Welcome to Uppsala Universitet!

Sometimes in a man's life, comes the time when he is about to do something life-changing and a tiny little thing occurs that reminds him that it is actually happening.

I had just returned on Sunday from a trip to Athens with my friend (hence my 3 day hiatus of posts) when i saw a nice tidy looking fat letter on my desk. Talk about excitement!

Welcome to Uppsala University Mr. Mandilaris!

I carefully opened the envelop to find a map, a sticker, a personal letter from the Vice-Chancellor and an International Student Guide for next season. Standard procedure that shows the fantastic organization of this country.

The letter was printed on slick, high quality paper and had my address and name on it. There was also a sticker that made you easily identifiable from the welcome group when you arrive in Arlanda Airport. This year they will wait for students in August (Dates: 22/08 and 23/08).

A little sticker to put on your suitcase!

The map is folded and has a detailed map in the centre with red numbers on the important buildings of the university, dividing it into each faculty. Mine is the Geocentrum, the faculty of earth sciences.

Trying to absorb every ounce of information!

Last is the Student Guide. I am still reading it while i am typing looking for interesting things that i may research and blog about in future posts. It has the smell of a freshly printed book, like freshly baked bread coming out of the oven. It begins with a personal statement and goes on to tell the reader about the history of this great institution. It talks about Uppsala and Campus Gotland, the climate and the language. It has a short text on Vikings (!) and a cool timeline of the history of the university since it's inception.

Swedish traditions follow, divided by season and follows up with the educational system in Sweden, the grading, the syllabus, the teaching methods and the different kinds of diplomas. Basically this booklet is a compilation-collection of all the information found in the University website. And all that into 63 pages.

They care about their students.

So this is it for tonight, just some random thoughts to keep the flow going. Plus i wanted to express my enthusiasm about the letter. I am beginning to realize that in less than 3 months i will be in a new country, a new culture, a new life. So for YOU, the person that maybe stumbles upon my blog, or the future student that considers Sweden and Uppsala as his destination, give it a read along with my previous material. After all one of the Laws of Success is the Habit of Doing More Than Paid For.

Goodnight and have a great new week! May is almost over and the summer is upon us!

The power of imagination - Shape your reality

There are 15 Laws of Success. If you omit one of them from your agenda and your personality, you remove a big proportion of your potential. Because each of these laws is made to work harmoniously with the others. One of the most fundamental of all those laws is the Law of Imagination.

What is the definition of imagination? There are many, but let's quote ol'little Albert here:

There is so much to create, discover and reshape.

"You can do it if you BELIEVE you can"

This is my new motto. Essentially, it is a workshop for us. It is our shelter, our only thing that nobody can ever take away from us, even if we are in a prison or a remote island, that we can freely use to harness old ideas, facts, tools, and make something new out of them, put them to new uses, create something magnifiscent, genious, life-changing. It is the creative power of our souls.

Why is Imagination so important? Because everything revolves around it. If you develop every one of the Laws of Success but lack the vision and imagination, you will not get far. What good is it to have leadership, initiative, self-confidence, or an aim in life if you cannot flesh it into reality?

True, not all people have the necessary imagination, a tool so powerful that we could solve many problems that form the bane of mankind. But if you harmonize your thoughts, be positive and attract with your thoughts and acts people of similar mindsets (you attract what you project), you can form a Master Mind of people that compliment each other and are more efficient and powerful than anything. Equally, if you have the leadership qualities and self-confidence and decision making but you lack the imagination, you can surround yourself or ally with someone that has that trait. Together you can conquer the world!

So, you have your Definite Chief Aim. You know exactly what you want to do and your mind starts projecting the possible paths to make it happen. But you need the self-confidence and perceverance to turn it into reality. You need to approach a problem or a goal with a bird's eye view, from the right angle and then act accordingly, with calm and composure. You need to see what most people don't and treat the obstacle like a friend that will help you grow and cultivate your mind.

A real leader, a successful man, visions that. He has already formulated a plan into his head that will deal with all potential obstacles and lead to the completion of the project. He will use his imagination to reshape the world and re-arrange those old ideas into something new but simple.

Ordinary people have done that, it's all over the history books. I can supply countless examples.

Thomas Edison wanted to bring electricity to the world in every home. He already knew how to do that by heating a wire with electricity to produce light. His first issue was that the wire was burned and became useless. So he had to find a way to produce light via a material that could withstand those massive amounts of heat. His next problem was the need to find a way to produce light and switch it on and of at his will. In simple words a way to control the heat. After tons of experiments he remembered from a study of physics that combustion cannot be done without the presence of oxygen. Therefore he surrounded the wire inside a glass globe (bulb), removed the oxygen and he made the lightning bulb.

Uncle Fester can do it, why not you?

What another man might ignore or think of it as useless or impossible, another man can see an opportunity mapped in his mind, a mental picture of what can be done with these old tools. Tools that existed from the start of time and the creation of the universe. They were not created overnight.

Co-operation between people can be a blessing, sadly they usually "lock horns" like male animals do when they fight for a female. It all ends into a bloodbath with no clear victor. People antagonize each other so much that they fail to see what they can do if they help each other, a collaboration that can blossom into something really powerful.

Impossible is nothing, open your mind and see the bigger picture, embrace your fears and welcome obstacles, they will be the ones that will help you overcome the next problem. Set up a Chief Aim, do not procrastinate, act, decide, believe in yourself. You can do it, so many people have done it and continue to do so. Do you think they are so much smarter than you are? They are not, they were creative and found an opportunity whereas you saw a pile of rubble, dust, dirt and stone.

Do that and you are on your way to greatness, one step at a time.