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.

The habit of saving money

Today i was travelling by bus back to Kalamata from Athens and i was reading my new favorite life-changing book, The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill. I have mentioned it before in my post about the DCA, or Definite Chief Aim, which is the foundation for achieving a goal. The book is pretty massive, on my ipad mini i am on 900/2900 pages and i am reading it really slowly trying to digest each chapter.

Each chapter then covers one of the 15 steps to success. This post may or may not start a mini-series like my previous one, getting ready for the move to Sweden. As i sat here typing my last post i wondered about the direction of this blog and if the topics that i discuss frequently blend harmoniously with the subject it discusses, Right now i don't have the energy to make a separate blog and write quality posts here too.

But then i thought: "Hey, i am writing this 3 months before i move to Sweden, while i will also talk about everyday things that occupy my thoughts and trouble me or other people".

So for now i will keep writing constructive posts along with my target goal, which is providing useful information for people that are thinking or are about to move to Sweden. When i get there and i have more to say, i will consider making a new additional blog, a new blog-within-the-blog or just a poll to see the popular opinion.

"Man is a combination of flesh, bone, blood, hair and brain cells. These are the building materials out of which he shapes, through the Law of Habit, his own personality"

That is deep. But so simple. We could have had a massive fortune if we did things differently here. But we are all victims of overspending, useless spending, moneytization, fear of criticism, fear of social pressure, lack of self-confidence and countless other things. Travelling today i remembered a story from when i was young, like 15 years ago. I wanted the new Nintendo Gameboy Advance. it costed around 150 euros at the time, which was substantial for a little boy like me who had a measly 5 euros for pocket money each week. But without me knowing i laid down the foundations for my future success. I wanted it badly. And i would get it, alone.

I saved every week, every day, every penny or dime i could. I taught myself to live with one less coca cola can, one less hour at the local internet cafe. And it started to pile up. Soon i had enough money to buy it plus a brand new game. I remember it, it was Rayman Advance. Yay!

When once fixed in the mind, a habit becomes second nature, and propels a man into action voluntarily. Think of it as your daily routine route to work, or your return home. You don't think about it, you just proceed to do it. It is implanted into your brain, hardwired. This is how a habit is achieved, be it bad or good, you just do it repeatedly. Through repetition any act indulged in a few times becomes a habit.

So the question is not what is the Habit of Saving. Most people that have no clue how to save money would ask:

"How can i do it? How can i save money?"

This is indeed true and similar to drawing a picuter of a horse and writing under it "This is a horse". It's blatantly obvious, but that is like telling someone to save money and not describing how to do it. That is fundamental to someone's success and quest for financial freedom.

Through the Law of Habit you can keep building blocks for the atainment of your DCA. Keep those two combined and you will destroy any subconconsious poverty thoughts and you will DEMAND prosperity, health, advancement, development, vitality and you will mentally prepare to receive it, while in the process you will increase your earning capacity.

Reverse this powerful Law and you instill in your mind the Fear of Poverty which combined with spending and the bane of humanity, debt, and you will not only reduce your potential income, you will barely scrape out your living costs and will not escape this black hole that sucks any man's soul (Napoleon Hill, The Law of Success cp.4).

"YOU are a human magnet and you are constantly attracting to you people whose characters harmonize with yours", Napoleon Hill.

Hang something like that in your mirror so you can see it every day. Be positive. Start now. It is never too late. Free yourself from the slavery of debt and you will feel like a new man. Debt the most merciless master and the deadly opposite and enemy of the Habit of Saving.

We talked about how poverty can destroy a man's confidence, life, hope, marriage. Add debt to the mix. Reminds me of the card "Cruel Taskmaster" in Hearthstone. You lose life and you are doomed to fail.

So how can you beat the Fear of Poverty, defeat debt and become financially free?

Every day we let dimes, pennies, nickels, euros, dollars to slip between our fingers without even knowing. If saved, they could accumulate into substantial savings that can make or break a situation. Imagine having a brilliant idea that you cannot materialize because you lack the funds for it.

When we receive our paycheck or some unexpected money, our first thought is how we are going to SPEND it. Hell, we have already spent it in our mind, buying that video game, that car, that computer part to satisty our ego. Less than 5% thinks about saving some of it.

The perfect allocation of one's gross income should be along these lines:

50-30-20.

• 50% on essential costs. That includes housing and mandatory costs.
• 30% on education, clothing, food, recreational activities.
• 20% in a savings account to accumulate interest. If unavailable, simply put it in a piggy safe.

So let's say someone has a salary of 1000$ after tax. He should use no more than those 500$ for rent and things that need to be paid, including debt (if you have any), no more than 300$ in recreational activities, food, clothing, education (usually split by 2) and the rest 200$ should be saved.

Let's make it more simple to understand how easily money can turn into a decent amount of cash. You get 100$ every week. Take a worst case scenario and you save 5$ per week or 10$ in two plausible cases (you should try to save 15-20$).

4 Weeks/month * 5$ = 20$

12 Months/year * 20$ = 240$ from saving 5$ per week.

Likewise:

• 10$ saved equals to 480$ per year.
• 15$ saved equals to 720$ per year.
• 20$ saved equals to 960$ per year.

Check your weekly expenditures. You buy so much stuff that is useless and you can live without it. And those money can be preserved in the long run to yield a substantial amount of money simply from saving. People live one whole year with less than 4000$ in Greece. Buy one less cigarette pack, one less soda, one less alcoholic beverage in the local bar, use a bike.

I am glad that i was born poor/with a modest living and that i did not come in this world burdened by the whims of super-wealthy parents and a bag of gold around my neck, because i would most likely fail.

Enough for tonight as this was a long post already. But i think it is extremely useful. Please leave me feedback if you want. I will close this with a picture and one last phrase from the same book.

"I am thankful for the adversities which have crossed my pathway, for the have taught me tolerance, sympathy, self-control, perseverance and some other virtues i might never have known."

Free yourselves from the chains of debt and poverty.

Break them and fly free.

Talking to sheep and random stuff

"Buy me 5 euros worth of phone credit so i can talk to my sheep", he said.

Picture it. 57 years old man, big white beard, unshaved from World War 2, massive beer belly, ludicrously dressed talking to his son (?) calm like talking to sheep is the most natural thing in the world.

Yup, just keep calm. Darwin would be proud.

This sums up Greece. People living in a different dimension, oblivious. Let's all shag a sheep. It will help. Or you maybe have loads of $$ in a country with 300 euro salaries.

Let's move on. I made a promise and i will keep it. I met a cherry-picking, cute young lady with fire-red hair. We can call her Marilena. Or maybe Tanya Fluffytails.

Aw, such a cutie you are Marilena <3.

I like her so much that actually makes me sad i am leaving for Sweden. Sadface :-(((( She is a wonderful person that deserves to be loved and needs someone to be by her side to support her and shower her with passion and hugs. We will be huggy buddies soon!

I will be your huggy buddy my love.

So, i found a roommate. She is from Estonia and her name is Madle. She is very cool and soon will take the boat to Sweden to find us a place to stay. Otherwise we will stay in a caravan, drink water from a bucket, i will hunt wild bunnies and we will die soon.

I also played a lot of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft lately. I am bored of traditional games and this is fast and easy to play so time passes if you have nothing to do. I also found an old WoW pal that lives in Sweden through my battlenet.eu account which is pretty cool knowing i can have someone to meet and talk there. Thanks Chris, enjoy your new home!

Yesterday there was a misunderstanding with my fluffy-tailed girlfriend and i was feeling bad. However we sorted everything out, i got a haircut evolving to a human from the man of Kro-Manion, went to work today and now i am in Athens @ my sister's house.

Which also reminds me of a tv-game show we watched today. Two people needed to hit the buzzer as quick as possible and reply to the following question:

"Name an Asian Country".

Well he said Tynisia. The other team had a Hagrid-like looking man with a nice silver Sylvestro tie from the looney toons, all dressed in black. Tsirkoliki.

I took a break from writing because i was bored. And because i love Ms. Fluffytails and i talk about her all the time, i talk with her all the time, i think about her all the time. And i also needed a break from my Swedish preparations. That recent barrage of posts drained me along with work. And Eva Mitsou and her incredible amount of spamming with videos and Nigerians/Pakistani people adding her. Oh she also won a lot of food from a competition too. Spam her some more <3.

You can clearly see Eva on the left and her 3 recent husbands.

That's it for today. Depending on my adventures and experiences in the jungle of Athens i will maybe write tomorrow or on Sunday. Most likely it will be something ridiculous, over the top and funny.

Take care!

Smartphone time - Preparing for the move to Sweden

Quick links to my previous posts about preparing to move to Sweden:

Moving to Sweden - Swedish Weather Extravaganza
Moving to Sweden - Things to Bring
Moving to Sweden - Housing and Financing

Moving to Sweden - Learning swedish

So, you arrived. Maybe your house is furnished, maybe you already have internet, but you need a cellphone ti contact your friends and family. You can't always rely on Skype.

Scandinavian countries seem to have on of the best mobile networks on the planet and Sweden is no exception. Unlike Greece where you have coverage of 99.7% and you can't call anyone even on the train. Yippy yeah! They also have surprisingly good wi-fi on the trains.

First tip, go apply for your personnummer fast, filling the form. It will take you approximately 6 weeks to get it, something that limits your choices in the beginning. Credit for this info goes to my beautiful friend Andrea (and #loveshila).

You can have a normal phone contract (abonnemang) with a duration of 12-18-24 months. However Andrea told me that untill you receive your personnummer you cannot get a subscription based phone. So that limits you to the kontaktkort or simply phones that work with credit (pay as you talk). Common credit is cards that cost 100 or 200 SEK, fairly comparable to Greek prices.

Regardless of your choice you will need a service provider. I have not researched them yet about the cost but i found that some of the more common companies are Tre/ Telia/Tele2/Telenor.

You can use any old device or buy a used one, unless you are one of those geeks that fancy new tech like the newest iPhones or Samsung Galaxy, where you can feel free to break the bank to feel special.

Sooo, phone, carrier, type of connection taken care of. Wow i already feel integrated in Sweden.

Really short post but it had to be done. Take care!

Swedish as a Second Language - Preparing for the move to Sweden

Today we will talk about SaS (No you liverpool fans, i m not talking about Suarez and Sturridge). Swedish as a second language.

Quick links to my previous coverages:
Moving to Sweden - Swedish Weather Extravaganza
Moving to Sweden - Things to Bring
Moving to Sweden - Housing and Financing

Now let's delve into wikipedia for the basics.

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 8.7 million people worldwide, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish. Along with the other North Germanic languages, Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It is currently the largest of the North Germanic languages by numbers of speakers.

Great. So by learning swedish you can pretty much communicate with Finnish, Norwegian and Danish people. It is stydied by around 40000 people abroad @ university level, making it the most studied Scandinavian languaged practiced abroad.

It belongs to the branch of North Germanic language, so if you are familiar with german or even english you shouldn't have a hard time learning swedish. Though the consonants and pronunciation of some vocals will be challenging at first. But i already know russian, and that is a hard language. If you pick up languages fast like me, you should have no problem being fluent in swedish during your studies.

Swedes always want to practice their english but seem to lose patience very fast if you are inadept at speaking their language, so try to make a mutual exchange.

A friend of mine that lives in central Sweden told me:

"I can only give you one advice if you plan on staying here. Learn the language. Oh, and change your last name to Svensson!"

And i do plan to stay here. If you can ge a head start where you live and you are serious about it, do it. Check some private teachers or a local university that might offer a course in Scandinavian languages. You will also feel special if you speak a unique language spoken by 10 million people. If there is none, you can take things in your own hands and do it yourself. A friend told me Rosetta Stone's Swedish Guide is a good option. Thanks Andrea.

For the people that want to learn while living there, all these options exist. There are also swedish lessons for immigrants. If you are a student in any university, there is a high intensity class during the summer just before the semester starts (Starts 4 August and lasts 4 weeks). You receive an email prompting you to register (the deadline for Uppsala University is 15 May) and you can enroll on that class along with other students.

As i stated, swedish people are fluent in english. In fact, you will hardly find a Swede that does not speak english under the age of 45, in some cases under 60. And they want to practice all the time, just for general practice, or even show off. So if you speak broken swedish like a peasant they will stirr the conversation in english. Do not care. Continue in swedish. If you can get another foreign student that speaks or tries to learn, by all means talk with him a lot. Or offer another language you know. I can offer Russian, Greek, English, French.

In a future post i will talk about swedish culture and your need to adapt and accept it. It also involves learning swedish, you need to respect the fact that a foreign country is hosting you and nurturing you into a fledgling scientist or the next IKEA manager.

This is the punchline. Learn Swedish. Also.....

Keep calm and learn swedish.

Swedish weather extravaganza - Preparing for the move to Sweden

Fresh air invigorates me. I don't like cold weather much, this is a fact. I think the hot weather in Greece is the only thing that i will miss, along with my friends.

Soooo, what about the weather in Sweden? In a nutshell, it depends on where you are located. I will mostly speak about Uppsala, since it will host me for at least 2 years, but i will also give some general facts/info about the other places.

Sweden as well as Finland and Norway are located near the Arctic Circle. So "strangely" enough, the northern you live, the more extreme are the temperatures and the span of daylight/night.

You can divide Sweden in 3 basic areas weather-wise, Northeast, Northwest and Southern.

In the North there is a smaller level of humidity in the summer, while daylight lasts for an astonishing 24 hours per day. Winters can be really cold though with average temperatures below -10-15C.

What about southern/central Sweden? Living in Stockholm can be presented as that friend you have just sitting there quietly not uttering a word, being always kind and likeable, but not funny/humorous nor expressive. By that i mean that Stockholms location has a direct impact in the climate. It is built on loads of islands, while it is surrounded by the Baltic Sea. This makes it's climate mild, not super-hot, nor extremely cold during the winter. Days last for many hours during the summer and the temperatures are fairly high for a country located so north and close to the poles. It's humid, so the cold and snow can be penetrating, so pack well!

This image will give you a nice overview of what to expect.

Only 3 hour nights during summers? Wow. 

But how do Swedes dress? What should you bring to feel comfortable culture and weather wise?

During the summer you will need casual summer clothes, but the ocasional raincoat or light/medium sweaters. During the other 3 seasons you will need heavier clothing, sweaters, while an overcoat is a must. Remember, there is no bad weather, just bad clothing, or Det finns inget dåligt väder bara dåliga kläder.

Shoes? Comfortable sneakers or low-heeled shoes for women are good for cobblestone roads or visiting nature! Swedish people love fashion but they will not dress very fancy and glittery often.

Things to bring with you - Preparing for the move to Sweden

I am starting to believe that the man of Kro-Manion has come back to life, hits all the women in the head with a club and drags them back to his cave to hide them. Survive and reproduce bro.

Where are all the women in this town???

This sums up my latest exit in the local nightlife, where we spend more time having fun with things around us, than listening to good music or flirting. I can't wait to move to Sweden or visit Athens next week.

My last post sparked some interest, and i thought i should make a small collection of posts, detailing each topic more in-depth, such as:

• Cost of Living
• Clothes and what to bring
• Finding a job
• Weather report

So today i m going to talk about Things to bring. Around 3 months left untill my highly anticipated move and today i was looking at my closet seeing only shorts and short-sleeved shirts due to the weather here and the upcoming hot summer. I thought "Hey! I am going to die there!".

First of all i am going to get the absolutely necessary stuff first in 1-2 suitcases so they don't also overcharge me in the airport, then package and ship the rest, such as my PC or extra clothes.

Clothing. As we previously stated, it also depends on where you live in Sweden and the time of the year that you will move there. Moving in the summer and live up North? It can be hot in the summer and cold at nights, be sure to pack both sets of clothes. Moving close to Stockholm in the summer? Pack a few warm clothes as it can be cold sometimes but down north the climate is more mild. So you choose clothing depending on the time of the year, then ship the rest to you house. It is more practical and simplifies it.

Food. Not much to say here as food is mostly forbidden in airports, but if you are Greek like me and you can't live without olive oil bring some with you, it will go a long way and its 5 times more expensive in Sweden due to being imported.

Kitchenware. Bringing a couple dishes, maybe a pot and a few forks/knives/spoons is not a bad idea if you can. You will mostly buy the basic stuff from a place like IKEA but untill you settle down in the first days how are you going to eat? On the ground with your hands?

Furniture. Even if your rented house is furnished, it is never a bad idea to bring a pillow and some sheets with you to avoid unpleasant surprises. When it comes to decor, ehm maybe a small lamp or some books along the way. Ship the rest, or to outweight the cost and trouble, just raid your local IKEA store. It's cheap and will come with delivery. If your apartment is furnished, well, you can tweak it along the way.

Miscellaneous. Hmmm. Leave toys, big books, relics, tokens, your girlfriend (haha joke...) @ home. If you want them so bad you can ship them or ....Guess what!...Raid IKEA! They might as well sell new girlfriends there! Damn my humour is suffering lately.

I can't think of anything else vital right now, things such as getting a mobile phone contract will be covered in the next posts. I still haven't moved there, but i am searching every day to find useful information to integrate in my posts and help you new students, or movers to get an idea of how things work. Nothing is foolproof, but common sense prevails.

Laters! May is here!

PS. Atletico Madrid. What an amazing team you are.