Section TED OF THE DAY: Programming your mind for success by Carrie Green

About the Section: THE TED OF THE DAY

Personally I consider TED one of the most powerful, insightful, inspiring and awesome initiatives for knowledge sharing. So many times I have been inspired for this talks and each time that this happen the minimum think that I can do is sharing it, this is the why I have created this section. I hope you enjoy it I do.

About TED

It is a non-profit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. It believes in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. 

Programming your mind for success | Carrie Green | 

Carrie Green started her first online business at the age of 20, whilst studying Law at the University of Birmingham. Within a few years she took the business global, selling throughout the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Europe and receiving over 100,000 hits on the website every month. In 2011 Carrie launched the Female Entrepreneur Association as a way to help inspire and connect female entrepreneurs from around the world. The network has grown to over 140,000 women and they now produce a digital magazine, This Girl Means Business, weekly videos, free online classes and more.

Read More

Professional career advice 1 - Set a personal Vision

Consider the following before to start, do you remember this time when you read,  listened or saw something that have made you think about changes/goals in your life? That is called inspiration! Now think, how many times did you get to accomplish that changes/goals? I guess that the answer is not 100% of the times, unfortunately the most of us use to start personal projects so often but we do not get finish all of them. Conclusion: Inspiration is good it is the energy to start! but without your personal decision, actions and discipline you will never  improve or change anything!  So I really hope you get inspired with this post in some way and then work until the end of your life for your personal vision.

PERSONAL VISION 

This is the most important step that you have to take in order to set a successful professional career. Without knowing your destination, you will never reach it. Thinks that you are like a ship in that huge sea called life and you have to set your final destination and know the different stops (Experiences) that will let you reach there. 

Action step 

Take a couple of minutes of uninterrupted time. Take a piece of paper and a pen and write down the answers for the following question. Do not skip this! This is most likely the hardest part of this guide this will be your motivation and source of inspiration for the next steps!

- Who do you want to become (Your Vision)? 

Be your own wonderful creature. Think in your final destination

- Which are your biggest  Professional achievement? Dream Job?  Entrepreneur?

- What do you know or do better than anyone? Identify your strengths!

- What make you happy? Identify in your passion

- Which are my core values / Miles tones? What behaviours will lead you to your vision

- How do you want to be remembered after you die?

Seriously you need to really think about these questions and answer them. Do it now. As long as you've taken those few minutes on your time, you are already on the right way. You've already done more than 99% of normal people do. You are taking actions! and ownership! Feel great about yourself! 

The next post (The step 2) will be related with GOALS! So far the step 1 give us a self diagnostic , a dream, a big picture about what we want, with that we have the general objective to pursuit and starting a plan. 

Read More

There aren't better books than these which inspire you.

I want specialty recommend  and share some thoughts about this amazing book which while I was going through each page it really got inspiring me so many times.  I just finished it the last moth its name is; La ruta de la Seda / The Silk Path (2nd book) by Bernard Ollivier (I read the Spanish version)

12.000 kms afoot through the mystic silk path! This is the "crazy" goal that Bernard Ollivier a french journalist decided to carry out!  At this time he is 62 years old! (Yeah 62!), he travels alone with only something of money, his bag-pack, his camera and a notebook. 

Just to help you to imagine why this is so amazing and exiting book and to give some kind of context to my final thoughts in this post, I did this roughly map that shows what this guy did only walking, (Green line is the first book and red line the second one) basically he crossed 4 countries walking;  Since Istanbul (Turkey),  Iran, Turkmenistan  to finally reach Samarkand (Uzbekistan).

  

Things that the book made me think

Follow your dreams! It doesn't matter what crazy this could be, Bernard has walked about 8.000 kms just because he set this as personal goal and he has this amazing wanderlust and craving for walk! 

The power of start with the end in mind, with the clear picture of what you want to reach, this will be enough to carry on. When all was going really bad, tough and looked like it will be impossible to finish that was only what Bernard thought to continue! 

Wherever you are going, you will find unbelievable kind and friendly people, Bernard had countless stories about how the people help him, I think without them he wouldn't  be able to reach his goal.

We walk the toughest paths don't with our body but with our mind and esprit, Bernard mention this in different parts of the route; "I don't walk with my legs I walk with my mind"

what we can reach  when we have self confidence and  willpower  is simply unimaginable!

To finish I left  you one of the last quotes of the book....
  

Read More

Out of the comfort zone, loving India

It was 21 of July of 2014, I was in the Airport El Dorado (Bogota), I was sitting beside the boarding gate thoughtful and full of feelings,  I wrote down the following words while I was waiting for the final call.

"What can I say? I'm just to 2 hours to start my trip  and make real the most challenging decision in my life! I've decided to follow my dreams and go to India! To say goodbye to my family was really hard! I love them, I live for them! But now I'm decided to make this experience unique and unforgettable. Today I PROMISE to myself these 3 things!  

 1) I'm going to discover the incredible India;  its culture, history, flavors,  people, wonderful places and magic. 

 2) I'll trust in myself! I'm sure I can do it, I'm going to overcome all the  obstacles that I'll find, 

 3) I'll enjoy every single moment! I'll live this year as it was my last". 

It was the beginning of my trip, now four moths after that day I continue writing about my trip in India, currently I'm in Bangalore working for a Game development company in the HR department.  I'm really grateful of being living this experience, I've been absolutely out of my comfort zone,  adapting me to a new life such us; new languages (Hindi, Kannada, English and there are thousands more), New people and friends, new food (vegetarian and spicy), new traffic (Crazy and noisy), the fact of seeing many cows, dogs and eagles in your daily walks. I'd say that there are all type of experiences that you can live here "good" and "bad (Not at all)" it will depend of the attitude with you take it, but in my case I just have remembered my third promise, so I've enjoyed every single moment. This country is awesome! If you have a  soul of traveler and you love discovering new places and cultures, India is country for you, travel it's really cheap and safe! You only have to take care of always getting a fair price, they will try to overcharge you, this is a fact for the foreigners here.  

From my experience I can say that people in India is so kind, they will want to help you, offer their friendship and guide you. Something good is that you can communicate easily because the most of them speak English (They have some particular accent  but you'll catch it easy before the first or second week). So far I've just been in the the south of India but I'm planning to go to the north; Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jhodpur, Udaipur and Jaysalmer which will be my next stops, I'll tell you how the things are there. 

In summary if you are thinking about to come India, don't think it a lot, just come! but ensure to bring with you an open mind and heart, set up goals about what experience you want to live, check which city offer you what you want and enjoy it, India will embrace you with its magic. I assure you that when you come back to home you will be a better person with thousand of  nice stories to tell. 

Read More

Making Decisions, Let's go to India!

I'm Carlos Salamanca and I'm In Bangalore India!  I'm writing this because I want to share the "why", So If you are thinking in travel to anywhere (I absolutely recommend India and this nice city) maybe this singles words could help you, If it`s not now, then when? We just have one short life! So let's live it!

Closing October of 2013, while I was checking my personal goals of the current and next year, I made the decision about some changes, I wanted to get out of the routine and look for new experiences.  At this moment I was enjoying my job leading the organizational development of an eCommerce start up in Bogota, but the thing was that I felt that I didn't want to start so soon this long path of a corporate career. If you have worked before you should know that being in an office 8 hours per day, 48 hours per week during one, two, three years end up in a boring and grey routine. 

All the above made me asking to myself about: How do I feel?, Which are my life priorities, objectives and likes? What do I want to change? Which options I have?. Finally after answer these questions and make different reflections, I concluded that I don't want to pass my life in a Office in Bogota (At least not yet) It'd be a boring and I just would be in my comfort zone.

My profession is International Business administrator so considering this of course my future life will be linked with an office! But so, what could I do about this? Let`s think.... I got it! My greatest passion is to travel, so I could put together both things WORK + TRAVEL and gain a personal and professional growth experience and make it unforgettable! So I thought that the best way of get it would be ensure get out of my comfort zone, so why not India? If it'd offer me all what I was looking for, an amazing culture, great people, beautiful destinations, Professional opportunities, challenging experiences and many things that to discover for first time!

If you are coming to India  I hope to  meet you here!

Read More