Month: March 2012

Let’s not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same things

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

Crisis as Albert Einstein sees it.

“Let’s not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same things. A crisis can be a real blessing to any person, to any nation. For all crises bring progress.

Creativity is born from anguish, just like the day is born form the dark night. It’s in crisis that inventiveness is born, as well as discoveries made and big strategies. He who overcomes crisis, overcomes himself, without getting overcome. He who blames his failure to a crisis neglects his own talent and is more interested in problems than in solutions. Incompetence is the true crisis. The greatest inconvenience of people and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems.

There’s no challenge without a crisis. Without challenges, life becomes a routine, a slow agony.

There’s no merit without crisis. It’s in the crisis where we can show the very best in us. Without a crisis, any wind becomes a tender touch. To speak about a crisis is to promote it. Not to speak about it is to exalt conformism. Let us work hard instead. Let us stop, once and for all, the menacing crisis that represents the tragedy of not being willing to overcome it.”

Embrace

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

– The art of receiving.

I believe it is a misconception that giving is the key to happiness. In that sense, the law of three (maybe you read about it) is not right. I know it is a bold statement, but let me explain using an example.

Through the years I met a lot of people. Professional, private, acquaintances, friends, friends of friends and after a while I found out that the best conversations are the ones where the other one talks. That’s what they say. It made me realize that I myself don’t have to be interesting at all, I just need to ask interesting questions, listen carefully and create a lot of room to let the other answer. It is not about my stories it is about theirs! Not me, them.

It is about feeling and sharing the other ones joy and grief and about receiving in the broadest sense of the word. It’s also about accepting a compliment; I used to find that always a bit awkward. But now I let it in; I embrace it. They mean it; otherwise they wouldn’t say it, do you? Not accepting a compliment is foolish. It is even insulting for the one giving the compliment and even more insulting to yourself.

I learned that the better I am able to receive, the better I became in giving. Receiving energy and giving energy. That’s why I embrace people. I’m always interested in their stories, their emotions and pre-occupations.

In the end, energy is neutral, so the more I receive, the more I can give away.

Babylon IV

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

-Be alone

Although it is hard, it is good to be alone now and then. Really alone. Alone with your thoughts and often thoughts you never had or could imagine popping out of your mind.

I believe we spend too much time in distraction. That can be anything. Smartphone, TV, signs, people, traffic, neighbours, noises, worries. We’ve grown up with these sounds and distractions and believe it is normal, but it is not.

I am not preaching meditation. I myself are not good at it, but the principle is right. Me, I go biking or running and lately I have so many ideas and thoughts that I deliberately created a stop to write things down, otherwise my head’ll explode. Thoughts I don’t have when I do my regular stuff . It is liberating and it makes me very happy.

It is very interesting for me as well, because I don’t know where the thoughts come from. And it can be anything, from themes of children’s stories to quotes or things like I am writing now. At first I tried to analyse the source of these thoughts, but there’s no direct link, so I don’t try it anymore. I just let them come.

Try it some time.
Take a walk in the woods or grab your bike, alone, by yourself, no distraction and try very hard to think of nothing.
Have fun.

Ladida

Gerard S. HoffLeave a comment

– Follow your heart.

Our environment, our parents, our teachers, our friends, has the best of intentions and try to point us in the right direction. Most of the time, it is in the direction of conventions. And that seems OK, ‘cause everybody is doing it, so why not.

But without people who go in the opposite direction, we’d still be somewhere stuck in the Stone Age. Well, as a matter of speech. It is of course the people who have the energy and the vision and the guts to do things differently, who have changed things, but that isn’t easy.

Somewhere, at one point in my life I read (or thought): My biggest ambition in life is to make mistakes and ever since it is part of me.

Not that I am deliberately looking for these mistakes, but I am not afraid to make them, always thinking the opposite of conventions or expectations and see whether that might work, or not.

It is like walking barefoot on pebbles. The first days, weeks, months or even years it hurts, but after time you don’t feel it anymore. Contra-conventional becomes natural as well. It is an interesting place to be, with amazing undiscovered (creative) opportunities.

And then a new challenge comes up. Creating the context in which people understand unconventional thinking. That is (an) art.

Welcome in the World of WEAST.

 

*Ladida is short for singing out loud in public, like on your bike or just walking in the street. I mean, why not!