Tools 2 – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

Remo y Vela (Part 2)

Last week I wrote about REMO, a set of habits I rely on to make progress in many areas of my life and move closer to my goals. Today I want to tell you about VELA. REMO (oar) and VELA (sail) are Spanish acronyms I’ve refined over the years, and they’ve helped me see clearly what I can control and what’s beyond my reach. These eight habits mean a lot to me and help me grow personally and professionally. REMO is everything I can do to move the boat of my life myself. VELA depends on the wind, on outside forces that carry me forward. In other words, VELA is about what someone else has created and I can put to use. Today I want to share its four habits and how they’ve helped me get through some major challenges.

As I said last time, I’ve always loved navigation, in the air and at sea. Over time that passion became a powerful metaphor for my life: a boat that sets sail and calls at different ports, weathering challenges and seeking new destinations. I firmly believe in working toward clear, realistic goals. Life is a complex playing field, full of unexpected challenges that test us. In my 42 years I’ve faced many hard trials, including the loss of a son. In those moments, the habits behind REMO and VELA were essential for finding answers and keeping going.

VELA stands for four habits: Ver algo, Escuchar algo, Leer algo, Aprender algo. Watch something, listen to something, read something, learn something. Look closely and you’ll notice that everything in VELA was made by someone else. Take watching. There are billions of videos online today. On YouTube alone I’ve found remarkably powerful videos that have guided me, and still do, on all kinds of topics. There are strong channels from Andrew Huberman, Jordi Wild, Jordan Peterson, Word on Fire, Dr. La Rosa, Agustín Laje and many more. Good material takes some finding. You can stumble onto real garbage, but there’s also plenty of valuable content that opens new ideas and new ways of seeing life.

Next comes listening. That can be anything from an audiobook to a good podcast. In fact, many of the shows I watch on YouTube are also on Spotify as audio. Listening has an added benefit: it strengthens a powerful skill, one I consider among the best discoveries of this century, which is knowing how to listen. I’m no musician, though I’m sure any musician already knows this. For those of us who sometimes struggle to truly listen to others, it’s a great habit for cultivating our inner dialogue. Listening well takes double the attention. It’s different from watching or reading. You have to turn up your focus, at least I do, because sound is less tangible than what reaches us through our hands or eyes.

Then comes the L, reading, my favorite habit. Everyone knows reading improves almost every part of our lives. Books let our imagination soar to its full potential. Reading shapes who we are, and the written word holds great answers to life’s great questions. Literature has crossed nearly every cultural and historical barrier. It’s no accident that the great classics still feel relevant today, as if they’d been written yesterday. The Bible is the classic of classics, through which God remains present and His Word endures, timeless. Reading also includes articles, blogs, the press and, above all, a healthy dose of books that I try to read every day. One year I set out to read a book a week and ended up getting through a large number of them. My parents instilled this habit in me as a boy, and I’ll be grateful for it all my life.

The last habit is learning, which is all about acquiring new knowledge. It’s a complex habit and perhaps the one most closely tied to my goals. The others are tied to them too, but when I have a specific goal to reach by a certain date, I try to make sure everything I learn in that period relates to it. What matters most is that these habits are woven into my daily life and aligned with my goals. The point is to watch, listen, read and learn with intention and purpose, never just to keep busy. Over time I’ve become more selective about what I consume, always looking for what adds value and brings me closer to what truly matters.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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