Untranslatable

Untranslatable words: declutter

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Last week I mentioned I wanted to talk a bit more about this wonderful English word for which I´m not able to find an elegant translation into Spanish: declutter.

The other day, in the article, I referred to it as "hacer limpia", but there´s another way to call it that I like a lot more, and I hope the academics and purists of the Spanish language can forgive me because this word doesn´t officially exist: decluterear.

Online dictionary WordReference translates the verb declutter as "ordenar" or "poner orden " (meaning to tidy up), but in my opinion, that translation omits a big portion of the original meaning. Because even though it´s true that the end result is a tidier space, the key question here is not the what as much as the how.

To me, tidying up is about classifying things and moving them around so that they´re arranged differently, in a more aesthetic and logical way. But at the end of it, you have the same bunch of things as before. In contrast, decluterear consists of freeing up space by removing things, eliminating what in English is called clutter (which is how the verb was formed; de-clutter, as in remove clutter), and that I usually translate as morralla (the dictionary seems to more or less agree with me on this, as one of the meanings for the word morralla is "garbage", "trash" or "rubbish"... In short, whatever is no longer useful.

So then, decluterear (decluttering) is the art of setting ourselves free from what we don´t want and/or is no longer useful to us, to leave space for what we do want and find helpful. And this morralla, or clutter, is very often physical, but it can also be mental or emotional; in fact, decluttering our physical space has a liberating and renovating effect that goes way beyond, because, as it´s often the case, what happens around us is a reflection of what happens inside of us.

As I already mentioned, this year at home, we´ve accepted the challenge to declutter step by step, dedicating some time to it every day (or at least every week). The dictionary defines clutter as "desorden", "desastre" or "lío" (in other words, a mess), and once again, yes but no. The mess is a consequence of having too many things, too many trinkets that end up generating more and more mental noise and distractions. And this reminds me of two very cool phrases on this topic that I´d like to share with you all.

The first one is a minimalist saying (I´ll write more about minimalism in a future post). I came across it in an article by Joshua Becker, author of becoming minimalist, but I´m sure he wasn´t the first one to say it, nor will he be the last: LESS STUFF, LESS STRESS. I think this is a genius quote, so simple and so true.

The second one goes back to my period of "fighting against chaos", not long after moving to Ireland, when I was trying to get organized with cleaning the house and minding my little daughter... That´s when I came across a web page and email distribution list called FlyLady, which I found extremely helpful (if you´re curious,, look it up, the website is so old it looks abandoned, but the lady who created it is active in YouTube, and also has some presence on Instagram). Her approach goes directly to the key to all this, and it says: YOU CAN´T ORGANIZE CLUTTER, YOU CAN ONLY GET RID OF IT!

So, what about you? Do you spend your days "tidying up", moving things from one place to another and rearranging them, not daring to throw anything away? That was me for many years... Come on, have a good decluttering session; you´ll be amazed at how good it feels.

Untranslatable words: escarmentar

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Today we´re adding one more word to my special list of untranslatablesterms, which is more like a list of words and sentences for which the translation from Spanish into English (or vice-versa) is neither very accurate nor very elegant, in my opinion.

Today´s word is escarmentar, and it´s very closely related to learning. It basically means learning something the hard way: having a bad experience as a result of your behaviour or action that causes you to never feel like doing that thing again. For example, when you´re leaving the house, and you put your wallet in a pocket with no zip, making it easy for it to fall out, and later that day, you realize you´ve lost it...

The official definition from the Spanish RAE dictionary is "to learn from one´s experience or somebody else´s in order to avoid making the same mistakes". The translation into English that I´ve found is "in my opinion,", and yes, I understand it conveys broadly the same idea, but I don´t think the English phrase is as strong as our beautiful Spanish verb.

Photo of a blackboard with physics formulas written on it, behind a table with books, pencils, a pair of glasses and and a green apple. We can see the body and hand of a teacher, pointing at Einstein´s equation on the board

Interestingly, the RAE dictionary contains a second definition of "escarmentar" as a transitive verb: "to impose or apply a punishment to someone, or correct them with rigour due to them having committed a foul." It seems like, apart from learning the lesson for oneself, one can also teach lessons to others. I have to say I had never heard this second use of the word, and I´m unsure whether it´s widely used. But leaving linguistics aside, I don´t know up to what point this is really possible...

Up to what point can we learn from other people´s mistakes, or from the "lessons" some teach us in the hope that we will learn? My mum always used to say that nobody learns the lesson in somebody else´s head ("nadie escarmienta en cabeza ajena"), and I agree; I think this quote summarizes it really well:

We cannot teach people anything. We can only help them discover it within themselves.

Galileo Galilei

What about you, what lesson have you learned recently?

P.S.- This was one of the 30 quotes from my September challenge; we´re almost at the end! You can see them all on Instagram.

Untranslatable words: overwhelm

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Today we´re resuming the category of untranslatable words and phrases, dedicated to interesting terms that are difficult to translate from Spanish into English and vice-versa, with a concept that´s very close to my heart: overwhelm, which could be translated into Spanish as "la sensación de sentirse abrumado o sobrepasado".

Well, technically, this is only untranslatable in relative terms, given that we do have a direct translation for the verb and the adjective; what´s difficult to convey is the feeling itself, mostly because that word is missing in Spanish:

  • To overwhelm = abrumar
  • Overwhelmed = abrumado
  • Overwhelming = abrumador
  • A feeling of overwhelm = ???

The answer given by the Spanish Language Royal Academy seems to be that both "abrumamiento" and "abrumación" are somewhat used as nouns related to "overwhelming" (meaning "act and effect of overwhelming or being overwhelmed"); even though well constructed and valid, they´re not consolidated words, and therefore, they´re not present in the Spanish Dictionary..

To me, both "abrumamiento" and "abrumación" sound horrible, so, even if it takes longer to say it, I´m going to keep referring to it as the feeling of being overwhelmed ("sentirse abrumado")...

So, why am I talking about this topic today? Because this week, to be honest, I´ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed coming back from vacation: getting back to work, the house, the girls, etc., etc., etc. Does this ring a bell? Have you ever felt this way?

Photo of a person lying on the floor. Only the legs are visible, the rest is covered by a pile of cardboard boxes of different sizes

Luckily, I was able to identify how revved up I was early on, so I was able to slow down a bit, pause to take stock and then begin to take things in differently, partly thanks to a mindfulness course I started precisely this week (thanks Fernando!), and partly because I know myself and this is not the first time this happens to me... I often feel under pressure trying to do everything and then realizing I can´t.

Interestingly, I hadn´t really named that sensation until this morning when (by coincidence?) I listened to a podcast by Owen Fitzpatrick who was explaining the psychology behind it: the psychology of overwhelm. If you can (it´s in English), I recommend listening to the whole podcast (or rather two, the first part and the second part); for the moment, here´s the main idea, for starters:

Overwhelm happens when we feel like we have to do more than what we can do..

It makes sense, doesn´t it? It´s one of those moments when everything piles up for us: so much to do and so little time... And what happens, usually? One of two things: either we try to do more things faster and end up running around like a headless chicken, or we collapse and become unable to do anything, not knowing where to start.

If we analyze the sentence above, we can see two different aspects being compared: what we believe we have to do and what we can realistically do. The to-do list in our head is always longer, way longer, than what can be done in a day, a week, a month, a year or even a lifetime. Owen explains that the majority of people focus mostly on the second part of the sentence, looking for ways to be able to do more, when the key is also on the first part: do we really need to do it all?

Te podcast proposes a specific technique to manage tasks, and as I was listening to it, my mind immediately found the parallel with how workload is managed within my work environment. For a software development team, the tasks list is also potentially infinite: new features to implement, bugs to fix, application upgrades... Let´s see what steps are involved, and how my team at work handles it (using Scrumas an Agile methodology, and Jira as a tool):

  • Write down all tasks, absolutely everything. This doesn´t mean they´re all going to get done; what we want is to get them together in a place that´s outside our heads. In Scrum each task is represented by a story, and they all get listed in the backlog.
  • Sort them into different categories, so that they can be better organized. In Scrum, a set of related stories constitutes an epic, a work unit that once finished, delivers some specific value or benefit.
  • Break them into manageable chunks, if needed, so that they´re easier to handle. This is done through a refinement process, getting specific about what needs to be done for each task. It´s also important to estimate the time and effort involved for each one.
  • Analyze them and connect them to your main goals, what specific objective is each task counting towards? And to what extent? In a professional environment, each story is linked to a predefined project or initiative.
  • Prioritize the most important ones: now that we know what the tasks are, how they contribute to making progress towards what goals, and the time and effort associated with each one, we can make sure we do the most important things first and postpone (or directly cancel) the least important ones. In Scrum, the stories are sorted in order of priority, and the team works on them in that order.

What do you think about this approach? You may say it´s not rocket science; it´s not sophisticated, just basically common sense. But it is true that we often forget to use common sense when we feel absorbed by worry, and a simple method like this can help a lot, starting with freeing our head up from having to try and constantly remember everything that still needs to be done.

Another thing that´s liberating is knowing that we´re giving priority to the most important task at each moment, by the way also including things like rest, a good diet, physical exercise, etc. Self-care is what´s going to give us the energy and health that we need to face everything else.

And finally, for bonus points, we can also set free from those terrible thoughts beginning with "I have to..." - we can stop being victims of our self-demands. Stop beating ourselves up for not living up to those unrealistic expectations, and begin to spend our time as we consciously choose so that we can make progress in the direction we truly want.

In Scrum, the team member who sets the priorities and takes ownership of the overall product development is called Product Owner. Are you ready to become the Product Owner of your own life?

Untranslatable words: overthinking

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Today´s post is going to be quick, without thinking too much 😀

This term is included on my list of untranslatables, not for having a particularly complex meaning, but for being such a simple, clear and elegant word in English:

Overthinking.

Multiple rows of empty orange sticky notes on a light purple background

The Spanish version would be something along the lines of "pensar demasiado", "pasarse de pensar", or if we want to summarize in a single word, "sobrepensar"... All of these sound much clumsier to me than the original, but you get the idea, right?

This word fills my mind with memories from years ago: long evenings and nights playing board games, and almost every time, there was a friend (or it could be two, or three) taking foreeeeeeeeever to decide their next move... The rest of us would quickly start to sing "OOOOOO-VER-THIN-KER" following the notes from Movierecord, to hurry them up.

Well, this week Instagram showed me a phrase on this topic that I thought was absolutely brilliant:

OVERTHINKING = UNDERACTING

So true. When we devote ourselves to thinking too much, we inevitably end up doing too little... Or nothing at all, which is even worse.

And that approach prevents us from moving forward. Going over a problem in our head doesn´t solve anything; it's only by taking action that we can change things and make real progress. So let's take action once and for all, and whatever happens, happens.

What about you, what's been on your mind lately? What's that thing you've been thinking too much and doing too little about? And when are you going to wake up and take action?

Untranslatable sentences: kidult

/ binarybea / 2 Comments

Today I'm returning to one of the blog's recurring themes: words and sentences I find difficult to translate between English and Spanish without them losing their charm or part of their meaning (you can see previous articles in this category: untranslatables).

And today's word is... KIDULT.

Action figures of Luigi, Yoshi and Mario from Nintendo's Super Mario videogames

According to Cambridge Dictionary, a kidult is "an adult who likes doing or buying things that are intended for children". It's a combination between the words "kid" and "adult". The Urban Dictionary goes a step further and describes it as "an adult who never grew up", and Wikipedia links it to the Peter Pan syndrome.

I heard this word for the first time from an Irish economist, David McWilliams, and as I understood it, he was referring to a very common tendency in recent generations: people reaching adulthood and still continuing to behave like spoiled kids (only with more disposable income), delaying more and more the phase of maturing and taking on responsibilities..

And when you look at it that way, it's a big problem. But the problem is not caused by adults still liking Disney movies or videogames (I don't think anybody is even surprised by that). As I see it, the problem is that we're living an epidemic of lack of emotional maturity and personal responsibility. Because these two qualities don't come automatically as one comes of age; on the contrary, they need work, and it's each person's decision to make the effort to develop them, or otherwise choose the easy way - escapism and excuses.

That's the "official" (or at least the most extended) definition of kidult, and honestly, I find it a bit depressing... But what if we turned it around? Today I'd like to propose a different way to approach this mix between kid and adult, this time choosing the best of both worlds, instead of the worst.

What if we were able to become adults with the soul of a kid?

We would be more conscious and aware; we would realize that being mature and responsible doesn't mean always being serious and never having fun. We would know how to enjoy the little everyday things even more, and how to connect with the excitement, spontaneity and creativity of our inner child. We would dare to laugh at ourselves more (and to laugh more, in general), and also to play, experiment and live life as it comes.

I have to admit it took me quite a few years to learn this alternative lesson in "kidultism", and even today, I'm still learning. I've always had a huge sense of personal responsibility, so up until very recently, my tendency has been to behave rather in the opposite way, what in Spanish we could call viejoven (also very difficult to translate, a combination between the words for "old" (viejo) and "young" (joven), like being young but behaving like an old person).

Having said that, I think I've been making progress lately at becoming a bit more of a kidult (in a good way)... A few years ago, if somebody had suggested buying the girls a ping-pong set for the kitchen table, I wouldn't have thought it was a good idea; today, not only I said yes immediately (thanks Quique!), I also had a lot of fun getting to use it with Eva 🙂

What about you? Do you see yourself as a kidult? Or maybe a viejoven? Which one would you like to be?

Untranslatable words: struggle

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Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will know that every now and then, I write about a sentence I find difficult to translate, either from English to Spanish or vice versa (if you´re curious and want to read those articles, you´ll find them under the category called Untranslatable).

Today, I´m not bringing you a sentence, but a word, more specifically, a verb: to struggle.

The Spanish dictionary says struggling can be translated as fighting, confronting or tussling with something. And yes, it´s something along those lines, but with a few more nuances, I think. Maybe because (at least in my head) most times, that "something" is not a physical thing, but a situation or challenge we don´t know how to manage, so we experience some suffering as we attempt to overcome it.

The photo gallery in Wordpress gave me this visual representation of struggle, and I thought it was spot on:

The rope could represent anything, real or symbolic (or imagined!) that we are confronted with, and towards which we feel we have no resources.. I think it´s a really interesting metaphor because the rope as such doesn´t have a life of its own; it all depends on what we do with it: we can keep tangling it more and more until we end up paralyzed, or we can untangle the knots bit by bit, one after the other, and break free. It´s almost as if that fight, that confrontation, that tussle, deep down, was with ourselves.

And here´s a thing I would like to make very clear: this happens to all of us at one point or another, or rather, at many points throughout our lives. It´s a part of life itself. That´s how we learn, how we grow, how we evolve.

One story that often comes up around this topic is that of the butterfly: part of its metamorphosis involves coming out of the cocoon, which takes a huge effort; it´s a real struggle. Anybody looking from the outside would think it´s going to die without achieving it. But the butterfly achieves it. And it has to be the butterfly itself, on its own, because that´s how its wings become strong, to be able to fly. If someone, with all their best intentions, had opened the cocoon earlier to let it out, it would have stayed weak and would not have survived.

Similarly, we all have to follow our own path and experience our own transformations. But do we really need to have such a hard time? Or watch others having a hard time, without helping them? Well, one thing we can do is treat those moments in life like what they really are: phases of growth, completely normal. And yes, we can help, but not by trying to resolve the other person´s problems from the outside, but by respecting their process, and accompanying them so that they can find their own resources and solutions.

I think this quote summarizes it really well; it´s the first cornerstone of co-active coaching:

People are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole.
People are not broken and do not need fixing and have their own innate wisdom on how to live life.

What I mean by this is that, leaving out certain exceptions where there´s a pathology or disorder (in which case it´s necessary to consult a psychiatrist or psychologist), in general, all we need is a bit of time, support and self confidence to overcome the challenges that are put in front of us.

That, and self discovery, lots of self discovery, it always helps 🙂

Untranslatable sentences: taking a step back

/ binarybea / 1 Comment

Today I'm bringing you another one of those sentences that I think work really well in English, and for which I don't have a convincing translation into Spanish: taking a step back.

The literal translation into Spanish would be dar un paso atrás, and it's used in the sense of distancing ourselves from the details of a situation in order to see the whole picture more clearly, and be able to make better decisions.

And what better moment for taking a step back than while enjoying a few days off?

This is a long weekend for us in Ireland, or as they say in Spanish, estamos de puente . My niece Ana and her boyfriend, Javi, are here visiting us (thanks guys!), and we're taking the opportunity to get out of Dublin for a few days, and do touristy things around the West of Ireland.

There's a lot of talk nowadays about the importance of switching off and recharging batteries every now and then, mostly because we are hyperconnected and overworked in our daily lives... I encourage you to go the extra mile, and next time you take a couple of days off, also take a step back and reflect on some of these quotes:

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

Annie Dillard

Action expresses priorities.

Mahatma Gandhi

Do fewer things. Do them better. Know why you're doing them.

Cal Newport

Untranslatable sentences: echao p’alante

/ binarybea / 1 Comment

Today, in our section on untranslatable sentences, we´ll talk about a very popular colloquial expression from Spain: ser muy echao p’alante.

The Collins Dictionary provides three translation examples for es muy echado p’alante, I hope they make sense to those of you reading this in English:

  • He’s very pushy
  • He’s very forward
  • He’s not backward in coming forward (informal)

To me, being echao p’alante means being brave, in the sense of daring to take the initiative and taking action when faced with certain situations, without fearing ridicule (or maybe fearing it a bit, but without letting that condition them).

Little girl riding on a horse with her hands in the air, seen from behind

My friend Bárbara comes to mind; she served as chairperson of our primary school's Parents' Association for several years, and I remember her one day explaining to me how, every time there was a call for volunteers to organize an event for the school, there were always certain people who threw themselves forward (echar literally means throw), and others who threw themselves back.

I was one of those parents who signed up to help in whichever way I could, but mainly to help, not to lead. I was not the one taking the initiative, I was happy following somebody else's lead. And that's a pattern that's been repeating year after year in many aspects of my life.

So in short, I am not (and never was) particularly echá p’alante... The good news is that now I know that that's part of my personality, more specifically part of my instinctual biases, as opposed to a weakness of character that I have to get over.

According to Mario Sikora's instinctual biases theory, which is taught in conjunction with the Enneagram, our natural instincts as human beings can be grouped in three main domains, the preserving domain (striving for survival, looking after our basic needs, looking after our close ones), the navigating domain (sense of belonging to a group, social relationships with our peers), and transmitting domain (reproduction, spreading our message, leaving a legacy in this world).

Each person tends to have the instincts from one of the three domains a lot more developed than the others, with a secondary domain, and then a third domain that's far less developed. And broadly speaking, we could say that individuals who are strongest in the transmitting domain tend to push forward, given their instinctive desire to transmit, to convince, to make progress. In contrast, individuals who are strongest in the preserving domain tend to pull back more, to try and protect ourselves by keeping a low profile. Individuals who are strongest at the navigating (or social) domain tend to seek balance between what they give and what they receive, expecting reciprocity.

An important point I would like to highlight is that no instinctual bias is better than any other: we need them all, because each of them relates to a particular set of capabilities and strengths, and they all balance each other within the group. We need preservers, navigators and transmitters in our tribe.

For me personally, learning about instinctual biases is helping me a lot to understand my own reactions and behaviours, as well as those of others. But that doesn't mean we can use them as an excuse to continue with our same old ways. On the contrary, it makes us realize that instead of forcing ourselves to do things that are radically against our instincts, we can work with them to our advantage, designing strategies that get us the results we want in a more natural and adaptive way.

In my case, given that my instinctual bias is in the preserving domain, I know I have to pay special attention to the topic of taking the initiative and stepping into action, because those things don't tend to come naturally to me. I use tricks to motivate myself and make progress step by step, without getting exhausted or overwhelmed. And what helps me the most? Phrases like these:

If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it.
If you don't ask, the answer is always no.
If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.

Nora Roberts

What about you? Are you one of those who throw themselves forward, or back? What motivation would be strong enough to push you forward?

Untranslatable sentences: getting out of your own way

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Today we´re talking about another one of those expressions in English that I love, and that I think lose their charm when translated into Spanish.

It´s "getting out of your own way", which basically means stop being an obstacle in your own path. When I hear it, I imagine a path in front of me, with a gigantic boulder in the middle of it, blocking the way... And I realize that, very often, I´m the one placing that boulder there.

OK, it´s not always a gigantic boulder, sometimes it´s a smaller rock... But the thing is that I do it, I sabotage myself, and that´s something that happens quite frequently to us as humans.

Today my daughter Eva, who´s reading the Harry Potter books, mentioned Dobby, the house elf. If you remember, every time Dobby realized he had done something against the rules, even if it was with the best intentions, he said "bad Dobby!" and tried to injure himself, doing things like banging his head against a wall, etc.

Well, I get the feeling that we humans do something similar sometimes, unconsciously of course. Our rational side establishes a goal or objective and wants to make progress in that direction, but it finds itself hindered (and sometimes, sabotaged) by an ever deeper side of ourselves, which somehow believes that achieving that goal would be against how things should be.

So, when we realize we´re finding it difficult to get closer to our goal, and we´re taking one step forward and two steps back, it´s time to start digging to see what´s hidden below that self-sabotage: there may be beliefs, values, or even aspects of our own identity that are in conflict with whatever it is that we want to achieve. And that´s where a coaching process can help a lot, in order to shine the light on those "hidden forces" that make us get in the way of our own success.

What about you? How are you getting in your own way, blocking your own path? And what would it take to remove those blockers?

Untranslatable sentences: me da pereza

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Today I´m bringing you one of those untranslatables phrases that I enjoy collecting, only this time it goes the other way round: it´s an expression in Spanish for which I can´t find a good English translation.

Example scenario: it´s Friday evening, and the company´s Christmas party is starting in a couple of hours. Outside it´s already dark, and quite cold; the snow from the previous night has started turning into ice. I´m feeling warm and cozy at home, and when I start thinking about dressing up and going out, into Dublin´s city centre, to attend the party...

Me da pereza.

Grey cat lying on its side a wooden shelf, looking at the camera

That´s what I would say in Spanish, "me da pereza", which loosely translates as "I´m overcome with a feeling of laziness when I think about doing X". It´s as if I got tired just from thinking about it. It´s a powerful sensation that comes upon me... and pushes me toward the couch 😀

Looking around, I´ve found two possible translations: "I don't feel like it", which more literally translates as "no me apetece", and "I can't/couldn't be bothered", which basically means that I'm not going to do it, either because I don't consider it to be necessary, or because I'm not interested, or because I'm too lazy to make the effort.

I guess from those two, the closest one is "I don't feel like it", because it conveys the idea that I think doing X is a good idea in general, but at this moment in particular I don't have the energy or the will to do it. The other one, "couldn't be bothered", doesn't fit as well, in my opinion: it doesn't seem to me that it values X in any way (due to passivity, indifference, or who knows why) and it's also assuming that, whatever X is, I'm not going to do it.

And that's the beauty of "me da igual" or "I don't feel like it", in my opinion: it's an obstacle but not a blocker, just a barrier that can be overcome. Very often, our brain wants to go for the easy option, the comfortable one, the one that saves the most energy, and it has good reasons (namely preservation instinct). But we don't have to always pay attention to it, because it doesn't always know what's best for us...

I'm not saying that we shouldn't listen to our body when it really needs to rest, of course we should. But beyond that, it may be good for us to think about what it is that's holding us back, and why. What's hiding behind that laziness? What are we really trying to avoid? And what reward can we find if we go ahead regardless? That way, we will know if it's worth making that initial effort.

Did I finally go to the party? Yes, I did. Why? Because I knew that once I got there, I would have a great time, and that's exactly what happened. What was my strategy? The same one that's worked for me so many times in the past - going straight into getting ready without thinking too much about it, and most importantly, not sitting on the couch!

What about you? What is it that you don't usually feel like doing, and how do you motivate yourself to get over it?