Participation in hackweek & summer internship with Hackmasters in London
Participation in Hackmasters' conceptual future-focused hack week in London. After this, I also ended up doing a 6-week internship with the company. NDA won't allow me to say much more, but I can tell you that I've learned a lot and if that leaves you curious, I'd recommend you check out their website. After, the founder of the company dropped me the following words of praise and encouragement:
”She brought tons of positive energy to the hackweek and encouraged collaboration between the team members, trying to bring people together and on the same page. Nadia lacks nothing to become a great leader.”
- Saher Sidom, Business Futurist and Founder Hackmasters (London)
Reframing Life: Mind over Matter
As a kid I spent a great deal of my time playing The Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon and Simcity; busy building worlds, steady constructing lives, I loved it. Wether this was cause or effect, I’ve grown up believing that life is 99% make-able; a formula in which the harder I would try, the better life would be, backed by a limiting Scarcity Mentality as described in Stephen Covey’s infamous book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
This simplified and faulty belief of responsibility, deeply instilled and fueled by insecurities of inadequacy, has caused me to work hard, but not smart. Spreading myself too thin, losing my strength in losing my joy and running around the field without the goal in sight. It might almost be the default of the world we live in, but it was unbearable for me. Believing life was but a formula, I blamed myself for being the weak link in the sum and I found myself drained, unfulfilled and lost, with to-do lists piling up and passion running low.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't - you're right” - Henry Ford
Over the past few months, learning the basics of neuroscience and watching a lot of incredibly inspiring TEDx talks, I have come to believe that it is not my skill, nor my knowledge, qualities or working ethic that holds me back, but my own mind. It is our mental that determines the true quality of our happiness and success and admitting to this, I made it my no. 1 priority to harness this.
To illustrate the following example, from Rory Sutherland’s "Perspective is everything” TEDx Talk:
[su_quote]"In the U.K., the post office had a 98 percent success rate at delivering first-class mail the next day. They decided this wasn't good enough and they wanted to get it up to 99. The effort to do that almost broke the organization. If at the same time you'd gone and asked people, "What percentage of first-class mail arrives the next day?" the average answer, or the modal answer would have been 50 to 60 percent. Now if your perception is much worse than your reality, what on earth are you doing trying to change the reality?"[/su_quote]
Where I have always invested my energy into coming up with a practical solution, I now realize that other than changing the situation, sometimes you just have to change your perspective. Reframe. And step by step, that is what I set out to do.
“How you gonna win, when it ain’t right within?” - Lauryn Hill
By adopting an Abundance Mentality, expanding my horizon and consciousness, applying the 20/80 principles to my productivity, through clear goal setting, meditation and positive affirmations and with a fine blend of productivity hacks and mindfulness practice; I aim to work and live smarter, energized and with a smile on my face.
How to do this exactly, I will have to find out and learn as I go, but my journey has commenced. And here, I will chronicle my saga. Besides collecting and sharing the helpful tools and insights and hopefully striking a soul or two, the chronicling of this journey is part of the journey itself, as to tackle my fear of vulnerability, failure, imperfection and rejection. If you are at all inspired or recognize yourself in this post, please do participate and start today to commence and chronicle your own unique journey.
This was blog #1. My sails are set.
Peace,
Nadia
PS1: The Scarcity Mentality ("People see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else. The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life”) versus the Abundance Mentality ("Flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits, of decision making. It opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity”) as mentioned above.
PS2: The image of this post is a work of M. C. Escher, a Dutch graphic artist who was big on the optical illusions and playing with your perception. This is cool as hell so here's a few more:
6H Beacon Concept Development & Rapid Prototype Hackathon for Estimote
CHALLENGE: To think of an early application for Estimote's iBeacons, taking in account its opportunities and limitations, and develop and present the concept in 6 hours.
SOLUTION: With my team of 3 we thought of a simple application 'Stick Around' to prevent users from losing their stuff. Placing mini beacons on the phone that would interact with a mobile app, the user would be notified when the item reaches a custom set maximum distance and as well as to be directed to the the exact location of the item within a span of 70m.
RESULT: Prototypes with quick wireframes of the app interface along with a fundamental branding and value proposition as presented and enacted in the final pitch.
On Another Course: Cultural Anthropology
I could still, but have decided not to keep the promise. I'll consider it a sacrafice, "giving up something good for something better". A few weeks ago in a random study session I came across the field of Cultural Anthropology
"Cultural anthropology is the study of peoples, their beliefs, practices, values, ideas, languages, technologies, economies and other domains of social and cognitive organization. Anthropology comes from the Greek, literally the study of the human. As such, we overlap with history, sociology, psychology, political science, literature, documentary studies, and other fields."
It sparked my interest and I read and read, read and read some more and then peeked into a university studies in Amsterdam.
It's there, next enrollment in September, takes 3 years and it's primarily in English. I wasn't so much planning to go back to school, but this field seems to bring together all my interests. I could study all regional and subcultures, Hip Hop culture, symbolism, ancient history, language, religion and lifestyle, Asian art and peace and so much more.
I want this! To get in though, I have to succeed in written tests on Math, History, Dutch and English. The tests are simply to prove your IQ basically, ensure University level and the material is extensive and honestly, dead boring. Now arrived safe and sound in Edmonton, I got started, I'm on this. Meaning I might actually get back to class in 2014?
So that, studying for my University application, webdesigning on the side and a lot of Tika grind and progress and enjoyable exploring in the caNadian lands. A change of direction. New year, new moon, new missions.
Bless you, to a prosperous and happy 2014! Whether in school or self study, always push yourself to gain new knowledge, allowing you everytime to see the world through new eyes.
Om Shanti