Tag: self-awareness

Categories
Life Self-awareness Spirituality

2023 Raised Me Spiritually

2023 raised me spiritually
Reading Time: 4 minutes.

Usually, I express myself online or in live communications secularly, without mentioning any references to God and spiritual living. However, the past years have raised and strengthened me spiritually, and I came to a point where I felt a need to talk about that with people with similar deep and high experiences.

If you are someone I know and reading this text, it might be a surprise for you. On the other hand, if you had some hunch about this, it might be an explanation. But most importantly, I want to reach soulmates and twin flames with whom I could openly talk about deep stuff.

Some keywords for the things I will write further would be healing from past traumas, manifestations, astral projections, and channeling, not according to theoretical books or people who teach their secrets for thousands, but as I have experienced and understood them.

We live in a collective dream. We project the multidimensional reality through our minds to 3D and experience it. I don’t believe that everything is possible. There are limitations in the multidimensional reality that were formed over time of existence in the collective consciousness. All the things that science analyzes make reality solid: biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and computer science. But certain areas like quantum physics open possibilities to experience more than the 3D to which we might be used.

From a quantum-physics perspective, humans are spiritual multidimensional beings living 3D experiences a day at a time. Every day, we are dealt a hand of cards we need to play with. Have you ever noticed that one day, you or your closest ones look or behave a little bit differently than other days? Or maybe that some days you remember a good or bad habit or have some health issue. That happens from time to time, repeatedly.

Some of us realize that and can shift the 3D experience from one spot to another on demand. It’s not physically changing places but instead changing your configuration to lead you better to what you want to have or be. That’s called manifestation. It’s an intentional change of your 3D experience towards a goal that you want to achieve. The common goals are becoming healthier, fitter, more beautiful, more financially successful, more free, or more abundant in another way.

There is a saying: “We see the world not as it is, but as we are.” Wherever we focus, we manifest more of that in our minds. With the fixed mindset, we are in a loop of repeating actions, behaviors, and circumstances, often followed by guilt, blame, hopelessness, or anger. With the growth mindset, we experiment and shift perceptions and identity until we become what we want to be. And that is often followed by optimism, trust in faith, peace, and love.

No one here on Earth is left behind. Even the most introverted persons are not alone. We are all being helped by souls and spirits. Just not everyone sees that. Especially if you are absorbed into your egoistic self, you might not see the signs around you. The more you think about how you could serve the world better, the more help you receive.

2021, for me, was when I realized that we are not alone. We are always surrounded by other souls. I started learning to communicate with them, remembered some episodes from my childhood related to them, and even cleared some memories from before arriving in this material world.

In 2023, I had lots of spiritual experiences during meditations, and not only that. I was healed from my biggest life traumas. Paradoxically, the beginning of feeling the spiritual experiences in 2021 was one of those traumas because many spirits around me were very negative about me.

Past traumas are psychological blocks from the past that have negative outcomes on our bodies. They can be felt as headaches or other illnesses and pains in our physical body. Healing from them happens by recognizing the real cause of the tension in a particular body part and releasing the tension with forgiveness, peace, and trust, sometimes also with love. By cleansing the tensions, you open for the energy to flow throughout your body, which leads to quicker and easier manifestations.

Over the past two years, I developed an ability not only to feel others empathetically but also to physically feel the pains and pleasures of others and sometimes let them heal their past traumas. Some of the spiritual experiences I had were quite dark and painful for me. Some of them were delightful, peaceful, and full of love.

Several events in 2023 had an energetically strong influence on my life, reaching the souls of very energetically high people and getting some realizations I wouldn’t normally get if I had a fixed mindset and was always moving in the same circle. The strongest ones energetically were an online meeting of the community of the “Think and Grow Rich: The Legacy” movie and the online workshop “The LightWorkers’ Persecution Imprint” by Edward Mannix. The people of the Think and Grow Rich community were all directed toward financial growth and success. The people at the lightworkers’ workshop were empaths, healers, star seeds, and other lightworkers helping other people spiritually, but at the same time, they have had lots of social criticism since burning witches.

I am not planning to work as a healer because I don’t know more than I know in this field, and I have already defined my path for the future. Now, I am manifesting my designed future day by day by taking action toward it. Daydreams can be manifested in 5 or 10 years without action, but they are fulfilled faster if they are led by action.

The last thing that I became aware of is channeling. Most of the creators, performers, public speakers, politicians, and other public figures experience spiritual help from other souls, spirits, or God, being aware of that or not. And I had experienced channeling several times in 2023 with my awareness. Note that channeling still happens through the prism of your own belief system, and it’s probably impossible to express something from you that you are against. By channeling, spirits help you unlock the corners of your subconsciousness, which would help you express yourself in a given situation.

There is much more that I could write on these topics, but I will leave that to private conversations with people who will appear in my life after this writing.

Peace and love!
Aidas

Categories
Life Self-awareness

If Aliens Made Clones of You…

If aliens made clones of you...
Reading Time: < 1 minute.

If aliens made 100 clones of you with your skills, knowledge, attitude, and mindset, would the world be a better place to live or worse?

👽👽👽

Press, radio, TV, and social media are precisely clone-making machines.

Each of us resonates with what we consume.

👤 ➔ 📺📻📱 ➔ 👥👥👥😉👥👥👥

We have a conscious or unconscious tendency to copy who resembles us.

That’s called homophily (“love of being alike”).

👥👥👥 ❤️ 😉 ❤️ 👥👥👥

For example, people may be more likely to follow trends or form friendships, romantic relationships, or professional connections with individuals who share interests or have similar educational backgrounds at similar times.

👩‍🎓🧑‍🎓😉👨‍🎓👩‍🎓

Our network shapes us, and we shape our network as well. We copy not only our relatives and friends but also friends of friends and friends of friends of friends.

😉 ⇄ 👤 ⇄ 👤

You are connected to anyone on Earth by 6 degrees of separation: your friend is 1 degree from you, the friend of your friend is 2 degrees, and so on.

But we have influence and are influenced by 3 degrees on average.

😉 ⇄ 👤 ⇄👤 ⇄ 👤 ⋯ 👤 ⋯ 👤 ⋯ 👤

If you have 120 acquaintances, and each of them has 120 acquaintances, and each of those has that many, too, you can imagine how many people you may influence just by your presence.

And if you are on social networks, you probably have way more friends than 120.

🕸🕸🕸😉🕸🕸🕸

So, a few questions for you:

  • Does this make you feel paralyzed or more responsible for your actions?
  • Do your actions match your virtues?
  • Are you living your best self?

🦸‍♀️🦸🏻‍♂️🦸🏽‍♀️😉🦸🦸🏿‍♂️🦸🏻‍♂️

This information was strongly influenced by the book “Connected” by Nicholas Christakis, MD, Ph.D., and James Fowler, Ph.D.

😉📙

Cover photo by cottonbro studio.

Categories
Life Progress Self-awareness

15 Priceless Productivity Tips for Procrastinators

Productivity Tips for Procrastinators
Reading Time: 3 minutes.

This post first appeared on the 1st things 1st blog.

What a paradox that to write about productivity for those who always postpone things, I am procrastinating myself while scrolling productivity and business tips on Twitter. The problem is that I shouldn’t focus on productivity to be productive. Instead, I should focus on my goals. And develop effective habits.

The trick is just to start doing what you planned. And so I started, and in this article, I will give you a glimpse of those habits that you should develop to live a more thriving and meaningful life.

Know your WHY’s

Always be aware of why you are doing what you are doing. You will always have very little motivation if your reasons are vague.

Do you work just for survival? Or for financial stability? Or for recognition? Or for impact? Or for self-expression? 

Finish what you started

Decide in advance which of your projects are to be finished and which of them are just experiments.

Don’t start working on new projects until the old ones are completed. Learn the habit of getting things done.

Focus on your strengths

Nobody is perfect. Everyone has their flaws. As well as their strengths. 

Don’t be sorry about what you can’t do. Identify what you can do best, and make that even better. 

Ask others for help when it’s too hard to handle yourself or takes too much time.

Start now with what you have

Perfect conditions will never exist. So you have to start doing what you want or need to do now. Not next month, not next week, not tomorrow. But now.

Start ideating, prioritizing, and planning. Take the first steps. Even if that’s for 20 minutes. The goal is to build productive habits.

Create TODO lists

Have three TODO lists: “Must do,” “Should do,” and “Want to do.” Execute tasks from those lists according to your priorities and energy levels.

Don’t waste your time on “wants” if your “musts” are not done yet.

Break big tasks into smaller chunks

Sometimes your tasks are so huge that you just get overwhelmed and perplexed. Where should you start? How can you plan and estimate?

The trick here is to split the big task into smaller ones and evaluate them separately.

Find your prime biological time

Identify your most productive time of day. Maybe it’s your mornings, maybe afternoons, or maybe nights.

It’s your Power Hours that you should use for the most critical or creative work.

Schedule daily work time in blocks

Split your days into segments and dedicate those segments to different types of work. For example, 13:30 – 15:00 is for writing and replying to emails.

Do only one thing at a time. Don’t switch contexts. You will be more productive, focussing on only one type of work at a time.

Gamify your work

Try not to break a chain by working on something for a regular time daily. For example, building something for 1 hour every day.

Or, if you have some tedious tasks to do, decide on some point system to reward yourself for a certain amount of completed tasks.

Choose peace, not conflict

When communicating, aim to be calm, understanding, and harmonious. Unnecessary conflicts just drain your energy and make you less than productive.

Usually, complicated people are so because of their difficult pasts. So be aware of that, and it will help you be more peaceful.

Have an accountability partner

Struggling on your dreams alone might be difficult. There are a million reasons not to do something you wish to have done. The tiredness after the primary job, wishing to spend time with your friends or family, exciting TV show, or a new series on Netflix.

Don’t make excuses, and have a friend to talk with about your progress. This will make you more inspired and accountable against that person.

Control your devices

Don’t fall into the trap of digital devices. Instead, make smartphones, computers, and TV work for you, not control you.

Switch off most notifications not to distract you. Then, when you need more focus, go to Airplane mode.

Install apps that let you prioritize, plan your time, focus better.

Focus on the 20% most important tasks

The Pareto principle says that by doing just 20% of the most critical tasks, you can achieve 80% of the impact.

Identify which tasks make this 20% of your lists and focus on them.

Work hard on your mindset

Life is as finite and fatal as you define it. You can have a fixed mindset, thinking that you have developed during your childhood and youth, and nothing can be changed afterward.

Or you can be in a growth mindset thinking that you can continuously develop yourself, survive mistakes and learn from them, and work on life-changing projects.

Hold yourself accountable – drive your own life

Don’t wait for someone else to fix your life and make your dreams come true. Be the driver of your own life.

Design your life, take action, and go forward!

Invitation

There is more to that. If you learned something new and want to dive deeper, check these concise productivity tips I recently published. There are many more tips there (80 to be exact) for your goal setting, motivation, self-awareness, priorities, planning, efficiency, and growth.

Cover photo by cottonbro

Categories
Life Self-awareness

Short-term vs. Long-term Decisions

Short-term vs. Long-term Decisions
Reading Time: 4 minutes.

This post first appeared on the 1st things 1st blog.

“Most people spend more time planning a vacation than they do planning a life.”

― Chet Holmes

When choosing your future, some of your decisions will have long-lasting effects and can lead to lots of success or disappointments, whereas some others will be valid only for a day or two, so why bother about them too much. You could follow the Pareto principle saying that for 80% of the effect, you will need 20% of effort, so you should identify the 20% of what’s long-term and act on it. Let’s explore which decisions are short-term and which are long-term.

Short term

Short-term decisions are usually triggered by life events and news and are often made based on emotions. Short-term considerations could be caused by fear of missing out or worry about what other people will think about you. On the other hand, they can be spontaneous, playful, opportunistic, open-minded as well.

  • Things to do during the day. Unless it’s some life event like a birthday party, wedding, job interview, conference talk, or a show, you usually won’t need lengthy preparation.
  • What to wear. Why spend too much time thinking about what to wear on a regular day? Instead, just choose something that matches together, fits the weather, suits the occasion, and is comfortable.
  • What to eat. Choose whatever you like or are used to unless you are on a special diet.
  • What music to listen to. Listen to what follows your mood or supports the mood you would like to get into.
  • What presents to give to your friends, family, lovers. Most of the celebrations in life are recurring and relatively frequent. So surprise your people with something spontaneous.
  • What TV programs or movies to watch. Choose whatever seems essential or entertaining to you.
  • What galleries or museums to visit. Take opportunities to see whatever interesting exhibitions are open in your city or the city you visit.

As a proverb says, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

Long term

Long-term decisions are usually based on personal philosophy of life. You use logic and strategies to direct your energy towards growth. Otherwise, your life will likely stagnate or destroy you, and you will have lots of regrets about living conditions.

  • Where to live. Your living location and conditions will have an effect on your solitude or social life, career, love life, speed and rhythm of daily routine, etc. You can choose to live with your relatives, in a shared apartment with flatmates, in a dormitory, in a rented or owned apartment, house, or villa. And all that will have different outcomes on your future life.
  • What to study. Your job opportunities, quality of life, and overall happiness in your life will depend on what you learn at University, College, Academy, or Professional School. Will you study something that you are interested in or something that your parents were impressed about? Will you learn something that you are passionate about, something that the market demands, or something in between?
  • Where to work. Will you work for survival, self-expression, self-fulfillment, or a local or global mission? It all depends on what job you will choose and how it matches your personality. Will, each of your employment, be the basis for your following ones, or will they be just a waste of career experience while searching for your field?
  • What name to give to your baby. In my life, I’ve met people who hated their first or last names because those names made them difficult to reach the expectations they had from life. Not in all countries, it is possible to change your name. So when choosing a name for your newborn, choose wisely.
  • What name to give to your company, product, or service. Just as for the baby name, the name of your business can also have a long-lasting effect. Especially if you care not only about the sales but also about your company’s branding and distant future.
  • What goals to aim for. You can have many passions in life and lots of possible directions to go with your life. But which of those directions is the most optimal for your character, skills, and needs?
  • What’s your main reason for living. Why were you born on this planet? What’s the purpose of your life? These existential questions are definitely long-term and require deep self-analysis.

“Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values.”

– Joshua L. Liebman

It depends

Some decisions can either be quick and spontaneous or thoughtful and logical depending on what kind of person you are:

  • What events, conferences, or festivals to go to. Are you going to different gatherings for entertainment or getting information and resources for your projects?
  • What books to read. Are you reading books to have rest or to get knowledge for your career and self-development?
  • What podcasts to listen to. Do you listen to podcasts to fill your silence with chitchat or to learn something valuable and inspirational for life?
  • What country to visit for vacation. Do you choose your traveling spontaneously, or do you have a bucket list for life?
  • What newspapers or magazines to subscribe to. Do you read whatever is popular or what supports your knowledge for lifestyle or career?
  • What theatre plays to watch. Do you go to theaters to have a good time or to widen your viewpoint?

If you consider that your time is limited, you will probably try to save it by choosing what goes along with your values and goals. You will visit events, read books, and listen to podcasts useful for your primary activities. On the other hand, if you consider that your time is limitless, you will make decisions based on what feels right at the moment: you will go to events that will seem attractive, shocking, or inspiring. You will read books that entertain you much. You will listen to podcasts where the people seem most charismatic or grounded according to your preferences or where the topics seem interesting to you.

How to solve short or long-term decisions?

You can make short-term decisions using intuition, common sense, or randomness. For example, it doesn’t really matter so much what exactly you gonna wear today at work. What matters more is what clothes you buy to wear for work. It doesn’t really matter what dish you are going to try today. What matters more is what diet you are going to take in your life. It doesn’t matter too much what song you will listen to today at your lunch break. What matters more is in what mood and mindset your playlists are going to put you into.

When it comes to short-term decisions, choose what inspires you or solves a problem.

When it comes to long-term decisions, it’s better to weigh the options before making a decision. And for this reason, the most valuable tool to do that is probably the strategic prioritizer “1st things 1st”. Half an hour of prioritizing with “1st things 1st” can save you from months or even years of frustration and regrets. “1st things 1st” lets you make the most optimal decisions based on your knowledge and intuition.

This is how it goes. First, you start prioritization by defining your success criteria. Second, you list out things to prioritize. Third, you rate each item by each measure. And lastly, the tool calculates your priorities and groups them into something to choose for sure, things to consider, and things to eliminate or skip. It’s as easy as that.

Interested? Try it out for free.

Cover photo by Brayden Law

Categories
Learning Life Self-awareness

Why Everyone Needs to Have Some Role Models

Why Everyone Needs to Have Some Role Models
Reading Time: 3 minutes.

At some point in my life, I used to ask myself: if I am the most important person in my life, why would I ever need a role model to follow? People are faulty, make mistakes, sometimes have hidden agendas, and manipulate others; sometimes, they wear masks. Why would I need to follow someone else? Can’t I be the best version of myself just as I am out of my own character and personality?

The problem is that if you just concentrate on yourself, you can quickly lose focus of the big picture, become too narcissistic, and be blind to your faults. You don’t see yourself from aside too well and don’t have enough insights into which of your parts to improve. There is no limit to perfection and excellence. And no one has achieved it all.

Life is a journey of ups and downs. Sometimes you can go on your own. Sometimes you need help to stay on track. Different high-achievers have gained lots of experience and can teach you things you have never thought possible. You don’t have to accept everything a role model teaches you. You can filter the knowledge by what resonates with you. Grow, become the best authentic self, and pass the knowledge and tips to the younger generations or other less mature individuals.

Today I have several role models in my life and will introduce you to my top 3 ones. I don’t know too much about their biographies besides what they share online or in their books. But I like their achievements and points of view.

Robin Sharma

“Genius is less about your genealogy and more about your neuroplasticity. Masters are made, not born.”
– Robin Sharma 

Robin is a humanitarian and leadership missionary. He wrote several best-sellers like “The 5 AM Club”, “The Monk who Sold his Ferrari,” “The Leader Who Had No Title,” etc. Besides helping leaders from all around the world play the A-game, he motivates people of any profession to become the best version of themselves.

Robin Sharma is a master of words. He talks about leadership with swiss-army-knife preciseness. His books are full of classical wisdom and thoroughly thought through methodologies.

James Clear

“Be radically proactive about any behavior that pays off in 10 years.”
– James Clear

James is best known for his best selling book “Atomic Habits” about building good habits and his insightful newsletter 3-2-1, where every week he shares 3 personal ideas, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question for the reader.

James Clear digs deep into human psychology and makes his messages very concise and straight to the point.

Vishen Lakhiani

“Don’t attach your happiness to your goals. Be happy before you attain them. You’ll find attaining them much easier when you make the journey and not the destination the key to your happiness.”
– Vishen Lakhiani

Vishen is the founder of Mindvalley, a company that aims to transform the conventional education system. His company brings the knowledge of the best mindful people in the world in online courses called quests. Vishen is also the author of two transformational best sellers, “The Code of Extraordinary Mind” and “The Buddha and the Badass.”

Vishen Lakhiani is open-minded, rational, and spiritual. He urges you to think out of the box, give your intuition power, and listen to your soul.

Final words

Everyone is limited. But also everyone has lots of different experiences. If you want to grow, you need to decide for your direction where to grow. Having a role model is one of the ways to set that direction. And you don’t have to agree with everything he or she says. Just filter out what resonates with you, listen to your heart and your gut feeling. Then grow.

Cover photo by Craige McGonigle

Categories
Ecology Self-awareness

Small Everyday Habits to be Friendlier to the Planet

Small Everyday Habits to be Friendlier to the Planet
Reading Time: 3 minutes.

Here is a short list of habits that I try to practice every day for the sake of ecology. Let’s be more aware of our consumption and wasting behavior.

Keep the Environment Clean

Respect the street and environment cleaners.

Respect the work of street and environment cleaners. They won’t stay out of work if you resist throwing away cigarette butts on the streets, dropping plastic cups in the fields of festivals, or leaving the trash in nature.

I liked the Fusion-festival example with a garbage policy. Every person entering the festival had to make a 10€ deposit and got a huge bag for the garbage. After the festival, you could retrieve the deposit only if you brought back the bag full of trash.

Sort and Separate the Waste

Plastic waste.

Even if you have heard gossips that they dispose of the sorted garbage in the same scrap-heap, sorting waste forms a good habit for the times of improved infrastructure in your city. Also, gossips are not necessarily true.

Avoid Unnecessary Plastic

"May I have a plastic bag?" asks a buyer at a fish market. "Already inside", answers the seller.

Don’t worry about using long-lasting plastic things like chairs, dishes, drinking bottles, sandwich boxes, or toys. But avoid single-use plastic things like lightweight bags, straws, or disposable cups. Plastic that gets out to nature over long years is dissolved into microplastic and eventually comes back to you inside the food.

Dismantle Carton Boxes Before Throwing Away

Tetra Pak boxes.

When you throw away any boxed packages like the ones from milk, juice, corn flakes, or tea, at first, dismantle the box. It will take less space in the garbage container, and in the long run, there will be less energy consumed for sanitation, as the garbage truck will need to come to collect the garbage less often.

Cut any Plastic Rings that are Used for Packaging

Plastic rings.

Plastic rings from beer six-packs, bottle stoppers, handles for cups, Tetra Pak stoppers, and others usually become a disaster for wild animals. Lots of birds, turtles, and sea animals get stuck in those rings and die suffering.

Before throwing away any plastic ring, cut it with a knife or scissors so that no living creature could get stuck in it.

Call to Action

What are your daily habits that help us save the planet? What new did you learn from this blog post? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Pictures by Guillaume de Germain, Anna Shvets, Magda Ehlers, Brian Yurasits, Logan Weaver

Categories
Life Self-awareness

From Chaotic to Harmonized Mindset

From Chaotic to Harmonized Mindset
Reading Time: 3 minutes.

This post first appeared on the 1st things 1st blog.

It’s 2020, and a lot of things happening now might seem very chaotic and confusing. Brexit inescapably happened. Man-caused global warming is changing landscapes. Oceans are flooded with plastic. The Covid19 pandemic brings risk to our lives and limits our mobility. Wildfires in Australia and the USA kill live beings. People are still experiencing discrimination and brutality because of skin color. Moreover, you might believe in some conspiracy theories that add to stress and anxiety about the current world situation. But do you want to stay under that stress, or would you instead want to have peace of mind?

First of all, what you can do is think about whether you can change any of that? Is it in your scope of control, or is it outside of your abilities? If you can’t control something, detach yourself from it. It is as it is. You have to adapt to it, but there is no necessity to keep worrying about it day after day.

If adversity happens to you directly and you are affected badly, you have to calm down and focus on what you can do to solve your situation. For example, if you lost a job due to Covid19, you have to find another one. Maybe even get some skills in another area than what you know already. Don’t panic. Clear your mind and surroundings at first.

If you have a chaotic mind, you probably also have a messy home. Start cleaning up your mind by cleaning up your home. Define places for each thing you want to keep. Get rid of or hide the things that bring you bad memories and emotions. It might take hours or days, but you will finally have a system for something you see every day.

Take a problem you want to solve and plan the way how you are going to solve it. Divide the path to the solution into multiple steps that you can take one by one. For example, you were in a restaurant business but decided to learn software development. So you will borrow some money, take online courses on some technologies, create a project for a friend, work on your LinkedIn profile, and apply for a junior position at a chosen IT company.

If you feel down, maybe you are lack of brain fuel. The human brain runs on glucose and needs at least 420 kcals per day to maintain normal function. That’s 42 grapes or cherries, 4 bananas, or 4 big apples a day. It can as well be more or less depending on your body mass and the mental work intensity.

To have a harmonious mind, make sure to spend time with people you care about. But also have some time alone. You need both: a feeling of connection and love; and time for meditation or prayer, journaling, and exercising.

When doing something, try not to multitask. Focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking brings you more stress and makes you less productive. If you have several or many things to do in a day, create time blocks for each of those things. For example, you will spend two hours reading and answering emails, one hour for the industry news, and one hour for an online meeting. Try to stick to your plan.

Simplify your life. It is recommendable to choose up to three most important tasks every day and only focus on them. Quality is more important than quantity. When you work a lot, you have a risk of mental burnout. That’s especially often in the tech industry.

Try to get information in your head classified. Either connect the points of knowledge in your head and group them into categories. Or read more about your interests and find some categorizations on Wikipedia or other resources. This gives you more trust in yourself and your opinions.

Get an essential objective in your life. It should be a big aim worth pursuing. Then make a plan for how you will achieve your dreams. And try to progress towards it. Know that failures will happen on the way. But focus on the process and enjoy the ride.

Cover photo by Hello I’m Nik.

Categories
Life Self-awareness

What Was Your Name Again?

What was your name again?
Reading Time: 3 minutes.

This post first appeared on the 1st things 1st blog.

Whether your first name is James, Mary, or X Æ A-Xii, your name not only identifies you but also shapes your character and influences how other people will accept you. With the wrong name, you could have problems with being accepted by the society you are living in. With the wrong name, you can have difficulties getting a partner or job you want. With the wrong name, you can have a weight of associations that people bring to it. When you are about to have a baby, don’t give them the wrong name.

Our story

My wife and I are from Lithuania, and we are living in Berlin, Germany. Before the births of our kids, we did some name researches to find names that would be well accepted in Germany as well as being Lithuanian. I wouldn’t be a programmer if I wouldn’t take 500 most popular names in Germany and filter them using Python programming language to see the ones with Lithuanian word endings. From that point, we got just a handful of names and intuitively chose the ones that we liked most. I hope that Joris and Laura will enjoy the names they got at birth and will live integral and successful lives.

If we didn’t trust our intuition, we could have used the strategic prioritizer 1st things 1st to analyze a few names by multiple aspects. Let’s see how we could have done that.

Using the prioritizer

At 1st things 1st, you can evaluate anything (like first names) by multiple criteria (like aspects) and get calculated priorities. The workflow looks like this:

  1. You define your criteria or aspects.
  2. You list out your things, like first names.
  3. You evaluate each name by each aspect.
  4. You explore the prioritized first names.

Step 1. Define your aspects

Let’s brainstorm for some aspects that we can use to evaluate first names:

  • Both parents like it
  • Easy to pronounce
  • Easy to spell
  • Sounds good together with the last name
  • Doesn’t have negative associations
  • Has a nice meaning
  • Unique
  • Traditional
  • Globally recognized
  • Authentic in your native country
  • Ethnically appropriate
  • Doesn’t prompt negative nicknames
  • Doesn’t sound foolish for a middle-aged person
  • Some relative has it
  • A person you admire has it
  • A favorite book or movie character has it

I will choose the ones that are most important to me and enter into the prioritizer.

Both parents like it
Easy to pronounce
Easy to spell
Globally recognized
Doesn't sound foolish for a middle aged person

Here they are all added to the tool:

Step 2. List out the first names

Now let’s list some first names that you thought could be good candidates, let’s say, for a daughter:

  • Lina
  • Laura
  • Ada
  • Lara
  • Emma

Step 3. Evaluate each name by each aspect

Then I go through the list of aspects and names and rate how each name matches each aspect.

Step 4. Explore the prioritized names

In the last step, I get all first names prioritized by how much they match all the aspects. “Laura” is in the first position with a 100% match. Other names got fewer points, so they are less recommended to choose. 

Last thoughts

If people call you by another name already or you want to start a new chapter in your life, you can still officially change your first name in some countries. But if you care about your kids’ well being, choose their names wisely as soon as they come into this world.

Cover photo by Yoann Boyer

Categories
Self-awareness

How to Find the Meaning of Life. Part 3

How to Find the Meaning of Life. Part 3
Reading Time: 3 minutes.

This post first appeared on the 1st things 1st blog.

Earlier I described how people are different by finding meaning either in having, or being, or doing. And then, I introduced you to the Ikigai concept and ways to figure out your Ikigai. This time I want to explore more of the territory of meaning. You shouldn’t necessarily have one true calling, monetized, and useful for others, to live a meaningful life.

Care about yourself

It is challenging to be happy with your life if you are always disappointed about yourself and your achievements. You have to love yourself and not attach your happiness only to success. Life is a rollercoaster. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But you must try your best as much as you can.

Health

Take care of your health. The life will be more fulfilling if you are fit and healthy when your body is sound, and your mind is clear.

Finances

Save some money. Have some savings at least for half a year of expenses. You never know when you might need to spend extra.

Spirituality

Learn to understand yourself at your deepest. Learn to control your attention. Calm down the storms in your head. Live life as peacefully as you can. You can!

Inspiration

Travel. Visit galleries, museums, theaters, and movie theaters. Browse exciting information online. Try foods and drinks. Explore nature. Get hobbies.

Challenges and adventures

From time to time, try doing something that you haven’t done before. Visit a new country. Sing karaoke. Try a new sports activity. Speak in front of a group of people. Challenge yourself doing something for 30 days to form new habits.

Home

Clean up the mess at your home. Make your bed in the morning. Clean up your desk. Don’t keep things that bring you negative emotions in front of your eyes, but gather things that bring you joy.

Care about others

Being content with yourself is crucial, but even more important is what you do interacting with others while being self-contented.

Family and Relatives

Respect your parents and elders. There were lots of times when you got help from them. There will come a time when you will have to help them. Call or visit them regularly. Keep contact.

When or if you have children, love them and be a role model to them. They are the ones who will continue the circle of life.

Romantic Relationships

Don’t waste yourself. Try to find meaningful relationships. And when you do, cherish and appreciate the moments.

Friends

Once in a while, meet your friends. Party together, have in-depth conversations, travel as a group. Show them your most authentic self. Keep their secrets. Support them in difficulties.

Pets

If you choose to have a dog, a cat, or a chinchilla, you must take care of them no less than of your other family members. Provide food for them, take care of their health, allow them to live a joyous life.

Neighborhood

Know and respect your neighbors. Keep your stairway and yard clean. Participate in the events of the neighborhood. When you party, inform your neighbors in advance about the possible noise. If they party, be the last one to call the police.

Communities

Be a member or a board member of your local, regional, and global communities of interest. Provide help when you have time and resources, or money otherwise. 

Causes

Whether you care about human rights or animal wellbeing, local communities or remote disaster relief, arts or sport, science achievements or religion; there is always some organization that acts in that area and needs your financial help. Donate some money now and then to support your cause.

Help communities and organizations with make-impact.org

You will be able to choose an organization of your interest and support them financially at user-centered donation platform make-impact.org. Until it is ready, you are welcome to do that through other channels, like their direct websites, Facebook fundraisers, or crowdfunding platforms. Use your chances to make a positive impact around you.

My Case

Do I live my full potential? I don’t get or experience everything all at once. But I try to seize the day as much as possible. If not now, then when?

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Cover photo by  Miguel Perales.

Categories
Self-awareness

How to Find the Meaning of Life. Part 2

How to Find the Meaning of Life. Part 2
Reading Time: 3 minutes.

This post first appeared on the 1st things 1st blog.

Previously, I was describing how different people find meaning either in having, or being, or doing. Taking into account that doing plays an essential role in our lives, as it is what creates progress, I would like to introduce the Ikigai concept.

Ikigai Concept

Japanese have a concept of fulfillment that they call Ikigai. It combines what you are good at, what you like doing, what is good for the World, and for what you could get money. We could illustrate that with the following Venn’s diagram: Ikigai appears where all those areas cross each other.

Ikigai as Venn's Diagram

To live a more fulfilling life, you might monetize one of your hobbies, find something likable in your current work activities, market what you are already doing to broader audiences, or find a niche where your products or services have a higher value. Don’t worry! Everyone’s situation and maturity are different. Maybe you won’t have your Ikigai in your twenties but will live your full potential in your fifties.

But how to find the thing about which you are genuinely passionate and would like to continue working on it if you do a lot of different joyful activities? What is the one true calling that would describe the deepest you?

One way to find that is to use the prioritizer – 1st things 1st, that I built to help people crystallize their thoughts and choices.

Using 1st things 1st to clarify your Ikigai

At 1st things 1st, you have something to prioritize and criteria by which to evaluate. When you rate each item by each measure, the tool calculates and sorts the elements from the most important to the least one.

Criteria

In the case of the searching of your Ikigai, you could have these criteria:

  • Do I love doing it?
  • Am I good at it?
  • Can I be paid for it?
  • Does the world need it?
Ikigai: define your criteria

There is a project template for that.

Activities

Then you would add all the activities that you have ever done that are very specific to you. Remember things from selling ice cream on the beach at your childhood to carving wooden figures in your free time, from enjoying movies on Netflix to visiting far-away secret locations of the World.

Ikigai: list out your activities

Evaluations

The next step would be to rate the activities by each criterion. For each activity, you would answer those questions with answers like:

  • definitely
  • probably
  • possible
  • probably not
  • definitely not

Only you know what you like doing most and how good you are at that. Be open-minded and creative when deciding how much the World needs your activities and how much profit you could get out of it. In the age of the Web, there are many more possibilities than before.

Ikigai: evaluate your activities
Ikigai: evaluate your activities (continued)

If you don’t agree with my evaluations, that’s OK. You would evaluate your activities according to your worldview.

Priorities

And then it would be the time to unveil your Ikigai. In the end, the tool would list you out the most valuable activities on which you should proceed to work.

For example, according to my choices and evaluations, my Ikigai is programming and writing. It is one of the reasons why I write this and other blogs, published a book about programming with the Django framework, and work on web projects.

Ikigai: choose your Ikigai

Let me help you to find the meaning of your life at www.1st-things-1st.com.

Cover photo by Content Pixie