Daniela Mareş: I was born and raised in Sibiu, Romania, where I attended school, high school and university, graduating from the Faculty of Letters – Majoring in Modern Applied Languages ​​ (2004) and Journalism – Majoring in Communication and Public Relations (2005)

Most of my professional career has been in the automotive field, although I have never been thrilled by cars. I had my first job at the Sirius company, created and managed by my parents who offered me a wonderful opportunity to practice in this field.

Given this occasion, I share my gratitude towards them and I embrace them and wish them as many inner and outer achievements and fulfilments as possible. I know how difficult yet prosperous their professional journey was and that’s why I will always be very proud by their achievements at SIRIUS!

In parallel with the work carried out there, I continued my university studies and put into practice what I learned at both Colleges I attended.

Then, the next position was at General Motors where I worked in Procurement for 10 years. The fact that I worked in a multinational opened wonderful doors for my professional development, communication, the use of foreign languages, travel, and international relations.

Later, I continued in the same automotive field but moved to Great Britain, changing my profession to a completely new field, namely engineering in the optimization of production processes.

With this change I started from scratch, learning a totally unknown field but applying in parallel what I had learned until then.

It turned out to be a very useful combination because in this technical field I brought the experience of Purchasing, Public relations skills and Communication. As challenging as it has been so far, it has proven to be wonderful and extremely useful in my personal and professional development.

Looking at my journey so far, I realize with awe how beautifully all the accumulated knowledge has been combined: foreign languages, communication and public relations, procurement, and numbers, all applied in a technical field, in dozens of production plants which I audit as part of my profession.

Daniela Mareş: For me, success is the awareness of an achievement and not just the achievement itself. I have achieved many things in life, but they only started to matter to me when I became fully aware and present in what I was doing and as well as acknowledging the results.

Until then, it seemed to me that things happen to me, that it is a given, that someone else does it and that I have no valuable input. Then I understood that a lot depends on me, on the intention behind the actions, on the way I organize myself and act, on determination and perseverance.

Success can take many forms. It can be something visible, tangible, a way through which I contribute to a project with my choices and actions, build something useful, create something beneficial, the result of which would make my life or of those around me a little bit better.

Also, success can be intangible, belonging to my inner world. Therefore, such achievements are also extremely important to me. They can be related to how I manage a crisis, how I expand my limits or overcome my fears.

It feels like a victory, a victory over inner and outer trials, which strengthens and animates me on my life pathway.

Daniela Mareş: The way I understand it, vocation is where your heart is calling you! It is where you are called to search, to understand, to create, to make things work or to contribute for the benefit of others.

It’s like a living fire inside of you that warms you up but doesn’t give you peace because it’s always calling you. It’s what you love to do, it fulfils you in your heart and, paradoxically, no matter how much effort you have to put in, it still doesn’t seem so hard because you know and feel it’s worth it!

 However, the path to discovering one’s vocation is not always easy and short because the voice of the heart is often disturbed by what we are told we “must” be or become. With or without good intentions, we are diverted from our path, but I tend to believe that the vocation is always there waiting and calling us; it is like a longing that calls out to us continuously. 

So, as long as we examine ourselves in what we feel, in what brings us joy and interest, I believe that vocation can be discovered at any stage of our life.

Daniela Mareş: Professionalism is the capacity and the ability to plan, coordinate and act, in order to carry out a task or a project.

To fulfill them, we need to have certain theoretical or practical knowledge, certain qualifications and experience gained as a result of our profession.

When all these are intertwined with ethical and moral conduct, professionalism turns into art because it involves a lot of effort and involvement, and the results are commensurate.

In order to perform in my profession as best as possible, it is very important for me to feel prepared and for this I always study, take on trainings, ask questions and admit where I do not know, in order to receive guidance.

Equally important to me is that what I do feels good. When I pay attention within, I feel if I can do better, I feel if something is not correct or moral, I feel if certain actions would cause harm to someone or a certain situation.

This feeling led me to communicate, to point out when something was out of place and to correct or improve where it was up to me to fix.

Daniela Mareş: I think that my desire for personal and professional development is driven by what I feel.  Whether it’s pain or joy, they were the engine driving me forward to change or evolve.

When I’m in deficit, when I don’t know, when I feel limited by certain way of thinking or inner beliefs, I feel this pain or frustration that pushes me to overcome my limits, learn something new, see what I don’t see or change the way I think.

Other times I am animated by the joy of a result I envision if I take the necessary steps in that direction. The vision of that success drives me to learn something new or to get rid of something old that doesn’t serve me anymore.

For me, the meaning of life represents self-knowledge and evolution towards higher levels of consciousness, through direct experience of this life and the exploration of the personal and professional development methods mentioned above.

Daniela Mareş: My commitment is to work with integrity and responsibility.

Thus, my intention is to act with honesty, fairness, transparency; to respect human rights, laws and regulations in place.

I aim to be as responsible as possible for my actions and to make my contribution in a positive way within the company I work for and in the society to which I belong.

However, I have to admit that it is not always easy to fulfill these wishes, because there are situations in which certain personal values ​​or principles often challenged by the requirements of the position I have.

My current job aims to optimize production with the goal of improving the production process and reducing costs. This aspect sometimes requires timing the work of the operators on the production line and the reduction of unutilized time.

Thus, I am faced with the situation where taking all this time out feels to me like turning the operators in machines or in some cases even replacing them with machines.

In such situations, I channel my whole attention and energy to optimize the production line in any other possible way, so that it is a gain both for the company I represent and also a respect for the operators who already carry out their work with a lot of effort!

Daniela Mareş: For a long time, I thought that being spiritual meant following a certain religion or ideology based on certain beliefs, rules, rituals, etc.

I still believe that spirituality also belongs to the unseen side of things, to mysticism and mystery and especially to the connection with God. However, I don’t think that for this you necessarily need to belong to a religion or blindly follow certain rules, ceremonies, or traditions.

I believe that spirituality means being FREE IN SPIRIT and that means finding out who you are in spirit. To find this out, you must first find out who you are not, and this is where the need for self-knowledge comes into play.

Thus, spirituality for me is the state of presence in everyday life, being as alive and awake as possible in my life; it is living, directly experiencing the circumstances and situations that come to me and the way I manage them, transform them, and integrate them into my consciousness.

Daniela Mareş: It is said that to know and appreciate the good, sometimes it is necessary to know the bad or the difficult. That’s how I managed to reach the balance between my personal and professional life, living out of balance in the first place.

 It was unpleasant and hurt me, it affected my personal life and even my health because I couldn’t detach myself from my professional duties even outside of working hours.

It took a lot of self-research, to understand why I can’t say NO, why I feel the need to prove, why I’m afraid of failure. Then I learned what my personal values ​​and limits are, and how to put them into practice.

Thus, I could say that the balance between the two comes from self-knowing and self-respect, but also from knowing what you do and why you do it.

Daniela Mareş: I think there are many qualities that we could all develop, but the ones that come to my mind first are these:

A state of presence and awareness . Let us be as present as possible in our lives and as self-aware as possible, of our choices and actions to be able to become responsible for them, responsibility being another necessary quality. 

We need to get off the “automatic pilot” we are on most of the time, out of which we react mechanically instead of making conscious, responsible and beneficial choices, not only for us but also for those around us.

For this we need altruism and involvement, to understand that we are part of a whole system which is thriving if only is supported by everyone’s contribution. Like the physical body, if there is a wound or pain in the leg, the whole body suffers and the whole functioning and well-being is affected. This is how we function as humanity.

Last but not least, I think there is a need for thinking, analysis and introspection. It is necessary to know who we are, what is our place and purpose, what contribution we can bring to the environment we are part of, how we can create more peace and harmony around us, how to build sustainably, how to use resources efficiently, how to leave behind a better world.

Daniela Mareş: I love to travel because every trip enriches me! I have travelled a lot, both personally and for work, and every time I have learned something new.  

No trip is the same as another, even if you’re going to the same place. As a result of the travels, I cultivated more my attention, curiosity, openness to new things; I met people from different cultures, I made friends in all corners of the world, I overcame my fears, I increased my resilience, I tasted the richness specific to each place, I opened myself to much wider perspectives, I practiced the languages I know and many, many more!

 I think that I could not give up this activity just as I could not give up reading! If travels bring me experiences in the physical plane, books take me to lands of conscious imagination in the inner world.

The books brought me answers to many questions, they helped me get to know myself, they were my friends and teachers! In some cases, they actually helped me heal, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that!

I still like everything related to beauty, art, creation. I like to cook, paint, play with flowers and decoration objects to create something pleasing to the eye.

Last but not least, I love the time spent with quality people having valuable discussions that help me connect, observe and know myself, and evolve.

Daniela Mareş:  I have been living in Great Britain for about 6 years. It was and continues to be a very interesting and useful experience! Therefore, I can only heartily recommend the trips, even if they are not long-term! They help to see and understand another way of thinking, being and living!

Leaving home and separating from my loved ones and from what was known to me was very challenging from an emotional point of view, but still, settling in England was made easier by a system that works easily, with much less bureaucracy.

I met people who supported me in all my endeavors and I felt welcomed and appreciated very quickly for who I am and what I do.

I enjoy discipline, order, social aspects that are well established, respect between people and respected rules, clean parks and a lot of greenery specific to the British weather.

Of course not all are perfect. For example, the health system leaves much to be desired for. It takes quite a long time to be able to be seen by a doctor and when you manage to do it, you don’t really have the feeling that you are leaving yourself in the hands of specialists.

At the same time, this automated and digitized system sometimes leaves you waiting for a long time to talk to a human and be able to directly address a problem you have.

What I miss the most is being away from family and friends, especially considering the cultural differences. Oh, and I should not forget the food! No food has the taste or aroma of food I got used to in Romania, we really have wealth and richness over there and I don’t know how aware we are of it.

Daniela Mareş: I was reading, somewhere, a story about a fire in a tropical forest. A hummingbird was flying around, taking water in its beak and carrying it to the place of the fire, with the aim of extinguishing it. When asked why she does what is apparently not a big deal, she replied “I do what I can”.

I think that if everyone does their best at their level, we will already see an improvement. To say “hello!”, to answer with a smile, to carry out our daily duties and responsibilities, to lend a helping hand where needed, it all helps.

There are people who show a lot of altruism, wisdom and sacrifice and we can only be inspired by them and aspire to be like them one day!

But until then, although it seems that we are not doing much, if we work on ourselves, if we want to know ourselves and make daily choices to become better, more loving, more at peace with ourselves and those around us, we already have done a great deal!

Thus, I conclude by saying that I have no better guidance for me and all of us than to continue to know each other and grow! Personally and/or professionally, let’s strive to achieve the highest possible values ​​that will fulfil and enrich us on a personal and social level!