What does a good friend do for you?

Just a while ago I lost my motivation. Things were not so good with work, I was expecting different results even if I was doing the same thing all over again. I was not moving forward and my focus was only on the fact that I did not get those results. From my point of view, I had no learnings to take from the situation and the more I was focusing on the fact that I could not move forward, the more I felt bad and stuck. I was all over my head into the problem and I could not see anything outside!

My first seminar in Italian! My first Uptitude seminar!

I can say it was an amazing success! And the applauses of the participants said that too. It’s called Discover Yourself and Your Hidden Potential and it’s about what is important for us in life and what drives us.

We did not have much time (only 7 hours), but as I promised the participants, I gave them a taste of what are some of the invisible forces that guide our lives. It was the foam of a tasteful Capuccino.   

We focused on the needs of a person, on values and on limiting beliefs. We saw what were our most important individual values and we prioritized them. We then worked on a limiting belief and we transformed that into an empowering belief. At the end, each of the participant decided to reach an objective in the area of personal development and I really hope each one of them will continue their quest in discovering their true potential, that fire, that energy within that is looking forward to get out.

People were involved, stayed on the seats until the very last moment of the seminar. And I was incredibly happy to receive phone messages even in the evening, after the seminar, from some of them that were still thinking of what they learned.

As a personal experience I can say:

• I finally got myself out of my comfort zone, I finally “burned all my boats” in order not to go back in my comfort zone!
• I finally “felt the fear and did it anyway” regarding my fear of talking in Italian in front of an audience
• I have finally proven myself that if I feel it, it’s going to happen. I really felt that the seminar would be a success and I also visualized all the steps and the end of the seminar. It’s just that there was a small voice inside of me…my saboteur, that was trying to get me scared, to get me frightened. I did not allow that voice make me lose my focus and I actually used the fear in order to mobilize myself even more, to prepare myself better, to practice and visualize more. And it worked!
• I felt and incredible satisfaction when I saw in the eyes of the participants the willing to know more, the willing to change something and I felt an incredible joy when the “aha” moments were coming out!

If you also want to see what the seminar was about, take a peak on the Italian slides. The English ones will be also available soon.

Seminario scopri te stesso 18 febr

View more presentations from Uptitude

The Last Lecture – Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

It’s interesting how you find exactly what you need and search for. I was browsing the internet the other day with no motivation to continue my work. And I found a web talk on TED.com that amazed me, that made me stay for a full hour in front of the computer.

It’s Randy Pausch‘s last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. He had only 3 to 6 month left to live because of a pancreatic cancer and he wanted to let something behind him. It’s not a lecture on informatics, but on life!

A few quotes in case you don’t have a full hour to view the entire recording (even if it’s fully worth it).

• We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. 
• Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcomed.
• The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!
• Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
• When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care.
• Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. Just give them a little more time — and they’ll almost always impress you.
• The best gift an educator can give is to get someone to become self reflective.
• The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they’re learning something else.
• Respect authority while questioning it.
• I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left.
• Never lose the child-like wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us.
• Help others.
• Tell the truth.
• Be earnest.
• Apologize when you screw up.
• Focus on other people, not on yourself.
• Get a feedback loop and listen to it. … When people give you feedback, cherish it and use it.
• Show gratitude.
• Don’t complain; just work harder.
• Be good at something. It makes you valuable.
• Find the best in everybody.
• Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.
• If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, “tell the truth.” If I got three more words, I’d add: “All the time.”
• Never give up: There are certain times that you think, “OK, you have beaten me down to my knees. And now the challenge is, I am on my knees and you keep on beating me down. And the question is, are you going to keep beating me all the way to the ground or will I find a way to struggle my way back on to my feet.
• Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories. And they will figure out how those stories apply to them.
• Treat the Disease, Not the Symptom.
• It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not. Find your passion and follow it.

Small moments of happiness

We are all in search for happiness. We live to be happy and make others happy.

But how do we create happiness in our lives?

Are we waiting to be happy? Or we are enjoying every moment we have?

Top 5 regrets people have

I read a very interesting article received from a friend of mine about the things people regret. A nurse that cured patients on their death bed, asked them about the regrets they had about their lives or the things they would do differently.

Here are the top five regrets of the dying, as witnessed by the nurse: