Whether you want to be financially independent in the future or enjoy the company of your best friends later today, it all starts with an idea. Fortunes come in many ways, but what they all have in common is that they all start with an idea. Or two. Ideas about what you want, how you want it, when you want it. Ideas are the beginning points of every fortune. So don’t be shy, have ideas. Lots of them! About Napoleon Hill, check here.
To achieve a dream, you must invest. The sooner you invest, the more time you have for your dream to turn into a big success. Or like the Chinese proverb: ‘The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now’. If you weren’t already working on a dream, now is always a good moment to start. Make the decision. Take action. Sow the seed. And don’t dig it up a day or two later, for progress takes time. Give it time, and attention. What water is to a tree, is attention to a dream.
I just came across a website called soundsleeping.com. There I found a relaxation tool that’s fun and easy to use. First you choose some music – e.g. a subtle drumbeat – then you can add 4 different natural sounds, varying from crushing ocean waves to a bird whistle, a campfire or thunder. You then have the option to mix it all together into a blissful blend of sounds. Wanna try? Press here.
“Sleep is the best meditation”, the Dalai Lama said in 1989. I like that quote, though I always thought of meditation as a conscious activity, whereas sleeping isn’t. But I recently came across a quote of the same scope. John Steinbeck said: “It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it”. Now, I don’t know about you, but it happened to me more than once that I went to sleep with a clear question, trusting it to ‘the committee of sleep’ and waking up with an answer. Have you ever had such an experience? Deirdre Barrett Ph.D. wrote a book about this phenomenon entitled ‘The Committee of Sleep’. Want to find our more? Check here.
When you zoom in on things you’ll discover new details. When you zoom out, you’ll see the big picture. Both the details and the big picture provide you with new information: your frame of reference literally changes. Zooming in and out let’s you discover spaces that you didn’t know were there. It creates alternatives. It broadens your perspective and understanding and makes it possible to redefine what you are looking at and what that means to you. This redefinition should ultimately increase your effectiveness to deal with things. And if it doesn’t, well then you may want to zoom in or out some more.
I saw this text as a post on Facebook some time ago. And I’m guessing you did too, since we were all kindly asked to re-post it and so it probably went around the world. Still, what the message says is true. It is amazing how our mind works and that we’re able to read this text fairly easy, while in fact it’s a total mix up of letters and numbers. It proves just how creative and flexible our mind is when confronted with an apparent chaos. Take for instance this Cambridge University study that says: “Did you konw you’re a guiens? Jsut the fcat taht you can atllacuy raed tihs psot porves taht fcat. The huamn mnid is so pufowerl it can dcodee tihs txet eevn tguohh eervy sglnie wrod is slepled iocenrtclry. The one cavaet is taht the frist and lsat lertets are pervresed in erevy wrod. Cidrgbame Uitesirnvy cetoudncd a sduty and fnuod taht the biarn deos not raed eevry snlige lteetr, but wodrs as a wohle. It shows our mind is capable of bringing order to chaos; mixed-up words, but to life itself as well.
People are vulnerable as individuals and as a species. And fighting vulnerability is useless. No matter how hard you try. Simply because you can’t control everything and so your life can turn upside down at any moment of any day. You may be the King of the World, the Smartest Woman in the Universe or the Sexiest Man Alive; it won’t help. You can however hide from it. And most of us do. Behind a fancy job title, nice car or house. Interesting friends, a busy agenda, designer clothes or healthy hipster life style, but sooner or later vulnerability will find you. So what can you do? Well, it’s simple.
Simply face it and embrace it. Because when you embrace it, you no longer need to fight it. You no longer need to run or hide from it, by keeping up appearances and putting energy in this hopeless attempt to avoid the discomfort of feeling it. You can now be as you are, vulnerable, instead of pretending not to be. The way I see it: vulnerability is indestructible. So by letting it in and become a part of you, in a way that makes you indestructible. Daring to be vulnerable gives you power to be.
From time to time it’s good to ask yourself: “Am I alive?” Because it’s not uncommon to just be busy doing what you’re always doing. To be caught up in a routine. And that routine may very well result in hours, days, weeks, months or even years of living, without actually being alive. Because there’s more to living, than just breathing. Imagine someone in a coma and it becomes clear… I recently attended a re-birthing workshop and I experienced the difference between A) normal breathing: a mostly shallow, kind of mechanic and unconscious way of getting the bare minimum of oxygen ‘shots’ and B) breathing with full awareness, in a rich flow, organic and fully open to receive life’s energy in all it’s splendor. It let me experience the meaning of the phrase: “Just because you breathe, doesn’t mean you’re alive”. And so I challenge you, as I challenge myself, to wonder: am I really alive or mostly just busy breathing?
I guess you’re familiar with this sensation: one moment you feel great, and the next… well not so great. I sometimes feel like I’m nothing and sometimes I feel as though I’m everything. It’s a really fine line, much like it is with being crazy or brilliant. John Lennon had a nice way of putting it. He said: “Part of me suspects I’m a loser. The other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty”. I wrote a post about that one too. Anyway. A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon the “I, a universe of atoms…” quote by the American physicist Richard P. Feynman (1918 – 1988). And it’s stuck in my head ever since. Because to me his words are both mind blowing and heart warming. The thought of “I” being a tiny, stand alone atom – and an infinite, whole universe at the same time, blows my ego off it’s socks. Because “I” isn’t (only) the ‘earthly me’. “I” is a single atom and an entire universe, completing one another. Think about that when you’re looking at yourself in the mirror. So yes, it’s a quote I gratefully meditate on. It’s so simple and yet so deeply profound. It makes me feel humble and larger than life at the same time – it’s liberating. Look at us humans. Look at you, look at me. We are both nothing and everything. Again. That’s just… wow.
Imagine you’re looking for something, but you can’t find it. Annoying. Yes. Very. But then, maybe you’re not supposed to find it. Or maybe you’re just looking in the wrong place. Or maybe… you already found it, but you don’t realize it yet. Whatever the reason is, you might want to stop searching. Why? Well think about it: as long as you’re busy searching – you’re not… finding!
Dear friends, it’s been more than a year since my last post! Honestly, I needed the break but a lot of good things have happened to me in the meantime. Apart from a great time at Eyeworks Netherlands, where I worked as a Senior Creative with some great people at the Program Development Team, it were exciting times for me personally as well. Too much to tell you in one post. But I will share more in the coming months, because it’s been truly transformational.
I’m planning on a brand new start of focusNjoy at the end of April. And this time, I intend to actually make some money haha – because running an ad-free blog is great, but from a financial point of view it wasn’t a success and one of the reasons for me to get back to television. Later in 2014 I intend to finally start with my workshops in Amsterdam. I’m super excited about that but let’s see how things develop. Anway – I’m back and I’m feeling fresh. Hoping to hear from you – always feel free to send me an email and say hi!
Love, Stijn.
