Never take anything for granted
After an unusual number of cancelled flights, hotel reservations, concerts, events, parties and dinners, I gradually started hoping someone was going to cancel 2020 altogether. But nobody did so far! It looks like we will have to accept 2020 as the year in which a few things changed drastically. And “a few” is a serious…
IKI means “life, alive” and KAI “result, benefit”. As such, the Japanese concept IKIGAI can best be described as a reason for being“. We have been using the concept of Ikigai in our Personal branding and Pitching workshops to help individuals better focus on “why they do what they do“, and help them make smart(er)…
We are entering a completely new world, a world that will be different from everything we have seen and experienced so far. Covid-19 has forever changed the world as we knew it. The new times will be exciting and difficult at the same time, because we are lacking experience in how to face and adapt…
I must admit, initially I hated you. I hated you a lot because you reduced me to the small world of my house and garden in Ghent, Belgium. A social life that only revolves around the necessary visits to the supermarket, and that deprives me from seeing family, friends and colleagues, is utterly boring. No…
Whom we were yesterday is not necessarily whom we are today or whom we will be tomorrow. Simply because situations change. Sometimes suddenly and drastically. We all know what sudden and drastic means today. Behind the masks When I was a child, tears for example were seen as a sign of weakness. I never cried,…
We hope you are at home and doing fine in these difficult times of lockdown and quarantaine. Today, things do not longer go according to plan. Countries are closing, cities and villages look empty. Many businesses are reaching a critical point. The good times seem far away. We could conclude: it is beyond our own…
Not many Dutch words make it to the list of internationally widespread terms. The most well known are probably “Afrikaans” and “Apartheid”. But now there is also a new lifestyle concept that is trending these days. It is called “Niksen”, the noble art of doing absolutely nothing ! In my native language “Niksen” literally means…
Have you ever bought a book because you loved the cover? I recently did so in Fiumicino Airport, where I spent five full hours. Not exactly a lot of fun on a public holiday, but sometimes things do not work out the way you want. Depending on how you look at it, I was either…
Work to live. Don’t live to work. “You are on a holiday?” Maybe. I get this question regularly, even when I am close to being submerged… For some or other reason I regularly meet people who think I am on a holiday. In the beginning I thought it was because I am a woman, passing…
One of my friends recently wondered how come that with all the different assignments I have on my plate, I can still show up “all smiles” and “all zen” in no time. Indeed, I am capable of just dropping urgent and important stuff, in order to pop up where the fun or excitement is. How…