Why complicate life?

Dreams don't work.

Yesterday night I went with Guido to a concert place in Cork, at Gulpd Cafe.

Kev M organised the event, and he invited 8 -10 of his friends to play 2 or 3 songs. All young musicians who want to make it with their dream: to travel around the world with their guitar.

They put in practice this saying: Do you?

Time = 

Working 13 day's in a row, with one day off, at http://yip.se/ and http://theartofchangemaking.com/ makes it that this is my feeling right now.......

There are seven days in the week.

Yesterday I had a great talk with two friends. They told me that the fact I do only post pictures lately, with the excuse that I am traveling a lot lately is not a good reason to only post pictures with quotes of others. 

I told them that when I am home again I will post more personal blogs, maybe with pictures, again. So, someday......... (Thank you Guido and Floris)

We live in the jar.

Check it out somewhere else.

The creative process.

Frightening new ideas?

Go to work.

Don't give up.

Anyone can be cool.

Expect the bullshit.

Adventure.

The old and the new economy.

Are you really listening or waiting to speak?

Educating or Schooling?

Shame.

Trust your intuition.

Your intuition is a gift. In India it is called the third eye, or the way to see with your soul.

This means you have to go inside for certain answers. Not inside your head, but inside your heart. Inside your soul. There most of the time the answer is. 

Keep on trusting your true self, it will help you to make your dream and your goals come true.

How can we make a better experiment?

Every time you are doing something new, it is an experiment. 

So, when this is true, the question should be: What will we learn from this?

Most of the time the outcome of an experiment has to be a quantitative outcome like a number of products sold, designed or developed. 

But actually when you are doing something new, the outcome should be: 
"What did we learn?"

Keep on experimenting, and by doing so, learning.

Expectations.

With a positive attitude you will always be pleasantly surprised.

Try to stop expecting things to be a certain way, so you can appreciate them for what they are.

Questions vs. Answers.

When you want to understand stuff, you have to have the courage to ask enough questions. The right questions.

As Voltaire said: " Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers ".

Life is full of unanswered questions, so keep on asking.

Take your responsibility.

If something is not right, or something needs to change in your life, take responsibility on it.

You are the only one who can make the change. 

Do not come up with the old song: "I do not have a choice". 
By saying this you relieve yourself from every responsibility. 
You let go of control over your life. 

Do not give up. Keep on caring. For you.

Open Online Courses, the education revolution.

There is a revolution happening in education. One of the revolutions is online.

More and more people do not want to take expensive, old fashioned and only directed to, or based on, the ratio courses, programs at high schools and universities.

And the learners, the students are getting the learning back to themselves. Via I-Tunes U, Wikipedia and all kind of other services they find themselves what they need to learn. And, they create their own communities online, via Facebook, Ning, Google Hangouts etc. 

Students are crafting their own learning experiences, online and offline, through projects, apprenticeships and hands-on real life projects.

The learning is going out of the traditional institutions. Towards new environments like this one's. 

Or, as a graduation speech will look like in the near future:

What is your company's purpose?

The purpose of a company needs to be outward looking. The day's of an inward purpose are over. More profit, more market share etc. does not work.

What do the customers really desire? What do they really need? What does this world really need?

And, the companies and businesspeople who are the most successful in this, are the ones who have clear and good core values themselves. And large ambitions. 

Try to ask yourself this question: " Who must we fearlessly become?"

How much of my life story do I write?

Trap: the fiction of somebody else becoming your life's story.

Stay strong. You are powerful and capable enough. 

What should we stop doing?

Do you ever ask yourself this question? It is an uncomfortable question.

Most of the time we ask ourselves what we should start doing. Immediately.

Most of the time we do stuff which takes a lot of energy and actually is not serving us, or the project we are working on. By starting something new next to that, it only becomes harder.

So, the saying: "kill your darlings" could be very fruitful to do. And hard also, because we do not like to kill our darlings. Because once they where THE new thing to do, the starters.

But by stop doing certain stuff, it also means you have more time to do the things you want to do. And maybe also something new.

A healthy Ego.

The overall idea I hear most of the time is that ego is bad. A big ego. It can damage you and the ones around you.

OK. Lets stop pretending. In the name of being humble. Everybody has a bit of an ego. And, ego's give us strength and pride. Which is not necessarily bad. Being proud on what you did accomplish is good. Ego also makes it possible for others to connect to your ideas and make it happen for themselves.

I think most of the time when ego is being discussed negatively, the discussion is actually about narcissism. Which is something else. Narcissist are roaring about heir achievements, and they are most of the time on a power trip. They do not show love for either themselves or others.

I would say: bring out the ego. It brings out confidence, and appreciation about the success of others without feeling threatened.

What is your story for tomorrow?

click here. 

The art of letting go.

Yesterday I attended a workshop Deep Democracy.

Interesting that I have a hard time to let go. Of my role as a leader or initiator. While actually the process needs of people to let go, or come along. And while doing this you need to come along, which is one of the main parts of the method, and most of the time for companies, projects ect.the way to grow.

Today I am going to give two workshops about letting go. Letting go in an educational setting. 

Curious how this will work out.

• Where do the synchronicities point you?

In our daily living-in-a-fast-lane life we tend to forget there are signpost along the way.

Try to check once in a while, preferably daily, if this is still the road to take. What other signs are there alongside the track. Every day we meet them. And everyday there are possibilities to get more synchronized with the signs.

Then the question becomes: where do the synchronicities point you to?

What is your gut telling you?

Your instinct, or gut feeling, never lies.

Listen to it.

• 
  

What is it you would do if money was no issue?

Click here.

What do you feel like doing now?

Just think about it for a while.

Or, as I heard from a friend who quit his job:

His girlfriend had put two chairs in the middle of the room. When he came home she asked him to sit on one chair, close his eyes and think about himself in his current job, workload, responsibilities. His daily life.

After a while she asked him to sit on the other chair and think about himself without his job.

Next day he quit his job.

Are you doing what you feel like doing?

• 
  

Motivation in schools.

People learn best when they are intrinsic motivated. Without fear from the outside, fear of tests or expectations of parents, friends, bosses etc.

Wanting to find out how things work. This is the starting of learning. Curiosity. 

The only external factors which have an influence are the bumps in the road along the path of learning. And, reality always has a safety net. 

Also, when you grow older, you have learned in school, in life, that not succeeding = failing. But this is not true. If you keep having that belief, you will never learn something.  

Maybe failing = succeeding, because you win you are learning. You gain.

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.

(Quote by Gloria Steinem)

Sometimes you have to be pissed off first. Because we are hard learners, most of the time.

For example: you build up a relationship with a colleague, co-worker, or client. You think it is based on mutual caring about the same thing, the same project, the same company. And because you believe we care together, for the same things.

And then you are confronted with the reality. That the people you believed in are in it for a different reason. Not for sharing and bringing, but only for taking.

Then you have one power left: end it. 

Take your learning out of that experience. And approach the new situation as open as you can. With the learning of your former experience.

It will make you better. A better person.

What is your story?

The major question I try to ask myself when I am telling a story is: why to tell this specific story? What does it add for me, and the one(s) listening?

Try to ask yourself this question. It is a hard one. 

What is the belief which is burning in you to tell this story? It might be clear for yourself, but is it clear for the listener(s)? 

Because the burning belief why to tell your story is the heart of the story. And it should be.

One of my motto's in life.

Surround yourself with amazing people. 

You will become who you surround yourself with.

Be proactive about what you want. 

If you want to reach something in life, you have to move. To be active. Proactive.

Meaning that when there is a spark of wanting something in your life to appear or to happen, you have to take yourself off the couch and start moving.

Or, as I read once: Laziness and apathy are diseases.

Don't be ill. 

It will cost you nothing to dream, and everything no to.

and than: start working on them.

Lack of passion is fatal.

In the newspaper I read that almost 60% of the people going to work actually do not want to go to their work. 

60% of these people have "external" drivers, mostly financial ones, like mortgage, holiday's, a new car or something else external as a driving force to go somewhere in the morning, while honestly they do not want to go there.

I was looking around on the highway to Amsterdam and counted 10 cars, off which 6 drivers did not want to be there according the article in the newspaper. (It would save us a lot of traffic jams was my first thought)

How is it possible one is spending all, or part of his or her professional life, going somewhere they do not really want to be. Driven by an externally force.

That is why, in the end, it goes wrong with so many organisations in this world. They are driven by 60% workers who do not want to be there. 

That's why a lack of passion is fatal. Find your one reason in life what makes you cry, die or fly, and go for it. In this one precious life you have. 

It will make your and our world a far better place.

Sustainability: something for hippies.

Still I meet them. People who think that sustainability and social business is something for hippies. People with high positions in companies.

With a serious and a little pityingly face they try to express that you are like an alien according to them. Because it is for them a little ridiculous that sustainability and social business and behaviour are main drivers in your life. And in your organisation. Because that is not what business, success and career is about according to them.

Strange. Because life is about social. And about sustaining. Keeping yourself and your surrounding in the best possible shape.

Actually: like hippies. Hippies posses a core belief revolving around the values of peace and love as being essential in an increasingly globalized society.

Which values and believes will bring us, and the planet we live on, much further and in a better shape and form, than the pityingly faced conservatives. 

Start with a great idea.

It sounds obvious. Simple. Start with a great idea. 

When you start with a great idea, you already won half the battle. 

The other half is to find the right market. For that you need to tell the story. Your story. To the people who matter. Do not make it bigger than it is, do not make it smaller than it is. The story. As it is.

My idea: better to whisper your story to the right people, instead of shouting it to everyone.

The marketing part: what is your great idea? Who are your audience? What is your story? Via which channels are you going to talk (whisper) to them?

Act More, Survey Less.

Lately I get a lot of surveys send to me. All my providers of whatever want to know how they are doing and why.

The only thing I actually want of my suppliers is reliability. 
Always deliver, always be there, when stuff does not work fix it. That they really show they care. Not only show care through sending me surveys.

Please, spend all the money you throw at surveys on real care. 

Step Into Fear and Take Action.

For change to happen you do have to take action. Be courageous, take risks and step into opportunities. Which can be fearful. Because you do not know the outcome. 

Stepping into action is fearful. Because you don't know the outcome. But, it is not about the outcome. That's what we have been teached. It is about the process. And when you focus on the process, to be committed on the process, the outcome will be good. The best.

Take consistent action and stay focused on the way of being. Then you will bring your desired reality to life. 

And, the Universe will lend you a helping hand to make opportunities possible.

A writer writes.

If you want to be a writer, write. 

This concept can be universally applied.

Find the best people.

When you want to make a business successful, the team, the people. are essential. 

Flexible and innovative people, and most of the time, in the start of the business or a project, you want generalists in the team. Later on the specialists take over. 

But the main thing is that the people need to be excellent. Excellent in being human. And this is not a trick.

Because real people, honest and trustworthy people, will build up your business.

Set a good example.

It is about how you live your life. Every day. Not about what you say you are going to do.

People are watching you all the time. They see what you are doing. It means less what you are saying. The doing means a lot more. 

I believe that one can, and also will change lives of the people around you by what you do. Each day. 

And by doing, you will change things. Your life, and the ones of the people around you.

Be sincerely kind to everyone around you.

When being kind you create confidence. 

When you give kindly, you will create love around you. 

When you think kind, you will create positivity.

These three ways of kindness I read somewhere. I think it is true. 

When being kind you can make a difference. It rarely happens that your partner comes home and tells you that it was so bad he met kindness that day. Everybody wants to be treated kind. 

And, kindness will bring out more kindness. And it will make you grow stronger. 

Always be transparent.

As an organisation this is a major important point. Every team, every employee should know about what is going on in the company. 

By facilitating full transparency they start living and breathing the company or project. By having access to all the information they know what is happening, and by far most important: what should happen. What they should make happen.

A honest working environment brings security. That they know, or can know, everything what is going on.

And, when there is bad news to share, it does not come as a shock. It also brings in responsibility of employees and possible taking initiative into their own hands.

Trust is a very important base for this. And, if you trust yourself, you should also trust your team.

The need to keep everything the same.

A lot of people feel the need to keep everything the same. Safe and secure. Clear.

And, changes come anyway. Most of the time when you are not asking for them, or not expecting them. Things change. People change. Circumstances come and go. 

Life does not stop for anybody. It moves fast. sometimes very fast. It can go from calm and easy to chaos in seconds. And these seconds can change our lives. 

Unpredictable events have flipped lives upside down, for better and for worse.

Things change. People and circumstances come and go. Life doesn’t stop for anybody.

The question is: "What are you doing afterwards?' That is what counts. How do you cope with the changes?

The coping with change will make you find out who you really are. That is living.

Speaking at conferences and other non entrepreneurial stuff.

Speaking at conferences, writing blogs and keeping your Twitter timeline up to date, as well as your Facebook Page. A lot of people are (only) busy with that. 

But, unless you are Tom Peters or Seth Godin: These are not entrepreneurial actions. It is also being called creating background noise.

Tweets, speeches and blogs are not going to change the world. neither do Facebook posts. They might start something, awareness for example, but that's it. Or they might direct to action. But that is the max.

Action is what real entrepreneurs do. Real entrepreneurs stop talking about what they are doing or what they are going to do, and they DO it. 

Quoting Jerry Springer: "There are three types of people, those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those that ask 'what happened?'"

How entrepreneurial are you?

Measuring your success by material wealth.

Stuff. Or chuff, as I call it. We are bombarded with all kind of images of stuff. 

The idea that advertisements and commercials want to give us is that all this stuff elevates our personal value. That it is connected to success. And to happiness.

Owning, giving, and buying stuff is a measurement for happiness, for success. That's what commercials and advertisements try to tell us. To sell to us.

But, peace of mind, happiness and success have little, or nothing, to do with stuff.

My son and daughters, my wife. Their way of laughing about things. Their smile's. Or a small flower on the side of the road when I bike to Amsterdam.

Working in an environment where I am not being judged. Where I am respected and trusted for what I do, or try to do. 

And the ability I learned from my mother to appreciate the beauty surrounding me wherever I am.

To explore ideas and passions. Al that non tangible stuff. That's what makes me happy.

Today is going to be a great day.

When reading this sentence, it already made you smile, didn't it? This means it is true.

Making a choice, that's where this quote is about. Choose to do certain things.

Choose wisely.

Greener on the other side.

Work on substantial goals.

Are the goals I set high enough? That's a question I ask myself. When you set goals that are far lower then you are able to achieve, you go for mediocrity.

And, most of the time, when it is to late you realize it. The starting point of mediocre goals is most of the time fear for failure. But the truth is when you have a proper goal, failure will bring you closer. It teaches you lessons about stuff that does not work. 

Failure also lets you move on. And mediocrity holds you back from reaching your full potential.

Suppose you experience yourself succeeding, but you still feel incomplete. Then it is time to reevaluate your goals.

Pursue a goal so significant that even if you fail, you are better off for having tried.

Evolve.  

When you liked something at a certain point in life, this does not mean you are still required to like it today.

People change their minds. 

And sometimes I meet people who hold on to an idea or opinion or dream as a sort of act of loyalty to themselves. But according to me this says something about who you once were as a person.

Loyalty to yourself means that you allow yourself to have the freedom to grow. To change. To develop.

The only thing you ever are for sure is unsure. Do not be, or feel imprisoned by some old ways and patterns of thinking. That is the starting point of growth.

Challenge who you are. Challenge what you think. Do it at any given moment in time. That is evolving.

People do business with people.

Starting point of doing business are people. So the way business is done starts with people, persons, you and me.

This is an important acknowledgement. For me as a facilitator in Business University and Knowmads Business School Amsterdam, and also for business education in general. And all training and programs aimed to do more or better business.

No use to put students trough a program, model, spreadsheet, project planning tool or whatever. If the starting point is not human, trying to see the other, trying to take care of the business relationship you have or are building, all is useless.

Thank you Johanna Anna Laura Robert Kristin Leonard Neza Tom and Anastasia for your end presentations which showed a lot of you. 

And of how you will be and act in life. And in business.



I

Stop listening to toxic people.

Everybody knows them and meets them. Every day. Sometimes regularly, in a work situation, sometimes less regular. Toxic people.

You recognise them, because they are convinced that everything is impossible. They are the ones which are very quick in shooting of ideas. They are poisoning your mind. They make you hopeless.

Just stop listening to them. 

When you surround yourself with positive people, people who are passionate, these people will inspire you. They will help you bring your best out of you. And most of the time these positive, non toxic people, are around in your family and amongst your friends. You know, while reading this, immediately whom I am talking about.

Surround yourself with them. They will lift you up when you feel down. 

Yesterday I heard a nice tip: Go once a day or two days trough your phone and call someone without a reason. Call the non toxic ones.

I’m looking forward to it.

Are you looking forward to your day of work? 

When yes, when it is "hard to do" what you are going to do today, it has no meaning to you.  Hard work is easy to do when you like what you do.

If your daily work is becoming uninteresting, boring, hard to do, so is your life, and so are you.

Your daily work is filling a large percentage of your time in your life. A large part of your time here on earth. 

Do work which you want to do. What you dream of doing. To make the majority of your live interesting. By doing so you give yourself an injection. Every day.

The key? Find, and do work that means something to you. Or connect your work to a goal that has meaning.

Looking forward to it?

It's hard to wait for something you know might never happen. 

But it's even harder to give up when you know it's everything you want.
(Unknown)

It was a busy day.

You recognize this feeling. Being busy non stop. 

I do not see my day divided by work and private. I go out of bed around 7 and to sleep around midnight. In between I do stuff. I am busy.

Being busy makes me happy. It is my quest. I feel it because it pulls my actions and efforts in a specific direction. I am striving for it every day. Persisting making things happen. 

I am the happiest when there is a sudden breakthrough. But not only the point of breaktrhough, but the DO-ing to get there.

That is the right way of being busy for me. It is about rhythm. About not stopping. About maintaining my efforts. About enjoying.

Accept the things you can’t change.

There is a saying: that what you are resisting, persists.  

By resisting something you are feeding the thing, or the one, you resist. By putting energy in it, you are feeding it.

Or, as my coach told me: "By using negative energy to push something away, you are actually inviting it to stay".

Big challenge, for me: choose to accept what is. 

I stay positive and active, let go of the need to control, and embrace the process.

Tell yourself the right story.

Every day we tell ourselves stories. Out loud, to others, to confirm our story, and in our heads. We keep on reciting these stories.

By doing so we make up who we are, it has a big influence on all of our lives.

The question is if we tell ourselves the right story. By telling the right story, you will become more loving, more passionate, more courageous. ( meaning: cou·ra·geous  /kəˈrājəs : not deterred by anger or pain; brave.

If you tell yourself the wrong story the opposite will occur.

And, I think you owe it to yourself to get the story right. Right?

Start simple.

This is an advice you hear often.

I would say: simply start.

I’ll give it another try.

Everyone has this thought. And it is a very good starting point.

If you try something, no matter what, you already achieved something. Forget failure, or whatever outcome. By trying you are achieving and trying is always enough. (Not that it should be a reason to keep on trying, but look around you: how many people keep on trying? And if f not, what life do they have?)

You can also be proud that you tried. You gave it, hopefully, your best shot. And when the result is not good enough, try again. Because every mistake teaches you something. About if you still want to achieve that goal, and it teaches you a lot about yourself.

The biggest failure is never trying again. In the end what counts is the courage to continue.

Individuals don't win. Teams do.

This is a saying most of the times used by managers of teams. 

And, it is true. Because no man is an island, and you are always surrounded by people. In your private situation, work, sports, school, university. In life.

So, if you want to win, and not only in the meaning of competition or sports, but make "profit" in your life about the things which move you, see if you can form a team. A team which is committed to make it happen. A team with members who want to make it happen, for themselves, and for the other. 

Or, as Al Pacino says it in Any Given Sunday" Either we heal, as a team, or we will crumble as individuals. The one who is willing to make that extra inch, to make that extra effort for his team-mate, that team will win".

Do you have the feeling that you belong to a team like that?

Are you doing what everyone else wants you to do. 

There is a tremendous pressure from other people around us, which makes us do what we do. From parents, friends in school, colleagues, managers we work for etc.

Most of the time I think: "Life is to short to spend all my time trying to make everyone happy". Apart from that, it is impossible to please everyone all the time. It is impossible for anyone else, beside of you, to know what it the best for you. No matter how much you share with your parents, your friends, your colleagues, they are not connected to your deepest desires, your intuition, your hopes and your dreams.

You have to make choices that take mind, body and soul into consideration. Your mind, your body and your soul, because you are the only person who knows what is the best for you, isn't it?

Always, ALWAYS listen to yourself and what you want first.

Claim a New Paradigm.

Paradigms are about beliefs. Believes that rule your daily life. 

And paradigms are putting a limit you place on yourself. What is really important is to find out why you do it, what is the reasoning that supports your limiting belief in your life.

You can change paradigms by turning the reasoning behind upside down. 

Paradigms most of the time start with the word " because ". By changing that, all of a sudden the reasoning, the belief changes. 

The starting point changes, and by that you can shift old believe systems, old paradigms into new and different, more true, starting point.

Or, as a friend of mine always says when I come up with a reasoning: " the opposite is also true" 

Today is a perfect day for a perfect day.

A decision to make. Can you?

Have a good one.

Today you inspired me.

Yesterday and the day before we had half year presentations of Tribe 6 of Knowmads Business School Amsterdam 

It was amazing. These young people, searching and digging into themselves, who they are, why they are like they are, what they see in their surrounding, what they want to change in themselves and in the world. 

In front of their tribe-members telling about it. What their dreams are, their ideas, their perspectives, their pain and their goals and needs for the coming time at Knowmads.

Inspiring stories. That's where it is about. When you hear young people telling about what they want to do, to change, where they dream of, this inspires. 

I can feel the power of these stories, and I get inspired by that myself. There is this feeling of going into the field of possibilities. Without any boundaries. 

Or, as Nikolaj Sahlstroem put it in his saying goodbye moment today: Thank you. You inspired me.

Put down that map and get wonderfully lost.

When in talks with people I hear a lot of longing for structure. For a road map, for how it will look in the future. For plans, programs, curricula, longing for certainty.

I experience that life is not a fixed plan, does not have a fixed road map, it is not input-throughput-output how life, at least mine, looks like. You can have a wished for idea, but it always comes out different.

And also it is great not to have a plan. To wander around. To have an overall idea about what you want to do, and just start doing it. Because on that moment it is needed, or you feel like, or you want to.

Also there is a saying I have always in mind: "Take it from here with the given facts" . In daily life, facts are changing. Constantly. Outside happenings change how we can and sometimes have to cope with the current situation.

And, imagine the feeling of getting wonderfully lost. Wonderful, isn't it?

Positive results are the outcome of positive daily actions.

Simple: if you are positive, positive stuff will come out of your actions. If you are negative, .........

Do something that makes you proud. Start doing things that matter. Every day. 

Actually: all you need is today. 

Your strategic plan can be: make this moment the start of changing your (daily) life. 

There has to be a revolution. 

After the Occupy Movement, which was a good start, there is a big silence. The idea was to start a revolution, to start a movement, to change things for good. It was a revolution of consciousness. 

After this start it is time for action. Because consciousness without action is useless. One can be really conscious about animal rights, wear a (silicone) wristband which shows you care, and still eat a hamburger at the Burger King. 

Or be very conscious about the possible bad investments (with your money) of the big Corporate banks, and still have an account at Citibank. 

So action is the next move. Go and buy your groceries at the shops who really show and prove they care where they get their products from. Put your money on an account at a sustainable bank. 

Because by doing so we can have an impact, from the beginning of the value chain of products and services, until we buy it. 

Say thank you to the right people when you cast a vote. That will make a revolution happen.

In case of fire, do not use elevator.

One day I was in the elevator in the Central Train Station of Amsterdam, moving from one university building to the other.

In the elevator there was a sign which said: In case of fire, do not use elevator. 

Under this sentence there was written something which really made me think. (and laugh). I made a picture and when I came to my class, I showed the picture, without the written part, and asked the students: " what do you think was written under this sign, it starts with : use......."?

They came up with different solutions: "use the stairs, use the fire-exit, use your mobile to call the fire-department, use the fire extinguisher, use the intercom " where some of them.

I showed them the picture, and everybody was laughing. 

And, this is a basic, logic form of thinking in solutions which fit the problem, we forgot. 

Because of all the information we get, everyday, we forget the most obvious, simple and most pragmatic solutions. Think about it. 

Focus on solutions.

It happens that I meet people who make lots of noise about how bad things are for them. Negative people do that.

I also meet people who quietly and steadily improve things. Positive people do that.

In life, there are always problems. Or challenges.

When you are a positive person, you are willing to transform those challenges or problems into opportunities.

One has to have the commitment and courage and discipline to do so. Focusing on solutions and to work your way, quietly and steadily, towards a brighter future, makes it that life gets better because you choose to do so.

Be one of these people.

Stay true to your path.

Everybody chooses a path he or she wants to take. Some are shorter tracks then we thought, some take a longer time. And, we have an idea in our head how it might be, during the way and in the end, at the destination.

During the way it will always be different, and also the end will be different then we thought. 

One important thing is that one has to understand and pursue one's own path, and not chasing after the dreams of others. Do, what is right for you, no one else walks in your shoes. Keep moving forward, no matter what the surrounding tells you to do.

Live a life you are proud of. Be aware of the track, the path you are walking. Also during the walk, look around, enjoy, see what is happening, see what you are making happening by being there, on that moment, on that path. 

By doing so every day is a new path, and the path to take.

Are you accepting enough risk. 

Life is a risky business. 

Every time we get out of bed in the morning, we take a risk. (but also staying in bed is risk taking). 

Every interaction, every decision, every step you take, you take a risk. 

So if this is the case, that, when you truly live, you are taking risks, whats the big deal? Because, with every risk taking, there is also potential. 

Potential to wake up, step out of bed and meet that great person, have that good lunch with a colleague, finish or initiate that project for yourself or for a client, sit in the subway and read your paper, or listen to music, whatever. 

Be a little risky, and realize the full potential your life has. Today.

Creative minds are rarely tidy. They need help.

An ongoing discussion in every self organized company, and also in our self organized school is, who is cleaning what, when and why he or she.

Basic starting point is that when you put a bunch of creative minds together, it is rarely that stuff will be at its place, clean, organized and tidy.

This has to do with the left and right brain. 

The right side of the brain is best at expressive and creative tasks. Some of the abilities that are associated with the right side of the brain include: recognizing faces, expressing emotions, music, reading emotions, color, images, intuition.

The left-side of the brain is considered to be adept at tasks that involve logic, language and analytical thinking. The left-brain is often described as being better at language, logic, critical thinking, numbers and reasoning.

So, lets try to get a logic language together, being critical, first on ourselves, then on others, to recognize the faces, and the mess around us, express our emotions in a colorful way, and plug in some music to make it happen, all together.

In every organisation there is a mix of left and right brain oriented people who can make this happen. When the real will is there, connect it to power and there is willpower.