Coercion is pathetic

Coercion is a form of control that involves using force or manipulation to make someone do something against their true will. Says Dr. Najmun Riyaz on her website. I can understand people who feel desperate and use coercion because they are afraid of losing something that is meaningful to them, such as a desire for power that […]

Me & Others

Most people don’t know or care who I am, but they try to tell me what to do. And the reason is their selfishness – they need something valuable to them, but they project the obligation to deliver it onto me. So they conveniently forget to ask me if I agree. This seems to happen […]

Why helping others is not a virtue ?

For a long time, I thought I was doing good for others who couldn’t do something for themselves. I understood their urgency, desperation, anxiety, panic or their sense of helplessness. What I really understood was how they felt. My empathy was so strong that I could experience their emotions through my body, and sometimes it […]

Why isn’t it working for you?

So… You want to retire, but you don’t want to depend on your country’s pension system? You want to retire in a beautiful place, without any financial constraints? So, are you doing your job right, or are you doing the right job that needs to be done? Ever since we were children, people have been […]

Is it worth telling my truth?

We’ve all had similar experiences: there’s an unfair situation. You’ve just found your doll with its head off. You burst into a spontaneous roar and immediately your mother anxiously rushes to see what happened. You try to explain that it must be your brother’s doing, through the tears. But he left the house earlier, instead […]

I Don’t Have Money

I’ve heard this many times from my father, from friends and colleagues. I’ve heard myself say this to someone in the past and even to myself. My mother didn’t tell me, but it was even worse because I could see her face when I asked for money as a child. So I subconsciously started avoiding […]

Nobody cares about me

I experience it many times every day. I receive the next spam email from a stranger. This person is halfway around the world and has somehow gotten hold of my email. Does he care about me ? Asking for water and the flight attendant at the Philippine airline tells me they don’t accept card payments. […]

Feeling used by the others

“I have a resistance to saying yes to you. I don’t want to do it, I’ll force myself because that’s you. But I have a strong NO feeling.” That was my response to my friend today, answering her question, “Will you translate this for me?” It wasn’t just a sentence or two. And I’m not […]

Because they don’t like what I’ve done ?

It was almost trivial. My father did something that made me look bad in front of other people. Later I asked him in private why he did it? And he was shocked. He tried to accuse me of something that wasn’t true. Long story short: He finally said, “Then I’ll disinherit you.” He didn’t speak […]

Rethinking what’s wrong with my marketing

It may have started as a marketing “puffery,” as Seth Godin called it in a blog post. But we’ve already normalized the practice of exaggerating the possible benefits of a product or service in advertising. We’ve normalized allowing our attention to be disrupted without consequences for the intruder. We accept it as normal. A stranger […]