As the observant reader of this blog has noticed, I have not posted much the past month. Why? I will not bore you with such non-relevant matters.

What I will, is to rant about time. People in my part of the world constantly talk about time. How little time there is to do whatever it is they want to do. That time is running out, it is something that is limited and something they must treat with the utmost attention and care. Yet, they seem to be filled with a sense of time running out. 

In other cultures, time is not something that is limited, something that is running out. Some parts of Africa, for example, time is an endless resource that is coming towards you. There is plentiful. More than enough. You can even share your time with someone else. Like having a meal, or a party. There is no complaints about lack of time. 

Back here in Europe, we spend hours every day watching (wasting is more like it) TV soaps and sit-coms. Those hours, we do not complain. As a matter of fact, if we talk at all, we say "hey, hand me that remote". Or "Give me some chocolate too". By the end of the evening, we switch off the blue screen, crash in bed and wake up exhausted the next morning. And as we enter the office, we start the complaints again.

"I almost did not make it to kindergarden today."

"Too many meetings. I will not be able to workout today."

And my favorite one - I hear this all the time:

"We never talk anymore. We have no time between jobs, school, kindergarden and all the activities".

Again we head home, fetching the kids on the way, cooking some pre-made, tasteless meal. Hush the kids to bed (or where-ever they go in the evening), and drop down in front of the next episode of The Wire. Wasting another evening.

I challenge you.

Stop complaining until you do something about your life. Time is abundant. There is more than you will ever be able to use. Just stop wasting your life on meaningless activities. Follow your passion, and set out to do something! Something special! Something only YOU can do!

Imagine what a waste of life it is to just sit there on your fat bum and dream. Never pursuing your dream. Thinking "Oh, tomorrow will be the day when I change my life". Tell you something, my friend. Tomorrow never comes. Only today does. Only NOW matters.

Stop complaining, and start follow you passion!!! NOW! 

Today, you may read about how personal branding is important to gain a leverage in todays market space. I was interviewed by the Personal Branding Blog, a part of the 2010 JCI Baltic conference. 

You may read the interview here: http://www.jci.ee/bc2010/personalbrandprofile-kai-roer?c_tpl=1062 

Today, I am sitting in the hotel bar at Hotel Maritim in Riga, Latvia. I have been here a couple of days, it is Friday, and I am preparing to conduct my Active Listening training later this afternoon. I am looking back at the past few days of this trip, considering what I have experienced and learned. 

I arrived in Riga Monday this week. I had a room at the Hotel Monte Kristo, located just outside the Old Town of Riga. The hotel resembles one of these small, comfortable family hotels you find in small cities throughout the south of Europe. Cosy atmosphere, narrow hallways, stairs with only a few steps, small rooms and no straight line or corridor at all. Just the kind of hotel I love.

I have visited Riga quite some times before, and this time I decided to have quality time in one of my favorite cities in the world. Arriving early, I had two full days to just roam around, to enjoy the cosy bakeries, nice restaurants, the Jugend style buildings of Old Riga, and the sky line view of some of the hotel bars. Both Hotel Albert, and the Regal Hotel Riga have nice views from their skyline bars. 

Most importantly, I wanted to spend time with some of my local friends. These two days where filled with amazing meetings of people, places, drinks and food. And as usual when meeting people, new opportunities, ideas and results where created and explored. New friendships emerges, trust is being built and respect created. And there are so many learning experiences taking place, every day, every where, through every action that is made. 

So far, I have facilitated one workshop on mentoring, and I have conducted a one day training in public speaking skills. Today I will give a training about Active Listening, then go to a Name Day party to celebrate my friend Zane. Tomorrow I will do my Coach2Lead training, before I will attend a galla dinner in the evening. The days are busy, and they fill me with energy. Energy I bring with me back home, and use to develop more trainings, more relationships, and to become better at what I do. 

I am really enjoying being here in Riga. Sitting back like this, feeling the emotions, the gratitude, reminds me of the wellbeing living really is. 

It feels great to conduct trainings in Riga!  

The image is from a previous visit I made to Riga, during summer time. It is taken on the quai in front of the SAS Radisson, with the old city in the background.  

The scent of you intoxicates my mind. Every breath of air I pull through my nostrils brings the memory of you into my vision. No need to close my eyes to see you in front of me, the memories are strong and clear, enlightening my mind like a match in the darkness.

The touch of your hand in my hand is felt just as strong as when I left you there on the sidewalk. It has been a while now; the memories are as vivid as if you where here still. Your language is that of touch and looks. The language of dance and movement. The language of sensuality; of love; and that of tenderness. I cannot recall anyone mastering this language better than you.

I know that language too, yet the language of my excellence is that of words. I read books so much better than I read the looks you send. I write poetry so easily compared to how I stumble on a dance floor. My ears catch the words you say; while the melody you play passes me by like an express train trying to keep its schedule.

The scent of you intoxicates my vision. Like the fog blurs the view for the captain of the sea; are the memories of you blurring my future. My plans where made; the outlooks where all blues skies; and the course had been set.

All of a sudden enters you. As fast arriving as only the storms in the Northern Sea, you whisked across the blue waters, hinting and flirting while you stirred up the waves in my heart. Slow as I am, I forgot to close the storm hatches, leaving the path to my heart open for you to enter. And enter you did.

I decided to abandon ship and launched the lifebuoy, jumped in and accepted that you would control my faith in the stormy waters ahead. I should have been wet; I should have been cold; and I should be shivering, fearing for my life in the storm. Instead, I closed my eyes. And ever since have I been floating around in my lifebuoy, trusting you with my life.

The scent of you intoxicates my life. Your smile has left a permanent mirror on my face. Every time I blink my eyes, the smile on your face lights up on my retina, making me smile back to the memories of you. And with your smile comes the sweetest of scents that separates you from everyone else. The scent that brings back all the memories almost as strong as if you where here, memories of my hand in yours, your cheek to my cheek, your lips on my lips.

New plans are in the making, new patterns are drawn for the future. Who can predict the outcome of our paths being weaved together onto the carpet of memories. Perhaps will you leave but a small pattern, but a pattern you will leave. The scent of you gives me the confidence to move on; accepting risk and potential damage. I believe it is not the intoxication that is making the choice, I deem it is the logic of love that shows it´s true nature.

The scent of you intoxicates my mind; my vision; and my life. I am an addict. I welcome you into the rest of my life. As a friend; as a lover; as a partner on the journey ahead.