The Power of Organization

You know how some women hate men and other women who have naturally excellent metabolic systems and therefore look "skinny" or "fit" without even trying? Well I hate people who have the ability to be organized. Organized in their physical environments, organized in their lives, organized in their minds. Yes, hate is strong word. It usually derives from a place of envy or jealousy, mine is rooted in the former.

Someone once explained to me the difference between being envious and being jealous. Envy implies a level admiration. Something to aspire towards. That is how I feel about being organized, I wish I could have that natural instinct to see things in order, to plan for achieving a particular result, to think in a manner with not so many tangents... (Look! It's raining!)

The reason that I'm thinking of this so much lately is because I have graduated college and I'm applying to jobs, which means I want to join an organization... (see what I did there?!) The more months that pass by, the more demotivating it gets. I'm sure many out there can relate, job searching sucks. Especially in today's world of various communication methods, it comes down to how many ways can I try to tell you that I'm awesome and how many ways can I can get rejected or ignored? And the more this goes, the louder my dad's voice rings in my head, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". That is probably my father's all time favorite quote.

Well, needless to say, I've never been a planner. I don't know if that was my childish defiance that's decided to stick around to haunt me for the rest of my life, or if that's a part of my personality that I can't change. And I've tried to change. I've read and watched articles upon articles about compartmentalizing, and habits of successful people, and time management, and leadership skills, and dieting/fitness plans, and happiness. While all these topics may seem random, they have two common aspects: personal organization and self discipline. I've got self discipline down for the most part, being a martial artist for over half your life will teach you that like almost nothing else. I just can't seem to get organized. Looking back at my AIESEC experience, that was probably my biggest failure as a leader. What scares the living shit out of me is what if that becomes the failure of my life?

Being organized plays a huge role in success of companies/organizations, governments, ecosystems, and people. Anything or anyone who has ever accomplished something has had some level of organization, in process, lifestyle, or execution. So this is my wake up call, because the power of organization is that it has the ability to change a life, create a chain reaction and change many more. And nothing would make me happier than to overcome one of my greatest internal battles over one of my biggest flaws.

The Power of Aspiration

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary to aspire is "to seek to attain or accomplish a particular goal". In simpler words, to aspire is to dream. To aspire is to desire. To aspire is to envision. And to aspire is to yearn.

Every single statement in the above paragraph has a different meaning. This is because to every single person an aspiration is one or more of those things. We always say that dreams have no limitations, no restrictions, no hindrances. But how often is this true? To me, a dream is more specific than an aspiration.

Let's take the example of values versus the application of values in different cultures. Values worldwide are the same, they are moral beliefs, rights versus wrongs. Everyone knows stealing, killing, cheating, abusing is bad. Yet, every culture has a different application on how these values are prioritized. In some cultures murder is the utmost greatest crime, where as in other cultures, death is a form of justice for stealing. It's really more about perspective than anything else.

So, what is a dream and what is an aspiration? A dream is like the application of a value, it's depends on circumstance and upbringing. It depends on education or lack thereof. An aspiration is like a value itself, it's universal. People from all around globe can aspire to be the same. Therefore, to me, a dream does have limitations, not physical, tangible ones, but barriers that are one doesn't put up on purpose and barriers that one can not remove by oneself. An aspiration on the other hand is the true limitless goal multiple people around the world work towards on a daily basis.

An aspiration can be something as simple as falling in love or becoming a mother. It can be to provide for your family or to be leader. To have a voice that is heard, to have a sense of belonging, or to create a safer, cleaner, sustainable environment. People aspire for bringing peace or changing the world (aka: AIESECers!!!).

To me, to aspire is to want to be. No, I'm sorry, Descartes got it wrong, it's not 'because I think, therefore I am', it's 'because I aspire therefore I am'.

What are we all after in this life anyway? Happiness, right? We all want that happily ever after, but how can we achieve that if we don't aspire for anything? Aspirations give people hope. And hope gives people a reason to aspire. This never ending cycle allows our world to move forward, to create change, and bring about positive progress.

I'm at that point in my life where I keep asking myself what do I want from the future, where do I want to be, who do I want to be? But I can't answer these questions unless I answer this question: what do I ASPIRE to be?

TIME Magazine names it's Person of the Year for 2011 to be 'The Protester'. Why? They didn't a specific name of one, they didn't say from which country of the world this person was from. They clearly did not choose 'The Protester' because he/she was rich and famous. They chose 'The Protester' because they were the change agents of 2011, one inspired another to take action, and two inspired two more, and four inspired four more, and and so on. These people all came together for one purpose, one aspiration: freedom. That is amazing.

So, to answer my earlier question, what do I ASPIRE to be? I aspire to be an inspiration. I aspire to inspire people to be a better person. Inspire people to take action for our environment. Inspire people to stop discriminating once and for all. Inspire someone to travel the world. Inspire someone that circumstances can be overcome. Inspire leaders to lead by example. Inspire everyone to think of someone else before they think of themselves.

I aspire to inspire.

The Power of Believing

What is it that you believe in? Like TRULYY believe in? Is it God? Or Love? Maybe it's Hope. Or Democracy. How about the Environment? Or Dreams? Maybe it's Peace. Or Believing.

That's right. I said believing in believing. Bewildered?? I was. Now you might be thinking, well what the hell does that mean? Who believes in believing? Ah-hem. I do.

Everyone has something they believe in, whether it's their faith, or their company, or in themselves. It's important to believe. Why? Well because it keeps us grounded. It let's us know that there's something more than ourselves. Subconsciously, believing allows us to have a sense of everlastingness or immortality. Believing, allows us to expect. And expectations lead to.... disappointments? Yes, sometimes, when they aren't fulfilled. But when they are, expectations give us a sense of pride and satisfaction that can not be found anywhere else in the world.

Believing is what creates leaders. Leaders are the people in this world who have the greatest sense of belief. The belief can be in religion, if we are discussing religious leaders, such as the Dalai Lama, whose beliefs inspire, affect, and impact. The belief can be in politics, in democracy, or patriotism. These are the leaders who lead countries, revolutions, and armies. Or the belief can simply be in family. These leaders we tend to take for granted, our parents, grandparents, siblings. It's easy to forget the ones who are closest to our heart and have the greatest impact in our lives.

Do I consider myself a leader? Yes. What do I believe in (other than believing of course!)? Now that's a question that requires a lot self-reflection. Since I first and foremost (for now at least) consider myself a leader in AIESEC, I believe in the AIESEC Mission, "peace and fulfillment of humankind's potential". Without this belief, I don't think I would be passionate about this organization, and if I wasn't passionate about it, I wouldn't be the President. Because if I don't believe in it, how can I ever expect anyone else in my Local Committee to?

Beliefs are hard to come by, once you believe in something, it's hard to let it go. A personal example of this is my constant internal fight with my belief in religion, or God, or some sort of higher power. Scientifically thinking, it doesn't make sense to believe in it. But when it comes down to it, believing in God is something I've grown up with, I don't think I'll ever 100% give up believing in that.

I also believe in the environment. I believe we, as humans, as consumers, as wasters, as abusers, and exploiters owe everything we have to the Earth, to what it's provided us with. We should be careful to use our resources wisely. Every action that we take today impacts the future generations. Remember that and you'll never think twice about recycling.

Lastly, I believe in humanity. I believe that there is always some good in every person. Sure people make mistakes, and some people do bad things. But Dale Carnegie made this clear as to why people do this. It is so they get a feeling of importance and because to them, they believe their actions were justified. If we didn't believe in humanity, we would never have leaders such as Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela. If we didn't believe in humanity, let's be honest, the Cold War would have become the 'Let's end all Life on Earth War'. Whew! Glad that never happened!

So, why is it that I believe in believing? Well, to me it seems that people are the happiest when their beliefs comes true. With the upcoming Holidays in mind, when a child who believes in Santa wakes up on Christmas morning to presents under the tree is absolutely elated. Because he/she gets a new toy? Sure, that's part of it, but mainly because his/her belief wasn't broken. At the end of the movie 'The Pursuit of Happyness', Will Smith's character is happy not only because he obtained a stable job, but because he believed in his ability to obtain it.

Maybe that's the secret to happiness, believing in something, anything. Believe that tomorrow will always come, believe in your dreams, believe in yourself, but most of all, believe in mankind. True happiness comes from the heart, believe with your heart and impossible is nothing.

The Power of Positive Thinking

Today was going to be a good day. My roommate believes that whenever the elevator is already on the third floor and she doesn't have to wait around for it, it's going to be a good day. I believe that whenever I don't have to run like a crazy woman with a flying laptop bag, that's when it's a good day. Well this morning not only did both of those situations happen, they happened to us together, obviously doubling our good day-ness.

My actual day? Good. :)

I've truly started to embrace the power of positive thinking. It's something that has affected me in the last few weeks tremendously. Our brains are amazing. The layers and layers of neurons and synapses and axons and fibers are actually layers and layers of thoughts and memories and knowledge and dreams.

We often forget this. I mean we don't technically forget to think per say, but we forget to really examine what think subconsciously. I used never to be able to fall asleep until I thought and thought and thought about something deeply, whether it was about a subject in school, or something that happened to me that, or if it was about my grandparents all the way across the ocean, or if it was about a fantasy of some sort of success. These days, my brain feels dead. It's almost as if I didn't want to analyze the little details of life, the purpose behind, why something might happen, fate, love, whatever it may have been.

Then a few weeks ago, I hit a low. I realized that I focused too much on just getting things done. I'd forgotten WHY I was doing what I was doing. Why was going to class (or lack there of)? Why was I a part of AIESEC? Why did I want to be the president? Why, why, why damn it?

Once I remembered to be curious and inquisitive and normal again, I felt more ... get ready for some cheesiness... I felt more alive again. I felt myself breathing, I felt the oxygen running to my neurons, sending positive messages through the axons to other neurons, anyway, I don't want to get into the neuroscience of it, but pretty much, I started thinking more positively.

I said to myself, I can do this, not because I have to do it, but because I want to do it. And I want to do it because I want to make a difference in future. I want to advocate and encourage and help companies understand the importance of the Earth, the environment, all of our natural resources. That is why I am going to class (yes I'm actually going to class!). I need to make cold calls and send out a gazillion emails because AIESEC is going help me succeed in whatever I end up doing. These are the skills that I need to master now because in the future no one's gonna give a second, or third chance. And I want to be president for a hell of a lot of different reasons. It's because I want to grow as a person, as a leader, as a student, as a professional. I want to have the experience, I want to be able to say that I've done something amazing. I want to do this as practice for when I own my own company. But most of all, I want people to know who I am, I want people to recognize AIESEC Minneapolis as a strong, determined, successful Local Committee that even on the verge of disbandment rose up and not just overcame, but empowered.

So, enough about me, and back to the title subject. The power of positive thinking, it creates a sense of clarity, it gives a goal to reach towards, it makes tedious tasks bearable, and it makes everyone else around you a little happier. And at the end of the day, we are all in the 'Pursuit of Happiness'.