Light a Match Under Your Dream

'' You have to Light a Match Under Your Dream'' she said. This was the line of the character Madam CJ Walker in Self-Made.

It resonated so much with me that I had to stop the episode. What does she mean and what is my dream?

There is more than one - sometimes too many to even be able to focus on one thoroughly.

I decided to look through the internet to find out how one can possibly define their dream.

I keep waking up each morning and find myself having a new dream for my life. Remnants of the past or the day before are still there. Yet new in-roads are created for me to move forward.

I came across this article ''22 secrets to discovering your dream and living it''

I really did like Guy Kawasaki’s idea of creating a mantra as opposed to a mission statement for oneself.

Other elements that appealed to me was to have one purpose and to ask ourselves what we would like to be remembered for when we die.

it did sparked a lot of thoughts and then everything became so much simpler.

there is only one secret to discovering your dream

Back to Work, Holiday glow, no more meetings

After a lovely weekend in a lodge in a middle of the forest, I wore the holiday glow proudly at the serie of meetings lined up for me on my day back in the office.

As the day back went on, my notebook became filled up by notes to process, more emails added to my to do list to send for Monday and my work hours just vanished...

I thought:

1. No more meetings on my way back from holidays

2. I shall limit the number of meetings to one a week maximum

3. I shall always ask for an agenda

4. Delegate so others write minutes 

What else?

About sending emails on Monday

I was asked to provide an update about My Monday Email Run

It is now my third week sending only emails on Monday. It remains very rewarding, though it is long stretch of work.

Today, I started replying to emails at 6am this morning. It is now 9pm and I am on the last stretch dealing with my personal emails. Why did it take me all that long? Well today, I changed slightly my schedule. I had a meeting with a coach to support Leicester Fixers - Durgha from Flow Finder (a bit about this in this Last Update). It meant that 3hours of my time were dedicated to travelling, chatting, planning and more. 

Writing emails on Mondays also include writing articles, newsletters as well as updating websites including Quetzal and Marlefeed plus doing a bit of design work. It is required since I want to update my teams about upcoming events and resources to share. I am working towards writing most of the content to send on Monday - On Thursday instead so I can reduce the workload for Monday.

Once my Monday run is done. I have way more time to dedicate to writing, meeting with people and planning and I am well grateful for this. 

During the week, I check my emails once a day between 12-1pm. If there is anything urgent, I reply straight away otherwise I snooze an email until the following week. If I have a meeting or discussion and I am invited to send an email to someone and it is not urgent, I use my asana and write that I need to send an email on Monday to so and so.

So this it, my update about My Monday Email Run.

I hope you find it useful

My week schedule for higher productivity

Monday - Emails

Tuesday - Publishing and Scheduling

Wednesday - Funding Application writing and planning

Thursday Writing Books, News & Schedulinh Marlefeed

Friday - Clear Eliminate & Plan

Saturday - clear eliminate plan

Sunday - rest

What's Yours?

Emails only on Monday

My new experiment for productivity is to send emails only on the Monday to my collaborators. Today was my first day sending emails to everyone. What can I say, it was intense and at the same time so rewarding. I feel that my list of things to do for the week just reduced dramatically by just dealing with all my planned emails first. Now I can focus on reading, planning and more. The plans for the rest of the week is to read through email 1hour during the day to see if there is anything urgent.Otherwise, they'll be dealt with next week. 

What about you? Have you got a productivity hack?

How do I used the Stay Focused App

Did you find yourself in many instances just scrolling down Instagram,  Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn mindlessly? Did you wish you could just stop the behaviour and focus on something more productive instead?

Did you answer yes yes yes.

You are here for the treat - the Stay Focused App.

Oh you've used it already? and it did not work for you? You kept resetting the times to access your favourite app?

I tell you, you are not the only. I have downloaded the Stay Focused app several times before finding my mojo.

What changed?

Reading Tim Ferris 4-hour a week comfortable challenge of not feeding ourselves with information during 4 days

A discussion with Muslim and Christian about the heartfelt decision to fast for a set period of time.

How do I use the Stay Focused App?

When I open Instagram or any other app first thing, I ask myself did I gather everything I needed it from there. Then I log on to Stay focused, then I make the decision to fast for 5 hours on my social media. When the times up, I check again the information and then do another 5 hours fast.

It works!

I am looking to increase the fast slowly slowly so that I check my social media only once a day and even better once a week.

We will see how that goes.

I hope this helps you in your journey ;)

To be a successful ethical entrepreneur, you need a Genuine Love for People

MeganMakesGood Hens & Parrots

''To be a successful ethical entrepreneur, you need a Genuine Love for People'' Laura Santamaria from Sublime Magazine

What happened this week?

This week, I went to the Artisans of Market Harborough Fair in the Old Grammar School with Jill from Megan Makes Good. The day was absolutely gorgeous, the sun was high, the sky was blue, and the city was buzzing with activity. We arrived at the fair and Jill set up with another nine people in the room while inviting me to have a walk around town.

When I came back, beautiful items made up by the different artists filled the room. As the day went on, there were different energies on display in the room. Some people were more disappointed than others on how well the event went and pondered who is the primary beneficiary of the fair (i.e., the organiser or the trader).

On my side, the day was absolutely fabulous. I met wonderful people in and outside of the fair. There is a church next to the Old Grammar School. I went in and could feel what it is to be a community. Those people were so welcoming and loving.

On the same day, I posted on my Instagram a question asking the Instagram community what does it take to become a successful entrepreneur. The experiences of the various entrepreneurs at the artisan market inspired the question.

Laura Santamaria who is running Sublime Magazine replied to my question. She said that To be a successful ethical entrepreneur, it takes Genuine Love for people.

I believe this to be TRUE because it is hard work to get people to follow your work and buy from you, it is hard work to get people to support you in making your business a success, it is hard work to be liked if no one knows you. The item can be beautiful. The connection is more important.

Lavender bags by MeganMakesGood

After the event, I wondered who in the room developed connections in Market Harborough before the event and benefitted from those connections to share all their gifts.

The primary beneficiary for the event success is the TRADER. By ripping the most benefits, they are simultaneously the ones with the most responsibilities because they take the most financial risks. For those reasons, they have to put the work in to create the social connections that may yield an ROI. They have to Genuinely love people to get out of your way and let them know that it is because they care that they are coming in their town to share their gift. If this has not been done, they may as well consider themselves LATE to the fair regardless of how early they left their home.

From my experience from the fair, I can say that I will take some time before considering going to a fair. At the moment, my eBay sales are going well; I have a new collaborator ready to list some items with Bazar Heureux. I also received excellent advice from Jill, Viki which I am going to apply. I need to improve the descriptions on my articles and share with more people what I am up to and see where the wind blows. New collaborators and contributors to the Bazar Heureux may appear.

Let see what next week bring for my vision to be complete.

Exciting!

Some of the people who were present at the artisan market
Khulelo
@thepapercreative
@sadie_and_sid
@louisecrookendenjohnson
@sarahkingarts
@simply.shaker

So many questions - not many answers

What is right?
I have been doing some yoga today. It felt very good. It was really what I required. My body felt so achy from sleeping in the bed. It was not great. I have managed as well to finish and send my chapter to my supervisor. I am going to be able to actually start working on my discussion. I also started to work on putting items on sale on eBay which is always good to. Not only eBay but facebook as well. I am actually quite happy, I do not have a phon at the moment. Samantha sent me some money and this is good too.
I also realise that maybe I should sell the item I have instead of offering them to people around me because this is what I need at the moment...
What is wrong?
Nothing really my knee is better. Just my body aching a bit
My hair though not great
What is missing
A mattress topper and a conditioner for my hair. Some nice food as well for me and Moussa to eat. Another thing that is missing is another 2000 on my bank account. It would be nice as well to get a yoga mattress plus gloves for the album and a product to clean the pic.
Have a longer read on the extinction rebellion movement
What is confused?
How can I sell more items on eBay?
What type of business are you going to create?
The type of career that I want. When am I going to leave divya
How am I going to get involved with the extinction movement?

Reviewing MBA thesis

I inform my good friend that I  have been tutoring students for their master thesis.

I truly enjoyed the experience in helping the students embrace academic writing.

Two weeks later, he asked me to review his MBA thesis before submitting it.

There is nothing better to tell a story to others for opportunities to emerge.

I am receiving his work this weekend, we shall see how the experience pan out.

I may offer my services to a wider audience. Interested? send me a buzz on Twitter ;)

What to do when your family do not agree with your career choice

Just do it.

but please, do not do it prove them wrong or try to gain their approval later down the line. 

You may never get it

Just do it because it makes you happy.

Do not talk about your goals with them, it will make them upset for no reasons.

Focus on you ought to do

Are you a workholic?

A workaholic is a work-obsessed individual who gradually becomes emotionally crippled and addicted to power and control in a compulsive drive to gain approval and public recognistion of success according to Dr Barbara Killinger.

If you recognise yourself, it may be worth checking out her work in more details and why not doing this test

How to stop worrying about Money

One of the best ways to stop worrying about money is first understanding exactly what it is and for this, I would advise anyone to actually watch Positive Money videos on Youtube on how money is created and what it actually is.
To learn even more about it you can read their book :

Modernising Money: Why Our Monetary System is Broken and How it Can be Fixed

From there, the question you have to ask yourself is what are the strategies I can possibly implement to ensure that money issues do not impact on mental health. If you feel that you are struggling financially and that the issue of money is taking a toll on you, please refer to a GP or a counsellor to help you, talk to your friend and family, keep a diary. Ultimately, you have to find a way to make the issue of money not causing further issues in your being.

I wish you good luck with this. It is only the beginning of the journey to realise that you and everything around you have intrinsic value and it is down to you to recognise it.

Ready to get paid

Yes, I am...
It already the end of the month and I have bills to fulfil.

The Ultimate Project - Answering Why I do what I do?

She had for a long time been thinking that the skills that she wanted for the most part to develop was Project Management. So she could in her professional life, coordinate projects and achieve the ultimate goal of completing one.
We quickly realise that what she actually needs is to develop the skills and abilities to focus her energy in accomplishing her personal goals.
She had so many different interests that every time she set herself up with one goal, she found herself distracted with more interesting things to pursue.
Her creative energy was so powerful that she could not indeed build upon it to create lasting impression on herself and others.

Why?

This is the main question to answer until then, any other attempt to develop project management skills will be lost in the vacuum of distraction. Answering the question is a project in itself.
Good luck with it we said to her, you may be able soon to control your mind.

Gift economy trail of discussion

The conversation between two strangers arguing that a group offering a service shall organise themselves to make it possible for those who cannot pay to not have to pay.

M: I am not talking about individual offering a service. I am talking about group offering a service and charging for it. They have to organise themselves so not everyone pays by using a collection plate so people can remain anonymous. this is the way forward for a gift economy.

M: being an individual or a group does not change the fact that we have currently an incurrent charge to live in the current market economy and this includes paying rent, taxes and expenses. If as a group, we are delivering a service, we are already contributing in term of energy, money, time, the cost of the place, etc. As much as not being judgemental with what we receive in return, how many time do we have to send the collection plate around to make people feel that they have to share their gifts too and please note their gift does not have to be only monetary.

M: well there is another way to collect the gift, you have to be more creative in your collection mean by using the rainbow kit, a gift circle, donations at the entrance etc..

M: Do not get me wrong, it is what is happening already. What you are putting forward as solutions for collection is adopted by many communities. it does not change the fact that by design the cost incurred to pay for capital cost means that some will choose to contribute and some other will decide that they won't. Either way, there will be always someone who will feel that they are taken advantage of. to tame them down, we will say to them ''well this is part of the gift economy, this is because we are a compassionate community who give freely and please be grateful for all that is given to you and hush already''...

M: there will be always distrusting exchangers who are present, you have to educate them on what the gift economy is., the real issue is with the people who charge for events where the unemployed cannot come...they are cold and cruel.

M: the issue is not with the distrusting exchangers or the person who set prices, they are not cold or cruel, the issue is not with those who haven't got money or unemployed. the issue is that the buildings in which we are, the tools that we used, all the infrastructures that allow us to drink, eat, take a shower are all bound to go to entropy if not maintained. and unfortunately, in the market economy, a lot of it has a price tag. People care about their safety and being able to live in a stable world, they will engage with others to increase their resilience by exchanging gifts - skills knowledge products money etc. However, they always do mental accounting on the extent to which a relationship is fair, care of their physical and mental being and maintain their current environment...any signs of unfairness does create some politics for which a consensus need to be found.

People & Money : A Workshop about Money

I have been involved with Positive Money since my master thesis where my focus was at the time on ''What are the Design skills for the transition towards the Circular Economy?''.

Whilst interviewing the various stakeholders during the thesis, one was particularly keen on discussing economics, how money works,  how people are blinded by its meaning?

How did I come from discussing design to having a long discussion about money?

Well, it appears that the creation of money and the way it is applied to motivate people to stay on the treadmill seems to be like water nourishing poor design and systemic issues at its roots.

It cannot be ignored.

After the master thesis, I studied money, how is created and how it impacts people wellbeing.

I ran a number of workshops in Leicester to raise awareness.

The Leicester Positive Money Group emerged and as of today still, exists.

Yet, we have an idea.

Let's start again to share the word.

My friend, Danielle Teixeira and I have designed a two hours workshop on Money - what is money, how it is created - what actions you can take to be run in Leicestershire for both classes of teens and group of adults. We are only at the initiation stage of our project where we want to get some feedback from people on whether they want to take part or not.

Do you want to take part or have it run in your community? Click here to let us know or Join the Positive Money Leicestershire discussion here

10 reasons why Gumtree is Good for the Local Economy

Most of you know Gumtree the local ads website where there is approximately 1,772 573 as we speak in the UK.

For me, it is one of the best local ads website one can find and I love it because I believe it is actually good for the Local Economy. 10 Reasons why:

Because it gets good, money, ideas, knowledge, contacts circulating at a fast rate at a local level.

There is nothing better than increasing the velocity of exchange to improve a city economy.

There is no fee attached to posting an item on gumtree. It makes Ebay look so bad.

Items that may be discarded and put in a bin because broken can be purchased by someone who is looking for a spare part.

There are plenty more reason to actually be on Gumtree.

If Gumtree was to giving me a job, I'll be there ambassadorhttps://www.shopkeep.com/blog/10-ways-small-businesses-benefit-the-local-community#step-1

Largest Fearless Life Goal - To Enjoy Life

One of the most ranked life goal on ranker.com is to Enjoy Life.

It refers to Being playful, carefree, lighthearted, enjoying life; being spontaneous; exploring, being adventurous; having an exciting, stimulating life; to live for today; devoting time to amusements, recreation, entertainment, hobbies.

In other words, live with the flow and take what comes with a light heart.

To achieve such a state, there is something to work on on the daily basis.
This is to be fearless or more appropriately to transform what we fear into a source of excitement. 

Did you know that we release the same chemical in our body when we are scared or excited?

Remember the feeling when you are on a rollercoaster! You know this moment when you sit on a ride and it starts moving up the slide... all your body is alert, full of fear and excitement for what to come and then it goes down, relief and release of the emotions in a BIG SCREAM or LAUGH!

As new things come into your life, do not jump with fear, jump with excitement. 
It is something new to make you grow and teach you how to enjoy life as it comes

So here it

Enjoy lifeBe fearlessLive with excitement
and when the spark goes, appreciate the moment

Hacking Adulthood or maybe not

Here are some lifehacks that will change your life if you follow them through thoroughly so you can achieve the life you always dream of... Lots of Money and a nice retirement pot:

1. Wake up every morning at 5.30

 > So you can do your yoga, read a book, take a shower, have breakfast, do your meditation and write on a piece of paper what you are grateful for (i.e. you have a 40hjob, that pays you £20000 and house not completely paid yet but still) 

2. Smile at work

> Because people like people who smile

3. Overload with stuff to do, you are so lucky, use an app to help you manage it all, or get an IPAD

> it will make your life easier. you will have just one more thing to manage.

4. Cook up your food on Sunday for the week so you do not have to cook at all and have more time for yourself > ...

5. Read 2min long story to your child, they will be happy and you will be quicker in bed

6. Put an alarm on your phone so you can remember to go to bed and to wake up

7. Do some sports cos your body is the most important thing particularly if you are sitting all day

8. Go out and have fun over the weekend, avoid doing it during the week, you will be wrecked

9. Remember to clean after something get dirty or get a cleaner

10. Start again.

11. there is more... please refer to the zillions of self-help books which remind you that you are not perfect and you need fixing.

Well for the more brave, ditch the list above, ask your company to reduce your hours of work, get people together to start pestering that they want a change within their workplace, take a sabbatical and go to the seaside. start living life as an adult not as...

Where and when real work begins

Alarm 6.30
Shower, breakfast, lunch preparation
Out of home office at 7.30
Work work work
Back at home office 16.30
Real work begins.