We need a CHANGE!

Hello people,

It has been a while since I wrote, I was getting connected with Mother Nature and became passionate environmentalist meanwhile :) 2010 has been an incredible journey so far and I will share my experiences some other time.
In this post I want to reflect on our "human" behavior and the need of change that is evolving, as we continue to exercise our lifestyle. This post is inspired from an excellent book I read during my holidays in Croatia. "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" is an international bestseller written from Thomas Friedman, providing a holistic overview to the world issues focusing on achieving environmental sustainability.

Women love shopping! Men want "big" stuff!
We live in a consumption-based society where growth is driven by demand. The Government always pushes "economic growth" agenda, the companies are trying to convince us that we need their products, the media is constantly showing the fabulous lives of people that own a lot and have everything - from big houses, fast expensive cars, latest fashion brand clothes to exotic yacht parties. And what happens with us, the ordinary people? All this society forces create a mental picture of a lifestyle where we desire more and more of all kinds of "things" that we believe will make us happy.
The demand is here alright and with the over-population trend will definitely stay, but what happens with the supply side? Can Mother Earth provide all the natural resources needed for production of all those "things" we need? Are we are aware of the price we pay with our current demand-supply mindset?

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, first produced by the United Nations in 2005 with scientific analysis by 1,300 experts assessed the consequences of ecosystem-change for human well-being. The report concluded that the ability of the earth’s ecosystem to absorb human impacts is rapidly diminishing. Human activity is putting such strains on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet’s Ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.
The World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet 2008 report concluded that we were already operating 25 percent above the planet’s biological capacity to support life.
The Australian Paul Gilding, a former head of Greenpeace put it this way: We have been taking “a system operating past its capacity and driving it faster and harder. No matter how wonderful the system is, the laws of physics and biology still apply. And those laws are telling us that we, as a species, cannot continue on the growth path we are on. We need a new normal – one that is much more sustainable and healthy for the Market and Mother Nature."

Indeed, our "normal" has become too excessive and unsustainable. We have undermined the environment and its capacity to support the demanded economic growth. We have underpriced the true costs and the risk of what we were doing, we got used on "I'll be gone" behavior (when the bill comes due) and we have socialized the losses for private individuals to gain profits - argues Thomas Friedman in his book.
We definitely need to adopt a different, more sustainable mindset, if we want to survive as human species on Planet Earth. We owe this to the future generations. I like the quote: “Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy”.

We all need to make money and afford all the things we believe will makes us happy, and we need to do that according the laws and structures of the society, but we should all become aware that the ENVIRONMENT is inevitable part of this growth circle. We all need to adopt the mindset of sustainable development because it provides a framework for humans to live and prosper in harmony with nature rather than... at nature's expense.

Ultimately, it comes down to the values that are shaping our behaviors, and when it comes to developing sustainable values it comes down to: integrity, transparency, honesty and shared responsibility.
"Sustainability" as a value is the opposite of "I'll be gone" mindset. Instead it says that I will behave as if I will always be here and always be held accountable for what took place when I was there.

I have clearly understood that finding personal meaning in life is finding an area that is connected to something larger then just yourself. What can be larger then devoting your life into making sure that your children and future generations have the same right of freedom and pursue of happiness as we have in our time?

Change is needed and it starts with the individual. I will finish this post with one of my favorite African quotes: "If you want to go quickly go alone, if you want to go far go together".

Let's go together...

as 2009 is passing by...

Hello there world!

Few hours left from 2009.. It has been a turbulent year definitely!
Important changes in my life that brought me back to Skopje! :) I feel truly happy that I am back home cause I can see the dots connecting and that makes me excited!

Sometimes you feel that you are not making the right choices (by taking the easier way) but in the end of the day all ends well.. Just believe that everything happens for a reason and just find another way, different way to get to your dream..

2010 will definitely be very exciting and I'll be back with my posts in a new style and a different layout! ;) Sharing is caring (sometimes scary!:) but I will do my best to share my reflections and experiences because every story is a beautiful story! And I believe it is becoming even more beautiful when everyone is involved in it!

Receive my best wishes from Skopje, don't drink too much and be safe! ;)
Talk to you next year!

Toni

I haven't posted for 3 months now, I guess I just didn't feel like it..

In my last post I asked myself "am I scared from the world"? Is MY WORLD CLOSING UP?
Well, yeah, I felt kinda scared and insecure in the past period and I can not say that my feeling is gone now.. And when you feel like that, you usually don't wanna share much.. I think that's common.

Well, what hapenned? Well, 2 things mainly:
1. Got sick and injured my knee (again!)
2. Had to take a decision for my future
Whole month of June I was sick. I got the "mumps", bad virus to get when you are 25 :P This made me realize how much I miss home. As I got better, my weak knee twisted! I was asking myself, "why is this hapenning to me"? Keeping a positive mindset was difficult cause I haven't even recovered from the mumps and I can not walk. Sounds kinda funny :)
Second, my future was uncertain about staying in Groningen. I had to take a decision if I continue to work with the company for minimum one more year or leave on October. My job is cool, but my heart is somehow not there! And missing a month from work in a crucial period affected many personal deadlines. So, work was tough also.

On the bright side, I was very happy that my parents came to visit me for 10 days on July, bringing Martina here (with her mom:). Oh, that experience was intense! :D Eventually, the parents left and me and Martina spent the whole summer together. We travelled a lot, visited friends and went through many difficult, but somehow comical situations together (like, missing our flight Lisbon-Prague:). Again, meaningful experience for both us that brought us even closer.

So, after a lot of reflection, I decided not to continue my contract here in NL and go back to Macedonia! :)
The plan is to stay 1-2 years, gain professional experience, learn the market on the Balkan region and look for investment opportunities, while preparing for my MBA.
Of course, my favorite part comes that I can enjoy the presence of my family and friends and finally be with Martina in Skopje after 2 years of long distance relationship! (sigh..:)

As you can see, digesting CHANGE is not easy. but I am looking forward to it now! even I changed the template of my blog for a change :)

My world was indeed closing up, I didn't feel the inspiration to write on my blog. I probably felt insecure about many things. And it takes courage to speak out! Well, this post was also not easy for me.
But I guess this is the voice of a simple human going through journey of life. Ups and downs, joy and sorrow, doubts and determination.
I feel scared and excited in the same time.

And what about you? How have you been lately?
Friends, beside family is one of the most important thing that keep your world open. I would love to hear from you.

Warm regards,
Toni

ps. I am also happy that I released "PimpYourBeanBag" promo campaign, the project I was working on in the past 4 months. You can see more on: www.pimpyourbeanbag.blogspot.com and the website is coming very soon!

Loud thinking

Hey people,

How have you been lately?
How do you feel?

I find the last question very interesting and honestly, sometime intense question to answer if you seriously give it a thought.
Today, I am grateful to be asked "how do I feel" from Cisco, my portugese friend and that made think deeper and write this post.

Hmm.. How do I feel? Well, lets see.

I am starting to realize that when you start thinking about money your worldview changes. The world is becoming a jungle where you need to survive, people just see other people out of interest and they do not truly mean the question "How are you?" when they ask. And the worst part is that you also get used to saying, "yeah, I feel great, thanks. Whay about you?!" but your answer comes automatically and you are also used to that answer. But, the truth is that we don't really feel like sharing and we are just closing and suppressing our deep feelings inside.

I started thinking about this, when I noticed that I haven't posted on my blog since March. Not having the NEED to share with the world, made me ask myself the question, am I scared from the world? Is MY WORLD CLOSING UP? and why is that?
I can find some reasons in the above paragraph..

Another thing which I realized how important it is, is to "enjoy the journey to the destination and not only reaching the destination, itself". I remember Dey's final speech on IC in Turkey 2007, talking about enjoying the beauty of the road while reaching the final destination.. I would add to that: "while working on your long term goals". Balancing between "momentary pleasures" and "gratification" is very important.

Well, all that is nice, but how am I?
Despite of fighting in the jungle and trying to survive in the cruel world, I can say I am doing fine.. I can always do better..

I am grateful for having a job that gives me a lot of "responsible freedom" as I call it. I am experiencing "intrapreneurship" and it's really cool. Learning by doing and observing a small company grows is amazing experience to have. All my gratitude to my boss, Halbe, who is true entrepreneur and gave me this opportunity.
Apart from that, I watch the NBA playoffs and read "Dreams from my father-Barrack Obama" in my free time. Not to forget that I spend most of my social time with Jirka and Mehmet, my Czech and Turkish friend :)
The future looks very exciting as well. Spending the summer with Martina while working on getting her internship somewhere around, so we can be together all the time..

Anyways, I wish you a good night and I'd be glad to hear from you soon.
What's up with your reflection lately?

T.

Meeting at the "G spot" :D

Hey what's up world? :)

Well, I haven't posted in some time now, but it was really intense and exciting past period.. I feel so excited to go to Skopje and spend almost a month in Macedonia with my dearests.

Since I came back in Groningen (on 5th Jan) many cool things hapenned. I executed the Strategic Meeting for my company, I developed my sales and strategy plan and I started attending business meetings with possible purchasers of our new line of products.
And of course in meanwhile going for weekends in Amsterdam for fun with friends or with collegues for business :)

Talking about friends, I feel that I met really cool people that are becoming good friends of mine. They are becoming one of the most important part of my experience here in the Netherlands. After work dinners, going on the Monday LC meeting, saying "good night" before a tough working day the next day.. and sharing all that experience in a humoruous and caring way :)
We usually meet in the student flat building on our 6th floor, which is also called the "G" floor. Because of alphabetic naming as well :)
All in all enjoying life and dreaming about the future with my love in late night Skype conversations. I am soooo looking forward to my coming back in Macedonia, I just can't wait to cuddle with Martina, chill with my brother and have nice food with my parents :D

This is what has been hapenning with me lately, I hope to see you or hear from you soon, what's up with your lifes? :)

Enjoy your Saturday evening.

Warm greeting from Groningen,
Toni

Value Driven Organizations!

One of my main work responsibility in the previous 3 months was preparing and facilitating the Strategic Meeting of my company, here in the Netherlands. As I described in one of my previous posts (post: "Strategic Planning Process"), it was a pleasure for me to read and learn about different Strategic Organizational Tools and to customize their approach in order to get the most out of our "SM". In the end, the approaches I chose to use, were: "Appreciative Inquiry" and "Value Driven Organizations".

You have probably heard about "Appreciative Inqiry" - organizational tool that is about search for the BEST in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them. It affirms and builds on what is positive and strong about an organizational culture – what it gives LIFE. In its basic form, Appreciative Inquiry is a guided process for creating meaningful and transformational conversations; But in this post I want to write more about the approach of "Building a Value Driven Organizations". The author of the book, Richard Barret gave me this book on the "EBBF Annual Conference" on September 2007. He is also the author of the well known book "Liberating the Corporate Soul".
His approach is based on "whole system change" where he connects the development of an individual with the development of organizations.
"Whole-system change begins with a shift in the personal cosciousness of individuals and ends with a shift in the groups actions and behaviours. Organizations don't transform. People do!"
He starts with describing the 7 levels of Personal Consciousness (an extension of "Maslov hierarchy of needs") and goes into 7 level of Organizational Consciousness. Each level focuses on particular excistential need that is natural to the human condition. Indivudual and Organizations grow in consciousness by learning to master the satisfaction of these needs.
The 7 levels are the following:
Level 1: "Survival" - satisfying our physicial needs
Level 2: "Relationship" - feeling safe, respected and loved
Level 3: "Self-esteem" - feeling a sense of personal worth
Level 4: "Transformation" - finding freedom by letting go of our fears about survival, feeling loved and being respected by our peers.
Level 5: "Internal Cohesion" - finding personal meaning in existence
Level 6: "Making a difference" - making a positive difference in the world
Level 7: "Service" - leading a life of selfless service.

The "basic" needs (levels 1 to 3) focus on our personal self-interest or meeting the needs of the EGO. The "higher" needs (levels 5 to 7) focus on our spiritual needs or meeting the needs of the SOUL. The focus on "level 4" is transformation - a shift from self-interest to common good. This is where the ego learns to let go of its fears so that it can become ONE with the soul.
The fears of the EGO lead us to believe that we do not have enough of what we need. Consequently, we are never fully happy because we do not have enough money, love or respect. Individuals who focus exclusively on the satisfaction of the lower needs, tend to live self-centered, shallow lives. On the other hand, individuals that focus on satisfying exclusively on the satisfaction of the higher needs tend to lack the necessary skills to operate effectively in the physical world. Or with other words, "they are not grounded".
To be successful in the world we need to learn how to master the satisfaction of all our neefs so we can operate from full-spectrum consciousness. The successful mastery of each stage involves two steps: first, becoming AWARE of the emergent need and second, developing the skills that are necessary to satisfy the need. And this personal approach is translated into 7 levels of Organizational Consciousness.

One of my main goals of my company's Strategic Meeting was to bring "awareness" about "where are we now?", where do we want to go? (Appreciative Inquiry) and "what do we need to get there" (strategy).
The first 2 days were a great success, where we answered the first 2 questions and now this week comes the time for the third question, which will also determine my near future.. Well, let's see what will happen, I'll keep you updated in some of my next posts! :)
By the way, reading this book made me reflect about the level of personal consciousness I operate and made me aware about where should I improve..

From which levels of consciousness do you mostly operate?

anTONIo

Life..

Keeping you updated with my life story..

In the past month many exciting things happened. My brother came in Groningen, Martina finished her semestar in Bruges and I went back to Macedonia for a week and spent my New Year's Eve with my dearests..

I haven't seen my brother for about 4 months and I was very excited to welcome him in Groningen and have a great time together. I love my brother. Me and him are very different in character and we used to fight a lot when we were younger, but he has always been one of the most important people in my life.. and our connection grows stronger each day..
We had really exciting road trip to Belgium. We rented a car and went in Bruges to spend a weekend with Martina and after we took her to the Brussels airport.
We spent Christmas (Catholic) with my collegues at work where we played volleyball and had a dinner together. The last days (26 Dec) we went to visit Amsterdam and Hague and met with a Iva, a macedonian friend that lives and works in Eindhoven.
We were both back in Macedonia on the 28th December.

Ah.. Coming back to Skopje, spending time with my family, seeing my friends, spending time with Martina in her house.. Going back to my country for a defined period of time always awakes mixed feelings. Happiness, excitement, confusion, sadness when I have to leave.. I love Skopje! It is my favorite city! I always experience an irreplaceable warm feeling of safety and love when I am there..
I spent New Year's Eve at Martina's house with Frane (my brother) and his girlfriend and Marko (one of my best friends) and his girlfriend. For me it was amazing! I had tears in my eyes holding Martina tightly in my arms during the countdown of the NY. We had such an amazing 4 months together in Belgium and NL and we did everything to be together for NY's Eve.
Last days of my stay in Skopje were in family atmosphere watching movies and cuddling with Martina :)
I had to go back in the Netherlands on the 5th Jan and I couldn't spend Christmas with my family, but that's ok.. It is always hard to leave Skopje, but I had to be stron! I had an exciting week in front of me! Execution of the "Strategic Meeting" for which I was preparing for more then 3 months.

In the midst of all this happenings, I reflected on my life in 2008 and thought of my priorities in 2009. I defined 3 main areas where I want to focus this year:
HEALTH; MONEY; LOVE

Well, now I am back in Groningen and this month is very important for me from Career/Money aspect, so I'll keep you updated what will happen ;)

By the way, which areas you want to spend your time in this 2009?

Warm hugs from Groninen,
anTONIo