Mind Mapping

Here is my mind mapping. I liked this exercise because it helped me to re-focus on some point and fixed some goals very clearly. So from now on, I know what I have to do (at least for the next 18 months !!!)

My Best place to BE

As going on the boat, we were requested to draw our "best place to be", to think, to spend time, to feel complete and so on...

Well here is a better version of my drawing I did on the boat.

To explain : my best place to be, it is not a huge beach with sun, not a big farm in the deep end country...
My best place to be it is this home floor plan. That's the home I hope I can built for my family one day. It is just built so that we can spend time there with our friends, our families, and it is a beautiful space to communicate.

I am not the creator of the floor plan. In fact, it is a representation of the house used in a TV show that I have watched a thousands time since I was a teen, 7th Heaven.

Discovery camp - Day 2

Hi again !

Like I have heard during these 2 days, we're moving! we gotta go on the train ! 
Well this day, was on the bus, direction Dinard.
We were lucky, the weather was nicer than what the tv meteo showed last evening.

So, we started the day at the Grand Hotel Barriere in Dinard. Very nice place to spent the day btw. 

As a continuing journey, a group af the class explained by a sketche the first part of the book City of Intelligence, which was City of Dreams. When we had to create the group last evening, I offered to be a "back up" in case anybody had a family emergency once at home. Why didn't I wanted to be really part of the group presenting that part : because it didn't talked to me at all.
I'll explain to you why. First, Mrs. Gendreau explained to us on tuesday what happened to her, what her reflexion was at a certain point, when she realized that at the professionnal and economical level, she had reached a top but she felt incomplete, so she had to persue a dream, so she changed pretty much everything in her life. Then, in the book, we had the exemple of this woman dreaming from her beautiful office to follow her dreams too. And then, the group sketche took the exemple of a successful lawyer who dreamed about becoming a gardener. OK. I know it is very important to have dreams, to follow them, in order to go on everyday, to look in front of us.
BUT, and I insist, I put a HUGE BUT, show me the same exemple but the woman dreaming about becoming a gardener is a cashier in Carrefour, has 2 kids, a house to pay for for the next 20 years, and she and her husband are earning just enought money to finish the month well and go every year 2 weeks in vacations in France or in a country nearby. Now, tell me: would she take the risk to loose a safe job? would it be reasonable? 
So for me, all this topic about following our dreams is very simple to tell when you have first reach a top, and so earn enought money to have a safe bank account.
That said, thank you to the group for there acting. They were pretty good, and we had a nice time watching them and guessing.

I have dreams. Lot of them. Some are more easily achievable than other, but still, for now on, I can't take the risk of saying goodbye to everything because I want to go live in a farm in Canada. If tomorrow I can afford to feed my family, I would have change my dream into a nightmare. So, here again, yes, you can follow your dreams, but having money first is the only thing that can allows you to take some risks, as soon has you have responsabilities (children, husband, family, banker!!!) So, to achieve this dream, I will first work hard to find a great job, to earn money, to meet interesting people and create new relashionship, then when I will have save enought money, I will think about the many dreams my husband and I have for our family. 

It reminds me also of another reflexion we have had during the class. That having much more things at home for exemple, wouldn't make us happier. Maybe it work for some person. For me it does NOT. If I buy something new, like my video game X box, it is to have fun with my friends and husband when we have some times at home. So yes, it is maybe not necessary, but if I buy lot of things like this (because I am a materialistic person, and I like spending money shopping) I can assure you, that makes me happier, and using them, even a few, always make me happier too! To conclude this topic: I think it is too easy to criticize the mass consumer society, and it is kind of an egoistic point of view. Can these people criticizing just admit that we are all different, some don't need to have much to be satisfied, other need to have more, and other need to have much more than they really need. 

Let's get out for a while. We took the boat! It was awsome. The see was calm, the sun was shinning a little bit, like it often does during the beginning of automn, and the fresh air coming from the sea is the perfect thing to make you feel alive. In my case, to wake me up a little! And we arrived in St Malo. 

A part of the group

 view of the see from St Malo

A faulse drawing of the group in front of St Malo intra-muros

 

Then we define 3 values : 

INTEGRITY - COMMITMENT - EMPATHY

Let's go for a bright idea! Finding the representation of the class values choices to create a Totem. I like this kind of stuff because it brings creativity to the surface, and I am convinced it is very important to have some nowadays. For me, creativity help more than dreams to advance.

My group sharing was fun. We had a great lunch and we liked presenting our idea to the class.

... And... wanna know what surprised me at the end? above all the 6 groups proposal, we ended by something weird... Let me explain. From the 1st to the 5th group, the totem idea or schemas represented something concret (a tree, in a vase, a globe, a scale, humanification of totem whith image of people, a boat - special applause for you Esther, for defending your point of view) and one group presented something very abstract, to linked with the contempory art we've seen yesterday. After the first vote even, this idea was in the 2 last positions. SO... tell me what, after spending hours on how can we mixed the 2 or 3 projects that obtain 10 vote more than this one, we ended trying to make a sketch of something abstract looking like the 6th proposition. Like some other I talked with, this final totem we came along with doesn't talk to me ANYMORE. Too abstract, I can imagine such a thing in the middle of the school, does anybody is going to understand what is the meaning ? OK, so you have to had a explaination of what it means just near of the totem. For me, if you need to explain the message you wanted to share, it means your message is not clear, and your creativity is out. So, as Wan suggested, it didn't have to be perfect, so I joined the group and tryed to find ideas in that sense, but, be sure that, at the end of the TOTEM's journey, I will not be satisfyed of the work we would have done, because, I don't feel like sending the good message.

But I will completely be part of creating it, because the group (majority I guess!!!) wants that, and I like being part of that group. I already have ideas for the raw materials and I will try to do an exemple for november to show the result to the class. In fact, it is a good excuse for me to do some handcrafting with my daughter!!!

Oh, I forgot, during the boat trip, we had to draw our best place to be. I will post my drawing latter. This was a very inspiring moment by the way.

Then we have had a long promenade among the beach. Was nice. A little bit less long would have been great in my condition of course :-) But, when I am on top of my capabilities (it means when I am not stuck being pregnant - what I hate a lot) I love these kind of walk. And the final First Name game : so funny! I wasn't that bad.... wasn't I ???

I have to precise, even if I seem a little bit reluctant or too much criticizing some part of  the discovery camp, be assure I did like it a lot and I do like the appoitment of doing the e-diary, because, if you know me well, you should know that, when I really don't like something (like my previous job) I quit, and I do not make any effort towards people or tasks given. So, I am enjoying this, but I can't agree to all of what I have been told these past few days, that's all.

This is how end my vision of the discovery camp journey. I will had some drawing latter.

Bye.

Discovery camp - First day

Here we are ! The train just started, and I'm on it.

The first day of discovery camp allows me to present myself and to hear a little bit more about everyone in the class. Even if it was the second or third time we did that, this time was very interesting.

Then, the class is gone for a day of discovery in Rennes. At first, I didn't know if I was going to talk about these several experiences, beacause I had a pretty negative view of all that, but since this diary is suppose to relate my thoughts and that we defined with the class that honnesty and integrity are an essential part for becoming a leader... I will try to explain why I dislike some part of this day and of course tell about the very good moment I share also.

We arrived at the FARC. OK. Ask a football player to stop his training and go put a tutu to trainned as a classic dancer... Or, ask a cat to jump in the bath... What will happen? that's the opposite of who they trully are. Same for me. Put me in the middle of a contempory art museum, that maybe one of the thing I hate the most. So, to be clear, none of what was inside "touched" me or even talked to me. All the explaination about the building were great, really, the guide was excellente, but as a Breton person paying my taxes, I was angry learning that this building cost 18 million euros, so it explain the local taxes I pay increasment! worst, the Region Bretagne didnt do any promotion of this building around Rennes so that people knows they pay for such a huge building... with.... only 40 "oeuvres" exposed. I asked some of my friends and family since tuesday, and they all told me they have no idea it existed. Don't you think it's a shame? 

Well that said, as my husband is from Carnac, where originals stone alignements come from so, the modern version of it, for both of us, it's just nothing spectacular as the original ones are, because, they are full of mistery, and this modern one is souless to my opinion.

Let's go to the metro! assignement was: get linked to somebody you don't know. Whoa. my first thought: I really don't like to be disturb in the subway, I am not going to annoy somebody. But is seems the group was motivated, and I didn't wanted to be the bad duck. Worst, my group asked me to be the one disturbing the train!!! Well I accepted, and it was really fun. I now must probably be on strangers facebook page as a silly pregnant woman having her baby in the tube, but, at least, I have learned a new technical to refresh someone (thank you Nadia), and that men can be really aware of the difficulty of a pregnancy (thank you Dom and Didier, you wife can be proud of you). Some of the other groups "sketches" or stories were very fun and help us understand other's behaviors in such "original" situations!

The end of the day at the planetarium was interesting. I unfortunately had to get out before the end (sory Sylvie, but I must be on time at the nanny's home to take off my girl !)

So, as a conclusion for this day : the situations we were put in during the day really helped getting to know each other better, I did have some fun and I learn some interesting things. Some of the activity in an other hand really didn't fit with my temper and my way of seing things, but, hey, to make the world go round, we need a melting pot of people, of taste, of idea, of dreams and so on... 

The begining of my journey

Evening !

I am Sofy. I am starting a new blog (the 5th I guest) on a totaly new concept for me: talking about my thoughts! At first, I saw that as a weird idea, but then, I remember that younger, I used to wrote a lot of personal diary, so i just told myself, yeah, why not try this again?

An explaination is mandatory from that point: I was asked to do this blog in fact. It is part of my new "big thing" that is : me doing an executive MBA at the ESC Rennes School of Business. So, to be more specific, you will be able to follow a strange girl during her journey to achieve a huge goal as having a second baby while creating her company and succeeded on an EMBA program...

So let's go, the blog should be online any minute... I choose a simple cover, and I added a beautifull Automn background for the moment. Because it's October, but also because that's my favorite season. Maybe because i was born in Automn? But I think it's more because, with the temperature falling down, I have a good reason to stay at home, with my family, around the fireplace, with a pumpkin soup, a glass of wine and a good TV serie or a huge puzzle to do.