Book Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

While on vacation I had a chance to hit a few off the ol' reading list. One was a classic personal development book - The 7 Habits for short.

In general when i invest time into such books, my simple formula for evaluating is something like (amount learnt) * (quality of the learning) - CONSTANT * (reading time). Im sure the price of the book should be in there too but let's keep things simple and assume unlimited financial resources. Now i don't know what the constant is or what units everything is measured in...but i hope you get the general idea.

To be honest i was a little disappointed by this wildly read book. Although the quality was high I don't feel i learned enough for a book this size. After the first chapter i was already skimming pages, skipping entire sections and wishing there was a reduced version for lazy business students. I found that there was an excessive use of examples (i particularly fell asleep when he referenced problems/solutions with his wife or son) and rambling that bloated this book. The habits are important and i honestly believe that by improving them you will become a more effective person...i would recommend finding and reading a condensed version.

They say 'you can't judge a book by it's cover'...ha! take a look at the long-winded title and you'll get a feel for the entire book.

Relaxing in Malta

My week of relaxation in Malta is nearing its end so i figured i'd give everyone an update. My first three days were spent in the beautiful city of Valletta...architecturally one of the most amazing cities i've seen...reminds me of Dubrovnik but with much less tourists. The history is really fascinating and makes this place worth visiting. This is a country that has been under foreign control for almost all it's history...Romans, Arabs, Normans, Order of Knights of St. John, France (Napoleon was here!) and England...you can see these various influences everywhere. The city of Valletta itself is a huge fort that was built by an Order of Kings (ex-crusaders that needed something else to do) and is fascinating just to walk around. For art buffs, Caravaggio lived here...he was accepted into the Order of Knights and painted a few works...one of which was his largest work - the beheading of St.John the baptist which still hangs in the main cathedral.



I also took a short trip to Mdina, another nice but much small town to stroll through.

After 3 days of history and carnival, i changed hotels to the Westin in a touristy area called Paceville :) Five-stars, king bed, balcony looking out into the Mediterranean, swimming pools, Jacuzzis, gym, chandeliers, a man in white gloves playing a piano, and everyone calls me 'sir' all for €60 per night (great low season internet rate - in high season the same room would go for €250).

Wroclaw

I must admit, Wroclaw has exceeded my expectations. It is now my favorite city in Poland and i would recommend it for anyone who is interested in visiting this area of the world. The old town is huge and beautiful...everything restored so well...there are nice shops and restaurants everywhere and it does not feel over touristed as other popular eastern European cities. Most importantly, the locals here don't walk around with that depressed look on their faces that is a common sight in other polish cities.

The new plan...Malta!!

Happy valentines day everyone. We just came back from a pimp restaurant in gdansk...very classic, very european and very romantic. Tomorrow, ania and i are taking the train to wroclaw, a town in poland that i've never visited before...we'll spend a few days there and then im flying to Malta. Yes Malta, i'll be there for the last three days of carnival and then some. Send me an email if you're interested in joining...18C and sunny :)

Big Change

My colombia plans have gone up in smoke. I flew over to Madrid, where i met up with a group of americans and went out partying. We hit-up a few clubs, the best one being Capital...a 7 story club that was packed until the wee hours of the morning. The next day, i headed for the airport, hung over but on time. When it was time to checkin, the woman at the counter had trouble with my reservation, left for a while and then informed me the bad news. Apparently, Iberia Airlines has a strange policy which requires you to confirm your ticket purchase with 48 hours. If you don't, they cancel your booking and refund you - this is what happened to me. So i had no ticket to colombia, the next available fight was a few days away and would cost more. This compounded with the fact that i was already planning on cutting my vacation in half (from 4 weeks to 2) and i decided it was not worth it. With only 2 hours of sleep, it was probably one of the most stressful days of my life; so i checked into a nice hotel next to the airport and slept had a good sleep.

The next day, i purchased a ticket to warsaw and then gdansk (Poland). Im hanging out with my girl and having a great time.

Sometimes you just can't force something, life just decides to put you on another course and you just gotta go with the flow.

Vacation time!

After 9 months of working it's time i take a vacation. I'm tired, pale white and my spanish is starting to get rusty; so what better place to vacation than south america!! There's a few countries that i have not visited and one in particular grabbed my interest just as i was departing SA from my previous visit: Colombia. For a few weeks i had travelled with a fantastic couple...let's call them Androel. Androel spent a little more time in SA than i did and managed to visit a few more places including Colombia. They highly recommended it due to the beauty of the country, the friendliness of the people and the utter lack of tourists. So let's do it!

Compared to my last adventure, I have more money, less time and no DSLR. Generally speaking, having more money is a good thing, i can take flights instead of long bus rides, stay at hotels if i get tired of the hostel scene and try some nice restaurants. I do have less time but quite enough, 4 weeks! And my poor DSLR which died at the top of Volacano Baru in Panama has not been replaced, but i have borrowed a decent point-n-shoot from a friend.

I will continue to update this blog with stories and pictures. First stop: Madrid Spain.