English Version | Editor's Letter: Let's Work, September 2023

01 Sep 2023
By Sofia Lucas

Back to Work Issue

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach the to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

September is a month that signals new beginnings. More than January, September feels like the dawn of a new year. The holidays and lazy summer days are over, we return to classes, work, our global routine... some more excited with it than others. Having the opportunity to work on what we really love and are passionate about is a privilege that, unfortunately, not everyone shares. The change from the relaxed energy of summer to the active days of autumn serves as a metaphor for this other change, or adaptation, which — like almost everything in life — will always depend on each one of us.

Alisa Volskaya | September 2023
Branislav Simoncik

Life is made of cycles and you don't have to wait for September to try something new. Every morning we have the opportunity to do something different. Change happens in small steps, and by creating a new habit, we are on the right path to allowing a new behaviour to begin. Every day is a fresh start, without us needing to press the reset button. And in what is the routine we create for ourselves, the supreme achievement is to blur the line between work and leisure. As the wise cliché says: “Do what you love and you won’t have to work a day in your life.”

We have the power of transformation and, even as survival, we need both the remuneration for which we work and to transfer the same adrenaline and pleasure that we seek in a month of holidays to the volume of hours we work during an entire year. Transforming the tasks we face into an exciting challenge, whether they are more creative or more repetitive, lies on us, we have in our hands the power of imagination, humor and even love... the ability to transform is a super power, and it is ours. And without trying, there's no point in keeping an endless list of complaints, a list that many people carry on with until a new vacation cycle.

Othilia Simon | September 2023
James Harvey Kelly

Since childhood, we have been programmed to see September as a new beginning. Childhood memories spark new energy as we remember new clothes, new books, new classmates or teachers, and the challenges of meeting the expectations of learning something new. This issue is filled with that same energy, of returning to something good. The return home. Returning to our second home, the workplace, where (forgive me for being frank) we spend more hours with colleagues than with our family for an entire year...

And it's with this spirit that we begin again, this deep emotional memory that connects us to childhood and which is present throughout this issue, whether planning new looks that provide us with comfort or empowerment, pursuing new pleasures and new references that enrich our quality of life at work, the work itself, and tightening the relationship with those who are our accomplices in the inevitable routine of everyday life. The word routine is vulgar and unfairly used in a derogatory way, simply because we don't transform it into a good routine. And if rolling up your sleeves isn't among the season's trends we recommend, we prefer the energy of “Let's work!” Because, as Maya Angelou said: “Nothing will work unless you do.”