Freedom of speech

We are all transitory passengers on a beautiful planet.
Creatures with an expiration date that should enjoy every second of life we are given, cherish it and strive towards living now and living as best as possible (however you want to define best).
Living a meaningful life in a world filled with more and more meaningless information and noise is increasingly challenging.
We are constantly assaulted from all sides with more and more noise that distracts us, it distracts our lives, our lives distract other lives and ultimately the world as whole becomes distracted.

So, how to fight this disturbance? How do we approach this weaponless war with people that we don’t know anything about?
Do we have the tools and internal mechanisms to fight and survive and most importantly do we know how to use them?

You’ve probably guessed it already but for the ones out there that didn’t, I am talking about the threat coming from the uprise of the current social science theories especially gaining popularity in the US and also UK.
An uprise causing blunt and forced modifications on how we express ourselves, how we think, how we should present ourselves so that we are more and more politically correct. Modifications on how we live our lives.
Some might not agree it’s a threat, and that is totally fine just please remember that anything that is bluntly imposed and affects your life in a way that forces you to tweak it and modify parts (bigger or smaller) against your will or better against your natural instincts can be defined as a threat. Not to our physical freedom (we had the biggest attack on that in 2020 which is still continuing) but what is maybe more important to our mental freedom that is constantly and daily restricted.
Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not trying to say people shouldn’t be respectful, sensible and respect other people, but as I know how to respect and be sensible, I expect others are sensible and respectful of me back right? If I don’t agree with you does it mean that I disagree? Should you be always right and is your standpoint the standpoint? If I don’t impose anything on you, why should you impose anything on me?

There is an art of not agreeing with someone. It evokes and gives birth to constructive discussions.
We must understood that we can’t be all the same and we should respect the opinion of anybody out there (within its limits of course because there are many out there that are just idiots). At the same time, we should learn how to become more and more resilient and not become too sensible because it really is not worth it. Each one of us should learn these skills however they want so that we ultimately live in a better world. In a world where I won’t be judged if I say idiots to real idiots. A world in which I won’t be judged if I say gipsy to my friend in a totally loving way without any meaning to offend anyone. In a world where I can say that I do support LGBT movements but honestly it feels all forced and imposed. In a world where I can say I am sick and disgusted of the influence that social media has on people. In a world where I can say freely what I think about the corporate bullshit culture.

I refuse to live in a world filled and biased with further limitations, having to always pick a side and having to always think 30 times before I say or write anything. Instead I choose and will fight to live in a world with real freedom of speech where people truly respect each other where they can just brush stupidities, don’t have to pick side and move on with their lives.

Enjoy life with all its delicacies.
Whatever it takes.

Sincerely yours,
CS

Resolution & Awareness

First day of 2021. Nothing much has changed from yesterday’s night hasn’t it?

I almost started the New Year sleeping because honestly I couldn’t care less, especially not in a year like this one. However, the screen on my cellphone was showing 23:55 when I was woken up by the sound of the fireworks that were everywhere on the Milan grim shadowy sky filled with clouds, uncertainties and shadows. It felt good seeing the sky lighten up but this year felt different.

Albeit being 10 km far from the city centre, I could hear the silence of all the people out there. And it felt weird. For the first time in my life this silence was not an enjoyable one. It wasn’t the silence that you hear when you are on a mountain far away from the traffic sounds in the metropolis we all live in, nor the silence you can hear on a piano concert whilst waiting for the artist to start playing.
Instead, this silence contained the suffering of all of the people near my new flat that were smiling, celebrating and wishing each others Happy New Year and of all the other people out there, of me and you, that couldn’t wait for this year to end. 2021 has to be better, surely right?

As much as I want that, not just for myself but for all of us out there, and as much as I am an optimist in life, I can’t see this happening.
Unless all of us admit that all of this didn’t make sense.
Yes we might be protected physically but at what cost? Isn’t also mental health as many doctors out there rightfully claim also important? Why does the media never report about this? Why do we only see negativity all around us?
And what’s the end game of all of this and the deadline?
Everything in life has a deadline and an expiration date. No matter how hard it might be to accept that. And everything has it’s own counterpart.
For life it’s called death.

Life is meant to be a collection of moments, a mosaic of our memories intertwined with the memories of all of the people we get to see, feel, touch and share our opinion with on a daily basis. It is meant to be feeling that silence I mentioned before whilst swimming freely at 2 AM on a hot summer night and reflecting on our lives, careers and memories. It is meant to be sharing what you have with the people close to you and the society around you, helping the old lady on the street, taking a tea with your colleagues, kissing a random girl in the club and most likely receiving a slap.
That is what makes life more beautiful and meaningful.
Not money, not fears, not living in a bubble and waiting and hoping that it will get better.

I am perfectly aware that many of us lost or knew someone that lost someone close during this politically manipulated pandemic. And I feel sorry for each one of them. I felt sorry for the victims at the explosion of the port in Lybia. I also felt sorry for the Bataclan victims in France some years ago. At the same time I feel sorry for all the people out there that are thinking about suiciding because of this pandemic. The people that can’t hope anymore and they are at their limit. Who helps them? Will a vaccine help them? No, because the damage is already done. They weren’t lucky like others to hope and dream of a better future, because if you don’t have a stable present it’s hard to have a good future and hope for it. And besides, they can’t hope even if they wanted to since their dreams were shattered.

It’s not impossible, because nothing is impossible in life, but life is meant to be lived in the present not in the future and hoping a speedy return back to normality.
Besides, do we really want to go back to a controlled capitalistic “normality” that is or was already flawed for many reasons? I certainly don’t. What I want is to return to our thoughts, to our freedom, to a life not exclusively online, to drinking a champagne for New Year all together. To a reality where we all have to understand and accept that we are fragile and not immortal. This is how the world has been created and how it will continue after this pandemic.

May 2021 bring much more awareness to all of us.
Health of course, but awareness as well.
Don’t be controlled and trapped inside more than we were before the start of 2020. Don’t be controlled by your fears, at least not too much, and live life.
Remember that nothing is certain in life and it will never be.
We are the architects of life and we are fragile, but we must continue building.
With stronger materials, bricks and ideas. With critical thinking and recognition that only by not stopping we can go forward. Only by not stopping can all the generations after ours can live a better life than we did.

This is my wish to all of you
Happy New 2021

Sincerely Yours,
CS

Passion & Dreams

It’s amazing when people give you an inspiration to write.
Isn’t that moment, that feeling just beautiful, when people can so suddenly and abruptly affect your life?

In my last post I was writing how a single thought can be the reason for change.
Continuing on that idea, today my writing inspiration came after seeing couple of cooking videos. Totally “randomic” videos at first (or at least I thought they were) until I was watching more and more of them and was becoming more and more interested in them.

The first video I’ve watched was a MasterChef video from an Australian guy which made some breathtaking deserts. With such delicacy, finesse, passion, precision, drive and creativity. At only 21. Not that years are important when you are determined and have a high motivation to succeed in life anyway.
I’ve then continued to watch some motivational speeches from Marco Pierre White, the youngest 3 Michelin stars winner. As he continued to narrate and explain how from when he was a boy he was driven by his dreams, fears and ambitions, I knew that I had to open my laptop and start writing about how important is to follow your dreams and fantasies.
Especially in this modern society and time, society which is slowly becoming void of real and true passion. Wherever you look and turn.

Life is beautiful Dear All.
Not just because of the videos I’ve watched. But because we are allowed to have those dreams and experience that passion in life. For whatever it is. Even in the darkest and most depressive times, it’s those dreams and passion that carry us forward and carries society forward. Collectively. But we must be the ones that make it beautiful and meaningful.
We must be the ones that plant the seeds so that the flowers can bloom.
The sooner we start the better it is of course. Some flowers might bloom late, and that is perfectly fine, as long as we know where we started and which seeds we’ve chosen at the start. And even if at the end we don’t get the result we’ve desired we can always start again.
It doesn’t matter if time is passing away. As long as we have that passion and dream. What is life at the end if not a collection of everybody’s dreams and a mix of experiences and memories that shape us and make us happy? A unity which brings us forward as a society and let us build and construct a better world, a happier world that we then leave for the next generations.
Aren’t those the things that push us forward in the most difficult situations, when we are at the edge of a cliff, when we are stuck in the middle of the wormhole, helpless and thoughtless? When we see that the world around us collapses and becomes static and one dimensional.

They surely push me forward and I am quite confident they push many of you out there too. Even if that number nowadays is getting lower and lower, there will always be people like us out there. As long as we are alive I know that we won’t stop believing in those dreams. As Marco Pierre. And Martin Luther King.
Because when you stop believing, what else is there? You are left with the scraps in life, digging your own grave without being aware that that grave is getting deeper and deeper, believing in your self constructed individualistic idea that your life is getting better and better where in reality your passion and dreams had disappeared long time ago and before you wake up it’s already late and you can’t reach the ground and see the light anymore. Those scraps in life are nothing but mare delusions, self-deceptions that are surely not making your life any special and they don’t improve the lives of the people around you.
On the contrary, they just push yourself, the society and the world down that melancholic cliff.
It’s only through thinking about the rest of the people around us ourselves we build that strong wholistic society and make the world a better place.
Through passion and dreams. Only by having a strong will, determination and motivation, can this world exist and become an even better place to live.
For all of us.

This is why, my dear readers, I invite you to:

• Have an idea of what your dreams are
• Act on your dreams: step by step and stone by stone
• Follow that fire, embrace it and don’t let it diminish or disappear
• Build your life and work on it, as that’s the way you will be truly happy
• Not let the modern society stand in your way, no matter how hard and difficult it is
• Be happy and think about yourselves, your family and the whole society around you

Lastly, my dear readers, I invite you to follow your passion and dreams, even when you are not dreaming.
I know I won’t stop.

Sincerely yours,
CS

Changes (that’s just the way it is)

2020, what a year.

A slow paced year. Or a fast paced year.
It all depends which side of the coin you decide to look at.

Slow because most of us had to live in a different reality, in a reality which is void of travelling and constant motion. A reality which was more about staying at home. Fast because the change was rapid and it gave us much time for ourselves and it gave us time to explore our needs and priorities in life.
A fast self exploratory adventure of our depths and inner selves that many needed.
But some didn’t. They didn’t because some of us go through these thoughts more regularly and they don’t need a pandemic to start thinking about their own lives and how do they live it. Of course that the pandemic inflicted and speeded up the thought process about where we are heading, but ideally each one of us shouldn’t just accept their life as it is (for whatever reason) and they should always strive for the better.
For something that will make our lives better and will make us happier.
Because at the end life should be about happy moments, moments that we enjoy and moments that really make us appreciate life and time itself.

I decided to write this post because I think that many don’t enjoy life fully.
And today I realized that I am one of those people that don’t. And I wasn’t sad.
On the contrary I was very happy and satisfied. I was happy and smiling because it was some sort of a revelation. Every now and then we all need those revelations in life that start with just a simple thought, a thought that we need in order to to see life from a different angle. An angle that gives us many other opportunities and challenges.
A thought can open new horizons in our life that are needed for our mental health and life in general. Or it can close those horizons. The coin has always two sides.

When I am talking about new horizons I am talking about getting out of that comfort zone we all enjoy.
We enjoy it because it provides us a false safety, a false stability that we use to base our life on. And if the base is false, what kind of a life is it then? It is most certainly not alive and real. We were all raised and taught to have that stability and financial safety. But without a proper motive why does it matter? In a dynamic world full of constant changes , why do we limit ourselves to something that is constant? Isn’t that counter productive? Maybe we need that stability to balance the world around us. But from a Libra perspective I can tell you that it certainly doesn’t balance it. It doesn’t balance it because in this capitalistic society most of us strive for a good job and they are happy when they receive it. But it’s a false happiness and safety. And it took me 3 years of working in an office (and home office recently) to realize that. Working for a salary.
Working for a position. Jumping from one project to another, endlessly. For what? Should that be really the driver? Even if after 20 years we become the CEO of Amazon, if you weren’t satisfied along your journey, would it really matter? Many of you might say: “It’s life and you have to survive somehow”. Yes and that is true, but if you don’t change something you basically end up living your life as a slave. You are a slave to your work. You are a slave to life because you are chained. You are a slave to the government that controls you. You are a slave to society that might see you as different so you are afraid to change. You are a slave to yourself.
And you are convinced it’s good because it gives you that false stability.
Stability covered in sadness, stress and frustration.

So that is why I am dedicating this post to changes.
And since I am a stoic, the change must happen in the present.
For a better life. For a life fulfilled with happiness and joy.
For myself, the people around me and my (future) family.
For the entire society, because I really started to find “normal capitalistic” life dull. Life is too short and if we don’t act at this moment and make slow but important steps, we are drawn in that comfort zone again and the thought is gone. And it might not reappear again. What kind of changes will my life endure I still don’t know. But for sure it will be for the better.
Because I know that whatever I choose to change it will be a meaningful change.
Conveyed in a certain dose of risk, but risks are there to be taken in life, aren’t they?

All thanks to that thought that crossed my mind today.

Stay safe and read/write along.

Sincerely yours,
ControlledStranger

Mental fortitude

2020.

What a troublesome and rocky this year has already been. Australia fires, Covid, closed borders, global pandemic, privacy violations, limitation of movement, mass protests, all sport events cancelled, schools closed, culture on hold, people getting fired, people getting killed…The list goes on. All of that certainly has its toll to all of us. And there are 6 months ahead of us that can make it, and based on the recent world happenings it will make this year even more irksome and difficult for all of us. But to what degree was difficult and can we all learn something out of it, even if many (rightly so maybe?) want to just forget about everything and (partially) move on? Can we or better should we want that old reality back, as if nothing happened? Is that even possible?

Certainly not so. No matter why did all this happen and who is behind all of it, whether it’s mother nature or the most dangerous animal of all, it is a warning. It is a serious warning that should make people think, that something was seriously wrong with the old reality. As if people forget or want to forget about the old reality and how many flaws did that reality had. Let’s start by the global warming and people being in their comfort zone. 3 days ago I saw a picture where on 11th of June in Europe in 2019 there were 724 flights. 1 year ahead: only 34. As a direct consequence of that, the emission of carbon dioxide reduced significantly. And with that, even if for just a short period of time, the carbon footprint improved. Isn’t that something we hoped for and made global treaties in order to try to improve that situation? Isn’t that glimmer of reduced emission a positive? Yes, it came with the cost of many sacrifices, deaths and huge unemployment peaks, and maybe I am not in the position to express my opinion and say that can ever be a positive since I was never on that unfortunate flip of the coin, but I feel like I want to say something and try to highlight and depict the situation from my point of view.

There is a dilemma in my mind: Was this all caused by nature or is this all orchestrated? Or maybe even both? Which brings me to the second point that I’ve mentioned before: comfort zone or better bubble we lived in and trying to learn and draw some personal and collective aspects out of  this waking tipping point. As if someone, and I can’t say God because I am an agnostic, waited that we enter this decade and start punishing humanity. So, if they punish humanity we must have done something wrong, something that wasn’t right. Whether it is nature or humanity, the period and the year can’t be a coincidence, also because coincidences don’t exist. Let’s presume it was nature. It comes after serious years of destroying nature, one way or another one. For our personal, selfish and reckless gains. People say they care about the future, but when they say that they only think about their future. A better future for them and their families. And they don’t even see the present and the world unfolding or crashing in front of their eyes. Or even if they see it, they just want to avoid it and live in their bubble and comfort zone. Many claim that they are “global” citizens, but till the moment the Corona virus didn’t knock on their country doors nobody cared what happened in China. Is that the reality people so desperately want back? Where they can return to their consumerism, individualistic world without any or little care given? Till the point where they arrive at their finish line, feeling “happy” as if they succeeded something in life? I don’t want to write this or even think in this direction, because it’s cruel but if that is so, then this crisis was welcomed and needed. The US protests right now are needed, because they reveal problems that were deeply ingrained into the core of society. Sadly, nobody or just a small amount of people will learn something out of all this and will draw some lessons. Sadly only some will dig deep and learn something about them after months of lockdowns and being closed at home. Because people want to avoid things. They want to avoid themselves. And distract and delay everything in their lives their entire lives. Never accepting reality, never accepting sacrifice and never revealing their true nature.

Let’s pass to the “theory” that humanity or someone, whether it’s Masons or Illuminati and/or governments are behind all of this. Why would they want this? Why would they be destroying their economies? The first thing that comes to my mind is new world order and more control over people. More control through the means of social distancing. Because through social distancing and people staying at home and being constantly and more online governments can have a better image of everyone. And they can easily control people. Even the ones that acclaim themselves as rebels. By orchestrating everyone, people are more afraid than before. And for a generation like this that, the younger ones especially, that was already controlled by the online mechanism that they tweaked so that it serves them, it is devastating. Because people now are more afraid than ever before. They want to “escape” reality even more. And weren’t we taught that we should overcome our fears? Even in this scenario where it can be dangerous for our lives? Because if we live with fear, we acclimate to it, and it controls us. We lie to each other that that fear will disappear with the next vaccine. And the next vaccine. And the one after that. But if we don’t make crucial changes to our lives, no vaccine will help us. And that is what governments want. That we want to live with that constant fear, fear of the unknown and the reality. I am not saying that this virus was a hoax. It can never be. I’ve endured a 2 and a half months lockdown. And never complained. I never asked for that old reality back. Because I know it sucks. Because even there, people are controlled and reality is controlled. I read something a week ago that said: “It’s easier to control a mass of people than a single person”. If all of this was created by  “them” do we really want to go back? And wait for the next 2 years for that vaccine?

I refuse to accept that waiting and refuse to wish for that old reality. No matter who caused this and what else might come ahead, bring it life. We might have ahead a turning point, a Renaissance, a unique opportunity that we must use it. And like in every war and a major event in history, there must be suffering. Who knows, maybe I will get Covid or something else might happen to me, and I will suffer too. But I refuse to not fight back. No matter how hard it might be, and even if it’s the end. Because life is worth suffering. For the better of all of us. There must be suffering so that there is a brighter future, so that we see the sun after the rain. There is no easy way. Yes it will, and it is painful. And yes I might not feel that pain now and might not feel it, but I will embrace it and won’t ask for a false past nor false future. All of us must learn out of all this. Whereas it’s the easy or hard way. We must learn that probably nothing will be the same.  We must be mentally stronger and built that mental fortitude. No matter how hard it might be. And that the world will turn upside down. But we deserved that. And we need that.

So that we can construct a better present and future. Not just for ourselves. But for the world itself, for this planet we are living on. We must exit this crisis and this bubble or comfort zone of ours knowing that there was a reason for all of this and beat the demons out there (first ours). So that nobody can control us, so that we don’t lie to ourselves and we don’t pretend. So that we are more honest, more worthy, more intelligent and better people. So that we don’t fool each other anymore and don’t lie to ourselves anymore.

At the end of the day, isn’t that what we wished for at 00:00:01 on 1st of January in 2020, to be better version of ourselves, be happy and have a good year? Even in the darkest of times, it depends on us.

Motivation

10AM and I am already over an hour in my bed. And yeah for many of us it is fine since it’s Sunday and it’s cold outside. But that is just an excuse. A safe zone. And I don’t want to stay in my safe zone. I need to do something and feel myself doing something.

Because I need to feel alive. While the city is still sleeping and relaxing. I can’t. Because staying too safe and too long at my safe zone is not safe. My mind protests and challenges my body. The libra scale is too heavy on one side and I must balance it out.

But where can this motivation for me to get up and do something on a day like this? Not from a book surely. I don’t need a story from someone else to tell me how to live and how did he or she succeed. Because that is not applicable in my life. I must learn by myself. And put my life to the test. And myself. I can’t control c and control v someone’s life. Despite not going to the prison for that I should! It is one of the greatest sins.

No, I must find my motivation within me. From my feelings towards the world. From my perception and from the way we see the world. Each one of us differently. Some more special like me. Or you. I for example find it on a daily basis. By seeing the smiling kid in the market. By seeing the crying kid which when it sees me cries but it’s curious of who is this face that sees me and smiles. I find it in the people that clean the streets and the only cars I hear on a morning like this. I find it in looking above and seeing a plane the sky and knowing that people are reaching their destination safely. Their happiness is my happiness.

I also find my motivation in looking at myself in the mirror after a gym session. Yes, it might be egoistic and yes it might be vanity but there is something about the shape of our bodies, feeling good and motivation. I also motivate myself when I hear someone listen some popular music with 0 quality and I know that my next song will be some criminally underrated song which is amazing. Because of the fact that I have that good taste of things that I can decide and deduce quality. And then that will motivate me. Easily.

Just like you can deduce whether this post is worth reading or not. We do it automatically. And we all motivate ourselves in different ways. Just like I did to write this post and by writing it realizing I must head out.

Sincerely yours, CS

 

Life and its intricacy

We are all born in the same way. We all end our existence on different ages and in a different way. And nobody knows clearly when can that happen or how can that happen. It just happens. But does it just happen, really? Is it that simple to say that somebody else, someone unknown controls our faith and designs our timeline? Is it that simple to say that there is one global architect that knows our destiny and we don’t have a say in it? Especially since faith and destiny are vague words and they don’t mean much.

It’s surely much more complex than that. We all take decisions in our lives based on many many different visible and hidden or subconscious factors. Like gems, these decisions pop out of nowhere and lead our lives. But once again it can’t be out of thin air and it must be dependable. Each of our actions is connected to another in life. Whether we are aware of that or not, they do. And not many people think of that. Or better they don’t want to be bothered. Because they simplify life. They don’t like getting out of the box and they fall in the common principles and rules. That’s why stereotypes exist. That’s why people are more and more stressed and more and more worried. And yes the genie in the locker room that’s why more and more people are having depression and anxiety. A mental illnesses that unfortunately I never understood or I am refusing to understand. Yes I know that life is difficult hence the topic of this post, but we need to be more confident. And believe more in ourselves. Not close ourselves no matter what goes in life. Yes, no matter what goes in life. Whether we didn’t have a good childhood, whether we don’t have money at some moment, whether we don’t have a job at the moment, whether we are lonely, whether we didn’t have sex yesterday and that day before that it all doesn’t matter. Whatever happened it is behind us. We all are striving to become better. Then why sulk and stay closed? Why hurt ourselves and not open and talk about our problems? We all have that one person in our life that we can trust. And if don’t we should make it, because there is nothing better than telling someone else about everything that is going on. Over a beer or over a whiskey.

We are living in a society that instead of enjoying life and taking risks, exploring everything around us, constantly craving new information we hide from it. Like it’s the devil. But yet, somehow everyone knows everything. Instead of doing the exact opposite of that, we satisfy with the minorities in life. And blame it on life. Follow the patterns and then complain. Create a family because it’s the norm and then divorce. Don’t study and then complain you don’t have a good job. Don’t do sports and then complain you aren’t food. Don’t take care of your diet and complain you are obese. But blame the others and life because it’s easier.

Whatever we decide in life it’s our choice. We must see it from all the sides. All the time. From as many perspectives as possible at the moment. In moments of fear. In moments of difficulties and also beauties. Not satisfy with the norms. Because norms create false peace that can brake at any moment because they make life and us fragile and not secure. Do something different. Something that you like, because doing something that you don’t wouldn’t make much sense, but different. That’s the beauty of life. We can’t be all the same. We can’t follow the same straight line and think about our individualistic role that is copied from the others. We must explore it and create our own rules and support the common point. Which is making this chance of life that was given to us better for all of us. Unite the timelines and connect between each not disconnect.

And not be afraid of that timeline and creating it. Because that makes life intrinsic and enjoyable. Simple isn’t it?

Mornings

It’s Friday. For many of us end of the working week.

The weather outside is gloomy and cloudy. My morning coffee feels different and my first daily cigarette feels different on days like these. Kinda better. There is always something special, a special sort of connection between a morning like this one and your morning coffee/tea. All that combined with the legendary Massive Attack and one of their most famous songs Paradise Circus make for a special atmosphere and an ideal start of a day with a weather like this.

I’ve noticed that the way we start our mornings is quite important. It’s important for our daily work our daily functioning and it prepares us for the daily challenges each of us faces throughout the day. Whether that is taking a plane early in the morning, starting our car and going to work, going on a prolonged weekend to the mountains, or simply opening up WordPress like me and starting to write a post, the way we start our morning is crucial on how will we “perform” throughout the day. It’s crucial on how the others we exchange information with, whether that is people online, on social media, colleagues, servers, machines perceive us. If we are tired and didn’t sleep well or/and didn’t wake up properly, listened to Miley Cirus instead they all affect our behaviour and the way we transmit ourselves and our energy to the rest of the world around us.

And that is pretty significant because if we feel good in the morning (as I feel right now) we will feel good also later. Not necessarily true, but it’s an important building block. The time when we wake up is also important. For a person that wakes up without an alarm and never gets late to work, waking up when most around me are sleeping lets me asses the day and the world better. There is that beautiful silence when you wake up at 6 or 7 AM, before the others, where you just enjoy the environment, your mind slowly turns the lights and switches on, and is prepared for the challenges. But is one day enough? Is waking up today at 7 and tomorrow at 12PM and then at 9AM that important. Of course it is. Our bodies like routine. The more we standardize the times we go to sleep and we make it a pattern, even if I am not a big fan of patterns and repetitive things, the better our bodies feel and the better we will feel. We will start our day better and in many case more productive. However productivity is measured.

You can’t not enjoy mornings like these ones. Where you have time for everything even if time is limited and it’s the most undervalued resource that many of us neglect, and you can be yourself, before presenting yourself to the world. Like I will when I hit that publish button. And that will make me feel better, because before starting work, I already did something I like. And life is all about doing the things we like in the best moments possible. We must grasp every challenge, issue, moment, detail of life and enjoy it. Because life is beautiful. Especially on mornings like this one.

Time to take a shower and head out.

Sincerely yours,

CS

 

Savings and safe-control

Beautiful day today in Milan. Nice sunny warm day to run and/or just sight see it, wander around and walk the endless wide streets with trees in the middle, take a coffee or just go to the shop and do some grocery shopping while seeing and listening how the elderly people spend 30 minutes on the cashier because they just want talking about    everything and anything.

And there I was, walking on one of the streets near my Monday-Friday work where I saw this 30% weekend off advertisement at one of the shops. Which instantly gave me the idea to write this post. Now, before I dwell into this, rest assured that I like shopping. I like buying myself semi-expensive stuff also because I am a Libra and as some of you might know Libras do tend to take particular care of their fashion and style.  We are not obsessed with it but I must admit that we like it and enjoy looking nice.

But the content of this post is not about fashion or how beautiful is Milan, it’s about that 30% weekend off on all clothes in that store (of course if we ignore the * sign where at the end we found that the discount is only on socks). Now, many of you are aware that this is of course is a famous trick retail companies use to draw costumers and earn their revenue. And yes we all love those mega discount months or periods where we go and empty our cards and wallets. But are they really necessary and even if we might buy all the clothes and accessories we need, are they the ones we really want?

And this is important. It’s important because the perspective of people and to some extent their life changes because of it. In a money driven world, we are led to believe and think that we save money. But are we really? Aren’t we just losing more time wandering around the store about the piece that has the biggest discount, and fight like headless chickens in a chicken ring about who takes it first? Aren’t we in 90% of the time just going and finding out that the piece that might be worth for that discount usually has no numbers and it’s an old collection or off season?

Moreover, we surely will find some of the discounted clothes with the same price throughout the year. But we will save time (and time is the best limited resource we posses) not spent in looking through every single item and will save time not waiting in lines with other people.

What also changes is the quality of the piece we will get. And maybe most importantly: Our opinion and the level of satisfaction with that piece of clothing. Now this changes everything. At least in my case. Our satisfaction of our clothes is an important factor in life. It gives us confidence. And confidence brings motivation. And it improves relationships. And so on. What I am trying to say is that through our clothes we express ourselves to ourselves and to the world. Daily.

What I am also trying to say is that buying a single blouse rather than two blouses that together cost as the single one, is better. And will help us save. Even if it might not seem like it. Also because, it will be more genuine and the likelihood that people will buy it is less. Remember how they teach us that every person is different? Clothing adds to that. And it helps us build our identity.

Said that I perfectly understand that some can’t afford that and will buy those two blouses. But is it a must? Is it that different having one instead of two in terms of quantity? Not really. Which brings me to the other aspect of the entire topic: self-control. This also changes the game. Being able to resist is almost always better. Resist to our own temptation. I own that that is hard, especially in this modern time of distractions. But self control and resisting that need to just “blindly” shop will do us a world of good.

Many of you might not agree with me and might find flaws in my logic, but I can’t help it: I like my reasoning and  I like that when seeing a 30% off sign I get the idea to briefly touch on that marketing philosophy and how can we think twice before even entering. All with the purpose in improving ourselves. Because our lives and the quality of life is more important than two pieces of discounted clothes.

Time

I have just watched a YouTube video.

And this video as many of them was just a video. But at least this time it was a content worthy one. But wait, aren’t all videos content based and/or content worthy? What is a content worthy video anyway? It’s a very simple concept at least for me: a video that is worth watching and that you can actually learn or pick up something useful from. It was about Time and 10 principles of why Time is our most valuable resource.

But what is time? What does time consist of? Can it be expressed as only a linear formula of a sum of the past present and the future as many or the majority of us believe? Maybe. Maybe because some of us, with the right to do so, will define it not as a continuous and linear line with a deadline. Whether is a continuous or irregular it has an ending line. Whether that ending line is actually the beginning of another life and we reincarnate, or whether we as humans one day shift the clock for 180 degrees and start going back in life it’s not definitive. What is definitive at least for now, is that time is our most valuable resource and the time in the past is unalterable. The time in the present is transitory and the time in the future is uncertain. Now yes, many can think that we can control time and we can manage it better, live the way to the fullest etc, but in reality what we are managing is our lives not time. Because from the day we are born we are all given certain amount of time. How long do we have? Nobody knows. Why do we posses it? Again nobody can tell. What we can tell is how to use that time, our time.  It’s not a shared resource, it’s a resource of life that we as owners of life decide how to use it.

Just like I’ve decided to write this post and use the portion of the definitive portion of time that was given to me when I was born to compose it, you will decide whether you will read this post or just skip it. Or you will use it for getting out with your friends this Friday night, have sex with a really good looking guy/girl, go to the Mt Everest next year, study for your next exam, watch the best episode of Game of Thrones etc etc… A combination of many different things and memories is the constitute of our lives.  It’s those memories that are somehow the key. We think more and more about the future then the very past. And rarely about the past. Well without the past we can’t be what we will be in the future and certainly we can’t be where we are now. Before we reflect and spend time to assess everything we have done so far, everything that we want to do and we miss in order to be happy, check which mistakes and which were our key strengths and improve them constantly we can’t progress. We will waste our time on leisure and luxuries which contribute very little to our lives and don’t define us. Yes, I might read who Charlie Sheen shagged last, take my 29th selfie of the day, check the latest stylish fiasco of Kim Kardashian, watch the newest episode of Stranger Things and comment that with my friends, gossip the cashier that smiled at me at the store this morning but what’s the bottom line of that? How is that adding to my life? Yes it might be interesting, I might crack a joke, I might meet a new person and will contribute to my temporary happiness, but 3 hours later, that will be only 30 minutes subtracted and forever gone from my life. I am very aware that all of the above is not an absolute truth, and I know there might be many variations to it, but what this stranger is trying to say is focus on the now. And how. Don’t be preoccupied with it, but treat time as the resource with highest value. Take risks and don’t be too stressed about the future. We can lose money, and we can go bankrupt but if we lose time, we can’t make more. We can just add to that time we have and enrich it. With memories. Travel experiences. Actions. Worthy actions. Reading, training our minds, working what we want to work or working towards what we want to work. Dedicate into something that makes us happy, and that will permit us to smile after 10 years when we look back in the past and remember that exact moment which is now. Life is now. Yes we can have goals and we must set them, but we are busy just because we make ourselves busy. If you just say yes to everything and don’t leave time for the things you want in your life, that make you happy and bring you memories it doesn’t make sense and it’s not worth.

Because 15 years after, I won’t remember how many likes I had on my selfie on the 6th of September or how many money I had on my bank account, but I will very vaguely remember this post, or if I visited Mt Everest or if I drew the next Mona Lisa.