Language: English

“Love is never wasted,
For its value does not rest upon reciprocity.” – C. S. Lewis

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Rabbi Bunam used to tell young men who came to him for the first time the story of Rabbi Eisik, son of Rabbi Yekel in Cracow. After many years of great poverty which had never shaken his faith in God, he dreamed someone bade him look for a treasure in Prague, under the bridge which leads to the king’s palace. When the dream recurred a third time, Rabbi Eisik prepared for the journey and set out for Prague. But the bridge was guarded day and night and he did not dare to start digging. Nevertheless he went to the bridge every morning and kept walking around it until evening.

Finally the captain of the guards, who had been watching him, asked in a kindly way whether he was looking for something or waiting for somebody. Rabbi Eisik told him of the dream which had brought him here from a faraway country. The captain laughed: „And so to please the dream, you poor fellow wore out your shoes to come here! As for having faith in dreams, if I had had it, I should have had to get going when a dream once told me to go to Cracow and dig for treasure under the stove in the room of a Jew—Eisik, son of Yekel, that was the name! Eisik, son of Yekel! I can just imagine what it would be like, how I should have to try every house over there, where one half of the Jews are named Eisik,and the other Yekel!” And he laughed again. Rabbi Eisik bowed, traveled home, dug up the treasure from under the stove, and built the House of Prayer which is called „Reb Eisik’s Shul.”

The Treasure | Learning to Give.

People would go to the end of the world to find a priest with grace. In Orthodoxy, some known monasteries, or Mount Athos.

How about finding a priest with divine power right close to your home, at the church closest to you?

I don’t think you need to travel the world to find a priest with grace.

„Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear”. So are priests with grace.

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Sometimes, people (and I am part of „people”) get upset for various reasons. (Up-Set Set-Up – Blog de Olivian Breda)

What’s the solution? Using tricks to get out of the upsetting period.

One trick I use is listening to music.

Another one – be social.

Another one – try to do things.

Another one – get responsibilities.

If I’m busy living, if my brain is moved into other situations by listening to music, then why not do this? And do this often?

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More than 10 years ago, in October 18, 2007, at the Howard Johnson Hotel in Bucharest, HR Club organized a conference at which I’ve first seen Nigel Risner. His talk was about “How to Create IMPACT as an HR Partner”.

At some point, he asked for volunteers for a task which anyone should have volunteered to (be in front of people, be applauded). He picked the fastest person to raise his hand, and then asked a curious question to a participant – “Why didn’t you raise your hand?”. And the answer came “He was faster than me.”, to which Nigel replied “So, it’s his fault?” (I wrote about this previously on the blog).

There’s one more thing – at the event, people were sitting on chairs. He said something like, „OK, try to get to the highest height. Do your best. Give all you can to do it.” People complied. Then he said, „Now do it more”. And people did it more. Question – The request was clear the first time. Why the need to specify „do it more”? Initially, people, including myself, didn’t do it as often. (I’m not 100% sure it was at this event, but I think so)

I see things like this all around me: 1. People blame others, not taking accountability. 2. When people work, they don’t work as much as they could.

Of course, I also do this.

And I consider this to be life’s coaching solution.

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There are sometimes some contests like these: „join our newsletter for a chance to win X”.

The thing is, you could join just to get a prize, without reading the newsletter itself.

The other thing is, the contest organizers likely are aware of this.

It’s a „you’re fooling me, but I will fool you more, but I know you are aware that we are fooling ourselves”.

„I know that you know”.

Game of „knows”.

We know people don’t read, but still organize the contest.

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I enjoy watching some comedies, but I generally prefer a movie that gives me more emotions than just laughter.

I tend to look at life critically. I do my best to be an optimist, but generally, I think I’m cynical at some points.

There’s a balance, as in everything – you let yourself go, or you put boundaries.

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Problems arise. It’s inevitable, it’s part of life.

Two big options to look at a problem:

• Why did it happen? It got so wrong. Everything is bad. Fix this! Avoid this!
• What can I do in the future to avoid this? What is my part’s problem from the issue?

There’s a general tendency to look at the past. It’s so easy to look at the past and say „I would have done it better.”.

But this is hardly in your control, and you avoid taking lessons from the mistake.

If you keep complaining, „life is hard, you did wrong there, it was your fault, I don’t like life”, you miss a lot of opportunities.

It’s much better too look for things to do from now: „what did I do wrong and I want to fix for the future? What was my fault in the issue, and how can I prevent it from now? What is a lesson from this, and where should the next step be?”

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” ― Yogi Berra

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. – Søren Kierkegaard

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