. You are fabulous, gorgeous, loving, caring, daring, cool and fun! I love you! And please,  don't forget that I am ... how do they say this... COMING SOON ....

 

By George Alexandrov on Friday, July 28, 2006

Motorcycle or a car? Read More »

By George Alexandrov on Friday, July 28, 2006

Check out this video. If you have ever worked in tech support you will appreciate it and laugh twice as much. Read More »

By George Alexandrov on Friday, July 28, 2006

If you are illegal you get a green card. If you are legal you get kicked out. Read More »

By George Alexandrov on Tuesday, July 25, 2006

This is a question that wouldn't occur every day. Actually I thought of this while walking though the exhibits of the "King Tut" exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago. Among the many artefacts, there was a statue that looked kind if strange – it was the head of Amarna Princess who had an abnormally prolonged head. Read More »