​

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 times in the last few years I have been trying to skip steps in the process of achieving something. I've tried to solve difficult physics problems without understanding the basic maths, I have tried to produce electronic music without knowing the basics first and I've been wanting to go too fast with building an online business, without knowing what exactly I was trying to do.

For any (other) reason, you might also have the feeling that you should hurry up because you think that is what the world expects from you. So you try to go faster, which actually might be holding you back.

As obvious as it sounds, it is focusing on the basics that moves you forward. When I started DJing, I was eager to pick songs I liked, mix them and use some effects on them. It wasn't until I got taught the basics of beatmatching until this really became possible.

​

​

Back to basics

The idea of focussing on the basics applies to anything, so also for life in general. Once I started to focus on the very basics of everyday life, that is when I saw my life, my mood and my results increase the most.

The foundation I built, is one that gives me guidance in any place, at any time. Everytime I can fall back on them. The foundation is simple but profoundly helpful. This is what it is:

• High-intensity exercise 3 times a week for at least 45 minutes
• Enough quality sleep, at least 7-8 hours each night
• Intermittent fasting and a high-protein diet
• journal and/or meditate once a day, no minimum time

Today, about 7 years after I started experimenting, this what I still fall back on during periods of in which the pressure is high.

In all openness, I would be lying if I would say that I can honor these principles all of the time, week in, week out. But that is not the point of them. They are there to help me realign easily in whatever moment I feel that I lost track a little bit of what I should be doing.

​

Now start building your

If you haven't already, take some time to write out your foundational principles you like to live by. My tip would be to keep it simple and try to write something down for all the basics that are part of human life:

• Sleep
• Physical fitness
• Nutrition
• Mental fitness

​