Where do you find beauty?

I have a mark on my body, right under the left clavicle. It’s from a burn I had when I was 4 years old and very curious about the world and what was boiling inside that pot. I never considered my mark as ugly or beautiful; it is what it is: a part of me. One summer day an old friend, an artist, saw my mark and asked why I didn’t cover it. He found it particularly unsightly. Just a few hours later, another friend, also an artist, looked at it with admiration for its “sensual uniqueness”.

Years later, on a lovely spring day, I was walking in one of my favorite places – Sounion – taking photos of the stunning views and sights. Climbing some rocks to find the perfect spot for the next pic, I saw this persistent tiny flower growing among the rocks and the barren soil. Standing alone, standing strong, with its simplicity and resilience, it caught my eye and admiration, and became the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in this landscape.

“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” Plato

Like my mark and the tiny flower, everything and everyone around us can be beautiful or not. We can find and appreciate beauty everywhere and it is rarely about the perfect shape and symmetry. Most of the times, it is about the eyes with which we are looking.

Just remember:

1. We cannot recognize something we do not already have or know its value.
2. All it takes to see the beauty is a loving heart and looking from the soul.

Stop hurting others!

I understand that not everybody can or wants to help others. Do nice things for them, love or support them. Show compassion, consideration, respect. Ok, I get it. 

But one thing everyone can do is NOT hurt others. 

Monday Morning Inspiration: Leap

Scobberlotch (v) to loaf around doing nothing in particular: Monday Morning Inspiration: Leap: 

“If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: "It's gonna go wrong." Or "She's going to hurt me." Or,"I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore ..." 

Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down.” 

Ray Bradbury

Inspiration, photo and post of the day by Karen Harrington and scobberlotch.blogspot

The Equation of Hate (and how to change it)

The essence of manipulation and the origin of hate: Fear applied to ignorance produces hate.

Resist Fear.

Fight Ignorance.

Nourish Love. 

On Love II

“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“Had we not loved ourselves at all, we could never have been obliged to love anything. So that self-love is the basis of all love.”

Thomas Traherne

“Love is a passionate commitment that we nurture and develop.”

Julian Baggini, What is Love? Five theories on the greatest emotion of all

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“When it comes to real human prosperity, the truest denominator of a life searingly well lived is love.”

“None of us belong here. But we are here. And there’s not enough time. Cut the bullshit. Love."

Umair Haque, Why Love Matters More (And Less) Than You Think

On Love

Love is strange says Mickey and Sylvia's song, but I prefer to say, write and believe what one of my coaches taught me:

       "Love is patient, love is kind.

       It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

       It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,

       it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

       Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

       It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

       Love never fails."

                                                                                 (Corinthians 13:4-8a)

A Perspective on Love in Modern Times

In this video philosopher Yann Dall’ Aglio gives his wise and witty reflections on the state of love in the modern age.

The Resurrection of Hope

In Greece, every Holy Saturday at midnight, we kiss each other to a chorus of fireworks, church bells and chanting priests, spreading the word that “Χριστός Ανέστη” (Christ has risen).

Faith, Love and Hope have won. 

As a non-religious person, I choose to keep a simple symbolism of the Resurrection of Christ: the victory of light over darkness. It’s the proof of the splendor and power of morality, strength and love.

Every Holy Saturday for the past few years, at midnight, I tweet my wish and hope: “Christ has risen. Now it’s our turn.”

Compassion

The best lesson I could have taught my nieces today: 

                            Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. 
                                                                                          Dalai Lama

How far are you willing to go?

Today I drove 180 km for work. Viewed purely from a business perspective, the hard fact is that I shouldn’t have done that; it wasn’t “good business”.

On my way back home I was smiling, tired but happy: I have taken the first step towards a vision of mine. All it cost me was challenging and abandoning any idea of what should and should not be done. And driving 180 km.

This is a Thai commercial that has gone viral and I believe perfectly relates to this message. The Hero performs his glorious tasks for what he desires most: a world made more beautiful.

When it comes to your vision, when it comes to your goals, dreams and desires, how far are you willing to go? What is the first step that you will take, the seed that you can sow? 

The Freedom of Self-Management

“What is self-management?” was the question today. To discover, once again, that it all begins with self-love.

Self management goes beyond any discipline that we impose on ourselves. It’s about how we handle our emotions, our ability to respond rather than react to situations, how we cope with stress. It is about what our relationship with our body and health is in practice: how we show self care and respect. It is about what we do with our money, our time and our people. It is about our dedication to what matters to us most and how we follow through the commitments that arise from this dedication. It is about the life we live in accordance to our values.

It is about our thoughts and beliefs, about our perceptions and misconceptions. It is about attaining awareness of these, so that we can address any issue, make the right decisions, take the right action at any given moment.

It all starts with self-love. The secret ingredient without which no self-management will have any reason to exist and happen.

With self-love come the value and respect that we give to our values, our goals, our bodies, our lives.

The result? Freedom. The unique freedom that we are the masters of our lives. 

Do Good Things Hurt?

While reading an article on the biggest misconceptions about life, an old reply of mine, on Quora, came to mind. The question was:

"Why do good things hurt?" 

Good things never hurt. That is an oxymoron. 

If we are hurt by something good, then we should reconsider the source of our hurt/ pain.

Take love, for example. People say that 'love hurts'. Which is totally misleading. True love never hurts. True love liberates our soul and our spirit.

What can hurt may be the unmet expectations, for example. But then, it will not be love that will have hurt us, but our own preconceived ideas of what the other should be/do.

Another example is that 'truth hurts'. Again, truth brings awareness. And in what way can awareness hurt? It can only support insights and growth.

What can hurt is the disappointment that the idea or beliefs we had are proven false. The revelation that the reality we had built is not actually real. So, it is actually a false belief that is hurting, not the truth, which can only set us free (once we decide to see it this way).

Bottom line is that if something good hurts, then something is not good there and it usually isn't the "thing".

Where Do You Look?

A few precious minutes with holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer, interviewed by Anthony Robbins: "I look where it's good."

"This I learned: to be thankful for everything."  

 Alice Herz-Sommer, pianist, born 26 November 1903; died 23 February 2014.

Let's Do Something Extraordinary!

Stop Longing For Love!

A few days after Valentine’s and with the storm of “love” posts and articles spent, I unintentionally heard a friend’s confession over the phone where he was expressing his longing for love.

I felt sad and somehow angry. I felt saddened by the suffering that my friend was experiencing and angry because he was unable to see the love he already had in his life, being a father of two.

We all have love in our lives. Even if we are not in a romantic relationship – and maybe this kind of love is missing for the moment – there is the love of and for our family, the love of and for our friends, the love of and for the people we meet, work with, create connections and interactions. It is the love that we receive and the love that we give. We have above all the love for ourselves.

The moment we are consumed by this longing for love, we have erased all the wonderful love that is already there. For me this is simply disrespectful to that love.

Note to all:

Stop longing for love; you all have love in your lives. Just stop and feel it. Celebrate it in any occasion and feel grateful for it. 

Love: the Hidden Value in Business

With Valentine’s day today and all the focus on Love, I think the most appropriate post has to be about Love, with a twist: Love and Business.

The following is an article I wrote December 15, 2011 about this: 

When you listen to Tina Turner’s song What’s love got to do with it I bet that none of you think of business.

Yet, at the first STARTup live Athens last month, my speech to those young aspiring entrepreneurs who were working on their startup’s pitch was to prove that Love has everything to do with it and that Love is the hidden value in business.

My point is simple:

To begin with, you have to start with an idea and you have to love your idea, be passionate about it and believe in it so much that you can hold the vision.

Then, you have to build your team, the people that will progress with you. You need to love your people so that you can work with them well, trust them, listen to them, respect them and progress the idea and business together.

After that, you need to love the process; you have to love being an entrepreneur and everything that comes with it.

You have to love your customers too, so that you care about them, care about their needs, and offer them the right stuff, products or services; and they will love doing business with you.

Ultimately you need self-love. You need to love yourself enough in order to believe in yourself and be confident and keep going when things get tough and when obstacles or your fears get in your way.

There is a quote that I love from Deepak Chopra. It says:

“Love is the beginning of the journey, its end and the Journey itself.”

What is a startup or any other entrepreneurial business if not a Journey?

The idea of Love and Business is not new. Steve Farber, has written about The Love Practicum, and Umair Haque includes love in The Best Investment You Can Make.

At this point you may be convinced of the idea but now another question may have arose: How do we do it? 

How do we stay in a place of love and not fear, or resentment, or competition, or everything that is not love?

Well, I am going to share with you the biggest secret on how to stay in love:

The biggest secret about love is that it is a simple decision. You either decide to love or you decide not to. You can decide to live with love or you can decide to live with fear. There is no in-between. And if your decision is to live in love and to work from a place of love, then all you have to do is remind yourself that this is your decision, remind yourself every single day.

Let me tell you an old Cherokee tale:

One evening the shaman of the tribe told the young warrior about the battle that was going on inside his head.

He told him: "There is a battle inside my head." 

"Who is fighting?", asked the young warrior.

"Love with Fear", replied the wise old man.

The young warrior thought about it for a minute and then asked: “Who is winning?”

The shaman simply replied “The one I feed”.

Once you make your decision you need to remember which one you chose to feed.

It is always the one we feed that will live inside us and drive all our decisions and actions, which will nourish our thoughts and beliefs and which finally will determine our successes and achievements.

The challenge to keep remembering that is not easy. But what are the options?

And let me tell you this: If love is good business and if every entrepreneur is a leader, if according to Robin Sharma leadership is a way of being - in other words,  the purposeful management of our life and career - then love is not just good business, it’s just the best business we can have.

How Much Love Lives In The Space Between You And Me?

If yesterday’s post was about emptying your cup, today's is about filling it: with appreciation, gratitude, trust, LOVE.
Like Merle and Ed.

Between You and Me, from Nic Askew 

Parachutes

For me the expression “falling in love” has a totally literal meaning, as this is what I do: I completely let myself fall. And not only in love but in all kinds of relationships. I throw myself into the job I am doing, into the new hobby, and into the new people in my life.

It goes with out saying that most of the times the landing is not as gentle as expected. Of course I crash and then I have to recover and then I fall again, and crash again, and the same over and over…

So, 2 years ago I said to my coach: “Listen, Nicole, I need to find my parachute. I cannot help falling, so at least I should have a parachute!” And that was my assignment for the next two years. Yep, it wasn’t so easy to find. In my quest, I went skydiving last year. I needed to see how it would feel physically to surrender completely – with the safety of the parachute – and at the same time tick one more things off my bucket list.

It was a dead end… After landing the frustration was great. It was so much fun until the parachute opened! So, no solution there. And so I kept searching and thinking.

Then, one morning I woke up and I emailed Nicole: “I got it!!! I know what my parachute is: ME! I am my parachute!” I think I was even more excited by my discovery than Archimedes when he run through the streets naked crying “Eureka!”.

I was my parachute. It was up to me not to crash. I had all the knowledge, the skills, the brains not to let myself crash again.

So, I thought. I forgot the willingness to use them or the spirit and the mentality to do so. You see, for me having any kind of relationship with anyone and anything, involves a level (a very high level) of trust, passion and surrender. I offer myself to whatever and whoever it may be. No reservations, no precautions, nothing. Fully open, honest, to any romantic, friendly or professional relationship. That means I found out with the first chance in practice that this parachute wasn’t working, because I was just not using it. Frustration and back to the quest.

Until last evening driving back home, fast as usual. My quest was over, I had found my answer: I didn’t need any parachute. I didn’t want any parachute.

No life can be lived with protections and precautions. At least no life as I perceive it. The parachute means fear. It feeds the fear. How can I experience everything that is there if I slow myself down? Why should I want to slow down in the first place? Falling is great. Falling is amazing. Falling is life. I fall because I decide to live my life and not hide from it. Because I choose to love even with the risk of being hurt. But, if I don’t let myself be exposed to this risk, how else shall I even have a chance for love?

Not everybody will love us, not everybody will catch us, not everybody will fall with us. But you know something? If they do, it’s going to be a hell of a ride.

After all, with the knowledge now of so many crashes, there is no bad landing. There is only learning and growing, once we decide to see beyond the pain. And that’s what I choose.