By George Alexandrov on Wednesday, October 25, 2006

I usually get my inspirations when I communicate with people. Many times when I talk with someone I may get inspired about something that has nothing to do with the conversation. My mind just constantly works at a few levels at the same time. But there these other times when the inspiration that I get is the actual words of my conversation partner.

The words that I am about to share here with you are these of one of the closest to me people - my mom. I will not comment on them. I will give them to you as they are to let you contemplate on your own. Here is what my mom said:

"These days it is sunny, warm, bright. Today, as I was taking a shower, I asked myself why I was in such a good mood; whether it just happened on its own or was it because it was sunny and warm? And I answered this question myself that the reason is not so much me but the Sun. Without it we are lost. Then it occurred to me that some close and loved by us person can play the role of the Sun in our life. Within this context, I wish you never to be left without your Sun throughout your life." ~Tanya Alexandrova

This is so wise! I will leave you with this question - who is your Sun? 

Happy contemplation.

By George Alexandrov on Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Yesterday I met with a very spiritual and wise friend of mine for a glass of wine at Webster's Wine Bar. Due to our schedules we see each other once a month, or maybe even once every two months. But every time I see her we have great conversations and  I feel recharged with new energy. Not everyone has this effect on me, but Ralitza does. Yesterday was not an exception.

We were discussing at length about what the real purpose of each one of us was in life and whether we were actually doing in life what we were mostly enjoying. The conversation shifted towards how one could find what their true Vocation was. Some people know and feel very strongly from their childhood what they want to be. And I am not talking about the "i want to be an astronaut" type of thing. I am talking about when people know deep in their souls since their childhood that they want to be a world renowned sommelier, or want to do some kind of outdoors sport, etc, and this is the only thing they want to live for. 

The question of the Vocation is also the theme in Paulo Coehlo's The Alchemist,  and is referred to as one's "Personal Legend".  All children feel what their Personal Legend, or Vocation, is. However, as we are growing up the forces of life, the ideas others impose on us and our own fears of leaving the comfort of our "safe" logical predictions, steer us further away from our true Vocation.

Some people remember much better than others what their true Vocation is supposed to be form early childhood. If these people are smart enough they will fulfil it and their lives will be filled with satisfaction and joy. These are the people who will be truly happy. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the people who are not even aware that there is something else they could be doing in their lives. These people are probably unhappy, but they are pseudo content as they have accepted their life as it is and do not (want to) know better. But there is the gray area, somewhere in the middle of the spectrum,  in which the people don't remember (or don't see) what their vocation is, yet they feel that whatever they are currently doing is not their true calling. These are the people who probably go through the most internal fights:

"Maybe I should do something else in life. This job does pay the bills, makes me feel secure, but I know my passion is somewhere else. But what is it? Maybe I should try dancing. But what if it doesn't happen to be my vocation? Maybe it is writing. No, I can't possibly write anything that I can make money with. But then again, when I was a kid I used to make such creative stories. If I let go the grip on my current reality I may fall so hard that it will hurt. I will be a complete failure in this case. But then again, I know that there is something out there that is for me and it is not what I am involved with now..." here the magic circle closes and the entire thought process repeats again. I see a hamster wheel! It is amazing how many people need to be looking for their real vocation. A friend even made a successful business out of this (Vocation Vacations).

I believe that everyone knows deeply inside them what their Vocation is but do not realize it. The Vocation is like a metal ball on a string hanging from the ceiling right in front of us. But we cannot see it because the room is pitch black. As we are standing  in front of it thinking, should I try to find it, or should I not, a year (two, three, ten) goes by. Finally we get some courage (or a kick), stretch our arms and start playing blind man's buff. But we are not quite blind if we trust our feelings and intuition, are we? Eventually we will touch the ball, find out what it feels like and pull it. Magic!!! Light shines everywhere. We just pulled the string of the light switch, and we can even see what color our Vocation ball is. Wow, your Vocation is your Passion! You may say "If I knew it was that real, I would have done it earlier!" Easier said than believed and done, eh? After all this is your life we are talking about here, and not some game... Or is it?

Let's return back to my conversation with Ralitza and to the heart of this story. After at least one very motivating and inspirational hour of our conversation Ralitza said something very close to this:

"Let me tell you of a very simple way to test whether something that you suppose is your Passion in life really is what you think it is. Every time when you say what you want to do you say 'I think that I want to do this this and this.' Well, now repeat the same sentence but substitute 'I think..' with 'I feel...'. Do you still get the same good feeling when you pronounce the sentence? Does it still give you the same good vibration? If it does, then very likely you have found, or are very close to knowing, your true Passion."

That's a simple test isn't it?
 
Ralitza also said that if one does not (try to) find their true passion and starts doing something else, she may eventually find her Passion again down the road as she will subconsciously lead herself to it. What that means is that she would have taken the long and winding path in life from point N(ow) to point P(assion). It may be years before she gets to point P and she may decide that it is too late to do anything about her Passion (or can she?).  Why not uncover and jump into the Passion or Vocation now and spare the misery of  years spent in meaningless waste of energy, time and creativity?

Ralitza amazed me again when she had the perfect advice waiting for me on her ever growing shelf of Wisdom. Well, let me repeat it again to make sure I will remember: It is as simple as evaluating "I think..." vs. "I feel...". If you happen to be in the grey area of the spectrum and have a few even remotely candidate Vocations, do try this test for yourself. I am eager to hear your results and reactions!

By George Alexandrov on Monday, October 02, 2006

A few blog entries ago I wrote about the Bugatti Veyron - I thought that was cool. Well, I found something that is even cooler (and a lot less expensive). Don;t ge me wrong, the Veyron is a slick and beautiful car. What disgusts me that I didn't mention before is it's engine. It's the same old gasoline engine. Why keep building these dinosaur gasoline engines, which are so inefficient and need so much fuel to get the power you want them to give? Why not build an alternative energy (not fuel. energy.) engine that would be more efficient and give even better results? To me keeping the old ways is like building a super hot looking sports car with a turbo super charged steam engine. Sounds stupid right? That's how I feel about continuing to improve on gasoline engines. It's stupid. We can get less and less benefit from that type of engine for every research and improvement dollar spent. How many plastic operations can you do on a 100 year old person?

I will stop bitching, and tell you what I found so cool. It's the Tesla Motors new car. It's a two seater, sexy looking roadster. Powered entirely by electricity. Yes, I will repeat - it's a sports car!!! Here are the numbers: 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, almost constant torque from 0 to 13,000 RPM, 250 miles per charge, charges in 2 hours if the battery is dead, the equivalent of 135 miles per gallon or only 1c per mile. Now isn't that awesome?

Let's not forget that it is not only the fuel efficiency that matters. Since this is an electric engine all there are tons of parts of the classic gas engine that are missing. This frees quite some room in the car by leaving the gas tank out for example, but it also makes the car a lot  more reliable as you there are a lot fewer parts to break. No transmission, no clutch, no cylinders, no pistons, no fuel injectors, no tank, no exhaust system, no intake system, no fuel pump, and the list goes on. Maintenance should be a child's play.

I have dreamed about this happening all my life. Pure electrical (or other non-burning energy source) with similar parameters. And it's a smart move - come out with a beautiful looking sports car rather than some quirky looking vehicle like we've seen so far. If people are shown that a sports car with these parameters can run (not just move) more than well on electricity, then they will be more convinced that a regular car with this technology should run even better and they will be less afraid to buy such a vehicle. I am sure that as soon as the Tesla Motors gains some more popularity, they will probably roll out a sedan.

I want to thank the people at Tesla Motors for making this vehicle come true. I do appreciate all your hard work and ability to bring this coolness to life, and I am looking forward for more.

Watch a video:



To see the Tesla Motors car visit their web site at: http://www.teslamotors.com.
Photos of the car can be found here: http://www.teslamotors.com/styling/body.php.

By George Alexandrov on Thursday, September 28, 2006

A friend of mine forwarded to me an email with this year's message of the Dalai Lama. Well, it turned out this chain email was not exactly coming from the Dalai Lama (especially saying #19), as discredited on Snopes.com (article: "Hello, Dalai"). However, the message still conveys a message of wisdom. These are a few short, thought-provoking sayings of the type that you hear every now and then. But let me tell you that no matter how many times we hear them, it is a good thing. People have to hear something at least six times within a period of time before they remember it and start thinking about it. Such pieces of wisdom make us stop for a second, think, and then go on with our lives, hopefully a bit more skillfully than before. 

It is not the sayings that are the essence, it is the result of our thought process that is the product of wisdom. The sayings are just the catalyst. We can think of these sayings as a cosmetic mind scrub that washes the dead and unyielding pieces of mindset away to give space for new and healthy thinking to develop.

Take what you can from below and good luck on the path to your wisdom and success:

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
1. Respect for self,
2. Respect for others and
3. Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon. (???)

Find more of what the Dalai Lama has actually said on this web site: http://www.tibet.com/DL/ 

By George Alexandrov on Tuesday, September 26, 2006

When we are convinced about something or believe something very much we will do things in accordance to this belief. Many times we do not realize some of the things that we believe as over time we have started taking them for granted. I would like to raise your attention to think about all the things that you believe in and see how your actions reflect that. ALL your actions are based on some sort of belief. Be careful what you choose to believe in. Great accomplishments have been achieved because of belief. And great horrors have been caused because of belief. And because of reasoning. Reasoning is used to support belief. You may not know that. Think about it. Ask yourself quesitons eve if you can't seem to find the answers. Sometimes it is more important to ask questions than know the answers. Where does your knowledge of things come from? What are the sources of your beliefs? Why do you want to believe in what you believe and not something else? What would you believe in if you were the sky?

By George Alexandrov on Wednesday, September 13, 2006

This morning while I was making some tea and waiting for the water to heat up in the microwave, I contemplated for a bit on why I was getting so frustrated every day. There are so many things piling up and waiting to be done. Of course everyone knows these: prioritize, organize, and plan. Yeah, easier said than done.

I was having brunch at Victory's Banner in Roscoe Village last week with a friend of mine. In our conversation she mentioned a few times the word "structure" in reference to life. She was telling me about how non-structured her life was, especially after partying a lot on the weekends, but she said "Thanks god that I have to go to work because it gives me structure." That term “structure” stuck in my head. Even if she doesn’t enjoy her job 100%, it balances her life and brings her back to a pace that makes her feel she is back on track. It is something that she is expecting that she has to do Monday-Friday, 9-5. It is this never failing expectation. She gets what she expects and this gives her structure.

 

Every day there are numerous things that come up, some urgent, some non-important and it is so easy to get astray and not think whether it is actually a productive thing that we are doing at the moment. And some of the things, like my friend’s partying too much sometimes can get us outside of reality completely. And these are so many things. Like make your tea, check a few blogs, chat on skype, oh, it's lunch time, let’s fix something for lunch now. And at the end of the day we've done so many things but we've done nothing. That makes me feel sad, stupid and pessimistic that I am not capable of doing anything right.

 

But as soon as I get something done and completed that I have actually planned on doing for that day I feel so much better. And so much more motivated, and all of a sudden the engine of live seems to work smoothly again. Every one of us must have something that we do, that is scheduled, structured that we expect to do and we do it. It could be going to the gym every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Such rituals are keeping us sane from the destructive daily distractions that we give way to.

 

What I realized is that we need to come up with some ritual(s) that we like and commit to doing, no matter how simple they are. It could be just a walk as Steve Chandler recommends in one of his "100 ways to motivate yourself" - make yourself a ritual, and when things seem to get out of control just do your ritual.

 

For my friend it is work that gives her structure, and it could be a number of other things for all of us. For example, being committed to go to the gym is part of my structure. Sometimes we need more than one structured activity to balance our daily life. We just have to realize what makes our structure and how to come up with more choices of activities to add to this structure if needed. For example, going every other day in the morning to the local coffee house and read the morning news on your laptop. You know what would work best for you.

 

Rituals! Cool! I have to go back now to my normal work day of distractions [sigh].

By George Alexandrov on Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Photo from www.edmunds.com

I couldn't help mention about this excentric Bugatti on my blog. I will not reiterate what has been said about it, but will summarize the facts:

0-60mph in 2.5 secs
1001 hp
253mph max speed
16cyl
4 turbo chargers

If you have enough gas you can drive from Canada to Mexico in 5 hours. However, at 250mph you will empty the gas tank in 12 minutes. Very nice toy but probably only a few hedge fund managers will be able to get it. Mother nature will be happy to know that there won't be many of these gaz guzzling babies driving around becuase one costs a mere 1.4 million and only 300 of them will be manufactured by the Volkswagen owned Bugatti. Yes, it is the people's car manufacturer, who made the decision to engineer and made this not very "people" car.

See specs on edmunds.com and read the review in New York Times.

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)