26 lessons learned

To look back, to look beyond.

Last year, I left my job, became self-employed, read 75+ books as well as countless articles, and on top of that, I wrote the first (shitty) draft of a book I plan to publish in 2019.

I laughed, I cried, I loved.

During all these little and big moments, what did I learn?Which insights will be my companions stepping in 2018?

Every reflection deepens our learning process. I spent the first twenty-six days of January writing a post every day reflecting on the year that had just passed. Starting with the letter A and ending with the letter Z. Each day, a word became a journey and when I started off that journey, I did not know where it would lead me. The process was messy, demanding and there were days, where I asked myself: “What the heck did you get yourself into?”

The month has passed and I’m proud, I’ve finished what I’ve started.

These were my 26 conclusions …

1. Complexity has as much, if not more, potency, beauty, and depth as simplicity.
2. We decide. We decide whether we get hung up on semantics or whether we dance with words as a poet does.
3. A big part of courage is external. We grow when we are comfortable enough to test the edges of our comfort zone.
4. Don’t forget the importance of those tiny decisions, that we constantly make, that change our days and ultimately our lives.
5. It’s comforting, bracing and energizing to know oneself and how one wants to live.
6. There is nothing like doing something for the first time
7. Writers, become writers, when they write
8. All it takes is one small change.
9. No one ever lives up to their ideal
10. Our imagination is a greater richness than we could ever imagine.
11. Everything is a matter of perspective. With every additional pair of shoes, we try walking in, our perspective changes; it broadens.
12. Our lives are made up of dozens, and dozens, and dozens of small moments, and then there are a few, perhaps not even a handful, which make all the difference.
13. The world is no place to be in all by ourselves. We’re wired to connect. It is through vulnerability and openness that we become stronger.
14. Knowing, how to create space, in a crowdy and overstimulating world, is a real blessing.
15. Nature is one of our most magnificent teachers
16. There are many truths. Countless truths. And many of them seem more contradictory than they are.
17. Every time we say no to something, we also create room for a yes to something else.
18. Life is in the small moments; a kiss on the cheek, watching two butterflies flirt, the smell of salt air strolling along the shore, a mouthful of rhubarb pie. Gratefulness is one of our most powerful emotions.
19. If we never surprise ourselves, we’ll never surprise ourselves.
20. When we hold one another with tenderness, absolutely everything else becomes secondary.
21. Simple questions often don’t have simple answers. That does not make asking them less valuable.
22. Whatever course we take, our stamina, and our chance for success, improves, when we surround ourselves, with people that find joy in helping each other leap forward.
23. There is no thought, which hasn’t been thought before. There is no feeling, that hasn’t been felt before. And then there are people, who are marvelously equipped, to describe the essence of all of this, and leave me in admiration.
24. Keeping track of the things you won’t do, has more vigor than checking off the things you’re doing.
25. There is joy in colours, there is joy in creation, there is joy in exploring, there is so much joy in just being alive.
26. Have plans. Have a zillion plans! Just make sure you also plan in time to recharge your energy for all the plans ahead.

Want to know more?
Here’s the entire collection of daily articles:

Day 1/26: Don’t try to simplify everything