Democracy. You can argue it’s a political system more than a cause, and a less-than-perfect-one at that. But as a history buff and a humanist, I marvel that humanity has come to create the conditions for democracy to happen. Many democracies, old and new, have come and gone. Let’s keep these ones alive, shall we?

If you’re in downtown Lisbon, I highly recommend that you walk into any church that you spot. You’ll more likely than not be surprised by the beauty and the extravagant richness of the interior. Don’t look for visibly impressive ones; the more discreet, the tinier the church, the bigger the surprise and delight. Plus, if it’s a hot and busy day, you’ll thoroughly enjoy the cool temperature and the meditative silence.

I find that almost every book I read inspires me, but I want to share one that changed my life in a very practical way. As a night owl and sleep hater, I used to struggle with managing my sleep schedule to conform with “normal” life, especially after having my first kid. “Why we sleep”, by Matt Walker, helped me understand, accept and change my approach to sleep. Can’t recommend it enough.

Retro-planning, or planning backwards. Start with your goal and trace backwards to list all the events that need to happen to make the goal a reality. This helps with mundane and professional things like project planning (”to have X on date Y, what needs to happen before, and when?”), but it also helps with life planning: how would you like your friends and family to remember you after you’re gone?

I find that “Change your opinions, keep to your principles” (Victor Hugo) serves me better than “Strong opinions, weakly held” (Marc Andreessen).

The Empathic Civilization, by Jeremy Rifkin

Focus and Resilience:

Taming anxiety is about channelling where to spend energy. One should only spend energy on things for which one is responsible.

I’ve spent most of my life not understanding that energy tends to be scarce. It was only when I became a parent that I started to be aware my energy was finite and that I should use it more wisely. I’m still trying how to do it consistently, though.

Since sharing is caring, so I have two quotes on two different topics that maybe are not so unrelated:

After more than two years of waiting, recently I went to the theatre to see a play named “Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists” (original ”Catarina e a Beleza de Matar Fascistas”), directed by Tiago Rodrigues. It’s about a family meeting to uphold their annual tradition, which has been kept for over 70 years: killing fascists. However, this year Catarina refuses to kill the fascist her family kidnapped. The play ends with an off-script interactive part between one particular actor, the fascist, and the audience. We end up hearing a xenophobic, misogynistic and frankly disgusting speech from that actor, which lasts for ages. In an apparent attempt to get the audience to riot and silence this actor, insiders from the production seem to incite the rest of the audience to speak out against that speech by insulting the actor and trying to silence him. I almost joined the protesters, but I remembered it was a play. Honestly, it was a once-in-a-lifetime performance. Truly remarkable!

Living in India has taught me to embrace the flow instead of fighting it, even when it feels chaotic and there's no sense of logic in what I’m doing or where I’m going. Like driving a rickshaw in the busy streets of Mumbai, you must focus on only one thing: not hitting anything or anyone ahead of you and using the honk as a sonar. I always think of that driving experience demonstrating how collective instinct works. Since then, my instinct has worked like my sonar.

For me Digital Native is the newsletter I read every week. Rex Woodbury is fascinated by how people connect and create online and he writes about how tech and culture intersect. To get a taste of what to expect, here are a few great editions: Everyone Is An Investor, The Rise of Synthetic Media & Digital Creators or Myspace, Tumblr, and the Long-Lost Weirdness of the Social Internet.

Launch House is a social club for founders united by the central belief that the purpose of life is to build things with your friends that make the world a better place. The combination of ambition, curiosity and openness I see in Launch House makes me feel at home. A place where I can spend hours talking with someone about their interesting life story or ambitious dreams. Being around so many smart people me pushes me to be better and aim for more.

The first is “How I Built This”, a super well produced show where Guy Raz dives deep into the stories behind some of the world’s best know companies. Get personal with great innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists - and the movements they built. The second podcast I recommend is “The Deep End” (produced by On Deck), where visionary builders, creators and experts discuss world-changing ideas. The host Marshall Kosloff asks great questions, skipping the surface level and going in depth into ideas that matter.

I was surprisingly impacted by the simple book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”. This quote sums it up nicely: “If what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either (...) The elements that made a story meaningful were the same that made a life meaningful.”

Go all in on work, but always leave space for hobbies and side gigs.

I often ask myself “What is the right thing to do in this situation? That might mean doing something difficult or saying something uncomfortable to the person or group that is with me in that circumstance. It may also mean knowing when not to do anything. There are moments where my awareness becomes extra sharp and my intuition speaks very loud. I know right there, in those moments, that is the question to ask myself and usually when I take the right action, do the right thing, something shivers inside me or touches the other person deeply.

I left my marriage and my job and became sort of an orphan in a city I barely knew anyone. For more than two years I was broke, lonely and with a one year old in my arms living in a place I hated. That changed everything for me. I learned to hold myself, to nurture my presence and to trust that whatever direction I choose in life I have the will and power to make it work . After that period of introspection I became a new version of myself. I painted almost every day - my dreams, my wounds, my longings... Suddenly, my internal world was blooming with fireworks and creativity! So much joy and freedom came from that decision.

“What you seek is seeking you” by Rumi has been my motto for as long as I can remember. With one foot in gratitude and one foot in desire, I always know deep down that what I desire is already on its way to me.

Integrity. When my mind, my heart, my actions and my words are aligned I am integral, thus I am whole. That means I don't waste energy on superficial things and that I am kind with myself and others. When I am a whole human being I am in alignment with higher values, it simplifies everything.

I learned this from my mentor - “It is not what you do that matters, but who you are when you do it”

From the book, How People Learn -

“The deeper the personal significance, the more reliably something is learned. We don’t often repeat our more embarrassing mistakes. It makes perfect sense for memory to work in this way: your memory needs to be efficient, so it only stores the stuff that matters. But which stuff matters? Answer: the stuff that has an emotional impact.”

Jeff Kortenbosch on LinkedIn. I love Jeff’s ability to take concepts around learning, training and convert them into simple and memorable visualisations. His posts brighten up my LinkedIn feed!

Steal These Thoughts by Ross Stevenson because his newsletters are relatable and funny. He talks about skills, learning but using analogies and memes. The best part? They always make me reflect on how I’m doing as a learner AND as a learning experience designer.

The Art & Craft of Designing and Facilitating Learning Spaces by Kaospilot. I’d attended this 3-day offline workshop in 2018. At the time, I was not working in the learning and it had the most profound impact on how I look at this space - making me switch career tracks from research to learning experience design.

Hands down the L&D Shakers. I came across this community last year and in a short 6 months it has become my favourite (virtual) hangout spot! I have been inspired by so many people from across the globe through the community. I’m currently building out the APAC chapter to spread the love and learning to this part of the world :)