The pressure of wanting to do well can be fierce. Sometimes this pressure makes me want to go faster in live than is actually possible. I feel the need to hurry up or to skip ahead to where I think I should be. Let me tell you: it does NOT work. Every time I try to go faster than is naturally possible, I actually end up going slower or not getting started at all. Instead of hurrying up, slowing down and focussing on the basics is the remedy is what I found. Going fast = going slow? Multiple...
22 days ago • 2 min read
Imagine sitting on a white sandy beach, somewhere in the Caribbean, with your favorite drink in hand and some nice company. It is what you would call, the ideal Instagram picture, showing how good life can be if only we didn't have to work all year round. Now imagine you would sit on that beach, for weeks or months on end. How long would you be able to enjoy that? How long would you last there, before you got bored? Doing nothing is more a trigger to set a new goal than it is a direct way to...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
When we think about personal growth, we tend to think that we should start doing all kinds of (new) stuff. Start meditating, reading, exercising, learning a new skill. And although this could be an entrypoint onto a path of growth, sometimes that step is too big, unclear or unaffordable. I'm making a case for the opposite option; quitting. Quit doing that which is not serving you. That is easier said than done, but sometimes it actually is the easier way to go. So, being bored instead of...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
This is what my life looked like a while back, when I was in university: Study a bit or work a side job during the day, go home, eat with housemates, watch TV or play a video game and go to bed, probably with a little buzz from the few beers I drank in that evening. Getting out of bed in the mornings was hard and I didn't have a consistent routine. Although there is enough from that time to look back on with a smile, things were not working out for me in general. I had gradually been...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Time flies, also when you are not having fun From workday to workday, time seems to go by slowly, but somehow, in the blink of an eye, the year flies by really fast. And, regardless of how you spent it. Time flies, no matter if you are goofing around, or if you are focusing in on a particular passion project. For me, interactions with others, especially with good friends, are sort of a 'weigh-in moment' for my time spent. When we share what has been happening in our lives lately, that is when...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Do you know where you are from? Do you know where you are from? I don't mean only the state or city, but do you really know what it means 'to be from' there? Are you aware of the influence the place where you were born in and were you grew up has on your life? The book that told a part of my own story A couple of years ago I got a present from my parents; back then a recently published book*. The book tells a well researched story about a man growing up in the area I am from, the south of The...
4 months ago • 2 min read
A few years ago, when I was just staring out as a coach, I learned a lot about myself and the different ways you can approach growth for yourself. I was eager to share this knowledge with others, because I thought I knew it all. I thought I was going to save everyone from having a shitty, boring and unhealthy life. Guess what?! None was waiting for me to give them a lecture about food or exercise. You are only doing it for yourself During that period of that, for about half a year, I found...
5 months ago • 2 min read
It can't hurt to ask! In many self-help books and books about entrepreneurship, asking for what you want seems to be a recurring theme. Asking for some quick help, asking for a raise or just straight-forward asking if someone wants to pay you for a service or a product. Just ask! It sounds easier than it is for many of us. Asking might feel risky to you Asking for what you want is not something that we learn to do well. To the contrary, as children, we are taught that asking for what you want...
5 months ago • 1 min read
There is a lot of distraction from making authentic and conscious choices. Social media, social events, work and everything else that is part of the perpetual grind for more material things you don't need, to impress people you don't really care about that is called the 'rat race'. Beneath that material stuff, there are deeper layers that keep you from making authentic choices. And paradoxically, resisting them only makes them influence you more. The rubber band that you keep pulling tight...
8 months ago • 2 min read