Coaching, reloaded - Coaching question of the day #44. - 50 words about you

This week, I had to write a short profile while describing in around 50 words who I am and what I do. After some trial and error, I came up with:

Azzurra Camoglio has 10+ years of experience as a film critic, translator, and localization manager. She is a certified trainer for intercultural competence, a certified DVNLP trainer, and works as a life coach.

In her full-time job, she's in charge of office management and management/team assistance and she helps shape HR.

It has not been easy, I must confess. And I know that I am not alone: while dealing with this task, most people experience either information overload ("What can I keep? What has to go? I can't decide!") or the panic of not knowing what to say ("What should I say? I don't know what to say! There's nothing to say!").

[Who am I, in around 50 words?

Someone with electric blue hair, apparently.

Pic: Me, November 2019 © Radoslaw Kosiada]

Still, as scary or as complicated as this can go, it is a great way of gaining clarity about you, who you are, how you see yourself.

Last but not least, looking at your struggle, you can discover what you don't know how to say about yourself (yet).

Coaching question of the day: 

"How would you describe yourself in around 50 words?" 

Tags: Coaching question, Self-coaching, Self-awareness, Self-knowledge, Personal branding

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How saying "Thank you" and "I am sorry" and "I apologize" and "You are welcome" every single day for the last two years changed my life - The famous "Karma tour" - Part 1.

"Well, you know. This whole karma thing of yours is amazing and such and I am very proud of you, of course, but for now, I can just be happy if you say that you have changed and I believe that you mean it. In one year from now, we can both see if this change is going to be for real". 

Old dogs don't learn new tricks, they say.

Oh well, sometimes they are right. But it depends on the dog.

What if that dog would be you?

Are you the kind of person that keeps saying like a broken record "I am like I am" or other amenities of the same kind?

Or are you the type of person that thinks to be able to change and to become the person you want to be?

If you belong to the second type of people, feel free to keep reading. I could have a story for you.

Which kind of story, you ask?

The story of how saying "Thank you" and "I am sorry" and "I apologize" and "You are welcome" every single day for the last two years of my life, no matter what, just changed everything, for me and for the people around me.

[Choose where you want to go, 
and then go all in for that.

One tiny little step at the time

Pics: Me, November 2017 
at Berlin's street art museum

Urban Nation © Radoslaw Kosiada]

Nope, it is not some kind of cheesy Hallmark production. It is real life. My own one.

Sneak peek of my interview about being a localization manager, or why diversity is a new buzzword for something as old as humankind

How does the life of a localization manager look like?
While asking this question, most people expect me to talk about source languages and target languages and pivot languages and translation KPIs and ISO 9000 quality management systems standards and TMs and glossaries and workflow optimization and... the endless stream of industry-specific lingo could go on and on.

All those things are for sure very important, and yet, at least to me, being a (good) localization manager is above all about self-awareness, stellar and consistent communication, self-control, diversity management and valuable relationships.

A relationship, every kind of relationship (romantic partnership, professional partnership, family relationship, friendship, being colleagues, neighborhood relationship, you name it), can be pleasant, happy, rewarding, quiet, funny, encouraging.
Or challenging, difficult, painful, disappointing, frustrating.

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.

Tenzin Gyatso, born Lhamo Thondup

better known as the 14th Dalai Lama

A relationship can actually be also merely boring, ordinary, not interesting at all. Or it can be all these things and more, depending on the days, your mood, the circumstances, your attitude.

Still, what matters is how you deal with the relationships, both in your private life and at work.

[Pics: Me, October 2017 -  With my naturally curly hair...
after five years, they are back.

© Radoslaw Kosiada]

Last week I got interviewed for Plinga's blog series "Heroes at Plinga".
It has been a fun one, and I had a chance to talk about diversity, work-life balance, servant leadership and more.

A big news published in advance on this blog, just for you, just today...

This is not official yet but...

I want you to be the first ones to know that I am going to become a Suicide Girl and to model for a calendar for naked tattooed women. 

So everyone will be able to see all my tattoos and to have pics of them, at last.

Dita Von Teese, stand aside... I am coming!

[Dita Von Teese in Purple latex catsuit

Copyright Jim Weathers, 2001]

...

...
...

Happy April Fools' Day, guys!

Update 2015:

False friends can be very tricky while trying to be classy, or the secret and exclusive club of colorful people

Ah, dezent! 

I got this one. No wait, maybe I didn't. 

In fact, dezent is one of those German words that, while speaking Italian as a native speaker, could be easily misunderstood. 

[Red total look: something not so usual in the streets of Berlin...

if it is not Fashion Week]

What does make dezent such a tricky word, you may ask.

Dezent is what in linguistics is called a 'false friend': a word in a foreign language that seems to be very similar to some words in your own language, but that actually has a completely different meaning. 

False friends can be very tricky while learning a new language while living abroad, while working in an international working environment, while translating a text.

Mood: Time Travel in Purple Feat. "my" wedding dress and the best white edgy wedding dress ever

To be honest, I have to say immediately that, of course, in comparison with the main characters of Four Weddings and a Funeral, I am just an absolute beginner. 

And yet, about eight years ago, I reached that "wedding age", in which one starts to get at least a couple of wedding invitations every year. 

If you are going to reply that you started going to weddings when you were six, please stop. That is not the kind of weddings I am talking about.

I am talking about the weddings of your friends, of your schoolmates, of your ex-boyfriends, of your flatmates, of your colleagues... Weddings of people in your age or even way younger than you. 

[The amazing cast of Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) 

by Mike Newell, from left to right: 

Kristin Scott Thomas, Hugh Grant, Simon Callow, 

Andie MacDowell, Charlotte Coleman, John Hannah, James Fleet]

Yes, exactly that kind of weddings. Glad that we are on the same page, now.

How to smile after a nightmare, or the one about being on my way to learn how to need... less

It has been just one month ago, and it feels like in another life.
One month ago, I moved into a new apartment, after almost three years.

Three years in the same small-and-cool hip apartment in one of the trendiest streets of Prenzlauer Berg, in East Berlin.

The move has been literally a nightmare but I learned a lot about myself and about the things that I really need.

Yes, I am actually talking about things. Stuff. Objects. Items. Zeug, auf Deutsch.

[Something can be nice to have or even plain gorgeous,

and yet... do you need it?

How many things do you actually need?]

And I discovered that I need a lot fewer things than I thought.

Today I stumbled upon a very inspiring video of Graham Hill at the 2011 TED Conference, talking about the LifeEdited Project. And I smiled, at last.

Tags: Moving, Owner, Graham Hill, LifeEdited Project

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Why decluttering one's life, one day at the time, could be the most important thing you will ever do - Introduction

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Where to start, if you are new

The question with the big Q and some very interesting quotes about it

While being vegan, the question with the big Q that I get the most is, of course, "Why?".

Usually is not a real question. Not a question they are asking me, at least. It is more like a question that my interlocutor is asking himself/herself while accidentally talking to me, since most of the people can't imagine that someone can not only be vegan, but actually be vegan and absolutely happy with it.

I am vegan. And I am happy with it and with my life.
Being vegan is something that influences every choice I do and what I decide to buy (clothes, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, cleaning products, home furnishings,  groceries, beverages, books...) or not to buy. Which websites, shops and restaurants I support, and which I don't.

Since I don't like being attacked for what I am nor when someone tries to "convert" me, I don't do these things to someone else. I don't try to turn every person I meet into a fellow vegan. 

So I don't go around telling everybody that I am vegan, I don't try to convert people or to change their minds. I don't judge others and I don't discuss what they are doing or eating or saying. I just live my life by following the motto "Live and let live".

[Vegan, Purple and comfortable:

Airseal Para Boot by Vegetarian Shoes]

But as soon as someone realizes that I am not eating meat or that my Purple combat boots are not a pair of "normal" Dr. Martens, but a more exotic pair of Vegetarian Shoes instead, or as soon someone offers me milk chocolate or whatever and I say "Thanks, but no thanks"... Booom! The question with the big Q is already in the air, ready to strike.

How about a name like Azuree? Or do you prefer the name of a yacht?

What's the story behind your name?

Is something related to a book, a movie, a family inheritance, a cultural tradition, an insider joke, a song...?

My name is somehow related to many bad songs and... to a yacht. No kidding.

I spent my whole life by replying to questions like: "Is your name Azzurra because of the yacht?".

Yes, I know what you mean, but nope, Azzurra is way younger than me.
A whole life can be reaaaaally long, if you have to reply to the same questions again and again. And again.


But now, well, there is also Azuree...
I hope to survive this too.

Do you have the same problems with your first name or your last name?

PS. Thanks to Jack for the tip about this new modern wonder.

Tags: Azzurra, Azuree, Names with a story, First names

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A-Z-Z-U-R-R-A... with two Z and two R, bitte! 

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Where to start, if you are new

Mood: Still absolutely in love (with Berlin)

The summer is almost vorbei in Berlin.
Therefore, when you can enjoy a wonderful summer day just like today, you consider yourself to be in heaven.
To be happy doesn't mean to obtain everything you desire, but to desire everything you already have, to be proud of it, to consider yourself lucky because of it. Can a summer day make you happy?

[James Turrell's installation See! Colour!
Sweden, 2011]

In Berlin, for sure.
The light is different. The sky is different. People are different.
You are different.

Different how?

Tags: Being an expat, Living in Berlin, In love with a city, Seasons, Summer

What to read next:

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Purple hair & fashion girls: The gorgeous world of freelance illustrator and photographer Kris Atomic

Kristina Mordokhovitch aka Kris Atomic is a very talented artist and freelance illustrator/wedding photographer based in Brighton.

Her work is lovable, original and quite impressive:

[The girl with the Purple kimono

Image credit: Kris Atomic]

The doll-like girls of her illustration & sketchbook works are absolutely funny, sweet and innocent but cool and somehow naughty at the same time.
If they also have purple hair or purple shoes, or cotton candy hair with a white blouse that Marlene Dietrich would definitely pull off, like the young lady you can see below, what else I am supposed to say?

To eat = Sex, or the A-ha moment that you didn't have even if you knew something already

A friend of mine told me yesterday something really interesting I already knew and yet it was kind of an A-ha moment anyway.

To cook = Love
To eat = Sex

[What are you going to have tonight?
Amazing purple food composition
by Swedish food stylist Linda Lundgren for supermarkets Hemköpf]

I always knew that how a person eats - and how a person dances! - tells a lot about how this person could probably be in other situations... but a small Wiederholung is always useful. And funny. Do you agree?

PS. If I think about how people cook and eat in Berlin... well, suddenly everything makes sense.

What to read next:
What does it mean to love someone? Orson Welles was used to saying...

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Where to start, if you are new

Mood: Purple inside and outside, or the most easy and difficult thing to do

It is very easy to say and I think very easy to understand as well, at least at a logical level, even if it is not always very easy to do, but...

If you love someone, tell them that you do.

 Every time you can, no matter what. Even if the person reacts in a weird way. And if you don't find the words, just use your body or make something important for this person.

[Love can feel scary and sticky and... dangerous.

True that. But that's not an excuse for being a coward]

Don't let the person just go away without telling them what you feel about them.
Don't let the person go away without fighting for them.
Life is too short for being a coward.

Tags: Love, Bravery, Purpleness, Expressing emotions

What to read next:

A ton of not so romantic and yet pivotal questions about attraction & falling in love, or just yet another blog post about the classic plot "Boy meets girl"

Visiting the blog for the first time? Aloha!

Where to start, if you are new

Today it's Saturday? Then it's Purple day, according to a fascinating Thai tradition

Sometimes we say we're having a black day, if we experience profound sadness or misfortune, the kind of unlucky day we will remember for a very long time.

And yet, days can be of so many colors!

Thanks to Cornell Robinson, I've discovered a tradition that I find very fascinating: in Thai culture, every day of the week is related to a specific color and to the corresponding God protector of that day.

[Soo purple: Shani, the celestial judge

Image credit: Hindu Rituals and Routines...]

Purple is the color for Saturday, for planet Saturn and for Shani, called 'celestial judge'.
Another color for Saturday is black, traditionally the one associated with death, funerals, and mourning in a vast number of cultures all around the world.

Delia Quigley's 6 powerful questions about life, self-awareness, and how to serve others

Today, I'm trying to reply to a question list that I found on Delia Quigley's post. 

Das Leben ist zu kostbar, um es dem Schicksal zu überlassen.
(Life is too precious to leave it to fate)

Walter Moers
Die 13 ½ Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär

They are simple, yet very important questions. I'm trying to not leave my life to fate and to do that, I must find answers to these questions. Incredibly good answers.

[Question marks can be very scary...

but also powerful tools for creating self-awareness]

• Who am I?
• Who asks who I am?
• What is important to me?
• What makes me happy?
• What brings me into harmony with others?
• How can I serve the world around me?

Tags: Coaching question, Self-coaching, Self-awareness, Delia Quigley, Quotes, No to fatalism

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Waiting for home-made Vegan Frushi...

I really enjoy eating sushi, or vegetarian maki, to be more precise, like Kappa Maki, Avocado Maki, Hoso Maki, and so on.

They are healthy, delicious, nutritious, vegan, and easy to prepare.

Ingredients are just rice, Nori seaweed, a little bit of sesame and slices of cucumber, avocado, carrots, pumpkin, or other vegetables. As much wasabi and ginger as you want, but no soy sauce for me, since it's often not gluten-free and I suffer from celiac disease.

In Berlin, it's very easy and convenient to go out for having sushi in some Thai or Chinese or Japanese restaurants, but what about Frushi?
Frushi is another kind of maki, prepared by using slices of fruits instead of slices of vegetables.

I haven't seen Frushi in any Berlin restaurants so far, beside of Avocado Maki, so I should learn how to prepare it by myself.

But meanwhile... I'm looking for this elegant Purple Weking rice cooker. If you should see it somewhere, please let me know!

Do you like Sushi too?
Do you prefer Sushi or Sashimi?

Tags: Rice cooker, Weking, Frushi, Sushi, Vegan, Purple shopping, Maki

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