There's so much beauty in the worlds...

"Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in."
American Beauty

That's one of my favourite quote from one of my favourite movies ever.

Indeed, there is so much beauty around us. And people enjoy beauty. We want to look nice, we spend a lot of money and time on that. We would like to have good-looking partner, nice car, we enjoy watching beautiful people playing in movies etc.

It's strange, but despite all of that I very often feel that in most of the cases people just don't see and don't appreciate beauty around them. Do we often pay attention to the green colours of the trees around us, to the beauty of some shadow, to the beauty of sounds around us? It sound awkward, but isn't food on our plates sometimes just too beautiful to be eaten?

Take Eurovision Song Contest for example. Vast majority of my friends thinks that Eurovision is 1) commercial event which has nothing to do with culture; 2) contest of low-quality pop songs; 3) contest where politics and not real performance is involved.

I actually pretty much agree with them. And still I consider myself fan of Eurovision. Why? Isn't it great to see many beautiful people from whole Europe coming together not to discuss new policies of energy market, coming together not to compete in making proposals for new laws, but for singing. And there is always 3-4 songs out of all of them which I really like. Which are beautiful.

What I want to say, is that there is actually beauty everywhere, not just in places, where it is supposed to be. But how to see it everywhere, without taking drugs, for example?

I think, seeing beauty can be trained. That's what I do, actually. In the moments I feel bad, unrest or even stressed, I stop for a moment and make myself think - "OK, it is hard, but what is beautiful about it - about people I am dealing with, about this day/night, about life as such.

It is actually one of my several business ideas. To make trainings for people who want to be more successful, happier in their lives. It has become new direction in trainings in USA recently - "Positive psychology".

What do I want from the year 2006/2007?

In AIESEC, as in university, the year starts in June-July. And ends in May-June.

So, my new year is starting. It is reasonable to have some thoughts about it.

I had time for that during AIESEC Estonia' executive boards transition week (MC transition), where old team delivered their knowledge to me and my team.

So, what do I expect from the year 2006/2007?

• Very intensive life, full of different new experiences EVERY day
• A lot of international co-operation and communication
• Very intsensive team experience in AIESEC which will challenge my leadership skills
• Consistent and intensive personal development through activities I do
• Several personal, team and national successes both in AIESEC and outside
• Most important - a lot of small happy moments, a lot of laugh and smiles for me and people who surround me

What are my personal goals for the upcoming year?

• Be successful leader of organization by fulfilling all professional goals I have put for myself
• Be successful trainer in European Youth by making many young people think more about what and why they do something in their lives
• Have time for non-work and non-studies related reading
• Have enough quality time for my family and my friends (both in Estonia and abroad)
• Decide about my academic route and continue it by doing meaningful things
• Constantly do sports
• Significantly change way of thinking of as many people as I can resulting in "Thank you, Deniss"
• Despite anything, always have peace in my mind and enjoy the life
• Elaborate better ways to bring out and use positive energy of people
• Have clear picture and goals for the next upcoming year

Will see, whether I will achieve these goals :) At least I will try hard.

Besides, there are some few other interesting things I would like to bring out here. It will be interesting to read them after, let's say 1, 2, 3 years and compare. During my reflection process I came up with following:

10 things which make me feel good

• Achievement of the goal
• Smile of another person thanks to me
• Bicycle ride / jogging in the nature / swimming
• Good tasy food :)
• Positive feedback from a person whose opinion I care about
• Feeling that I learnt something new and discovered new side of life
• Hiking / being in the nature / going to the mountains
• Waking up with a dear person
• A-ha!- or wow!-effect, when I am reading good book or watching good movie
• Sight or knowledge of people doing something good and beautiful

Somehow I believe that majority of these things are universal for evryone. But sometimes it is good to remind yourself about them.

And now, of course - 10 things which annoy me

• Narrow-mindedness
• Throwing garbage in the open spaces / nature
• Bitching about other people behind their backs
• Expressions of nationalism / chauvinism
• Cruelty of people
• Stressed and process-oriented people
• Situations when people don't count with the others
• Overly drunk women
• Stupid TV shows, movies and articles in magazines, moreover - their popularity
• People who let the others down by lying

Funny that all things which annoy me, are related to the people. Humankind is evil? No, but there is a lot of stupidity inside it which results in evil...