Eudaimonia
"If You Build It, They Will Come" from The Field of Dreams
duminică, 11 februarie 2018
joi, 1 februarie 2018
Imagine the Best Possible Self, Calling, Variety, Lasagna Effect
Imagine the Best
Possible Self,
Calling, Variety,
Lasagna Effect
The Science of Happiness has
established that Imagining the
Best Possible Self and/or Future
can help you improve your well-being
In the Present
Indeed, if you think that the
future will bring you all that you want, you are
Happy, at least while you dream
about it
However, it is not only that,
for this exercise is placing you in an optimistic frame of mind
In addition, being positive, confident has been
proved to have immense benefits, ranging from
A longer life to more success in private and
professional spheres
In addition, Words Create Worlds, as Harvard
Professor Tal Ben-Shahar likes to say-
Therefore, if you have positive, creative and
wondrous thoughts about the future,
You increase your chances of getting there, by
sketching the outlines of the landscape you will create
In my case, I am thinking about
what happens when you are at a crossroads
This could be the excellent
opportunity to Imagine the Best Possible Future
A change has just been imposed, to a certain
extent, on the undersigned:
In fact, there are two.
Let me just write about the
easiest part, even if it may turn out to be more complex
Alternatively, to have a bigger impact anyway:
I have been a member of this club for about ten
or twelve years and I even used it before it was opened…
There was another pool there and in the nineties,
I used to swim and go to the sauna there, when Vali was manager.
My membership has expired and I am facing a
period of waiting for an offer or, given the Hedonic Adaptation phenomenon, to
just abandon the outfit altogether
The final last days have been rather
humiliating, but the details of that would be listed in the Dealing with
Adversity stories.
There is a distinct possibility that I decide
to forgo the advantages of the membership, if I stay out for too long.
Considering for many minutes the attitude of some
employees will not help a decision to continue either.
This could, what am I saying- will have an
impact on health, wellbeing and everything else, including the social aspects.
It is likely that I will decide to pay the fee,
after I manage to get the much higher expense with the Lycee Francais and beginning
of 2018 expenses out of the way…
That is just about $ 10,000 to start the year
with…
miercuri, 31 ianuarie 2018
Contemporary Stories- Dealing with Adversity Nordic Experts
Contemporary Stories- Dealing with Adversity
Nordic Experts
I have been a member of this health club downtown
for about ten, maybe twelve years, discounting the nineties.
However, before it was even “born” I used to
enjoy the pool and the sauna of the Bucharest hotel, as far back as 1995.
When it opened under a new, Swedish banner, I thought
that this would be so much better, that it will feel like…well, Sweden.
Only it did not!
Yes, they had a Nordic manager, apparently the
sun of the owner.
He was so helpless, it almost invited a
disgruntled customer, such as the undersigned to feel sorry for him.
A small Jacuzzi indoors failed to function.
In fact, for weeks it has been surrounded by…construction
panels no less.
When this fixing operation took forever, I went
in to ask the super skilled specialist, brought in from the Nordic paradise to
teach the natives what is what:
Look, it is taking forever
We miss a part
Well, what about DHL, UPS and the rest?
…
They will bring anything in a matter of a
couple of days, if it is coming from Papua New Guinea…
I think he responded with some nonsense here
To top the aforementioned problem, one of the
two saunas did not work and the other seemed overflowing at all times
Clients had to wait outside to use it or just
forget about it and go home because…
Employees were inside, occupying the few
places!!
Can you beat that?!
When I went to the Big Expert from the Fjords,
he said:
Yes, we have a policy
Customers do not have space in the sauna
We allow our staff to use the sauna and
facilities
However, we cannot use it anymore
It is for off peak hours
Yeah, right, as if they look at the watch and
say…oh, I cannot do it now
That “manager „was so useless and annoying that
he even kept an aquarium in his window at the first floor.
Everybody could see it from the pool and enjoy
the horror…
There were no visible fish.
That is because the water had not been changed
in – who knows- maybe sixteen months (?)
For me, that was the epitome of lousy, arrogant,
stupid management:
Consider this:
This man could summon a janitor to clean that
shitty thing
He could also place it under the desk, in order
to save his customers the pleasure of seeing a bowl of dirt, right there, above
their heads, as a symbol of the “cleanliness of his operation”.
Finally, he should have given up on a recipient
with dead fish, since he obviously did not care a hoot about them.
The next “management guru” to arrive from the
civilized and advanced North in order to share with the barbarians his
knowledge was in the same mold.
The fact that he was –probably still is- gay,
did not import on his abilities, in fact, knowing his orientation I expected
more.
Alas, I was again gravely disappointed.
He was superior and distant- which is the
manner of most of the Nordics I have met, in fact, I am even thinking of the
protagonist of last year’s smash hit- The Square.
I will only mention this:
At one point, when sitting on one of the three
reed armchairs they had had around the pool, I noticed a foul smell.
-
What the hell is that?
Sniffing around I was relieved to find it was
not some fingers on my foot, about to fall off and putrefy the air before doing
so…
It was the reef chair, putrid and smelling like
a corpse…well, maybe I am exaggerating…a little bit
When I told Manager Number 2 from the
Exquisite, Formidable, Outstanding and Glorious Sweden…
We will change the furniture, with the same
smug attitude, like he was somehow a paid customer in my shop and I attacked
him with some fetid, foul instrument or couch
You think he changed the rotten things?
Like hell he did, he just had them intoxicating
the clients for some more months and only then did he decide to throw the garbage
away…without any replacements.
Armand Asante
luni, 29 ianuarie 2018
Imagine the Best Possible Self - Meaning, future
Imagine the Best Possible Self
Meaning, future
Finding a meaning is part of the
Best Possible Self Scenario, or Best Imaginable Future.
At beauty pageants and elsewhere, the issue of
peace on earth and helping old people cross the street has become a cliché…
So much so, that it is laughable and satirized
in films and comedy acts.
Nevertheless, helping others is a keystone for
the Best Envisageable Future.
This is a component of meaning and as the science
of happiness has attested, one of most efficient wellbeing exercises.
Meaning must be found outside ourselves.
Above ourselves.
Words create worlds.
Studies have also showed that if we think of
beautiful, meaningful images, this will affect our connections in the brain.
In addition, setting meaningful goals can
become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
PERMA also comes to mind in the shape of
a pyramid
We first start with Positive Emotions, then Engage
with life and develop excellent Relationships
with those close and others…
Meaning comes near the top of the pyramid.
Achievement is the Zenith.
Once we have excellent Positive emotions, that help us Engage
and establish Relationships that are great
with family, friends and all those that come into contact with us, Meaning seems a natural outcome and
perhaps somehow a part of the formula, which translates finally into…
Achievement
Activism could be the next chapter
duminică, 28 ianuarie 2018
Dealing with Adversity - Contemporary stories
Dealing with
Adversity
Contemporary
stories
We have to deal with adversity on a regular
basis. If we drive a car, we need to cope with aggressive, careless motorists.
Indeed, it can even be worse if one is cycling,
as I am, after I drive and drop my daughter at the Lycee Francais, where I park
my pickup truck and get on the bike to reach downtown, through some heavy
traffic.
Fortunately, the majority of drivers do not
have a problem with cyclists.
However, one is enough to send the biker to the
hospital or even worse, never mind the tens that still treat a bike as an awkward,
medieval object.
Especially on one of the avenues, Kisseleff, I have
to Cope with the Adversity of women (Why??) and men drivers.
Even if the sidewalk is the place where many
cars are parked (!!), there are no fewer than four lanes, the riding of bikes
on the sidewalk in that area is disputed and the angry drivers have no problem
breaking the law, speeding, talking on the phone and chauffeuring, still, they
are mad to see someone cycling alongside:
-
How
could this be??!
-
Get
the fuck out of here!
-
Use
the sidewalk imbecile!
-
Fuck
you, idiot!
That is the
jest of it.
True, there are some yellow signs, which have
been worn off for the most part, are anyway mostly occupied by cars, have been
considered illegal from the very beginning, but they gave the impression anyway
to many drivers that this is where cyclists belong.
Someone was telling me about the Highway built
in Holland for the men and women using the bicycle as means of transportation.
The bicycle is not something special anymore,
in civilized, advanced countries of the world.
Not to mention China.
Nevertheless, in my land, it is still strange
to witness an attitude that is so retrograde, backward and arrogant.
It is like:
-
You
do not have enough money to get a car, like me!
-
Poor,
inferior being!
-
I
can throw you to the ground anytime!
-
Care
for you and your goddamn two-wheeler…are you shiting me?!
Strange and regrettable is the attitude of many
women drivers.
This is where it could sound sexist for some.
However, I think it is the opposite:
-women are so much more sensitive, their EQ is generally
so much higher than men’s are, with their tendency to be much more violent.
- On the whole, I see women as superior in most
of the ways that count in the modern world- this is my view.
-
Alas,
this means I have Great Expectations
In addition, when a woman driver acts like a
man- violent, careless, aggressive, abusive and outright dangerous- I am really
pissed off.
And reminded of a fragment in Louis CK’s
standup act:
-people are into wild girls…they show their
tities, etc.
Nevertheless, when Women are wild…they kill
men!
A woman driver from the …French Embassy, no
less, threw me from my bike to the ground!!
Furthermore, instead of expressing some regret,
compassion…
She went on aggressively:
-
“Mais,
quoi?!...allez vous…putain…quell bordel…merde”
-
Which
is something like – shit, wtf…
Moreover, it was maddening!
Her registration plate??
Well, at the time it was a temporary thing with
many numbers.
However, she replaced that soon and I could see
her at the French Lycee
It is:
-
126
CD 03!!
This means she is a big shot or the wife of a
big shot there
I used to work with the
American, British and other embassies, so I know…
I went to say to her that this was very wrong,
after a few days, in the parking lot of their damn institution…
She was a degree better, no violent verbal
abuse this time.
Overall, she was not sorry
Moreover, I will get more into this kind of
attitude in the next
French Superiority episode of
Dealing with French Adversity
sâmbătă, 27 ianuarie 2018
Imagine the Best Possible Self
Imagine the
Best Possible Self
This involves introducing new
rituals and keeping the good old ones
Exercising in the morning must be in there, for
the near future…I was even thinking about a cruise, where I would still jog on
the deck of the boast
Some changes could be introduced, to counter
the barking of those stupid dogs that I now encounter, when I run with my own,
smart hounds…
Hey, this is the best-case scenario! So no
barking in there
I do not see yet how I could run with the macaws,
except perhaps if we get a mansion with a huge garden and then we just use that
space…and add some mates and much more entertainment for Puccini and Balzac
Talking of cruises, in this rosy future we
would all take cruises, I mean Puccini, Balzac and all, which means we need a
yacht really.
Writing is one of the present rituals that need
to continue in the time to come, because it has benefits:
1. If we write about positive events,
express gratitude on a daily basis as one of the most appreciated exercises
insists or if
2. We write about problems, which has
the advantage that it would bring explanations that are otherwise eluded and
create a distance between us and the unfortunate incidents…
It is all for the best
Reading will continue in the time ahead
No matter if that is the best-case scenario or
just the future as is.
For reading brings so many surprises and
glorious, otherworldly elating experiences…take the latest chef d’oeuvre that I
have discovered:
The Empire Trilogy by J.G. Farrell
I will still appreciate, maybe in a private,
lavish, huge screen and private cinema hall, another art form:
-
The
motion pictures
The Godfather: Part II has been on my little
screen today and what a joy and glory it was.
duminică, 7 ianuarie 2018
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