How to Easily Shift From a Negative to a Positive State of Mind

Shift from a negative to a positive state of mindToday, I want to share a story with you about appreciation. Appreciating people, events, experiences or things appearing in my life has become really important to me over the last months.

For me, appreciating what I notice in any given moment, no matter how small it might be, has become key to my general well-being and happiness. But, let me share a recent story with you to explain what I mean.

This last Wednesday I woke up all excited to get to work. I expected a response that day from a company that I wanted to work with on a really cool project. It sounded all really promising and I was eager to get started and had reserved some time in between all my other projects. [Read more…]

When Was The Last Time You Felt Truly Understood?

feel understoodThose moments when you sense that you no longer need to explain yourself?

Those moments when the other person summarizes or links to what you said with perfect words? And you just resonate?

We yearn for those moments, don’t we?

And those moments seem to have become rare in our lives. Everyone is so focused on whatever they are doing.

Everyone is so busy. Always busy. And stressed.

Why? What for?

I would argue that those people might just be on some auto-pilot.

They are used to their circumstances, to their daily routines, to their stress. Maybe they think they even need it to have that type of energy to survive the day at the office. I don’t know.

I do know though, that it can be the case that I am on auto-pilot, too sometimes. And do you know what? [Read more…]

Why New Year’s Resolutions Suck (And What You Should Do Instead)

Why New Year's Resolution SuckHappy New Year you all!

I hope that you have not only had a refreshing start into 2015, but also had a good chance over the holidays to recharge your batteries! Ready to dream big for the New Year!

New Year means new habits and new experiments, right?

Speaking of “new experiments”, I have the impression I am currently full of them. 🙂 Going offline for a whole week, writing this post on a Saturday (instead of the usual Friday) and I’ve got something big planned for next week. You are invited to come along! But more on that later.

So, why do New Year’s Resolution suck and why are they utterly flawed?

Well, I don’t know about you, but for me there are two obvious reasons for it: [Read more…]

How 10 Minutes of Relaxation Can Change Your Day

How 10 Minutes of Relaxation Can Change Your DayA few weekends ago I was in Berlin for an event of a group of young entrepreneurs. We had a great time. We talked business, but also about our daily routines and how we manage to be our best every single day – where possible. I learned a lot, I can tell you.

One of the best ideas that one of Dutch friends gave me, was to develop a morning ritual. Now, I heard lots about morning rituals. To me, it often sounded a bit spiritual, so I shied away a bit. I do have morning habits to get me going like doing sports, but that’s about it.

Doing exercises pumps me up. My heart, my lungs, my whole body gets in action while my mind is still trying to wake up. So, since I knew that Dutch friend of mine was not necessarily of a spiritual nature (nothing wrong with that, just not my route), I asked him what he does each morning. [Read more…]

How to Make Your Self Development Plan Close to “Bulletproof”

How to make your development plan bulletproofAre you a planner?

Why am I asking? Well, let me get to that in a second.

I guess you could think that this is a silly question to ask since one of the missions of this community is to prepare your goals in advance, take action and adjust them if needed while you are moving forward and learning.

But seriously, do you consider yourself being someone who likes to see the endgame (and the path) before moving forward?

If so, then this post is for you.

If not, please continue reading anyway. 🙂 You can let me know afterwards whether you found it helpful or not.

[Read more…]

Yesterday’s Story of Letting Go

letting goI guess even though I am writing this, I should be among the first ones reading this.

Why?

I have difficulties to let go of things/topics/thoughts…

But for now, I am going to share a little story with you.

Ready?

Yesterday, I was out for a run reasonably early in the morning. There is a park not too far away, and I just love to get fresh wind in my face in the early morning hours. [Read more…]

How To Learn Something Hard In Just 6 Days

SSDP_how to learn something hard in just 6 daysDid you ever put a book down because you thought it had too many pages to read it all?

Did you ever want to try something new and then you stopped even before you started because you think it will take too long?

If you can relate, this article is for you.

If you cannot relate, you might want to skip this and check out this other article.

For those of you who are sitting in the boat with me, please continue reading.

Here is why. [Read more…]