Keep your self-motivation up!

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It’s quite an important timing for us in AIESEC Estonia, as we are in the process of choosing the next strategic leadership team, who will lead the AIESEC country in the next period starting from July. I’m also in the process of selecting the best successor for my position, who will be coordinating an exchange area here and make it grow more. Right now I have four candidates, where the most competent and suitable for country realities will be my successor. Uhhh, its so exciting! :)

It’s the typical time in AIESEC, when everybody is asking the question – What will I do next year in AIESEC? What do you want to do? So, what’s next? And any person is searching for a role, which will develop him/her personally and make the personality stronger, being able to overcome many challenges – organizational or personal; well, some of the people are driven by patriot feelings to lead their own organization nationally or locally. I’m sure everyone is driven by its own personal motivators to be in AIESEC next period. About me is already quite sure, decided, I want to go on exchange this year after my MC term and gain more professional experience that I started to miss, but then lets see – nobody knows... I still didn’t decide which area, but it maybe even concretely related to financial management, where the work can be based on projects, communications, risk management. There were some nice thoughts which were making my eyes shine like being an MC(P) of some middle-east country, apply on AI position, but some certain reasons made me to hold back… And I’m fine with that.

I’m feeling already quite confident in the role I’m right now, having a comfort feeling that many things I started this year, the approach I took in my working style are showing the results and many people from AIESEC here told me, that I’m the right person being responsible for exchange area this year… It’s quite pleasant to hear that from various people and exactly the positive feedback has been one of the drive-ins for me to do even more better and strive for quality results more and more. That’s why for sure there is no time to relax for now, as loads of work is still waiting. Any change is a longer process…

But as I was telling, I have changed my personal approach to many things taking everything much easier and it helps a lot in not getting stressed out again. Now I’m taking more personal time for myself, going out, discovering new places (nightclubs of Tallinn as well :D) and activities (I learned how to bake cakes!), interacting with people, planning my trips, reading more… I plan to take the most out of my stay here for the next half a year… It’s quite stupid, how long it took for me to take this thoughts really from inside, even they are so much understandable from the very beginning.

Being in MC abroad its very easy to loose self-motivation, as you are in the process of adopting to realities, fighting your cultural shocks and understanding the difference in people’s work, communication, getting used to more independent life, when only you have to take care of yourself, as nobody will notice that maybe you are sick, demotivated, stressed etc. That’s why it’s very important not to let all the possible negative emotions to take over you, what happened to me and caused around two months of feeling down… It’s very crucial to make yourself to focus on positive things like your strengths, past successes, current advantages etc. By making an effort to feel grateful, you’ll realize how competent and successful you already are. This will help to increase your confidence and get you motivated to build on your current success.

“It might sound strange that repeating things you already know can improve your mindset, but it’s amazingly effective. The mind distorts reality to confirm what it wants to believe. The more negatively you think, the more examples your mind will discover to confirm that belief. When you truly believe that you deserve success, your mind will generate ways to achieve it. The best way to bring success to yourself is to genuinely desire to create value for the rest of the world.”

That’s one of the things I learned on myself – don’t let the negative emotions, thoughts and feelings to destroy you.

What also gets me motivated is a talk with my friends from my country who always show me an example to cheer up and tell how actually they proud of being my friend, what they admire in me personally and especially when they ask an important suggestion. Also, reading someone’s blogs helps a lot I would say, admitting that things you think of currently are nothing comparing to their experiences or other way around, how people are enjoying their life abroad taking the most out of it, being an example for me. Reading new books, but I’d say some personal development ones can always help you in creating an ideal picture of yourself or helping to broad your perspectives. And of course, taking a rest and not thinking that you will always have an endless supply of energy and drive. Again and again you will need some time to re-charge your emotional and spiritual batteries.

17 Terrific Self Motivating Tips

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Head of optimist

The most difficult thing is waiting. Waiting for something, waiting for someone, waiting for a miracle... When it is delayed, you already stop to understand or at least understand with difficulties, what you are waiting, what for you are waiting... but the idea that you have been waiting, thinking, wanting it and a strong desire doesn’t let you go… Hope and wait – isn’t easy… You know that you were wrong, did a wrong thing... you understand and look with hope and sadness... and want to be off for a while, because you are tired... because all the thoughts are re-thought, words were re-told, but feelings... feelings are living... and that’s why the head is not working, as its requested. It refuses to live just quietly, to exist, not being upset and think that everything will be fine... simply refuses. No... with the latter it somehow agrees, because it is the head of an optimist and therefore those strangers, surrounding you, see the “head” shining and smiling…

Why the people are making everything complicated?! And then suffer…

Why not taking each other as we are… alive and happy, sad and funny, healthy and sick…

After all, if only…

Simply as it is

I have been back to Tallinn already for almost a week and have a feeling that I haven’t been leaving home for holidays for New Year, as already from the 1^st day of working have been busy with new initiatives, tasks to compile here in AIESEC in order to make the organization and people here grow. I have 6 more months to be here to make all the plans transformed to results…

Some things have been changed, some of them are still the same and in order to be changed it will take longer time for it. But the most pleasant thing or in some cases not, I have recognized there, is the change in certain people. How you see that 7 months ago, when I was leaving the country, they have been different than they are right now. Of course, their current environment, roles, new responsibilities, more knowledge made them a bit different - more mature, maybe more skeptical, more experienced, more inner closed, even less-communicative and so on – you may imagine any kind of human changes you can… I’m telling about my non- and aiesec friends, some cousins, relatives as well.

It’s quite pleasant to recognize the personal growth in a person, how he became more mature than he was some time ago… How he thinks differently than before, as have been experienced and passed through many situations, that challenged him… fulfilled responsibilities, which were scaring him before from the beginning, but for now made the best out of it… It’s always pleasant not only to see, but maybe also somehow be involved in the person’s realization of his potential… But at the same time, he doesn’t want still to accept the current reality and he things that he has a long way to go… Yes, it’s good to be ambitious.

I have been always telling that, I’ve grown up together with aiesec and I see that in other people right now too.

To some people this period of time didn’t teach anything, at least from 1^st and even 2d look, and they are still the same ones, who are not having a feeling of “shortage of time”, that they have to be running to finally start achieving something in their lives, grabbing new opportunities, which are about in a hand long distance from them... Accepting the reality and just drifting… Yes. We are different.

I have been talking to my friend, who told me that I have been personally changed as well, not in some good or bad way, just changed. Here are some things which I decided to write down here:

• I became more mature in sense of how my life perspectives and some views have been changed. From here seems, that I started to be quite skeptical on what’s happening around. Making the things sometimes to be put under the question;
• I became more calmer, in the sense of less emotional, I think;
• I have lost a bit the shines in my eyes and “fire inside of me” (translating from word-to-word)

And I would more than agree with what my friend has noticed in me, but at the same time I didn’t loose some of my natural characteristics about what I was writing in some blog posts here.

About the last point which was noticed I’d more than agree - I didn’t have quite for a long time a feeling of doing something that will make my eyes shine and having an inner warm feeling of “burning heart”! No, I’m not telling of being in love with some one, even this one is another topic too :D I’m telling more of adding some new thing in my life, like new project, personal activity etc.

One of my current team mates has developed a project called Passionalism, which is a concept for people, who are supporting the idea of doing, working with or for smth, that’s aligned with their individual passion, but not “forced” by various reasons – they are living by the activities of their individual passion, which boosts innovation, creativity, changes…

“Passionalism can be defined as social and economic concept used to identify a society based on passion. It opposes industrial and post-industrial societies - while those concepts are based on manufacturing and services, passionalism focuses on individual’s passion. Therefore your daily activity right now called “a job”, which means working for somebody, changes to working for your passion.”

From the Passionalism web-page you can even download Passion 2009 book, which has collected the ideas of people from the basic question – What makes my eyes shine? I really suggest you to have it and contribute too.

This Passionalism concept made me think a lot about myself and things that makes my eyes shine and I decided to deal with that, knowing the basic things on what I really like, with whom I love to work, what makes me feel ‘butterflies’ in me and can connect with my future ideas, which are from year to year are inside of my mind… I have shared them with only my close friends.

I will start with that this week and then tell you, on what has happened…

It’s simple as it is. Do what makes your eyes shine…