Focus Focus Focus

My personality likes variety, it wants to be busy, connect and diversity. I hate to be behind a desk all day long and doing one thing. I want to have options. But at the moment I also notice that I might have too much going on. Not complaining though, as there is nothing better than working with palm trees and surf in your backyard. It is more a matter of realising that if you want to do something well, you have to make choices and focus.

Even though, I know I can cope with a couple of projects, I can’t do 6. My lesson these days is really focus. Not being the almost ADHD-running-around-like-a-chicken-with-its-head-cut-off kind of girl, nope, not that. Focus on those things that are important now, plan forward but not too much as you can not predict what is going to happen. I want to be free, be healthy, live on this island and indulge in the ocean. Soak up sun while driving to get my work done. Meet inspiring people along the way. A new era has started here and can’t wait for the even more awesome things that are going to happen.

Re-defining Growth

For me, growth was always defined as knowing your path, achieving a goal and growing towards that. Physically but even more mentally. To experience what life throws at you while reaching a certain goal. My experience in Australia taught me a big lesson though. Sometimes growth is not about knowing where you want to go but more about knowing where you do NOT want to go. For me it was as simple as that. The expression “you are a product of the 5 people you spend the most time with” is one I believe in. And I had (and have) one amazing friend who was there and is one of the most genuine and inspiring souls I have met and some other really good and fun people. Unfortunately I choose to be surrounded by others as well and the scale didn’t balance out to the good side. So I needed to re-define growth. Learning, falling, standing up and sometimes realizing, the time, place and you are just not coming together. That you deserve better than what you have put yourself into. I feel that I have grown immensely in Australia. Ready to head back to Bali and start this new chapter. Not the last but definitely a new one. I strive to become the best version of myself and Australia has just exactly done that for me.

My question for you would be? How would you define growth?

Back in Bali (Bingin)

 

One of Them Black Days

Yesterday was one to remember. It was one of those Black Days that you know you will remember as it taught you a lesson. My time here in Margaret River has come to an end and to be honest I am not completely sure what to think of it. I met some of my amazing friends I knew from Bali, I learned some new skills, got myself out there to promote my brand Reckon Headwear, surfed with sharks nearby. As a whole though, this was one of the most energy draining experiences. I have had thus far.

I make mistakes, just like every other human being. Since you have read quite some stories about me and my personality, it is hard for me to forgive myself for prior mistakes. But yesterday, I literally got verbally abused down to the bone for it. Below the belt, held under water and I literally felt sick. Luckily, there is this amazing thing called Skype and I was sooo fortunate that one of my best friends was there. To be able to just cry on her virtual shoulder and let it all go. First forgive myself and then realizing how well I actually have managed here. I completely dove in the dark and swam, crawled, got spit out and swallowed but I am still walking.

My time in Australia taught me a big lesson and that is that I want to surround myself with people who are good for me and I can return it. Next to that, I want to follow my passions, grow my brand and launch a new one with a dear friend. Heading back home to Bali is something I really look forward to, because to be honest, deep down inside, the only thing I am thinking is “get me the hell out of here”. Where actually Margaret River is sooooo beautiful. Which is why I know that I will be back. I will just approach it way differently.

My doing my thing: Making Beanies…one of the best memories from my stay Down Under

 

Tuesday Tunes – Kick Push

Every time I hear this song from Lupe Fiasco, I wish I could skate…but I don’t. This song is also a song that is on my post-surf playlist as it is just extends my session for a bit longer.

Enjoy your Tuesdayhttps

Persona Inspiratori

I have this friend, this awesome friend, and while sitting in the car driving back home, I heard that he hasn’t got that many months in this lifetime anymore. “Fuck that!!”, “Seriously?!?” were the two sentences/words that were continuously in my head. It took me a while to reach out to him, I had no freakin’ clue what to write to him. “How are you?” “What have you been up to?” all sounded really meaningless. And then I realized, he is a good friend, we are just going to catch up, and we will find out whatever we are going to talk about. We found out that we have heaps to talk about.

Most importantly though, is that this guy is my absolute example of how I want to live my life. With passion, laughter, humor, don’t take yourself to serious but take your passions serious, live through you, and most of all… love, just love. If you live through giving & receiving love, and stay true to your authentic you, nothing really matters. He doesn’t know but he was one of the reasons to quite my job. I was and am capable of far more than the office life I was living. (unfortunately me resigning was breaking a promise to him that I would become the CEO of the company I worked for). He and I go way back, we have the same humor, he slaps me in the face to provoke, I slap him back and that is even more provocative for our surroundings..Numerous parties, dressing up and my introduction to golfing with rum and apple juice. And now, I love just talking to him. Sharing my world with him, making videos of me driving around Australia so he sees where I live and what I do and the other way around. Him sharing his world that is absolutely the opposite with rain, hail, fire places, marriage and of course the fight he is battling.

Geez, man, you have no idea but you inspire me to the moon and back and that route a couple of times. I really wanted to write this as I feel that everyone should live life the way you do. You are a legend and you know who you are.

My more than memorable first time on the golf-course

 

The 2-Month-Milestone

Wanderers will agree with me, there is something called a “2-month milestone”. It hit me while being in Australia. I go through different phases while travelling to different places but I only feel really at “home” after 2 months. First I feel super excited with loads of energy and a drive to explore, However after a month, shit hits the fan. Or at least for me. I felt lost, not sure what I was doing “down under”, why I left the island of the gods for something so new and different.

And then after a couple of weeks I hit that 2 month milestone and things started rolling again. I know people, I know where to eat and for me quite important, I kind of know where to surf. Realizing that there is this 2 month milestone was somewhat of an epiphany. My feelings towards Australia were actually not that strange, it is just the acclimatization period that needed to be digested before I could really say that I felt at home (wherever that may be you are wandering off to). And while hitting that milestone I realized, geez I am going back to my other home, Bali, in 2 weeks already. Life as a wanderer sure is one awesome adventure.

Tuesday Tunes – Mr Brightside

Did you know that this song from The Killers  is already more than 10 years old? Still gets me stoked, which is why it is on my pre-surf playlist. Just love it!!!

Start Feeling

Emotions can be so overwhelming some times, it is actually not weird that we are almost programmed to ignore them, put them away instead of actually feeling and embracing them. The other day, I saw this hugely inspiring 2 minute video that explained pretty clearly what we actually do when we depress emotions like grief, anger & envy. It transforms grief into depression, anger into rage and envy into jealousy. And that is when we loose control. I cannot control depression, I can control grief. I can control anger but I cannot control rage. And of course envy, I can control that emotion but I cannot control jealousy.

So just ask yourself what would happen if you just let go? As all these emotions are really natural. In the end it is exactly what this short little video promotes. The key is not to stop feeling, it is to start.

Embrace Your Challenges

Live Your Passion

Today I saw a teaser that instantly gave me goosebumps. It made me realise again that we all should live our passion. Go for what you feel you are destined to do. Take paths, roads, journeys to get there. Climb hills and mountains and endure the valleys and massive drops to reach it. Whatever your passion is, it is yours. There is  no one out there that feels it like you do. Whether your passion is painting, photography, writing, making beanies, coaching, making people laugh or playing the triangle, embrace it and live it. We are too often side-tracked to what may be expected of us (or at least of what we think is expected of us) but where do you want to be and what do you want to do. Your passion is what you should aim for. Not the goal of something that is the vague expression of someone else, the common denominator of the general public’s opinion of how one should live life or the illusion that following that main road will create security for a lifetime. No it is your passions that should be your guide.

If your passion is not as tangible as you might want them to be, dive deeper. This is what I have been doing lately. Writing down what inspires me, what makes me happy. By doing so, I realised I have quite a bit of passions, it’s my task to figure out which one is the biggest. I will figure out a way to fit the other ones in. But really live for my passion is what I am, and you are as well, destined to do, and to be honest I was already doing it.