Michal Botansky

A young man goes every Saturday to a high rock outside the city. He asks the forces of the world to grant him a wish. Weeks pass, then months. The young man slowly becomes a man shaped by life. His wishes have not been heard.

Until one Saturday, the forces of the world finally appear in front of him and say:

“Please, go and place a bet on the jackpot. Otherwise, you’ll never win it.”

I see life as full of possibilities. Some of them are right here around us, and it’s good to do something with them. There are many opportunities, but I don’t see all of them.

For me, betting on the jackpot means going out and showing the world my views and thoughts. Even there is the risk of being misunderstood or laughed at.

One opportunity I see is life itself. Another one is movement. I was told: do sports, show it to the world. Not just for performance, but for what you see. Maybe you inspire someone. Maybe someone will joins you.

Blogging is how I communicate with the world. Written words, photos, and videos. It all slowly starts to come together. I notice what is worth sharing and what can stay unsaid. I feel that I can create, document what is happening around me.

After about a year of blogging about cycling and mountains, I realized it makes sense. The first random meetings in the mountains started to happen. They usually began with:

“Hey, you’re that guy from the internet…”

Maybe the most important thing is that I get to meet other enthusiasts like me. A community is forming around me. We are connected by mountains, sport, cycling, blogging, movement.

I believe what I do give people around me is experience, inspiration, energy, fun. Through regular blogging, I share things with the world. Whether someone joins me or goes their own way, I can’t control that.

Or maybe I can, just by continuing to create something that makes sense not only to me, but to others too.

It’s not all just about sport. Sometimes we ride together. We exchange a few words or just support each other.

Sometimes the weather doesn’t work. Other times it’s the algorithm, or I don’t present the topic well, or I miss the right timing. And all the effort is gone.

There are days when I need to slow down. And there are days when I need to push through. I have to stick to the plan, even when I don’t feel like it.

Life is a mystery. Who knows why things happen the way they do. Maybe it’s not necessary to understand everything.

Is it too late? Everyone is already doing it. Maybe. I don’t know. I’m trying. It takes a lot of time:  editing, training, writting,  but that time will pass anyway.

Why even try? Maybe I won’t win. But maybe it’s not even about winning. Honestly, I don’t even know what winning really is.

But if I just lie on the couch at home, nothing will happen, that’s for sure.

If I stay silent, I won’t show others what my world is. It may not seem like it, but there are many people around us who want to support, watch, be part of it, or just see something beyond their screen.

The jackpot is just the reasson to go and do something. For someone, it’s making a video. For someone else, going to work, running a company, or performing on stage.

For me, the jackpot is choosing myself. Trying to create something and show it to the world in some way.

Winning is for me  taking one step forward  and then another.

How about you?

Man, you look terrible. What’s with your hair? And those clothes, that’s your father’s blazer? Dirty and dusty shoes? Zip up you fly.” shouts your friend from far away. I’m sure nobody experienced this but let’s say for a minute that you did. You are going on a business meeting. How would you feel?

Now a different situation. You have the best car you want, great clothes, you look awesome and you are heading to the most important meeting in the world. Itsy-bitsy problem. You feel really awful.

Both situations can cause inconveniences to us and people around us. We want to look too good in front of others. Guys pretend to be Mr. Perfect, girls hide their perfection behind make-up, fake eye lashes and gel nails. There is a very thin line between the fake and the real.

How do others see me? How do I see myself? Is my bag cool? Is my tie in? Clothes, hair, teeth, nails, body posture, smile, smell, spark in our eyes. That’s what appearance, mind and emotions are about. We ask ourselves and feel:

Appearance: What do you first notice on others? Everybody is different. Somebody notices nails, lips, teeth, eyes or smile. What about clothes? Is it important or you can wear whatever? Clothes that I wear and I feel comfortable in? People around me are smiling at me, they feel good when I wear this or that? Suit, jeans with hoodie or shorts with comfy shirt? Plus, everyday purification of our bodies, teeth, nails (toe nails as well).

People around you (friends, family) are going to notice you, only when they see changes on you.

Mind: I’m not a supporter of analyzes or anything like that. I’m sure it’s good. I think the best way how to get to know yourself is by doing work, activity (I don’t mean your job). My formula for getting to know myself is: [going out + work hard] / ruining most of the things = I’ll look what I did right and repeat that.

My strengths? When I’m good at attack and I can score goals, I won’t go to football goal. “All roads are right but not all of them work for me as well – Gary Vaynerchuk”. Who to listen and who not? Education, body language, self-confidence, energy, convictions, many little things are in the game. It’s not just what we do but how we do it. A big part of mindset is emotional intelligence.

The most important is to work hard on ourselves and at the same time on our business.

Emotions: Imagine, that every morning you will repeat your achievements and add a lot of positive emotions. You will notice a change after some time. Dedicate some time to your emotions. Don’t take it personally, nobody wants to hurt you. Taking control over your emotions is one of the hardest tasks in our lives. No, not heartlessness but adequate reactions to different situations. Listening to your heart, stomach or inner voice is connected with emotions. Insulting or jealousy doesn’t belong to our lives. We are unnecessarily putting down ourselves.

We can read Vaynerchuk or Branson they both are forcing us to be big and to work on ourselves or on our dreams.

Questions, unfinished thoughts, a lot of space around us. Take a minute or two and think about what works for us and do it, create.

Too much motivation, burnout syndrome, people around us, personal failures, human needs – all this is influencing us. Later we catch ourselves thinking: “it’s not going as before”, “my team is not so efficient”, “there is a mistake and that’s why it’s not working”. We don’t always get the answer that we are looking for. We more often get negative feelings. That’s one of the reasons why we quit our jobs, leave our life partners or ourselves.

It’s good to know our weaknesses. Also our strengths what is pushing us forward and it’s good to know what we want as well. If we don’t know it is natural to seek what we want. Talking about reasons why we are stuck at one place or talking about that we are not doing ten but two things at the same time. That’s holding us back. None of those motivational ramblings even though they are important sometimes.

Let’s talk about what we are good in, what is the situation we created, let’s look at it realistically not worse than it is.

If I see a sexy girl behind the bar I will invite her for a coffee and at that time I think only about my strengths. If she saw some doubts in me she could refuse my offer.

Stop talking about things you are bad in doing, why it’s now working, why we need to know the reasons why things are the way they are. The mystery lies in the fact that for each of us is working something else. That’s what we dedicate our time to. Let’s do what we like and enjoy.

“Don’t look for reason why it’s not working but look for the reason that makes us happy”

Hi, can we meet on Wednesday or Thursday? Before or after lunch? Arranging a meeting is one of the most important skills in our lives. Meeting face to face, work or private meeting all that is important. Nowadays we have various improved forms of meetings. Personal meetings in future will be one of the most important things to success. Shaking hands, the other person aroma and also embarrassing moments like spilled tea or broken glass all that is part of personal meetings.

Let’s imagine that we are on a meeting and we are speaking to one or two people at the same time. Meanwhile modern world is offering us options how to address more people without being actually there.

Today is necessary to be online. Represent ourselves, our services, products or hobbies. Most of us own a mobile phone, a tablet or a notebook. Attendance of the internet via mobile phone is increasing every day. Communication, searching, contributing, killing time, there are many options.

Many people are experts in their professions. We have different experience and valuable information. We usually exchange these information with our colleagues. Most of the time pointlessly. Meanwhile there are people out there who are looking for exactly our knowledge. Social media are the ideal way how to regularly add something yours to the online world. Thanks to the social media we can comfortably address our acquaintance, strange or random people. Social media is making communication easier, it helps us address our potential customers. If we set it right it can work for us. Let’s not make excuses that we don’t know how to use them. We couldn’t drive a car that’s why we went to driving school.

Contributing can teach us many little things. We put our thoughts together, we learn regularity, we figure out what to contribute. Don’t forget to connect social media with your web site: www.yourname.sk

Regular documentation of our work and hobbies is creating our own online story. Maybe exactly your story will inspire someone who will change the world.

I find myself tracking my posts, photos, articles, counting how many people liked it, who liked it and how many people saw me. It’s a great feeling when I reach 20, 50 or 100 likes. I flatter myself how awesome I am. I want as many people to like me as possible. That’s the point of it or?

Man, the more I use social media the more I realize how wrong I was. We write books, give lectures, motivate, show how to lose weight, sell clothes, we live out of that. The goal is to create a beneficial product or service for society. Nowadays using social media to propagate our creations is very popular. Customers have easier access from any place. They are able to order service or product. This vision is very appealing to many of us who want to reach people.

I like when I can present my creations thanks to social media. I like the option of tracking my steps, my thought, ideas, work or advancements even more. Documentation – here I was, this is how I was thinking, this is what I was doing. Inspiration, that is my reason why I do it.  I inspire myself. Write few meaningful sentences, attach a photo and document my journey every day. I will look back at it in one or two years. I went through this as well. Likes from fans are a bonus or support. When somebody says or write “Michael I started with this thanks to you”. That is a big reward for me.

Read books, attend courses, lectures, admire work of others can be very important part of self-education. Don’t forget that’s one part. The other part is in implementation, production, doing, painting, coding call it however. Start today because maybe we inspire exactly the one who has the courage to change the world.

It’s like with motivational quotes, we write and expand them only on crowded crossroad, don’t forget them.

We meet different people who live their stories. Many of them are inspirational or educational. We take some of them to our hearts and we forget about the rest after some time. We have our idols we admire the work of others. Somehow we forget, we are scared, we make excuses, we don’t feel like creating our own things. Going after our dreams is the most common business. Creating work places, connecting, hiring better people form ourselves, having something ours. Being just an employee today is a big risk.

There are many important things in life if we speak about life specifically. Everything begins with a dream and finding out what we like to do. That is where we should be heading. We should listen to ourselves, our stomach, heart, intuition, inner voice however we call it just don’t go against yourself. Have a break from temporary pleasure, vacations, super car, cozy home maybe even from that sexy girlfriend that is dragging you to trips and that is stealing your attention from the thing you are going for. Reconcile with the fact that you are alone often. Late night home arrivals. Ask your family or girlfriend for some time and explain what you are going to do. Ask for their support and some space. The reason why we do it why we create. Show them your results from time to time. To have a person with whom we can openly talk about the journey – our mentor, friend, uncle. Person who will show us opportunities, keeps a protective hand upon us whether in good or bad days. To know to who and what to listen to. A belief in something and especially in ourselves. To go on beer with friends. To be able to say no. Not everybody can be our client or a member of our team. We have to say frankly what we can and can’t do. To risk, to smile and have the courage to go after what is yours.

The best thing about it is that we are thinking about it and that is why we will succeed.