Life, Money & Development » Personal Development

5 quotes to live by

Herrera — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:36:26 +0000

“If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.” (Bertrand Russell)
“Try to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment.” (Sydney Smith)
“What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful.” (Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama)
“Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” (Bertrand Russell)

50 Hacks for Developing a Strong Mind

Herrera — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:15:14 +0000

Solve some puzzles and crosswords.
Try to be ambidextrous. Use your nondominant hand to brush your teeth, comb, handle the mouse. Write with both hands simultaneously. Do the same with the knife and fork.
Learn new languages
Learn to enjoy things like paradoxes and optical illusions.
Make mental maps of your neighborhood, state, country.
Block one or more senses. Eat with your eyes closed, use earplugs, bathe with eyes closed.
Develop comparative tasting. Learn how to properly taste wine, chocolate, beer, cheese, etc.
Develop leadership attributes.
Find intersections between seemingly unrelated subjects.
Learn how to use different keyboard layouts.
Help others.
Play some musical instrument.
Find new uses for common objects. How many different uses you can find in a nail? 10? 100?
Reverse your assumptions.
Learn techniques of creativity.
Go beyond the “right” answer.
Go beyond obvious reality. Ask yourself: What if…?
Play your favorite videogame
Become a critical thinker. Learn to realize common lies.
Learn logic. Solve puzzles logically.
Familiarize yourself with the scientific method.
Draw. Make doodles. You don’t have to be an artist.
Think positive.
Do some calculus and mathematical operations.
Read these exercises to keep a young mind and try to retain the essential ideas of the post.
Sit up straight.
Listen to music.
Catch all the ideas. Form a list or database with your favorite ideas.
Eat at different restaurants.
Simplify your to-do list.
Learn to spell long words backwards.
Change your environment. Rearrange items in your room or office.
Write! Write stories, poetry, create a blog and write on it.
Learn sign language.
Visit museums.
Study how the brain works.
Meditate about managing your time.
Watch movies of different genres.
Get in touch with nature.
Relax throughout the day.
Commit to lifelong learning.
Travel to other countries. Learn other cultures and different lifestyles.
Learn Braille.
Buy a piece of art that you like. Stimulate your senses in a way that makes you think.
Try different perfumes.
Keep a glossary of interesting words. Invent your own words.
Learn metaphors.
Manage stress.
Read random things in this blog.
Deliver more than expected.

The Fear of Failure: A rationalization

Herrera — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:51:22 +0000

What’s a failure? According to Wikipedia, failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Therefore, failure is the opposite of success, and that’s why fear of failure can reach really high levels. A process leading to failure or success involves a lot of decision-making. Many people are tormented by some decisions: they may even have a great idea, but do nothing to get it going, just for the fear of not succeeding. The most practical way to banish this fear is changing the attitude and the way we perceive failures. If we learn proper ways for decision-making, we could stop giving so much power and energy to the thoughts related to the possible consequences of our decisions, and thereby we could save ourselves from unnecessary suffering.

When we are walking the paths of life, we always learn something new, and in the learning process have to pour a few drops of sweat. There is no reward without effort. So, every time you try to learn something new you will have to invest some energy. That is the investment you have to do to achieve mastery in something. Do you want financial freedom? Well, you have to start learning how to make decisions and avoiding the fear stemming from mental scenaries of failure. Because financial freedom is not achieved only with the money. Wealth does not just mean to have a lot of money. If you’re hoping to win the lottery to get your financial freedom, you are standing on quicksand. Now, if you want to go on a safer, smarter road (and of course a little slower), it all depends on your learning process. You have to keep a positive attitude all the time, you have to be resilient, ready to overcome any failure. When you accept failure, when you learn to ignore failure scenearies because you’ll be ready to overcome them and keep going on, then the word failure will be erased from your mind. The trick is not to avoid thinking on failure; the trick is forming the mental disposition to, no matter the result of our decisions, keep going on. In fact, failure might become a powerful ally, an instructor, you will learn to stand up after falling. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: remember that seemingly negative circumstances can turn into blessings.

Considering an error or a failure as a disastrous event, is to give it the power to defeat you. On the contrary, think that for every possibility of failure there is also a hidden victory. Just took a look at the other side of the coin. If you fail for some reason, don’t worry: try again. What is the problem? What do you fear? To lose it all? And what is it? You came into the world with nothing and you will leave with nothing. Never miss the opportunity to cultivate and improve yourself. In fact the only thing that remains is that the body and material wealth only serve as instruments to accomplish something: hapiness. What is that thing? Discover who you are, build a happy reality, and live in it. Focus on self-mastery and on our universal and individual purpose. Therefore, failure is just the result of a decision, and no matter the decision, the result, goal or the process… all of it is relatively insignificant compared to the magnitude of the universe and our inner selves. This is the importance of internal growth: wealth of soul and mind last forever. What I mean is: do not be afraid of making mistakes. We all make mistakes You can always try again, try, try and try until you succeed. Because every time you’re trying, you learn new things, you are growing and getting one step closer to your personal and spiritual progress. Remember the power of a disciplined mind: when you have to make a difficult decision, start thinking about it only after all the data are available; then give the problem your best thought and make your decision: just after making the decision, do not revise it unless some new fact arrives to your knowledge. Let the decision consequences to develop, and consider that nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.

The Path of Self-Esteem

Herrera — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:23:13 +0000

Believing in oneself, in our capabilities, loving ourselves, that’s self-esteem. It does not depend on what other people think about us; it only depends on how (and what) we think about ourselves. People who suffer from low self-esteem (and low self-esteem is a real illness, a disease) are constantly seeking for approval of other people, there in the outside world. Of course everyone wants to be approved, loved and even admired by those around us. But we have to start by loving ourselves, and respecting each other internally.

Be strong. If we always try to impress by pretending what we are not, if we desperately seek applause or consent, if we need approbation of others, all the time, because otherwise we get depressed and let ourselves down, is because we lack sufficient self-esteem. We must not use appearances to hide our weakness and our lack of faith. It is as if beneath the tinsel we secretly know that our underwear is old, dirty and worn. That will also be perceived by our peers, and an x-ray machine is not needed to find it out. The feeling of worthlessness is transmitted. Because if you do not love yourself, no one will love you, and if you think you are worthless, other people will think it too.

Low self-esteem is a new concept in psychology, and its use has become commonplace, everyday, is the talk of the world. It might lead to real painful, dramatic suffering. An internal emptiness produces low self-esteem, inner loneliness, feeling nothing. To compensate for this deficiency some people try to link up with people they consider important and cool. Others flaunt their economic power, or knowledge, or of the trips they’ve made, or their acquired properties. No matter the mask, low self-esteem cannot be hidden. Think about all that people who seemingly had it all and ended painfully… they lacked the main thing: self-esteem.

For raising and building up self-esteem, I provide a few keypoints for meditation. Think about each fact just as it is.

We forge the quality of our lives, according to our image of happiness.
We decide what is the image of our own person, what we want to be.
We decided on our own worth and how much happiness we want.
The first step in improving our results is changing the way we think and talk about ourselves.
Our image is like a thermostat and our performance occurs within the preset limits.
The image we have of ourselves, we determined we can think or concentrate.
A healthy self-esteem allows us to fulfill our own desires and also those of others.
This means we can be proud of our achievements without having to disclose them to everybody, and we can accept our limitations in the journey to improve ourselves.
A healthy self-esteem means that we are not obliged to justify, to ourselves or to anyone, the things we do.
We feel comfortable doing things that add quality and beauty to our lives.
We can make an estimate of our own image observing those around us.
Our tendency is to build relationships with those who treat us like we deserve.
People with a healthy image of themselves command respect from others.
They themselves are given good treatment, and thereby tell the other people how to treat them.
People treat us like we treat ourselves.
Those with whom we interact quickly realize if we respect ourselves. If we treat them with respect, they will do the same to us!
Our behavior and our subconscious programming interact with the concept that we have about ourselves.
The way we interact with other people reflects the degree of appreciation we have for ourselves at any given time.
Poor self-image makes us think that we deserve nothing, this leads to sabotaging our own happiness.
Change is difficult. The bad image tends to perpetuate itself.
When trying to change, old patterns of guilt and self-deception will fiercely resist to disappear. Patience and perseverance is the key.
It is critical that we do everything necessary to have (and keep) positive thoughts.
Self-esteem is a key for happiness.

Let’s think about these keypoints

Leaders, Energy and Success

Herrera — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:51:06 +0000

It’s an obvious statement that physical energy is required for entrepeneurship. Thanks to such physical energy we are able to demonstrate resilience, willpower and perseverance. On the other hand, intellectual energy fuels the process of discovering solutions to problems and enforcing other shades of thought. It’s also very important to highlight the role of intellectual energy in the support of emotional energy, i.e., our thoughts exert a heavy influence in our emotions (you may want to read Learning to believe in order to review some nuances of the relation between thought and emotion.) On turn, emotional energy drives all of our actions, and also, in a kind of loop, provides feedback for thought and physical systems. For instance, when we are loaded with positive energy, happiness and optimism, we convey our powerful and constructive emotional force to our projects and all the people involved in them. Sound emotional energy boosts our best feelings and opens the door to success.

Leaders radiate their happiness, and convey energy rather than absorbing it. People wishing to achieve success and raising to the top must be full of positive energy, and project it to the things they do. Willpower alone is not enough; it must be accompanied by a good deal of energy to undertake new businesses and projects, and to bear any hurdles along the way. Energy, when effectively conveyed to other people, allows us to lead them positively. Leaders are, in essence, sources of energy, and people will follow a true leader if they feel enhanced, relaxed and supported by their leader’s energy.

Learning to believe

Herrera — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:21:31 +0000

If we believe that we are able to do something, we’ll do it. If we believe we cannot do something, we won’t do it. The fact of believing or not influences our results, regardless of the area: sportive, economic, professional, personal, etc. If we repeat an assert a lot of times, we will ultimately believe it, and by carrying it out, we are able to modify our behavior. In other words, we reprogram ourselves. Words believe and belief take a central role and a special interest in regards to our capacity for success. In every case, we must research, recur to introspection and identify which beliefs are limiting us and preventing us from acting the way we’d like to. Beliefs are born and consolidate to produce, afterwards, positive or negative effects. Such beliefs influence our decisions. In fact, a belief is a deeply-rooted conviction.

We should differentiate clearly between beliefs and ideas. An idea is the mental image, devoid of action, which subsequently creates the belief. The belief, in turn, is a deeply-rooted conviction which influences our behavior and is present in our decision-making process. Beliefs stem from ideas, bearing positive or negative nuances. An idea can turn into a positive belief which will help us to personal growth and self-improvement. Our problems start when ideas are limiting, creating limiting beliefs, and dangerously constraining our behavior.

Furthermore, beliefs are affected by a series of events which surround an individual and influence his ideas. These events are: cultural background, job, opinions, accumulated experience, and the circle of influence. On each of these events a person develops her own ideas which will ultimately be reflected on the beliefs she embraces.

The constant search of negative references and the mental repetition of limiting phrases such as “I’ll never make it” lead us to unconsciously adopting negative behaviors. In this context, we are subjugated by the negative suggestions that we repeat to ourselves incessantly. The only way to break free from this constraining spiral is to be aware of our power to change negative approaches. Change has to start right now.

That’s why it’s so important to have and to form positive ideas, in order to let them to turn into deep, automatic positive beliefs. In this way these positive beliefs will influence our behavior, and will lead us to a successful life, full of victories. Hence, the first sentence of this post: If we believe that we are able to do something, we’ll do it. If we believe we cannot do something, we won’t do it.

Exercises

Repeat 5 times: “I am a positive person, I can achieve my goals and I…” (complete the phrase)
Identify a negative idea you have. Think about how you could turn it into a positive idea.
Meditate about your main goals right now. Are they realistic, are they attainable?
Do you fear failure? Meditate about this: Fearing failure is natural. Everyone fails. The problem is not failure, the problem is to halt after failing. Winners, leaders keep trying, and that’s why they’re are successful and different.

A version of this post, in Spanish, can be read here.

At the core of Leadership

Herrera — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:37:31 +0000

Being a leader and enacting the virtues of leadership implies, mandatorily, that we have achieved success. The converse, however, is not necessarily true: reaching success does not mean we are leaders. Success is tantamount to conquering our goals. In other words, success means we have crossed the goal line.

Leadership can be defined as the will to control processes and events, to understand what is required to focus all of the involved activities in a specific direction, and to yield the power to complete tasks and distribute resources, properly harnessing and directing the abilities of each person involved in the project. Summarizing, leadership is about control, focus, and also about effective management of people and resources.

There are two kinds of leaders:

Nominal Leaders: The main goal of nominal leaders is to establish, between her organization and its environment, a set of relations which allow the perfect execution of a project’s tasks. A nominal leader defines such tasks and monitors them to verify they are carried out entirely.
Concrete Leaders: This kind of leader expresses and represents the perspectives of her group. It might happen that the nominal leader will not properly represent or understand the emotions of her people, and under such circumstances, a concrete leader could emerge and oppose the inpetitude of the nominal leader (and even replacing her.)

This tell us a very important fact: groups follow the person which is able to quickly and clearly connect with their emotions. Leadership is, then, also an emotional journey.

Some leaders are more effective managing small groups, instead of huge organizations. Other leaders are able to inspire great masses, but are little respected by their immediate collaborators. And there is a third group of leaders, the best leaders, whose followers are everyone: masses and close collaborators.

Regardless of the cognoscitive field a leader adresses, they have several interesting characteristic which distinguish them from everybody else. The 3 most visible characteristics of leaders are:

They have achieved incredible success in their work and in their private lives; it’s often said about them that they have the Midas touch.
They seem to own an unlimited luck.
They are rich, and they are getting richer (even right now).

There exists a wrong belief about leadership being a hereditary, genetic issue. And some people think being a successful, real leader is a matter of luck. Nothing further from the truth. Leadership has to be built, has to be shaped, and (very important) has to be mantained. And there’s always room for improvement.

All of we are able to achieve professional success. But we have to study, we have to observe, we have to learn which are the traits of leaders and the keys for success. Obviously, success can be achieved, taught and learnt: we have to reshape a set of our behaviors, and suit them to the profile of a successful person. We have previously touched upon 3 visible traits of leaders. Now it’s time to delve into this point. And now we’ll discuss the two key traits of leaders:

Motivation

Leaders are like tireless motivation machines. Leaders are continuosly motivating themselves, and they renew their motivations easily, almost effortlessly. Leaders communicate and convey their motivation to the people around them. Leader are always motivated, and always motivating their people.

Perseverance

And motivation is the fuel for the kernel of success: perseverance. They are entrepeneurs and innovators. Generally, successful people have faced harsh beginnings. What distinguishes them is their faith in what they are doing, in what they are pursuing. Leaders believe. Leaders insist in their projects, goals and tasks. They set realistic tasks, and they fight over and over until fully completing each one of such tasks. How many times do common people abandon their startups at the first view of difficulties? How many projects are never realized just because of plain laziness? It’s in that initial moment of doubt when leaders raise above the crowd. Leaders keep going forward, because they are relentless fighters. Note that leaders are perseverant in work and effective use of their resources. Perseverance without a rational application of forces and use of resource will only lead to an utter failure.

And what’s life but a struggle against the chaotic forces of the universe? Leaders are the warriors who are able to tame those chaotic trends

What we are going to make of our lives

Herrera — Sat, 21 May 2011 23:23:52 +0000

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.

Ronald Reagan

Emerson

Herrera — Sat, 14 May 2011 02:12:31 +0000

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

R. W. Emerson

On Anxiety

Herrera — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:07:09 +0000

Anxiety is a state of restlessness, and most of the time such state cannot be justified. It is not fear of something concrete at the outside but expresses our inner emotional conflicts. The person feels threatened by something of unreal nature, and is unable to handle such emotions. The anxious person may have been conditioned very early and may continue to be anxious in adulthood. It then becomes a characteristic of his nature that pervades all their actions and which turns the person in a candidate to suffer stress. Anxious people are fast, are always in a hurry, can not afford the time for all the activities they want to develop and are used to work on two or three things at once. When eating, anxious people swallow whole foods -tasteless- and consequently often suffer from dyspepsia, indigestion, bloating, irritable bowel, etc.

Anxious people are often balancing their legs when sitting or drumming their fingers on the table. They respond before you ask a question, and are also ahead of events and “fleeing forward”. When anxious people fear the may lose control they can suffer panic attacks. They need to have control over things and processes, and they cannot cope with contexts in which they are not in full control of the events.

Anxiety, luckily, can be controlled and reversed and we can learn to live a more balanced and relaxed life, and improve our quality of life overall:

Learn to breathe.
Sit down to eat slowly and chew all food. If needed, put a sign in sight to remember to eat slowly.
Yoga may be helpful.
Learn to observe. Anxious people must learn to concentrate on the little things that surround them. Do all your daily routines more slowly, observing everything around. Do what you love to do slowly, enjoying the process and without committing only to results, because if you focus only on the results, you will feel anxiety. An excessive desire to excel, to be the best of the best, triggers anxiety because it relies on the commitment to results. Know how to visualize your goals properly.
Lighten your schedule and learn to say no. There is a difference between being selfish and having self-esteem. Self-confidence is respect for oneself and one’s own needs, and selfishness is to use people for personal benefits. Learn to manage your time.
Take a walk, every day. Watch nature, trees, birds, the color of sky and detect changes from day to day.
Do not dismiss pending issues and take advantage of opportunities to pursue them.

If you suffer from anxiety, do something today, start right now.

Life, Money & Development » Personal Development

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