It was Christmas Eve babe In the drunk tank An old man said to me, won’t see another one And then he sang a song The Rare Old Mountain Dew I turned my face away And dreamed about you
Got on a lucky one Came in eighteen to one I’ve got a feeling This year’s for me and you So happy Christmas I love you baby I can see a better time When all our dreams come true
They’ve got cars big as bars They’ve got rivers of gold But the wind goes right through you It’s no place for the old When you first took my hand On a cold Christmas Eve You promised me Broadway was waiting for me
You were handsome You were pretty Queen of New York City When the band finished playing They howled out for more Sinatra was swinging All the drunks they were singing We kissed on a corner Then danced through the night
The boys of the NYPD choir Were singing Galway Bay And the bells were ringing out For Christmas day
You’re a bum You’re a punk You’re an old slut on junk Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed You scumbag, you maggot You cheap lousy faggot Happy Christmas your arse I pray God it’s our last
The boys of the NYPD choir Still singing Galway Bay And the bells are ringing out For Christmas day
I could have been someone Well so could anyone You took my dreams from me When I first found you I kept them with me babe I put them with my own Can’t make it all alone I’ve built my dreams around you
The boys of the NYPD choir Still singing Galway Bay And the bells are ringing out For Christmas day
I will take a break until 6 January 2022.
I wish you a wonderful Christmas time and a successful new year full of knowledge!
The common definition of narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one’s idealised self-image and attributes.
Narcissists are people who believe be unique, superior to others and masters of a wonderful existence that no one can imagine. As a result, they may be bully and arrogant. They need constant admiration and always want to be the best. Therefore, they may become extremely competitive. In their view, they are the only ones capable of achieving results in life.
They also think their experience is more valuable than that of others and feel they need to set an example for those around them. They do not do it to give advice but to be at the centre of the attention. Because of that, their social relationships deteriorate fast and they need new people to admire them, even if, over time, they will be left alone.
The world of narcissists is small, it is limited to what they think and do. In their their mind there are echoes of their thoughts. They do not listen to others because they don’t care about anything. Their greed for admiration leads them to believe that there are no ordinary events happening in their life, their existence is just wonderful and successful.
Photo by NASA on Unsplash
Envy prevails in their personal and social relationships, both what they feel about others’ success and what they think other people feel about their fantastic life.
Caution is the norm if a narcissist approaches you, because they want to excel and they will not hesitate to crush you. They are the worst acquaintances you can have because their lack of empathy makes them unable to help and support.
They live in a parallel reality, in a dream world where they want to exert power over others. Whatever they do is addressed to achieve success at any costs.
They have a vivid imagination that leads them to lie often, and they may tell amazing things they have done, even though they are difficult to prove. Remember that they cannot fail, failure does not belong to their world.
Narcissists need to hide their flaws and turn their insecurity into a false security. In order not to show their vulnerability, they will do anything necessary, such as talking excessively, changing the subject in order to shift attention to them, and belittle others by pointing out their flaws.
Narcissists are control freaks and try to bring every situation to their own ground, where they feel safe. If they are managers, they will micromanage.
They must constantly feel euphoria not to show their discomfort, because the narcissistic person do not want to feel frustrated. A common way to avoid frustration is addiction, whether it is shopping, alcohol, drugs, sports, sex, or gambling.
Another characteristic of narcissists is that they tend to take advantage of others. For example, they will partner with well-positioned people to earn their trust and use them to help them grow. They will also take credits of others’ success to advance their career or social ladder.
Narcissists master the subtle art of manipulation. They are always on an alert mode, ready to redirect those who try to say or do something they do not like, or that does not allow them to show their greatness and power in front of others.
If after reading this article you think you are a narcissist, don’t worry as a true narcissist will never identify with these traits. For a narcissistic person, aspirations are never excessive. If they are the centre of attention it is because they think they deserve it. It is ridiculous for these people to try to identify themselves in any profile. The narcissist is unique, in no way you can compete with him or her.
Leonardo da Vinci was the most creative genius in history. Of course, saying that I learned things from Leonardo is perhaps a bit risky, because in fact Leonardo is the very embodiment of genius.
As we know, Leonardo lived in a particular era for humanity, the Renaissance, when literature, philosophy, science and the fine arts experienced an unprecedented splendour. Italy was in full economic momentum and Florence became the capital of fine arts.
Leonardo was born not far from Florence, in Vinci in 1452. In Florence, he learned painting, sculpture, architecture, music, nature, science, geography, poetry and who knows what else. After all, we know he was a genius, right?
Let’s see some of his main masterpieces:
1. The Last Supper, a mythical painting, difficult to preserve because Leonardo used a technique of his own invention that, however, proved to be inappropriate.
2. The Vitruvian Man, a drawing that illustrates the proportions of the human body.
3. The Gioconda, also known as the Mona Lisa, one of the most famous and seen artworks in the world.
Photo by Markuns Baumeler on Pixabay
Other works are less famous but not less important:
The Codex Atlanticus, which brings together the largest collection of Leonardo’s writings and drawings.
His futurist inventions such as the helicopter, the plane and the submarine.
The huge statue depicting a horse: 70 tons of bronze and 7 metres high.
Why Leonardo wanted to make these works, so different from each other?
I think he was mainly driven by the curiosity to experiment and discover new horizons. He loved creating and doing things with his hands. He loved dreaming, designing, building and putting wings to his ideas.
Taking care of all his projects, one after the other and sometimes even in parallel, represented for Leonardo his life’s purpose.
The lesson that Leonardo taught me is that in life you have to try, make mistakes, do not give up and start over again to move forward. It does not matter how many difficulties you may face. Surely, Leonardo had to go through a series of failures to achieve his project. I am sure that determination and perseverance were also some of his skills. Look at what he left us, all the works that gave him the title of genius of all time.
You may not forget your failures, but to progress you can learn from them.
One of my followers pointed me out that in my post “Stay Away From Crabs = Stay Away From Negative People” I refer to success, without explaining what I mean. This could lead to misunderstandings and may make some readers feel uncomfortable.
Most of us actually think that success is having a lot of money, a beautiful car, a big house in a prestigious area, a super gourgeous, nice and rich partner. Usually successful people are also famous, they can be actors, great sportsmen or business people.
We take these ideas from the various media, television in the first place. Advertisements and programs make us see unreal worlds and at the same time they make us want all those things that we think they would change our lives and transform us into successful people.
I think that success is about fulfilling your dreams and living according to your values.
From this point of view, I consider myself a successful person. I have accomplished so many things (and many I still want to accomplish) that I wanted to do since I was a teenager and that match with my values. For example, building up a family: I got married and I’m still married after almost 25 years, I have a son; getting a meaningful job: I contribute to the construction of an increasingly united Europe; knowing different cultures: I traveled a lot, I still want to travel a lot, I studied a lot and I still want to study a lot to learn and better understand the world and their people.
I am not famous but all the things I have done led me to live a pleasant, fun and serene life. Obviously I have my ups and downs and my difficulties like everyone else. But this does not change my idea of being a successful person. I did the things I believed in and still believe in. I went ahead despite the difficulties. This is another meaning of success: the ability to keep going, always, despite everything. And this is also resilience. Think of children when they learn to walk. They fall and get up, again and again but for sure they do not think they will never be able to walk because they have fallen so many times! They keep on going, falling and getting up because the final goal is so important. Maybe sometimes they get hurt and cry, but they don’t give up, they want to learn to walk. And when they succeed, here’s their success!
What is your dream? What are your values? What would you give up to achieve your dream? What would you never give up instead? What fills up your life? What does make sense to you? Let me know!
If you put a crab in a bucket, it can run away, but if you put together a group of crabs in a bucket, none of them can escape, because as soon as one will start climbing, another will reach it, grab it and pull it down!
That’s why you should never hang out with crabs inside of the same bucket. If you want to change your life, change your relationships!
Some people are like those crabs. They push you down, while others pull you up.
That’s why changing your relationships is so important for you, if you want to be successful.
Try to spend more time with successful people caring for you, those who give you excellent advice are those who bring you up. Don’t go with crabs, those that try to pull you down.
After spending more time with successful people, you will learn a lot and you will become like them. They are contagious!
What is a problem? A problem can be defined as a matter or a situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and finally overcome.
A problem for someone, is an opportunity for someone else. Every problem has an opportunity in it, and every opportunity has a problem in it. Isn’t opportunities and problems the same thing only with a perceptive change? Doesn’t it come down to how we view the situation? It could be a problem or it could be an opportunity. A problem may be an opportunity waiting to happen. Some problems may be essential to finding opportunities, as they show us that something is not working as it should.
It is how you address a problem that can generate an opportunity:An undesirable event is just what it is, an undesirable event. The difference is how you approach it, in a positive or negative way.
The more time you dedicate to analyse the situation, the more likely you are to find more opportunities than problems. Some problems are huge and the potential for opportunities may seem limited. But if you don’t look for opportunities, you are unlikely to find them.
Seeing something as a problem or an opportunity is definitely about personal perception. And you can always learn something from a problem by transforming it into an opportunity.
Crisbie Coach 