You're already naked

Steve Jobs once said: 

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

There is no reason to not follow our hearts. Yet we often follow something or someone else than our hearts.

We do what we’re told, we do what we think is expected from us, we do what we think we should. 

Occasionally we stop and wonder: 

Is this it? Is this what I want my life to be like?

It’s not that we don’t want to follow our hearts. 

Sometimes we just don’t know what our hearts want.

It’s easy to say “follow your passion”, but if you don’t know what that is, it doesn’t matter if you have the guts to follow it.

My Timefinder Academy is helping each participant find and fly to their Ikigai, their life’s purpose.

You are welcome to join.

After all, you have nothing to lose.

You are already naked.

Read more about flying to your Ikigai here

Secure a happy ending

Last week my father attended the funeral of his sister, my aunt.

This week another one of my aunts will be buried.

They both died within one week.

Their deaths were of the kind we normally refer to as “natural”.

They were both in their eighties.

One of them died in her sleep, the other one in the hospital holding her oldest son’s hand.

Their husbands had already gone before them. 

Even so.

Whenever someone leaves this life, we are left with a hole in our everyday existence.

Depending on our beliefs about what happens when we die, the hole can feel smaller or bigger.

Apart from the feeling of loss, death gives us a reminder.

A reminder that there is no such thing as a happy ending to an unhappy journey.

A reminder that now is the time to be happy, now is the time to explore, now is the time to love.

Now is the time to start living happily ever after.

Are you entitled to your opinion?

That might sound like a strange question.

Isn’t everyone entitled to her/his opinion?

The full quote by Harlan Ellison says:

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”

We can all choose to be ignorant of course, but as Thomas Jefferson said, ignorance comes with a price:

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, [...] it expects what never was and never will be.”

 

We can’t stay ignorant and free.

On the other hand, in a world with an endless supply of information we can’t stay up to date about “everything” and feel free either. 

 
I have clients who get stressed out by trying to be informed and up to date about news, sports, the latest discoveries in their field and much more.

That is not freedom.

That is unnecessary stress.

Choose carefully what to be knowledgeable about and ignore the rest.

Then you can be free from both stress and ignorance and soar into the sky.

Free as a bird.

#WorkAndLife: The importance of being present

How can you be so calm?

Whenever I talk to you, you always act as if you have all the time in the world even though I know your calendar is full!

How do you get so much done? 

These are comments from my colleagues. Colleagues who seem to expect me to be stressed, short and rushing around because of the role I have in the company.

I don't rush around. Those who do often end up being busy, busy, busy doing nothing at all.

The answers to "how to get much done" are many. In this blog spot I will focus on the importance of being present.

When you are present, you focus. You do not think about the next thing on your to do list, your next answer in the conversation you are involved in or whether or not the person you work with likes you. You are there. Present.

This can mean listening. Fully listening with the intention to understand.
It can mean setting aside time in your calendar to fully focus on a task and conclude it, ignoring mails and notifications that pop up.
It can mean sitting down and focussing on the chair you are sitting on. Watching its material in detail, feel how it feels under your butt, smell how it smells.

Be fully present in everything you do.

What happens if you are fully present?
You will achieve better results. You will achieve better results because:

Anything worth doing is worth doing well

and you will only do things well. With full focus. And you will have time to do the important things well because the things that are NOT worth doing you will not do at all.

You will have more rewarding relationships. If you truly listen to persons around you, you will learn things about them and about life you had no idea about. And to be truly listened-to is such a great feeling that people will want to be with you.

And, last but not least. You will be calm. To be present, to be in the moment and fully focus on what you do will reduce your pulse. Any stress you may feel will disappear.

No need to take my word for it. Andy Puddicombe who knows a lot more about mindfulness than I do, tells you all you need to know about that in this TED talk:

All it takes is 10 mindful minutes


What to do next?

Your day is probably full with slots when you have too little time left to start with a big task, but still a few minutes before the next activity starts.If you find yourself in that situation you can use the slot to be present. Calm yourself down and increase your focus.

The other day I prepared for a meeting and I was ready with all preparations five minutes before the start of it. Instead of reading a mail and get distracted from the meeting I was going to chair I chose to be mindful for a few minutes. I looked around and saw the cute little tin I keep nuts in. I looked at it in detail. Every single shade of color. Every line. Imagined the girl in the snow, how her hands would feel inside of the muff.

I could feel my heart rate go down. I felt how my head got clearer. When it was time to start the meeting I was not only prepared, but also focussed and refreshed.

It's as simple as that. Be present.