1. Choose a quiet, calmed place where you won’t be interrupted.
2. Before starting, do a few gentle stretching exercises to relieve muscular tension. Stretch your arms and try to smile.
3. Sit or lie down, make yourself comfortable.
4. Start to breathe slowly and deeply, in a calm and effortless way. If possible, try that the expiratory phase takes about two seconds longer than usual.
5. Relax, little by little, each part of your body, starting with your feet and working your way up to your face and head.
6. Push any distracting thoughts to the back of your mind; imagine them floating away.
7. Don’t force relaxation. Simply let go of the tension in your muscles and allow them to become relaxed.
8. Let your mind go empty. Some people find it helpful to visualise a calm, beautiful place such as a beach or a garden.
9. Stay like this for several minutes, then take some deep breaths and open your eyes, but stay sitting or lying for a few moments before you get up.

Remember, relaxation is returning to equilibrium. Equilibrium is the base for a good health.

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This is a neat exercise for developing mental discipline, a follow-up to our post about the power of a disciplined mind: choose a very sentimental piece of music which evokes a strong emotional response within you. Play it and let your feelings mix with your emotions. Just go with the flow emotionally. Surrender to the song and truly surrender to the emotions that the music makes you feel. Now play it a second time and, as before, go with the song. After a few moments, separate yourself from the flow of emotions. Watch them from the perspective of distance and watch how your emotional body is being manipulated by the music. Now listen to it a third time and resist the feeling of involvement with music. Refuse to engage with emotions that arise when handling your emotional body music. The fourth time you hear the piece, alternate between surrendering and not surrendering to the feelings of the music. Work on getting that power of choice. It is you who determines whether to surrender or not to the music. Now choose other equally sentimental pieces and practice your ability to participate or not in the emotional side of the song. As you practice this skill, take careful note of how this mechanism works.

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The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things, or, if it is night, about nothing at all. I do not mean to suggest that at a great crisis, for example, when ruin is imminent, or when a man has reason to suspect that his wife is deceiving him, it is possible, except to a few exceptionally disciplined minds, to shut out the trouble at moments when nothing can be done about it. But it is quite possible to shut out the ordinary troubles of ordinary days, except while they have to be dealt with. It is amazing how much both happiness and efficiency can be increased by the cultivation of an orderly mind, which thinks about a matter adequately at the right time rather than inadequately at all times. When a difficult or worrying decision has to be reached, as soon as all the data are available, give the matter your best thought and make your decision; having made the decision, do not revise it unless some new fact comes to your knowledge. Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile.

Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness.

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Lot 1: 4,400 m2 (US$ 29,000)
Look for the green arrow in the following map:
Map of Lot A

Lot 2: 3,000 m2 (US$ 19,000)
Look for the green arrow in the following map:
Map of Lot B

This is a residential zone (San Juan Bautista), with mountain climate. Several houses are already built up around these lots. There are plenty of schools nearby. Access to all services. Furthermore, you’ll be dealing directly with the lot’s owners (no intermediaries, no commissions).

Please, leave a comment if you’re interested, and I’ll write you back. Thank you.

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Leaders radiate their happiness, and convey energy rather than absorbing it. People wishing to achieve success and raising to the top must be full of positive energy, and project it to the things they do. Willpower alone is not enough; it must be accompanied by a good deal of energy to undertake new businesses and projects, and to bear any hurdles along the way. Energy, when effectively conveyed to other people, allows us to lead them positively. Leaders are, in essence, sources of energy, and people will follow a true leader if they feel enhanced, relaxed and supported by their leader’s energy.

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We have to establish a clear distinction between dreams and wishes in order to minimize errors. A dream is a goal accompanied by a strong emotional force. On the other hand, wishes are events or states we’d like to see or experience, but which are lacking true emotional support.

To have an unrealized dream means we have to set positive goals, for us and everybody else. That (seemingly) simple action could lead to substantial improvements in our lives. Regardless of how ambitious or gigantic our dream could be, we are able, by conquering a series of smaller goals, to achieve such big dream. For instance, the student who wants to achieve a college degree, or the chef who wants to own her own restaurant: they will face a lot of complications, hurdles and obstacles, but by conquering their goals, little by little, they will be able to achieve success. The important thing regarding dreams is to know what we really want to achieve. That’ll be the topic of an upcoming post.

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We should differentiate clearly between beliefs and ideas. An idea is the mental image, devoid of action, which subsequently creates the belief. The belief, in turn, is a deeply-rooted conviction which influences our behavior and is present in our decision-making process. Beliefs stem from ideas, bearing positive or negative nuances. An idea can turn into a positive belief which will help us to personal growth and self-improvement. Our problems start when ideas are limiting, creating limiting beliefs, and dangerously constraining our behavior.

Furthermore, beliefs are affected by a series of events which surround an individual and influence his ideas. These events are: cultural background, job, opinions, accumulated experience, and the circle of influence. On each of these events a person develops her own ideas which will ultimately be reflected on the beliefs she embraces.

The constant search of negative references and the mental repetition of limiting phrases such as “I’ll never make it” lead us to unconsciously adopting negative behaviors. In this context, we are subjugated by the negative suggestions that we repeat to ourselves incessantly. The only way to break free from this constraining spiral is to be aware of our power to change negative approaches. Change has to start right now.

That’s why it’s so important to have and to form positive ideas, in order to let them to turn into deep, automatic positive beliefs. In this way these positive beliefs will influence our behavior, and will lead us to a successful life, full of victories. Hence, the first sentence of this post: If we believe that we are able to do something, we’ll do it. If we believe we cannot do something, we won’t do it.

Exercises

• Repeat 5 times: “I am a positive person, I can achieve my goals and I…” (complete the phrase)
• Identify a negative idea you have. Think about how you could turn it into a positive idea.
• Meditate about your main goals right now. Are they realistic, are they attainable?
• Do you fear failure? Meditate about this: Fearing failure is natural. Everyone fails. The problem is not failure, the problem is to halt after failing. Winners, leaders keep trying, and that’s why they’re are successful and different.

A version of this post, in Spanish, can be read here.

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Leadership can be defined as the will to control processes and events, to understand what is required to focus all of the involved activities in a specific direction, and to yield the power to complete tasks and distribute resources, properly harnessing and directing the abilities of each person involved in the project. Summarizing, leadership is about control, focus, and also about effective management of people and resources.

There are two kinds of leaders:

1. Nominal Leaders: The main goal of nominal leaders is to establish, between her organization and its environment, a set of relations which allow the perfect execution of a project’s tasks. A nominal leader defines such tasks and monitors them to verify they are carried out entirely.
2. Concrete Leaders: This kind of leader expresses and represents the perspectives of her group. It might happen that the nominal leader will not properly represent or understand the emotions of her people, and under such circumstances, a concrete leader could emerge and oppose the inpetitude of the nominal leader (and even replacing her.)

This tell us a very important fact: groups follow the person which is able to quickly and clearly connect with their emotions. Leadership is, then, also an emotional journey.

Some leaders are more effective managing small groups, instead of huge organizations. Other leaders are able to inspire great masses, but are little respected by their immediate collaborators. And there is a third group of leaders, the best leaders, whose followers are everyone: masses and close collaborators.

Regardless of the cognoscitive field a leader adresses, they have several interesting characteristic which distinguish them from everybody else. The 3 most visible characteristics of leaders are:

1. They have achieved incredible success in their work and in their private lives; it’s often said about them that they have the Midas touch.
2. They seem to own an unlimited luck.
3. They are rich, and they are getting richer (even right now).

There exists a wrong belief about leadership being a hereditary, genetic issue. And some people think being a successful, real leader is a matter of luck. Nothing further from the truth. Leadership has to be built, has to be shaped, and (very important) has to be mantained. And there’s always room for improvement.

All of we are able to achieve professional success. But we have to study, we have to observe, we have to learn which are the traits of leaders and the keys for success. Obviously, success can be achieved, taught and learnt: we have to reshape a set of our behaviors, and suit them to the profile of a successful person. We have previously touched upon 3 visible traits of leaders. Now it’s time to delve into this point. And now we’ll discuss the two key traits of leaders:

Motivation

Leaders are like tireless motivation machines. Leaders are continuosly motivating themselves, and they renew their motivations easily, almost effortlessly. Leaders communicate and convey their motivation to the people around them. Leader are always motivated, and always motivating their people.

Perseverance

And motivation is the fuel for the kernel of success: perseverance. They are entrepeneurs and innovators. Generally, successful people have faced harsh beginnings. What distinguishes them is their faith in what they are doing, in what they are pursuing. Leaders believe. Leaders insist in their projects, goals and tasks. They set realistic tasks, and they fight over and over until fully completing each one of such tasks. How many times do common people abandon their startups at the first view of difficulties? How many projects are never realized just because of plain laziness? It’s in that initial moment of doubt when leaders raise above the crowd. Leaders keep going forward, because they are relentless fighters. Note that leaders are perseverant in work and effective use of their resources. Perseverance without a rational application of forces and use of resource will only lead to an utter failure.

And what’s life but a struggle against the chaotic forces of the universe? Leaders are the warriors who are able to tame those chaotic trends

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Don’t get involved in partial problems, but always take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem, even if this view is still not a clear one.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Intellect distinguishes between the possible and the impossible; reason distinguishes between the sensible and the senseless. Even the possible can be senseless.

Max Born

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