When I was something like 20-year-old, I wrote an e-mail to myself into the future (via futureme.org). “Dear Future-me” was to be received in 20 years, so I still have some time. Without recalling anymore what the letter was exactly about, yet remembering myself at that age, I must have asked my future-self if Continue reading Dear Me: What would I have told to my 20-year-old-self?
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Balancing act: Choosing extracurricular activities for kids – Part 2
I have started discussing the subject of choosing extracurricular activities (further – ECA) for kids in one of my previous posts (see here). In that post I talked about the practical aspects of making a choice, like time, costs, balance with household chores and homework. Today I intend to start talking about a substantial aspect of this choice. In other words, how to choose which ECA kids should actually follow. The simple answer would probably be – find out the talents and preferences of your kid and find the respective ECA. Ha! Easier said than done. Moreover, I cannot help but wonder if talent is something that you are born with or something that you can train with the right focused effort.
If we look at the biographies of some of the famous athletes, we see an interesting pattern: the father of the famous Williams sisters chose that his daughters were going to play tennis. All family efforts, all money, everything was put on making them famous tennis players. Same story for Tiger Woods. His father was a well-performing amateur golfer who introduced his son Tiger to golf before the age of two and ever since pushed him forward. There are two things here. First, Continue reading Balancing act: Choosing extracurricular activities for kids – Part 2
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The Nature of Baobabs: Don’t let them split you in pieces
If you are following my page on Facebook you might have seen me post a picture of the weeds that completely covered our beautiful lilac bushes at the end of the garden. I spent a whole morning pulling those things out and still I only managed to do just one side. Tedious job, but necessary. In the process I remembered the quote from “The Little Prince” about the nature of baobabs and thought about how often we forget that baobabs unattended happen to grow very fast.
A baobab is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late. It spreads over the entire planet. It bores clear through it with its roots. And if the planet is too small, and the baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces… (Antoine de Saint-Exupery “The Little Prince”)
Whether we are talking about the actual weeds or about metaphorical baobabs such as the negative thoughts or bad habits the advice is the same: take care of them as fast as possible before they ruin your garden, your personality or your life.
Let’s take negative thoughts as an example. Continue reading The Nature of Baobabs: Don’t let them split you in pieces
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Friends: Social networks vs. real life
“We be of one blood, ye and I” (“Mawgli”, Rudyard Kipling)
Nowadays, the term “friend” is used rather loosely. We refer to all those hundreds of people with whom we connect via social networks as “friends”. In general, the English word “friend” is fairly frequently used to call somebody who is a mere acquaintance. In this sense, I like the “gradation” that exists in the Russian language: you call somebody a friend (“droug“) if you are really “of the same blood”, if there is a deep connection. Then you have “priyatel“, which is translated into English also as a “friend”, yet in the Russian language this word has a different connotation than “droug“. You would say “priyatel” about somebody with whom you occasionally spend time, who is a nice guy or gal, but the connection you have is less strong than with “droug”. After that comes “horoshij znakomij” (good acquaintance) and “znakomij” (acquaintance). Thus, following this logic the majority of social network “friends” are actually mere acquaintances (if at all).
But who are friends actually? Are these people whom we know very good? Are these people that share our vision of the world? Do we call somebody a friend if we meet up on a regular basis? Can we be friends if we only met a couple of times in real life? In general, how fast do we call somebody a friend? Continue reading Friends: Social networks vs. real life
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Unintended Consequences: Are we responsible for them?
Some consequences we are aiming for, some others we get by chance. I saw a post shared today about efficient ways how to get rid of moles in your garden. And then I looked over our perfectly done lawn and thought about unintended consequences. Since we bought our robotic lawn mower (which I already bragged about in My favorite stuff: Household items that simplify my life) moles don’t dare to dig in our garden. I don’t know if they are scared of the sound or of the vibration, but the point is – they don’t touch our lawn. From time to time you can see that they started digging in a corner, but a footstep later that trace just stops. It was not intended when we bought this lawn mower, but it is a nice unintended consequence.
However, the unintended consequences can also be negative. Continue reading Unintended Consequences: Are we responsible for them?
Family Life CEO 