Another year with a balance in my favor.

For the last couple of years, around these days which mark the end of the year and the start of a new one, I’ve written a post titled “One more year with a favorable balance”, in which I recap and thank each and every one of the blessings that marked my life that year.

And this year cannot be the exception, because if there has ever been a year full of blessings for me this one surely was.

So thank you 2008 for being a great year, thanks life for giving me another year with a favorable balance!

Thank you for my beautiful daughter, healthy, happy and full of joy.

Thank you for my beautiful wife, healthy, happy and brilliant.

Thank you for the light that my two princesses shine into my life everyday.

Thank you for our home full or light, love, harmony, peace, safety, abundance and prosperity.

Thank you for my health

Thank you for our families, parents, siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews and everybody else.

Thank you for our life long friends, loyal, close and healthy; and thank you the our new friends as well.

Thank you for our jobs: productive, honest and surrounded by good and well intentioned people.

Thank you for the chance of connecting with so many people through this blog.

Thank you for the opportunity of collaborating with so many different initiatives like the book The Age of Conversation 2, the speaking engagements at different conferences, forums and events, the training seminars and teaching at El Semillero.

And thank you in advance 2009 for all the blessings and opportunities you already bring for us.

Thank you again because, as I’ve said before, every year keeps getting better!

10 things you can do to avoid being part today’s collective depressiveness

Have you noticed it? You can feel it in the air, its reflected on people’s gestures, you can tell from their body language. There seems to be a general depression. Worry and stress is notorious. Inside organizations pressure to it’s members is more than evident: Bosses preoccupied with annual quotas and employees living in anguish of losing their jobs. And the fear in the streets is doing its thing to; and in this holiday season the festive feeling is the only missing feeling.

But despise all I say there is a lot to celebrate this year! That is why I decided to share 10 simple actions that I consider key to not be part of today’s collective depression.

1-      Write down your thankfulness list.
Nothing reminds us so much what we are suppose to celebrate as listing each and one of those things: our children healthy and happy, our families close together, full of health and wealth, our homes safe and full of love, our jobs fund and challenging, our friends loyal and close…there are tons of thing why all of us need to be thankful for.

2-      Go on a news free diet.
This is something that I personally have practiced all year long and believe me it works. Of course I do miss on the occasional gossip and unnecessary water cooler tragic police notes, but who wants to waste their time on those anyway? Besides if there are really important news that you must know, believe you will know.

3-      Give yourself time to recreate.
Recreation means to create once more, and in order to be able to do just that, one needs to make space and time for rest and relaxation, without these we will not have a clear mind and will not be able to think things more through.

4-      Watch yourself in the mirror and give yourself a smile.
Have you ever done this? See yourself in the mirror and make funny faces at you, talk to yourself in strange voices and tell yourself jokes? Laughing at one self is key to not take life to seriously, they say. (Ok, I might need to practice this a little more)

5-      And while you are at it, smile to other people too.
Even if it for no apparent reason at all. Few things are as contagious and makes people fell good as giving and receiving smiles.

6-      Do something spontaneous for someone else.
When was the last time you did something special for anyone without being asked? It doesn’t have to something big, a note, a coffee, a candy even or a recommendation can do. Whenever we do something for someone else we cannot help but feel good with ourselves.

7-     Do not do or work at what you don’t like just because you think it is your only option.
It is not! We all have great skills and strengths which are usually linked to the things we love to do most (because we are really good at it), so don’t waste time doing stuff you are not passionate about.

8-    Don’t eat junk food. It doesn’t nourish you and just makes you fat and feel bloated and heavy and when we feel like this we don’t even want to move and, since we are moving creatures, when we don’t move we feel like dying. Wouldn’t it be better to feel agile at all times? OK so this is something I really need to work on, but what better way to be aware of this than to write it and share it?

9-     Make a lot of time in your daily agenda to spend it with your loved ones. If you do not, not matter how important your job is or your projects are these will just not make any sense.

10-  Each morning as you wake up give yourself a special task or mission for the day, something to look forward to, besides all your daily chores and work. It can be to just have fun at anything you do, connect with new people, call an old friend you haven’t talked to in a long while, have something special for lunch, meet a deadline, anything, as long as it is something worth looking forward to.

So here they are my 10 suggestions to avoid being part of today’s collective depressiveness. I’m sure you can think a few others, so feel free to share!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nonwork/3089293830/in/photostream/

Continental Airlines $8.06 Dollars per person!

Yes, eight Dollars ans six cents was the huge amount we, passengers of the flight 2646 to Houston, received in the form of meal coupons, eight days ago, whed due to electrical failures we had to deplan de aircraft we were in, right before it took off. Less than 2% of what, I least I had to pay for the round trip tickets to the Texan city, which was reimbursed as compensation for the extra 3 hours wait (additional of course to the original 3 we had already been there) so we could have something to eat at a restaurant assigned by them (not the customer’s choice) and in which by the way the less expensive dish in the menu alone, was almost the coupon’s worth (so it did not even cover an entire meal).

I’m not complaining. In fact I’m deeply grateful with the captain of the aircraft who responsibly tool the decision of not taking off, so THANK YOU VERY MUCH Mr. Captain!

That said, to their ground ops team I must ask: How much is it really worth to you a loyal returning passenger / client? Are we really worth less than 2% of what you charge us? Wouldn’t it have in better for you to help us with:

1-     Having a special placer to go to re-check on another flight, without having to leave the terminal and going to the outer check in counters?

2-     Transferring our baggage from one plane to the other instead of having us go to pick up our luggage at the baggage claim, having to go through customs without even having left the country! And then re-checking it?

3-     Providing us with a comfortable place to wait instead of giving us an insufficient meal coupon that doesn’t even covers the total check of the restaurant you chose for ourselves?

Now I think about all this and I cannot help but ask you my friends: How much do you value your customers? When you have and inconvenient, do you seek for ways to add value to your clients, something that really sends out the message “I’m sorry, I worry about your satisfaction and really value your business” or do you just try to put a patch on with a coupon?

You’ll see, most times organizations thing that a reimbursement of any given amount (sometimes even 100% of the cost) is enough to cover our faults, but it really isn’t. Reimbursing what we’ve charged is only what’s fair. It is the minimum expected.

But if we really want to have loyal customers, who keep bringing their business to ours, we must focus on providing them with a great experience, a service like no other that tells them that above all, even our own mistakes; we will always try to exceed their expectations. 

So I ask you again: How much do you really value your clients?

The pics of the week!

As always, here are some shots from my last presentations, this time DDB Mexico and Amipci and a special kenynote at Unitec. Take a look at them and see if you can find you in them!