It’s a new year all over gain. It’s the beginning of one more cycle of our continuity.

Resolutions aside, what’s the best way of starting it? Dates and events will be repeated, seasons will replay and we’re still the same. It’s up to ourselves to provoke change where it want it. Little adjustments to our attitude might go a long way.

The new year can be exciting if you look at it as new opportunities that will rise where you can to shine through. Or it can be a dreadful feeling of deja vu where you expect nothing new to come of it and feel trapped in a loop.

Like someone once told me, we need only to resign ourselves of the past. You only can’t change what has already passed. Everything else deserves a fighting change. Don’t limit yourself. Don’t resign yourself to an endless loop.

All your power lies in your attitude. The way you face the world around you is more powerful than might you think. It affects everything. You change the way you see yourself, the way you deal with others change, the way others respond to you changes, opportunities change.

At first it might hard to shift to a more positive approach. Just remember, whatever your insecurities are, others have them too. Everybody is flawed. It all comes down to how we deal with it and if we let it overpower us. Everyone has value, so let others see you.

Don’t be afraid and embrace who you are. Polish your positive side and don’t obsess over the negative. Focus on what you want and how you’ll get it instead on what you can’t have!

Have a great year!

When we are kids everything seems fairly simple, innocently simple, and the world has very little shades of gray. As we grow up we tend to complicate, we create a great variety of shades in most matters.

It’s refreshing to be around kids and see the world in that light again. Personally, being around (so called) adults for a while becomes rather draining and tedious.

Ever since I went back to karate and started to deal with kids and teenagers even, I slowly rediscovered children’s simple points of view.

Take yourself back in time to when you’re a little kid. What did you enjoyed doing the most? What were your favorite things? What would you answer be to your problems of today? Who did you want to become? Who did you look up to and why?

It’s easy to get caught up in the big web of adult thinking, where we take into account many external factors. Which it’s rather pointless most of the time, but we think it matters so!

I think we develop an unnecessary tendency to we overcomplicate as we grow up. Not everything may be as simple as it was when we were children, but we certainly get a taste for complicating things.

We also get so wrapped up in being adults sometimes and quickly dismiss any childish activities.

We tend to stir away from doing simple things if they serve no direct or productive purpose. We become obsessed with productivity and ignore the small things that used to bring us joy.

Why not waste some time just looking at something simply because it’s beautiful?

I bet most of us have had days when we critically analyze many of our actions and it’s consequences. Or worried about the numerous different outcomes according to our actions or words. Run through our head a bunch of simulations of what might happen or how someone might take it.

We wonder, should I say it? Should I do it? What’s the best approach to this? Will this work better? Maybe another way is better? And so on and so forth.

This is our tactics! Either we’re successful or not, we try to carefully plan our move to achieve the best outcome.

The other day I was really tired of over thinking so many moves and that’s when it all started to feel like a game. We even have manuals!

Either it is online or on bookshelves, there’s a million words written how we can improve ourselves, our skills, our attitude, our earnings, our success, our lifestyle, and anything else you can think of.

And it is just like when we are stuck in a game and go online looking for some cheats or tricks and tips on how to move on to the next stage.

There are the strategic players and even the casual or spontaneous players, those who just randomly push some buttons. There are those who just want to get to the end fast failing to collect, on purpose, any excess bonus points, and those who take the extra time to find them all.

So, life is a game we play. We need to get through several stages and levels as we progress thought life, earning and loosing points.

And sometimes we’re motivated with this game, while other’s we’re just trying to finish and see the end of it.

Sometimes we need a break from the game, to lighten our head, have a rest and get our energy or motivation flowing again.

Sometimes we are so engaged in the game that we take it too seriously. We focus too much on the goals we need to accomplish and we forget to enjoy the whole experience of the game.

Let’s take our time and admire the whole package.

Awhile back there’s was a new classmate in my school who happened to from my hometown (rare thing). We started chatting, just really trying to know a little bit more about each other, and in the middle of it I asked her how old she was. She did tell me her age but she also said “I don’t think people’s age is a relevant thing to know”. At the time I just thought “I wasn’t going to discriminate you by your age”, but then I started to wonder, why did I ask about age? Why would that matter, or what would that reveal to me?

Just plain curiosity doesn’t quite answers it.

Age can be a point in common. If our age isn’t too far apart we can find common points in childhood memories, a childhood hero an important event or something else from that era. It gives you a lot of topics to explore with this person, specially when you’re getting to know one another. It can give you a faint idea of their background. Even when it’s someone who’s age is farther from ours, it still pin points an era which we might know something about, or not. It can sparkle questions.

Other than that, how relevant is it?

Will age hint on someone’s maturity? Absolutely no! There are kids whom can be more mature than some adults. Just because there’s a social expectation of a maturity level in accordance with certain ages, it doesn’t make it true.

When we are teenagers we think that we will change and become adults as we turn a certain age. Not so much turning 18, but I see the most reluctance about turning 20 or 21. That’s when we officially leave our teens behind and enter a whole new decade. The 20′ies it’s supposed to be when you get a job, move out, get married, and so on. But the year we were born doesn’t determine much, our personality does.

A lot of younger girls I see look older than me because they behave a certain way, and vice-versa. Even thought we associate these things with age, it’s has more to d with attitude and personality than age.

Sometimes these things can get to our head. I know it got to me when I turned 24 earlier this year. Where I thought I was supposed to be and where I actually was, were very different. And I was going crazy about it, feeling bad and a bit of a loser!

But that was ridiculous. Age shouldn’t matter, just like gender, ethnicity or whatever! We each have our own path, we aren’t supposed to be all serialized in the same stages at the same time.

I bought myself an Eee PC 901 from Asus! It’s easier to carry than the usual laptop, with an 9 inch screen and weighting 1.1 kg, it’s capacity serves my needs well and it’s rather cheap. Plus it’s available with either WindowsXP or Linux!

Having Linux version of this product from the shelve, it’s major bliss! I simply cannot stand using Windows anymore and I don’t want to go back by any means. And there were actually a number of other encouragements to it. Such as price and extra disk space!

I have been dreaming about such a device for so long! Even though I bought it the same day I saw them on the store, it wasn’t an impulse purchase. It’s all I needed!

The main aspect for me is really the size allied with it’s functionality. This is great to use the time on the ferry. It’s between fifteen to twenty minutes a ride, and I now can take this time to my advantage. Time flies, I feel accomplished and much more relaxed!

Plus, I don’t have to carry a bigger bag than the ones I usually wear.

I love my Eee PC!

“Why should I write something that millions of people already wrote about?”

Why not? Millions wrote about and millions more will write about it! The same thing can be written differently, which some ways work best for some people than others. There are just so many ways of telling a story and each one reaches different people.

“I’m not a specialist to write about a certain subject.”

So what? So many people out there do it! Plus, I’m not claiming to be an expert on whatever subject I write about. I just need to let go of my insecurity! I can write about whatever I want and express my opinions publicly! Not everyone needs to agree, and I certainly don’t expect that. But some others will and those are the ones that count.

Ah, yes! I’m feeling purged!

This year my parents got divorced. It has been mostly rough on my mother. She is 48 and has always been a bit self-restricted and very practical! So she is what inspired me to write this post!

It’s important to take care of yourself. And not just on a basic survival way. You need love to feel good, and whom better to give it than yourself? Love yourself, pamper yourself, allow yourself some indulgence!

Most times we find pleasure in the smallest things! You don’t need to go o a shopping spree, there are so many simply things that are . It all just depends on what swings your boat.

Bubble bath, a barefoot walk on the beach, your favorite ice-cream with all the delicious extras you like, just laying in the grass, taking a nice nap, dressing up for no reason, get yourself a bargain of something beautiful but not practical, buy a bunch of colored pens, spend a little more time on yourself, or money, whatever and so on…

Just be illogical, do what you want to and take pleasure in it! Do what you enjoy, do what calms you, do what comforts you, do what excites you!

Just remember to, once in a while, spoil yourself! You deserve it! You don’t need a reason. Just being alive is enough reason.