River view

About to leave a branch office, the car is parked in a parking lot that oversees a huge river. For whatever reason it always catches my attention and I find myself looking up the river.

There's nothing that links me to it in any way. However, every time I'm here I feel strongly connected to the river. The view is not great, there's nothing artistic or picturesque about it. Yet here I am again and again trying to decipher the message it's trying to convey...

The other day I took a picture to send it to somebody I care about, and then when checking the picture after I did, I felt like a stupid because there is absolutely no way anybody would find anything interesting on it; save some engineers looking at a couple old bridges.

The point here is that I disconnect from work and other worries each time I'm here. In fact, I feel so relaxed and at peace that I had the time and inclination to write and post this entire piece on my PDA.

Not bad for a grammar and orthography freak. ;)

Find your relax spot!

The train...

Here I am stuck in traffic realizing I need to really start doing something about not having to drive a car everywhere.

While all I can do is listen to music, watch the vehicles around me and realize by focusing far in the distance the "problem" is a long train crossing, all my mind can really do is try to count its cars. Kind of easy, they are all different colours and shapes, one after another, a parade of steely objects all linked together and part of a whole.

What would those cars be unhooked?

Just like our thoughts and actions, they do really belong together. One after another they form and shape whole ideas and developments. They become actions that create value once we implement them; some even need more than ourselves to come to fruition, others grow by hooking up to somebody else's train cars and becoming part of their trains.

Keep it growing. Your train will look nicer with more cars of different shapes and colours. Make it so that your cars become somebody else's train too. And more importantly, allow other's trains to join yours and become a longer one.

Move your train; allow others to count your cars.

Read my mind

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Thanks!

Planning and the consequences of not doing it

Have you ever heard the 80/20 rule? About how most of the time 20 percent of people perform 80% of the work?
How about the “1 hour of planning saves 8 in execution”?
Yep. I have too.
Even so, and despite the fact that I know these, have some diplomas, have worked in many different fields, postgraduate studies, decades of work experience, etc. etc. I keep falling prey of my own rushed decisions.
Here we are again, operating in crisis mode all the time. Something crashed and everybody is upset and demanding to be back and operational in as little time as possible; which makes me apply band-aids to the problem instead of really fixing whatever is wrong once and for all.
And then, we come back again and again to slowly and painfully fix what we didn’t properly in the first place. Worst, every time we are back to the problem we are regretting our inaction and inability to plan and set things right.
When will I learn? Some people look up to me for advice and I give it as if was my gift to know it all and as if I never made any mistakes.

My gosh... do I really need to be born again? Do you have some advice for me? I think I need to hear from you now.

...oh! Excuse me; they are calling me again... I need to go back there and continue the patching. C U soon.

The most deafening sound...

The most deafening sound of all: silence.

System is dead... next!

Maria cried for an hour after receiving the news that her laptop hard drive was damaged beyond repair. Not that it could not be sent to a data recovery lab, just that the company did not consider it necessary. She then received a brand new laptop with the latest OS, latest Office Suite, fastest processor available and a hard drive that had 8 times more capacity than the dead one.
Inconsolably, she said “...and I've been so busy that had not had time to make a data backup for the last month.” Turns out she did not backup her files for more than 3 months.
Now she faces the multiple challenges that come with the adoption of a new system, or a new process, or a new technology... a new everything. She will learn to live with that while recreating and salvaging whatever she can from the old backup. Practically a new job.

However, despite the fact that this change was “enforced” on her, isn't it the same with our everyday life that we face new situations and challenges?

Dust settles down and we are ready to start the new cycle. Turn the page, take the plunge, close the loop, check off the date, kiss it goodbye, resign the game or announce check mate, open that door, smell the flowers, check the scenery...
It is not that bad, is it? Just start the next chapter of your life. It is in fact the continuation of your steps: glance at the Km mark and realize that you are closer to the finish line.

Whatever it is you are getting today: a new system, a plan, a challenge, a task, a friend, a project, an idea. Just take it as a man, take it as a woman. Just take it.
Make sure the next chapter is based on the previous ones, just richer and more entertaining. You have all the material to create it so.

Take it with a smile! :D