Will this make you happy?

A simple guide from the Dalai Lama: if you want to resist doing something that is tempting, but not connected to your goals, just ask yourself: will this make me happy?

This sounds like a great testing question against screwing up time and making secondary decisions.

The philosophy of indoor climbing

Key learnings from indoor wall climbing that can be well used in life (after going for a few weeks, so beware, these are not the words of an expert):

1. You can do much more than you think. Try it before claiming you can't do it.
• In every training there are at least 20 different occasions when I get into new situations on the wall, I measure my options and I think about backing down. For e.g. ,,no way I can hold my weight with a few fingers'' or ,,my feet will definitely slip if I try to stretch more". But I already learned to just try anyway - and surprisingly, these situations always work out much easier then I thought they would.

2. You have to let go of the feeling of security to reach higher.
• Even on the easy beginner levels, you can't reach the top unless you are able to let go with one hand and rely on your feet. In the beginning everyone has a fear of not holding on tightly with both hands, and they grip to the wall like crazy and only move when they have both hands secured. But usually you need to stretch out a lot for the next handhold, and its impossible to pull up yourself only by hand strenght, so you need to lift some of your weight with your feet - but that also means you need to let go of the control of the hands.
• On the more advanced levels, you often need to let go with both hands at the same time, or stand on one feet, or even jump and let go totally. If one sticks to the security of hand control, it's impossible to reach beyond beginner level.

3. Keep moving.
• Every moment on the wall that you spend ,,resting" is actually just taking away from your energy and so, making it less likely that you can reach the end. So instead of getting scared and hanging on the wall thinking about how screwed you are, any move is better, because staying still also requires loads of energy but doesn't get you anywhere.

4. Work smart, not hard.
• This is especially true on my level, because anyway I look at it, I am totally weak :) So in most cases instead of relying on strength to pull myself up, I need to look at ways to shift my weight differently, climb with fast dinamics, or use elbows, knees, weird positions and whatever possible to support the move I want to make.
• Being short doesn't help either… but it doesn't make climbing much harder, just makes it more important to use my brain.

5. Don't be afraid to fall, but get used to it.
• The securing system is really good, so it's very unlikely to actually fall or to get hurt - if you make a mistake, you drop a little bit, but the security belt will hold you and you will hang from the security rope. Still, in the beginning everyone is afraid from falling, so beginners are told to slip on purpose and experience what happens if you fall.
• The only way to conquer difficult walls is to try many times, fall many times and go back. So if you are afraid to fall, you can't improve.

You learn

Just something else from Borges:

You Learn

,,After a while you learn the subtle difference

Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,

And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning

And company doesn't mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts

And presents aren't promises,

And you begin to accept your defeats

With your head up and your eyes open

With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,

And you learn to build all your roads on today

Because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans

And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

After a while you learn...

That even sunshine burns if you get too much.

So you plant your garden and decorate your own soul,

Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure...

That you really are strong

And you really do have worth...

And you learn and learn...

With every good-bye you learn."

An ordinary day II.

9:00 - waking up by myself, getting ready, reading in bed about how the Lord of the Rings trilogy was prepared and shot. Very interesting to see the enourmous complexity, how well the different production phases needed to be organized, what role the diverse departments played, how did the actors form a team, what kind of leadership stlye the director took, and how he could still oversee the whole operation and give the final creative stand on the movie.

11:00 - cleaning the kitchen and making omlette with my mom, meanwhile having a conversation about hungarian politics, going deep into the details of the highly questionable pension fund incident (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-25/hungary-follows-argentina-in-pension-fund-ultimatum-nightmare-for-some.html ). It ends with both of us getting super angry and hyped up, and my mom stating the ultimate truth ,,I don't care if I lose or win on my pension funds, but I want to handle my own money and I definitely will NOT do anything that the government wants as long as I am taken for an idiot and being threatened''.

13:00 - fixing up the last university issues and looking up possible accomodation options in Japan. Looks like I can make it for less money then expected, I found a (relatively) cheap shared room only 15 minutes from my office, in the middle of the ,,old Tokyo" area, close to 2 metro lines!

14:30 - studying Japanese with a freshly developed method: reading my old Japanese manga books that I bought in Japan, and using online dictionary to find all the words, expressions and characters that I don't know. When finding something interesting, I look up different contexts where it can be used, make notes and form some new sentences as exercise.

18:00 - catching up with Gasho online, it was time already!

20:00 - eating with family while watching random things on TV, and everyone comments (one of the random things was parts of a Twilight episode, which recieved harsh evaluation).

22:00 - running the daily 5 kms while watching Lord of the Rings (got so motivated after reading about it in the morning).

23:00 - getting into the sauna, while reading Economist. Seriously, this is the best newspaper ever, I don't know how I lived without reading it regularly. It's so to-the-point and easy to follow, it covers a wide range of issues, and gives a good overview about what's going on in the world. After reading it regularly for a month, not reading it would make me feel like living in a dark wardrobe.

00:30 - writing this entry. And probably I will either still read, watch movie or maybe do some more Japanese. And also I shouldn't go to sleep without stretching out the pain in my back properly (well, this happens when weak people climb walls).

The greatest fear

Today some small impressions gathered up to my mind to formulate the statement that my biggest fear is disappearing without leaving any trace.

It was more of a gut feeling then a clear mental conversation.

Because, you see - what trace? Trace in what? In mankind?

Mankind will be gone with time anyway.

Everything will be gone with time anyway.

So then - what trace?

Lets see. Imagine I'm dying, and I haven't done or had following things. What would really hurt?

• Didn't have children
• Didn't become a major decision maker who challanged the status quo
• Didn't write a book
• Didn't manage to understand what are the greatest question to tackle and meddled with idle things
• Didn't experience real love (love that I consider real and evolves to a strong partnership where we grow together)
• Didn't keep my friends and family relations
• Didn't do my random travelling and meditation around the world

Fuhh damn… all of these would hurt. Right now I feel like some would be utterly painful, some others are things I just need to do, some others can be forgiven if I knew I put all effort, but still, not having any of these would be a disappointment.

But still. Is that all to it?

And what if I am a major decision maker who has influence in the most important issues of mankind?

Maybe its not about the impact. The impact is unmeasurable and only last with humanity anyway.

It was always a bit more about becoming a better and stronger being, who can handle the hardest things. Its more about trying to find my limits as a human being.

And if its about that, then its clearly not just about work.

Its about relationships, training, spirituality, education, and work.

Just to be a being capable of more.

But then what's this fear of not leaving a trace?

Maybe I connect that with a measure of the evolution of myself.

Maybe this is the challenge I give myself - can I leave a trace in mankind? (a trace which reflects my values, of course, not a 3rd world war). Am I smart an capable enough to sort out problems which havent been sorted out by others?

So am I saying that…

…the evolution as a human being is more important then the trace, but the trace in mankind is the measure?

Hmm... Can be. But just keep in mind, that this can also change once I understand the world better.

Speed

One of the best things about myself is that I learn fast and I forget fast.

So I can easily live in the present.

But where is the difference between giving up and letting go?

Childhood's End

Looks like childhood has ended.

Still, as I sit here in the last row of a Wizzair flight that shakes with turbulence, the last flight that takes me home after a year of exploration, it's not about nostalgy. Not too much, at least. At last.

After long years of analysis, introspection, debate with myself, today it is only a quiet nod saying ,,yes".

Yes, these are the things I have done, these are the things that happened in one year.

And yes, these are the things that I have learned.

I learned that wisdom is not about knowing things better - it's about being more calm, more quiet, more open.

I learned that excellence is not about judging myself bitterly - it's about understanding and learning from my own actions.

I learned that flexibility is not about lacking an opinion or a plan - it's about a wider perspective and the acceptance of insecurity.

I learned that mistakes do not exists - there are only consequences to my actions, and I learned to welcome them regardless if they were good or bad.

I learned that sacrifices do not exists - there are only decisions between our options.

I learned to form relationships and found joy and fun in caring for others and being cared for.

I learned a lot about the magic balance of reflecting on experiences but being ready to move forward at the same time.

I learned to always appreciate the small jokes life plays on me.

And now, it's not about nostalgy.

It's about ambition - not only about what to achieve, but also about who to become.

It's a strong will to continue the quest for the best within myself even higher, even better, and I'm already looking forward to even more surprises on the way.

I'm 24.

Three times 8 years have already passed, and I have the feeling that the next 8 is going to be even more extraordinary.

I am ready.

My time is now.

And as the plane lands, I suddenly know that it has always been my time, and it always will be.

The eye of the storm

Lately I think I started to discover the beauty of having a balanced lifestyle: spending time with meaningful things I like to do, reading A LOT and thinking about the books I read, being healthy, running across the city to unknown places if I wish to, sleeping 8 hours, doing exercises every morning and being happy about getting visibly stronger, not being obsessed with any men, finding time to value the people around me, watching movies, doing my job reasonably well.

Now I understand better how important the lifestyle factor can be in achieving happiness.

But still, if lifestyle was all, I might have wanted to stay for one more year, but I didn't want that. So I also understood that having my own purpose and creating my life with my own hands is even more important - because this lifestyle might be super nice, but in the end, its not real.

Still, this AI term has been a great decision, I knew I needed time to detach from all things that are not important enough to stick with me, and rebuild myself from the inside.

Right now I really feel like being a hurricane (my MC team called me that once): a whirlwind that is always on the move, picking up and dropping things, sometimes touching the ground for a while but not settling, places and faces changing all the time - but the core is silent and stays the same.

I feel like the eye of the storm.

Just some quotes from Jorge Luis Borges

,,The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things happen to. I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires and stop for a moment, perhaps mechanically now, to look at the arch of an entrance hall and the grillwork on the gate; I know of Borges from the mail and see his name on a list of professors or in a biographical dictionary. I like hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typography, the taste of coffee and the prose of Stevenson; he shares these preferences, but in a vain way that turns them into the attributes of an actor. It would be an exaggeration to say that ours is a hostile relationship; I live, let myself go on living, so that Borges may contrive his literature, and this literature justifies me. It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition. Besides, I am destined to perish, definitively, and only some instant of myself can survive in him. Little by little, I am giving over everything to him, though I am quite aware of his perverse custom of falsifying and magnifying things.

Spinoza knew that all things long to persist in their being; the stone eternally wants to be a stone and the tiger a tiger. I shall remain in Borges, not in myself (if it is true that I am someone), but I recognize myself less in his books than in many others or in the laborious strumming of a guitar. Years ago I tried to free myself from him and went from the mythologies of the suburbs to the games with time and infinity, but those games belong to Borges now and I shall have to imagine other things. Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything and everything belongs to oblivion, or to him.

I do not know which of us has written this page."

"I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited."

"A: Absorbed in our discussion of immortality, we had let night fall without lighting the lamp, and we couldn't see each other's faces. With an offhandedness or gentleness more convincing than passion would have been, Macedonio Fernandez' voice said once more that the soul is immortal. He assured me that the death of the body is altogether insignificant, and that dying has to be the most unimportant thing that can happen to a man. I was playing with Macedonio's pocketknife, opening and closing it. A nearby accordion was infinitely dispatching La Comparsita, that dismaying trifle that so many people like because it's been misrepresented to them as being old... I suggested to Macedonio that we kill ourselves, so we might have our discussion without all that racket.

Z: (mockingly) But I suspect that at the last moment you reconsidered.

A: (now deep in mysticism) Quite frankly, I don't remember whether we committed suicide that night or not."

2o1o - Pretty Good Year

Its a new day, its a new plan... Here I am.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6xr6VKg7sE

The sun is rising above Kaohsiung city. Its dawn, fog lies over the sea. The harbor is waking up.

Surreally beautiful sight from the 52th floor.

My application is finished.

The decision was made really, really fast. I became used to changing my life in a whim... But where is it leading this time? And how to make the most out of it?

I have decided on what I want to do... But have I decided on what kind of person I want to become?

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,,Ok, Ok, I'm coming in a minute, but does the restaurant have wifi?"

,,Are you kidding?! You dont want to have your laptop open on your brother's 18th birthday?!"

,,I'm sooooooorryy... The answer can come any time!"

And in the end the phone rings, and Hugo jokes about how well I can play pingpong. My uncle buys me whiskey, which I consume in one shot.

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It's easier to leave than to be left behind

Leaving was never my proud

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCvnGxfBfiw

Rotterdam. Sitting in the dark living room of our apartment, everyone else is asleep. A short break before the next week starts.

Feels very much... inbetween. Did I leave too quickly? Did I give myself the time I needed? Did I say my goodbyes properly?

I dont feel I processed well enough the last few months gone by in a frenzy, but now I am already here.

What is behind is long, heavy, valuable, and what is ahead is also grandiose. It is now a short time to observe, to learn, and to be a beginner - which is not easy to do after years of being an expert. Visibly there are also a few things to unlearn, and there are things I constantly have to remind myself of.

It is now a time of training and peace, but very soon, a lot will be expected from us. Still figuring out how to live up to it best.

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We are young, we are strong. We're not looking for where we belong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm9d5wAXW5c

Total darkness. The moon is the only light, thick forest from both sides.

Prashant's playlist is faintly audible somewhere in the front.

Running on a belgian countryside road at 1 AM.

I can't believe I am here.

Still, now I much more feel this is my place to be. The transition in the end did empower me to take ownership of my role and my place in the team, and things are falling into place even more during the AI planning week.

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Sitting at the Eindhoven airport - already since 8 hours, beause the highly skilled airport staff managed to crash the passanger staircase into the plane.

Anyhow, after a smashing transition party and our first steps as fresh AI, I am visiting countries for the first time - going to CEC! A time to remind myself how not to lose connection with the ground after spending so much time in the office.

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The Himalaya's Dhauladhar range is just below my feet. 4-5 OOO m high mountains in the distance, bright sunshine, clear air, and apart from the sound of a waterfall from somewhere below, still silence.

HUhhhhhhhhh... very, very deep breath in.... and out.

Its done!

We finished delivering IC. I took so many responsibilities I can't even list, and yeah, I did feel like failing a bit here or there, but in the end, I'm content with what I delivered. And then I even conquered the Himalayas.

Sometimes I'm afraid I can't even realize how special it is what I'm going through.

Will I remember these moments the way I should? How can I carve the most important things deep into my memory?

Anyway, lets just stop now, look at the mountains and remind myself to be present in this particular moment, here.

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'Cause we gon' rock this club, We gon' go all night,

We gon' light it up, Like it's dynamite!

'Cause I told you once, Now I told you twice

We gon' light it up, Like it's dynamite!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUjdiDeJ0xg

On the road!

Flights, trains, airports, countries, people mixing in my head, the excitement of the first visits, understanding how different each country is, how many ways are there for me to make an impact and to help, how to connect with so many people...

The kind of intellectual challenge that I really value.

Singstar with MC Spain, discussions into the night with MC members in Romania, Q1 replanning in Czech Republic, rebooking cancelled tickets, trying to find airport in the dark in Madrid, sleeping on trains...

I love my job.

And it has just started.

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The hero's journey continues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y9yfMW1y4o

Three years have gone since I stepped on the journey that took me to where I am now.

Three years have gone, and the circle closes.

EuroCo closing plenary, tears shining in some eyes, even in my own.

How many journeys will start from here?

And as for my journey... I finally repaid some old debts to myself .

I should be leaving with an easy heart.

But today, it's still okay to be sentimetal.

Tomorrow, I will be back on the road, and the day after, I will be fine.

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Ülünk a téren, gitár a kézben, dalunk az égen száll

(Sitting in a park, guitar in hand, our song is reaching the sky)

A személyiségünk varázsa nékünk megélhetést kinál

(We are making a living out of the magic of our personality)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4liv_mAaak

Back on the road.

So how does it work?

Whats the secret?

I am not sure myself why exactly, but so far I somehow managed to connect and evoke trust really fast in different countries, different people, different cultural settings.

By the time I leave, nearly in every country I am percieved as a trusted friend who is trying to help.

How does it work? How do I work?

Of course the visits aren't prefect and there is always a lot to develop, but seems like I have some natural talent, some traits in my personality that make people trust me and connect to me.

So far its a subconscious ,,learning by doing" thing, I still need to decode it, but one of the main learnings from this semester definitely is about how to influence diverse people positively in very short time.

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Have you heard the news today?

I'm leaving town, I'm cashing out

This town's too small for me to stay

The time is now, I'm heading out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-9I9vTGSWA&feature=related

As the plane takes off, I gaze out the window.

The city is wrapped in a thick layer of fog. The mountains surrounding us only allow a few rays of the setting sun to pass through, which creates an orange-red, nostalgic atmosphere.

This is the last flight - finally returning home, to Rotterdam.

The words ,,leaving" and ,,arriving" are key for this semester. Not just in the physical sense, but intellectually and emotionally. Building, cutting, and re-building bonds with still keeping the sincerity of my attention has not been an easy thing.

For me, it may be the 12th country visit, but for them, it's the only time they can share with someone and ask for help. Radiating enough energy to provide emotional support can't be done without getting at least a bit emotionally involved myself.

And for me, who used to be very careful and slow in attaching to anything, and very rush and careless when leaving things, working out a balance has been and still is a challenge.

Understanding more about the balance of leaving and arriving is something I need for my whole life.

I'm learning.

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And as a final note about the story of the past 6 months...

We were never being boring

Cuz we were never being bored

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXqjlpARblM&feature=related

And alltogether...

Pretty Good Year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpLCFph9iv4