It has been a while since I published a list of something. Besides, my previous lists were various favorites (like My favorite household cleaning hacks) On the contrary, in this short post I would like to share a list of my anti-favorites: top 10 time wasters that steal your time and energy, deflecting you from what’s important (and no, it’s not a Facebook feed, yet that one can be counted in as well).
So, here we go: Continue reading My anti-favorites: Top 10 time wasters to avoid
Yesterday our daughter was once again drawing something weird on a piece of paper. Then she turned to me and asked the classic question: “Do you like my painting?“. I was tempted to reply the usual: “Yes, of course, very beautiful. Good job!” yet something stopped me this time. Instead I asked her back: “Do YOU like your painting?“. She was puzzled. To be frank, so was I. All this triggered me to think about external appreciation and consolation prizes. Continue reading Do you like my painting? or: Reflections on external appreciation and consolation prizes
Our youngest kid started school last week… (pause)
Allow me to repeat it once again as I still don’t believe it myself:
our. youngest. kid. started. school. last. week.
The moments like that make you think about time and how fast it flies by. It seems that when we were kids the period from September till Christmas was impossibly long. And look at us now… It is almost Christmas, when the first of September was last week, wasn’t it? But is it actually true: does time fly faster or is it yet another trick our brain is playing on us? If the latter is the case, can we “play back” and slow the lapse of time?
Continue reading Time: why does it run faster as we age and can we slow it down?
The answer to the question in the title is very simple: I buy from small businesses because I know that every time I do, I am supporting somebody’s dream.
Think about it for a moment. Once upon a time there was that little girl, let’s call her – Mary, who liked to create beautiful clothes for her little dolls. She would take an old t-shirt from her father, cut it in small pieces and indulge in the magic of creation. A couple of days later her doll – Ann – would get a new layered dress and a matching jacket, and yes – don’t forget the ribbon for her gorgeous curly hair! Mary would dream that one day she will open her own fashion house and make clothes for all the little toys and all their little owners in the whole big world. Mary grew up to be an accountant, working long hours and even though succeeding in her career, still feeling as if her life is not what she wanted it to be.
Continue reading Why do I buy from small businesses (and you should too)?
A couple of days ago I attended a TEDxWomen event. There, at the networking session I was once again faced with that classic phrase: “And who are you? What do you do?”… Somehow those two completely different questions are often put together as if they mean the same thing. Yet, obviously “who you are” does not equal “what you do”. Moreover, even “what do you do?” is not the best question to ask. In a networking situation, you are not that much interested in what a person does, you want to know if you two can connect and bring each other certain value. You are interested in the 2nd degree connections or in skills that this person has. You might want to know what drives that person and what makes him go the extra mile. You might want to know if you can share the journey.
All this made me think about “boxes”: those voluntary categories we gladly put ourselves in. “I am a lawyer”, “I am a nurse”, “I am an engineer”, “I am a pilot”, “I am…” So you truly believe that this one descriptive is supposed to explain who we are? Continue reading Our voluntary “boxes” and asking better questions
Family Life CEO 