An Extraordinary (Smart) Goal For 2017

     Traveling and trips, vacations and holidays, city breaks and last-minutes offer. For me, for a very long time, these words gave me a sort of strange feeling. Even if we live in this fast moving era, a flying ticket that it’s so affordable and with so many options for enjoying so many parts of the world, I didn't have the chance to explore anything else besides Romania. Ok, I’ve been only one day in Bulgaria, but I suppose that doesn’t count :))

     Talking recently with a very dear friend, he gave me that sort of wake-up call that we all hear and feel once in a while. He was very confused when I tried to explain why I didn’t face my fear of traveling until now. Because yes, for me it was a fear that kept me back in my own very well known environment. A fear that, I have to admit to my very dear friend, he was right, it doesn’t help to anything. All in the contrary. I even got to that point when feeling that because of my “lack of traveling”, as to say, I’ve lost great opportunities in life. And having our discussion gave me the feeling that I will lose even more great moments and opportunities if I will not have the courage to step outside my comfort zone.

     What it’s even more interesting it’s the fact that, even here in Romania, every time I went in a new place, after coming back from that trip, I felt absolutely amazing. More creative, very inspired, and with a great state of mind. Why didn't I have the power to make a habit out of traveling? Exactly because of that so frustrating fear. Probably for those who travel on a regular basis, this idea may seem strange. And I do understand them. And because I started also to understand more and more the benefits of traveling, both professionally and personally (having the possibility to interact and to know new people, changing ideas and so on), I’ve decided to take action again. I do like to say that action conquers fear.

     So for the New Year that it’s about to start and for every other year starting with 2017, one of my major goals is to travel as much as possible. Where I want and when I want. This definitely gives me a “wow” state of mind and soul, among others. And because somehow I know I can do that thanks to that extraordinary friend I’ve just mentioned, I am very grateful to have this kind of open-minded people by my side. The support and understanding of the special people from one’s life do make a huge impact on that life.

     I wish all of you to have a magic 2017 New Year, to accomplish all your goals, surrounded in your heart and thoughts by extraordinary people, and to live the moment! Life’s awesome and time it’s priceless :) Happy New Year!

Talking about confidence

     Recently I had the chance to discuss with one of my best friends about confidence. A very useful and interesting topic I would say. Confidence goes hand in hand with attitude. Confidence and attitude can give us or take us extraordinary moments and achievements, no matter if we talk from a personal or professional point of view. But how can you see if you or someone else are full of confidence or you see the lack of it? How can this great ability, feeling, skill, or whatever other name you can give to it, can be learned? What is the impact of our parents in gaining or losing confidence? Does the social environment have any influence in our confidence? What about other people in general who we interact with every day?

     There are various actions, non-verbal languages or even the tone of the voice that can highlight if a person it’s very confident in her abilities and power. If you ever thought about the fact that there are only some people on this earth so lucky to have been born with this great gift, please let me share with you, my idea. And that is the fact that I strongly believe confidence can be learned. It’s a matter of exercise, like in any other life situation. Talking from experience, I don’t say this will be easy, but every situation will bring you closer to become more and more confident (in a good way) regarding all areas of your life. And it will definitely be worth it!

     Yes, our parents have a very deep impact on gaining or losing our confidence, even if, most of the time, they don’t even realize the impact they have on our emotional mindsets. It took me a while to understand that every parent want what is best for his child and it will definitely help you very much in your adult life to understand your parents. Probably it’s very common the difference between generations. But having in mind the good intentions of our parents will definitely help us stop arguing with them on irrelevant and useless topics and gain a more mature confidence little by little, and day by day.

      The confidence is also very strongly related to our social and economic environment. I will not give many details on this perspective, just one idea, again, learned from experience. You can’t learn and develop your confidence if you will stay surrounded with people that are only trying to bring you down, from all points of view. Or a more practical example, who don’t read not even a good book once a year.

      A good boost of confidence will be given to you especially from those extraordinary people who you choose to interact, no matter if it is twice a day, once a week, or two hours on every three months. What makes the difference in this process of learning confidence and attitude is the quality of the people and how much in the end you spend your time with them. In Romania, we have a saying that in English more or less sounds like this: “You put yourself in bran, you will be eaten by the pigs.” The meaning is that no matter how great you are, if you choose to stay with people that drag you to their ugly level, ultimately you will become one of them. And I can confirm you that from experience again. More than six years ago I wouldn’t have been capable of writing not even two sentences regarding this kind of idea or any other. So I should have told my extraordinary friend whom I am very grateful for (and he’s not the only one) that I am very proud of my “more-then-two-sentences-articles” that helped me very much through this challenging process of gaining confidence. And still working on this day by day.

      So yes, confidence can be learned and can give you a marvelous attitude, but only if you have the right people by your side. So choose them wisely :)

You can run, but you can’t hide

It took me a while to understand the meaning of this. As it took me a great time of my life to realize that the only thing in life that makes the difference is our perception and how we choose to see things. Simple, but not easy. Still working on dealing with this, and also with the fact that after all, everything is so relative.

Sometimes I have the feeling that I’ve lost my compass and obviously I wonder how I can find it back. What should I do in this perspective? What actions can make me more aware of myself? And how can I find the power once again to pass to a certain struggle? I suppose this happens to all of us.

When we are not involved it’s so easy to see the solution for others, but when we have to deal with our own emotions and fears it’s absolutely mind blowing. But I suppose every step, no matter how little it is, can definitely make a difference. Action conquers fear, right?

So even if I’ve promised myself that I wouldn’t think about it, I can’t help it. And if I think better, I do want to think about it because, no matter how much it hurts, in the end, I know it helps. So even if we run from ourselves, there will always be someone dear and special for us that will give us the power to find the true us. No matter if will take 2 hours, 4 days, 5 weeks or 3 years. And no matter who it is.

I had to learn through experience that there are people in our life that can make us feel so special, and give us such extraordinary moments and others that put a painful stamp in our soul that probably will never disappear.

So what’s next? Sometimes helps just go with the flow and enjoy the moment. Life is indeed wonderful. As once I’ve learned in college, there’s a very fascinating Latin saying: carpe diem :)

PS: Starting January 2017 I want to write at least once a week here also. This is a very useful and helpful objective for me and I know it’s only up to me to organize accordingly. So please wish me luck :D