About ZZE.ST blog & me + contacts

I try to keep my posts realistic, down-to-earth and most importantly practical and actionable.  I hope that they will help you to become happier, more conscious and productive.  Sometimes, I also share stuff I’m simply interested in, feel excited about or just find to be simply fun and hope that that it will entertain you as well.  ;)

Long story short. The main topics are:

• ENTREPRENEURSHIP: I’m currently only a part-time entrepreneur with few Internet projects in portfolio but I’m totally inspired by the possibilities in this sphere. I try to share best advice and information on the web in regards of web start-ups , so join me in this trip!
• FITNESS: Feeling & looking great is all about health. While health is all about exercising, eating smart and other lifestyle choices. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom gets many things in this area wrong. Let’s figure out ways to fix it and improve our life in this area together!
• LEARNING: It’s a wide category under which I post reviews of good books, share worthy videos and other ways to learn. Basically, all the posts which aim to actually improve the quality of life by learning some skill or simply by providing useful information are here.
• LIFESTYLE DESIGN: Lifestyle design is the conscious planning and shaping of your life according to your personal values and goals. For some it may mean entrepreneurship, for others career switch or moving somewhere. For some though it may mean consciously keeping things as they are and enjoying one’s life. That’s where I share (supposedly) useful information and experience.
• TECHNOLOGY: Basically it’s about utilizing all those amazing opportunities the Internet provides us with and become not to become a robot at the same time. As non-geeks friendly as possible.
• TRAVEL: Pictures and stories from all around the world + advice on how to see the world & extend your cultural horizons for less.

Also, topics of a special interest for me are web 2.0, creativity, psychology, social science, business, marketing, start-ups, blogginng, writing, leadership, international business, world economy, cultural differences, art, photography.

I prefer to update blog rarely and make my posts long and comprehensive and try to deliver real value with my posts and write only about things that I find fascinating and useful. In other words, I won’t make you push your “mark all as read” button in Google Reader every few hours.  ;)

Why is it called Zzest?

For me personally zest (in the “great enthusiasm and energy” meaning of the word) is the perfect the perfect substitute for the ambiguous term “happiness” that is definitely overused. It’s when I feel totally energetic, engaged and enthusiastic I’m happy. So, having this “zest for life” is very important for me. And suppose for many others as well.

I still have not figured out the to be in that state most of the time. But I have already figured out many contributing factors. Most of them are obvious from pursuing your purposes and passions to living a healthy lifestyle.

I do believe that certain beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, skills, habits, actions, lifehacks, technology tools and internet resources can help us to shape the life the way we want it to be. I think that one can plan, design and then achieve this state of soul eventually. Different people feel enthusiastic about different things. For me it’s freedom. Freedom to do what I want, financial freedom, freedom to travel, freedom from distractions and unnecessary obligations. When we’re free we can do what we want to and what we’re enthusiastic about.

So basically this is just a concept I wanted to build my blog about. I’m going to share some ideas, methods and tips related to this concept which worked for me personally and which presumably will make your life better as well. And hopefully we will engage in conversation. But there is no way that the blog is going to be limited to this kind of stuff only.

I’m still in a search (a constant one) of making my life more exciting, meaningful, fulfilling and free from bad habits and demotivating thoughts. Moreover, if you feel that I’m “playing guru” or writing useless or simply wrong posts you’re more than welcome to tell me about.

What goals do you want to achieve with this blog?

Well…

First of all, is to remind myself about to be optimistic about achievement of high goals, pursuit of dreams and lifestyle design, lifetime learning. Sometimes, it’s so easy to conform to a day-to-day reality, work or whatever it is and stop to think bigs. The blog is just another reason to keep on believing and moving forward.

What else?

2. Meeting likeminded people (drop me a line @ gmail, linkedin, facebook or twitter);
3. Developing and practicing my English;
4. Developing and practicing my writing skills;
5. Developing my internet technology skills;
6. Developing my design and creativity skills;
7. Experimenting with different social media;
8. Trying various marketing strategies;
9. Just having FUN!

Not so bad for about 30mins a week on average?

So, basically the whole blog is a kind of experiment lab for me and I’m still not sure where it’s leading. You might notice that the style and topics change over time.

Who are you?

In case you’re interested who is on the opposite side of screen, let me say a couple of words about myself.

My name is Maxim (or simply Max) and I’m from Russia, Moscow and I’m 24 years old now (June, 2009). I was born in Tyumen (yup, this is in Western Siberia, guys!), Russia, graduated from Tyumen State University in 2008 with a specialist degree (post-USSR system, 5 years of studying, something in between bachelor and master degrees) in world economy & international business and interpreter/translator of English language.

Few more pictures: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

While studying I worked as a free-lance web-designer, traveled to the USA, NYC (in 2006) and spent 4 months there working in e-commerce sphere. I’ve also launched few more or less successful projects in runet. (Russian segment ofthe internet). Earlier I was keen on photography, so you can check out some of my old pictures.

In the beginning of 2008 I worked in the largest Russian bank Sberbank, in the investment financing department. Later I moved to Moscow, where I started my Management Trainee (aka Challenge Initiative) program (in order to get on which I’ve passed 7 stages of selection) in the marketing department of multinational corporation (I currently work in the Strategy Planning and Market Research department – June 2009) and to start studying in aspirantura (post-graduate education, similar to PHD) in the Higher School of Economics, World Economy and International Affairs department.

In the late May of 2009 I travelled to Madrid, Spain, thought a lot about my life-goals, slightly re-defined some of them and decided to start this blog.

Contacts

If you want to contact me personally, the best way to do it is to send me email to zest.blog@gmail.com

I would also like to connect with you through the linkedin and facebook, but please make sure you write me that you’re from the blog and mention the reason you’re adding me.