How happy and successful can you be when you do not experience peace of mind? Think about when you’re sick, or when you feel tired all the time. Or imagine you are broke as bills pile up and your income sources dry up. Does that make you sit back and enjoy the moment? Hell no! It gives you sleepless nights, stress and makes you feel anything but comfortable. Now quickly ban all those negative experiences I just referred to out of your mind. I am going to share with you the seven aspects of your life that have to be in perfect shape to experience that state of mind in which you can achieve success and happiness up to your highest potential.

Peace of mind: The absence of mental stress or anxiety, and the presence of serenity, calm, quiet, comfort of mind; Inner peace (source: Wikipedia)

1. Self-understanding

Some people know from their early childhood what they want to do and do practically everything to achieve it. I hugely admire young sports professionals who train four, five or even six times a week in the early morning, before they go to school and while their classmates are still sleeping. Some people need a longer time to figure out what their purpose in life is. I am often shocked about the extent to which people lack understanding about how their own mind functions, which ‘laws’ govern their day-to-day lives and – let’s put it simple – what makes them tick. You don’t have to study psychology for that – study yourself instead! The most successful people we know and the greatest thinkers of all time never stopped studying themselves and others.

2. Worthy goals

You need to have some sort of purpose that challenges you to get the best out of yourself, that you consider worthy of you and, ideally, that others consider worthy. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was laughed at when he set as his goal to get a PC in every living room and on every desk. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison before he became president of South Africa and won the Nobel Peace Prize. Many, in the search for their purpose in life, look for something that can last a lifetime. But that is not so important. It is important that it feels real right now. Right now, I feel like writing this blog and working on my book How To Live Wow!?, because I feel the drive to sharing my thoughts with the world and helping other young people to find answers to the questions that matter. Who knows what I’ll be doing in 10 years? What helps enormously to determine your worthy goals, is a better understanding of yourself (1).

3. Health and energy

We need to be in good health. Stress is one of the main causes of physical illness, so we need to avoid that as much as possible. But this also works the other way! Physicall illness causes stress. It takes away our security, especially when a disease is (potentially) life-threatening. When you are in a good physical state, you also feel better mentally, which then makes it easier to develop mentally, to get deeper understanding of yourself (1) and in case you didn’t find it yet, to find your worthy goals (2).

4. Resources

Physical resources, to be more precise. You need the security of a roof above your head, money in your bank account to assure that you can fulfill in your basic needs (food, drinks, clothing, etcetera). Without those resources, our physical health, our safety and emotional well-being are immediately at stake (2). Those resources are also a little bit of insurance that whenever something is wrong with our health, we can go to a doctor and get treatment. Without resources, our health is at stake (3), and without health it is much harder to focus on your state of mind (1) and finding your purpose, your worthy goals (2).

5. Freedom

We have to experience freedom. We all have the absolute freedom to think whatever we want to think. Only one person in the world can have absolute control over your mind: You. So that’s a freedom we already have by nature. The form of freedom that can be taken away from us, which will ultimately damage our ability to aquire resources (4), our health (3) and thus our ability to study ourself (1) and to achieve our worthy goals (2) is peace of mind, is our physical freedom – our ability to go to places as we deem that necessary or wanted. You might never actually take the advantage of travelling across the world, but just knowing that in theory you could if you want it contributes to your happiness.

6. Relationships

We need to have the capability – impossible without freedom (5) – to engage into long-term, quality relationships, in the many different forms they exist in. From a basic, natural instinct, we know that relationships with people help us to aquire resources (4) – hunting in the old days, and it’s a lot more complicated nowadays! Without resources, no health and energy (3), and so on. The need for relationships also directly relates to our physical (read: sexual) needs, and our instinctive desire to multiply ourselves. Relationships also give us the ability to reflect upon ourselves through the experiences of others. After all, the people around you often know you a lot better than you think, and in many ways better than you know yourself, even! As such, they contribute to our self-understanding (1).

7. Moving forward

Ever feel like you’re stuck? You have (or had) a plan, large or small, but it’s just not happening. You’re not getting anywhere in life. You don’t have a real sense of purpose in life, you wonder who you are, what you’re here for (2), you don’t feel comfortable in your own body, or you’re physically unwell (3), you’re broke (4), others limit you to solve these problems (5) and if that isn’t enough, you’ve just been dumped by your boyfriend/girlfriend (6). Some people experience these things all at once, others just one or two, but they all work paralyzing. It either feels like a step back, or like being stuck. That’s why we need to experience ourselves moving forward in life. As soon as we experience a big boost in any of the aspects above, no matter if you suddenly earned a nice sum of unexpected income, when you fall in love or when you have finally found your passion, you feel like the world is yours! You feel like you can do anything! When we feel stuck instead, peace of mind is everything but what we experience.

Let’s put this into perspective…

If you experience a problem in any of these seven aspects of your life, I bet you do not experience peace of mind – the ultimate state in which you can experience happiness and achieve success. It is tempting to think that because all seven are so related to eachother, having issues in one field heavily affects the others. To a certain degree they do affect eachother, as you probably noticed by following the (numbers). It is like a chain of events; it takes one weak link to break it! This also means – and here comes the good news! – that once you fix one of those aspects, it will immediately have a positive effect on at least one, and most likely several or even all other aspects of your life! So, in fact, there is no need to worry at all.

…but how to fix it!?

Facing your problems and then analyze them can be pretty tough! In fact, it’s one of the hardest things to do mentally. A lot of people close their eyes and hope they will eventually disappear. Unfortunately, that’s not the way life works. But there is good news too, and it is the good news we need to focus on to make things work here!

First of all, let’s look at your problems as challenges that can be fixed. Like my best friend once said: “If it can’t be solved it’s not a problem!”

In case you have a challenge in your life right now, try to allocate it under one of these seven aspects. In case you have several challenges and lost oversight, write down one at a time and allocate it under one of these seven aspects, before you even think of the next challenge. You will notice that it is much easier to find a fix to your challenge once you make clear to yourself in which area of your life the challenge manifests, in which area the cause of the challenge lies and how your challenge affects the other aspects by creating problems there. This makes it easier to find real solution! In fact, by reading this blog post and by systematically analyze your challenges in life, you’ve already made a great contribution to your self-understanding (1)! In fact, it all leads back to self-understanding. Whatever makes you tick, defines whether you are happy and successful or not!

If you don’t know where to start, I have more good news for you: It doesn’t matter! Just take the first step to solve one aspect that prevents you from achieving peace of mind. If you figure out which aspects of your life are up for improvement but can’t figure out how to fix them, try the 5 Questions That Can Help You Out In Any Situation.

Conclusion

To summarize this lengthy blog post – I got all fired up while writing – we can conclude that to experience and fully enjoy success and happiness, peace of mind is crucial. Whenever one of  these seven aspects of your life is raising challenges, it affects the other aspects. If you want to experience success and happiness, but have problems in one of these fields, try to find out for yourself in which aspect you experience challenges, in which aspect the cause lies and which aspects it influences. The impact of your solution will be much greater, and will be a huge contribution to your peace of mind, and ultimately success and happiness!

Allow me to leave you with a question to answer for yourself: Is peace of mind the key to success and happiness, or have you actually accomplished manifesting success and happiness as soon as these seven aspects of your life are in great shape, leading to you experiencing peace of mind?

photo by gabriel77

Maybe your first business trip is still ahead of you. Maybe you’ve reached gold status as frequent flyer, and remember your first business trip well. I remember mine – I guess I was about 18 years old. Meanwhile, I’ve made hundreds of flights and have seen most of Europe’s major airports. No matter if you are a travelling abroad for work on a weekly basis, or if your first ever business trip is still ahead of you, a few suggestions to make your business trips more pleasant might be welcome anyway! I learned it the hard way by trial and error, so I’d be happy to share my experiences with you!

Don’t make it a big deal

I travel a lot for my work and I am extremely grateful for that opportunity. Sometimes people come to me and say: “You’re travelling so much… You must be exhausted!” In fact, I am not. Ok, a rare delay or a speedy trip to the airport, or a bumpy flight are not the most pleasant experiences that travelling has to offer. But I can’t say I am annoyed by it. Especially things you can’t change, such as flight delay or turbulence, are not worth to get stressed about since they are given facts.

Take advantage from it

If you travel on company expenses, you should deliver accordingly. However, no one will blame you for taking the best out of your business trip! There are several ways you can take more out of it. If your schedule allows, go out and visit town or a landmark. Ideally, you could extend your trip with a day or two at your own expenses to get an impression of your destination. It contributes to a better understanding of the country and its people, and that affects your business there too. Another opportunity lies in the free time you have while on planes and trains. I have a ‘golden rule’ for myself: Whenever I fly, I buy a new book. A 1/2-hour flight is enough to get an impression of a book, and a 3-hour flight is enough to read a 120-pager. If you fly somewhere once a month, you have read 24 books, or at least got an impression of them, by the end of the year. It’s also a great opportunity to answer and organize your emails. Once you’ve arrived, find a wifi-spot and send them out!

Prepare well

Preparing your trip well saves a lot of stress. Know where you’re going, know who you’re meeting, clearly set out your goals and know your schedule. Don’t start your journey with a lack of sleep, and avoid alcohol. Follow these simple rules and you’re already half way of making your business trip more pleasant.

Improve the experience

An experience is worth so much more when you actively register it. I can recommend you to keep a diary, to describe what you have seen, learned and experienced on your business trip. A short business trip with a tight schedule can be very overwhelming, and you might forget your impressions quickly. Take photos, videos, and keep your diary, even if you only have the time to write down a few lines or even keywords.

Other ways to improve the experience are checking in online, travelling with hand luggage only, pick a seat between row 1 and 10 on a plane, use speedy boarding possibilities, collect air miles to receive upgrades and lounge access and use iris scan facitilies when possible.

Avoid classical mistakes

There are a few classical mistakes, often made on business trips. Try to avoid them!

• “Let’s save some money and go for a cheap hotel and flight” - Yes, you have to be cost-efficient. But not as far as compromising on your physical well-being and a good night sleep! Your business trip can be so much more effective if you pick the second cheapest option!
• “We have to be at the airport 2,5 hours in advance” – No way! Airlines would like to make sure all passengers are at the gate in time, to avoid delays. They also want to avoid lines at the check-in counter. In case you go to the airport 2,5 hours in advance, you will find yourself bored out of your mind for at least 1,5 hours in 90 percent of the time. Look at the time it takes to get to the airport, take into consideration lines and make a realistic calculation, including some buffer time. 2,5 hours might sometimes be realistic, but certainly not all the time. In Amsterdam, where I live, I usually make sure to be at the airport about 30 minutes before boarding starts.
• “Let’s hit the bar!” – Socializing, yes. Hanging out in the hotel bar until 2:00 in the morning, no. Doing whatever you have to do the next morning won’t be easy with a headache, and certainly not with a hangover!

Most important…

My suggestions are the ones that work for me. You might figure out how to do things in a different way that suits you better. Try to figure out what works best for you, and keep refining! Have a good journey!

Photo by tania64

When I first got in touch with personal development books and blogs, I think I was about 18 or 19 years old. By then, I’ve enjoyed about 15 years of regular education. It took a while to come to the shocking conclusion that none of the things I learned through personal development resources even remotely came close to what I’ve learned in school over those 15 years!

I asked myself: “What did I learn in school?” It all started at the age of four, when you learn to play, to read and to write. Then, you get into more advanced reading, math, geography, and of course gymnastics. After all, a mind functions better in a healthy body. We learn to be creative, get an occasional acting class,we went on school camp. We studied our history. Then it was time to go to high school. Modern languages (English, Dutch, French and German), ancient Greek and Latin, history, geography, economics, physics, chemistry, arts and music, biology, computer skills, gymnastics and yes, I was editor-in-chief of the school paper. We went abroad a few times, had drama class – believe me, there was more drama in the regular classes – and for a few years, we had a subject called sociology. For two hours a week. The latter came closest to what I later figured out was called personal development.

I dare to make the following bold statement: Our education system does not at all pay attention to active personal development. Yes, you can argue that being in school and engaging in social activities there contribute to personal development. You are right. Sitting in a bar every night is also a social activity. So is a visit to a psychologist. Get my point? As long as you get good grades, and don’t bother your teachers or fellow class mates, no one will ask questions. No one will expect you to develope beyond that. After all, good grades are all you need to get a good job, make money, and live a happy life. Doesn’t it?

There is something horribly wrong with our education system: It supports mediocrity! My best friend Danny Mekic’ quit highschool at the age of 15. He wasn’t a bad student. Not at all, even. However, he had another plan. He wanted to start a company. We happened to be in a highschool that had special classes for young athletes. They would get a programme that fits with their training schedule, and special support for those who would take part in international tournaments. Excellent! But someone who had the ambition to master the art of entrepreneurship had no other choice but dropping out. He didn’t fit in, and his ambition did not meet the mediocre standards of regular highschool education. Eight years later, he was elected the most successful young entrepreneur in the Netherlands and is one of the most developed people I know.

An overwhelming majority of people who have achieved something significant in their lifes, no matter if they bacame successful politicians, wealthy entrepreneurs, religious leaders or just people who are living the life of their dreams in any other way… they will confirm to you that apart from their regular education, the way they educated and developed themselves has been a major, if not a defining factor in their ability to manifest their success. Danny, and many other people I know have achieved considerable success, read about psychology, inform themselves about what’s going on in the world, dive into the why-questions, study the stories behind other successful individuals, read books about how to achieve goals, how to build successful companies, how to maintain great relationships…

If we want to get our society to a higher level in the decades to come, we need to embed personal development heavily into our education system. Until then, develop yourself! Read books, blogs, visit seminars, talk to people you admire. It will help you to get from where you are to where you want to be, no matter how ambitious your goals are.

How do you develop yourself? Leave a post in the comments field below!

Photo by A. Feldmann

Very often, I come across people who tell me they are not or not entirely satisfied with their life. Something is missing. Something is wrong. Something doesn’t show up. Or it doesn’t appear. But in most cases, it’s more gut feeling than actually knowing what’s wrong. In this post, I would like to explain a simple ánd fun method to design your life and thereby your future.

Take a few minutes to think about every major aspect of your life. Really, take that moment. Are you happy and satisfied? Do you have the job you want? Is your relationship the way you always imagined a relationship should be? Are you healthy? Are you in the process of manifesting those things in your life that you’ve been dreaming of?

In case you are living the life of your dreams and you’re perfectly satisfied, I would like to congratulate you. You are one of the very few, and I hope you have thought about how to maintain the good life you are living. We can go into how to maintain living your life ‘Wow!’ in another blog post, because this one is dedicated to the majority that is not at all, not or not perfectly satisfied with the life they’re living.

To get from where you are now to where you would like to be, you have to know where you stand, and where you would like to go. Too many people start wondering how to get ‘there’, without knowing where ‘there’ is, let not where ‘here’ is. I would like you to avoid that mistake, because that saves you a lot of time wondering around without getting anywhere.

To find the answers to these two questions, I can recommend you the following ouburst of creativity, which looks a bit like mindmapping. Take a big sheet of paper and put a picture of yourself in the middle. You might want to go to the office store to get yourself a really nice sheet of A2-paper, because you might need a lot of space to jot down your thoughts. Now, write down the aspects of your life that matter most to you around your picture. Think about health, your job, your relationship, friendships, money, living, dreams, fears, and so on. Then, pick a term and draw a short line from it. At the end of the line, write down where you stand. From there, draw a long line. At the end of that line, write down what you want your life to look like in the most ideal circumstances. Don’t limit yourself here! Just ask yourself where you would like to be, not how to get there. Not yet!

Repeat that process for each of the areas of your life that matter to you. Make sure you leave enough space around each aspect to write down some things later.

Now you’ve written down what matters to you. You’ve also described where you stand on these matters, and where you would like to stand, ideally. Now you can start writing simple to-do lists next to the longer lines you’ve drawn in between your starting points and destinations. Think logically, search the web for solutions, ask your friends and family for suggestions and write down all tasks you have to fulfill to get from A to B.

Now all you have to do, is complete each little to-do list that you’ve just made. Some steps might be easier than others, but in nearly all cases each small step will make it easier to get from A to B than trying to get there in one big step. This gives you the chance to design your life at a very detailed level, and gives you back some of the control that you might have felt you lost.

Tip: If you have plenty of space, you might want to expand your masterpiece with pictures, and turn it into an advanced vision board. Put it somewhere where you can see it every day, preferrably multiple times.

PS To clarify this concept, I will illustrate this topic in a couple of days with an example of the design of my future. Stay on!

Photo by S. Spivak

With new elections coming up here in the Netherlands and daily coverage of the election campaign, I was wondering whether this intense celebration of democracy actually makes us happy. I decided to dive into the matter, and found out that a well-oiled democracy is not at all guarantee for happiness. I also figured out that in a very undemocratic country, it’s hard to be happy, although there are some interesting exceptions!

There are several attempts to measure happiness, which is rather subjective compared to the objectively measurable economic results of a nation. One of those attempts is the Happy Planet Index. I compared the Happy Planet Index with the Democracy Index rank of The Economist, which you can find behind the country name:

1. Costa Rica (27)
2. Dominican Republic (73)
3. Jamaica (49)
4. Guatemala (79)
5. Vietnam (149)

Let’s look at the five most democratic countries in the world according to the same Democracy Index, compared to their rank in the Happy Planet Index, which you can find behind the country name:

1. Sweden (53)
2. Norway (88)
3. Iceland (94)
4. The Netherlands (43)
5. Denmark (105)

Let’s try another source! According to the World Database of Happiness, the following countries make up the top-5 highest ranking countries based on the question: “How much do you enjoy your life on a scale 1 to 10?” The list is based on the averages from 2000 to 2009. Again, behind the country names, you can find their level of democracy according to The Economist’s Democracy Index:

1. Costa Rica (27)
2. Denmark (5)
3. Iceland (3)
4. Switzerland (8)
5. Canada (11)

This list already gives a better indication to believe that happiness and democracy are related. However, to get more complete picture, I decided to look after some random, undemocratic countries. Chad (166) is the second last country on the Democracy Index, after North Korea. It ranks 92nd in the World Database of Happiness. Tunisia ranks 141st on the Democracy Index, and 71st in the World Database of Happiness. Ghana is the 94th most democratic country in the world, and ranks 101st on the World Database of Happiness. Laos ranks 157th in the Democracy Index, but 59th in the World Database of Happiness.

It is interesting to conclude that a good democracy does per definition lead to a happy population. It is hard to define why that is the case, but it might well be that in those countries, democracy is often taken for granted and people divert to other reasons to be unhappy about. The fact that happiness doesn’t work out well in countries where democracy is all but present, can be explained by that these countries are often plagued by social and economic problems, strong military presence and a lack of basic needs.

The abovementioned conclusions are by no means scientific. But they do give a direction, and I will continue to explore this fascinating subject the upcoming weeks and months to go deeper into the matter in my upcoming book, How To Live Wow!?

photo by joatklipa

When I started with HowToLiveWow.com, I wrote a blog post that changed my life. It made me realize more than ever that happiness and success come and go in tune with relationships with people. That’s why this post is dedicated to one of the, if not the most important relationship of all: the one with your partner.

“I want to be able to summarize my entire life in just one magical word: ‘Wow!’ The love of my life: Wow! My children: Wow! The friendships I had: Wow! The career I worked on with dedication and joy: Wow! The things I learned and passed on in life: Wow! The most beautiful spots on earth I had the opportunity to visit: Wow! What I managed to do for others: Wow!” Read the original blog post..

First of all, it takes two. This so-called ‘perfect relationship’ only works out if both of you pay attention to the following aspects.

Attention. Attention is like oxygen to your relationship. If you don’t get enough, eventually it will cause irrepairable damage. If you give to much of it, you’ll start hyperventilating. Everyone needs a certain amount of confirmation. Some need more, some need less. I am not just talking about physical attention, but also about showing genuine interest in the other person’s day-to-day activities, emotions and overall well-being.

Acceptance. It is vital to accept your partner as he or she is, including his or her flaws and bad habits. However, this should not be mixed up with having no limits whatsoever in what the other person can do to you. It is important to show your limits, and to be clear when something hurts you. After acceptance, which usually stays within your confort zone, comes tolerance, which basically means you start accepting things about your partner that are a bit outside of your comfort zone.

Communication. The ability to express your thoughts, ideas, concerns, and most important… your love it’s crucial. Most relationships fail due to communication errors.

Trust. Trust creates an important foundation for your relationship, as it takes away a large part of the fear to lose someone. It’s not something you create by merely expressing trust. It shows from your behaviour instead. It means you don’t scroll through your partner’s email every second day. It means that if your partner is late from work, you don’t doubt the fact that he or she had a rough day at the office and needed to finish some work. Give eachother space to move freely.

Respect. Expressing respect towards eachother can be extremely uplifting. I’m not just talking about respect for the other person, but also for yourself. By respecting yourself and respecting the other, you create a positive, upwards spiral in which your mutual appreciation grows. Don’t forget; respect needs to be expressed! It is virtually impossible to agree about everything when you share your lives, but respecting your partner’s decisions and opinions when they are different from yours is an important way to showrespect.

Having it all… or maybe not? Many people are looking for a Miss or Mister Right who “has it all”. This expectation might be a little unrealistic. When you feel like you’re looking for someone who “has it all”, first of all think of what “all” means to you. Define what you believe is essential about a partner, and what is less important to you. After determining what you find important about your partner, ask yourself whether you really need all these things in one person. I, for example, love a good discussion about politics. I can have such discussion with my best friend and to be honest, I don’t think I could have a discussion about politics in this particular way with someone else. For that reason, I consider it less important to have similar political discussions with my partner. Surrounding you with a couple of people – a partner, a best friend, a mentor, etc. – who, if you combine them, provide all emotional, intellectual and physical needs you have, makes you less dependant on one particular person.

Love. Needless to say, the only irreplacable part of the foundation of a perfect relationship is love.

What does your perfect relationship look like? Do you already have such a relationship? Share your comment with fellow readers!

photo by p0psicle

Life itsels is already complicated enough by itself, yet a lot of people know countless ways to make it even more complicated. Whenever you feel you are having a hard time, the following five suggestions might help you to make life a bit easier. Some of them can be easily implemented right away, others might take some practise.

1. Do what you like to do most. Whenever you spend a considerable amount of your days on things you don’t like or even hate, something is wrong. Very wrong. Doing things you don’t like affects your emotional state of mind like an unhealthy diet affects your physical well-being.
2. Keep it simple. People very often make situations much more complicated than they actually are. Whenever you feel like you ended up in a complicated situation, try to look at your problem from ‘above’. What do you see? What is the problem that requires a solution? The problem that requires a solution is the only problem relevant. Whatever can’t be solved, is not a problem.
3. Accept things the way they are. Problems that can’t be solved, are usually not problems but facts. A lot of people mix them up, and have an extremely difficult time because they try to fix something that can’t be fixed, solve something that is not a problem or refuse to believe something that is an absolute truth. One warning: A lot of people also easily believe they can’t solve something anyway, despite it being a problem. Don’t give up too easily!
4. Forgive and move on. Lives are being ruined because of hate and anger. I am certainly not telling you that you have to accept everything people do to you, but at some point, hate and anger don’t serve any other purpose than your pride.
5. Be aware. This might be the hardest, yet most important item in this post. Be aware of what is going on around you, be aware of your own role, attitude and thinking process. By simply analyzing the way you handle a difficult situation, you can learn so much about yourself. Being aware about yourself is a big step in the process of living an easier life.

I’m really curious to figure out how you make things easier for yourself once things become difficult. Don’t hesitate to drop a comment!

Image by gundolf

As a frequent reader of HowToLiveWow.com, you probably know that I am working on a book with the similar title and purpose. Over the past weeks, I received several questions about the book so I decided to give you a little update!

I am currently half way writing the content, half way doing the design and half way planning the interviews with inspiring young people. To do so, I found a great piece of software that helps me to organize content and at the same time keep good overview of what’s been done, and what’s still left to do. It’s called Scrivener, by the way.

At the same time, I am still eager to find a publisher here in the Netherlands, both for publication abroad as well as locally. Surprisingly, I’ve been approached by a publisher based over 3,000 kilometers away from here, and I am looking forward to see where this is going. If you happen to be a curious book publisher, drop me a line ;-)

The #1-question by far: When is it coming out? My current goal is to launch the book before the new school year starts in the beginning of September! So, from now on, I have 176 days to go for the launch. I think I have about 120 days left to write and design the book, and need the other 56 days to proof-read and get the first books off the print!

If you would like to get an email notification as soon as you can order the book, please subscribe for alerts right below!

To everyone who contributed to the book so far, both with direct feedback as well as by commenting on this website: a BIG thank you!

The other day I had a discussion with a friend about exercising. Since a couple of months, I exercise at the gym at least 1-2 times a week. I decided to go to gym because it is something you can do everywhere, both at your local sports club, as well as in hotels and even at home. In this post, I would like to tell you about the benefits of regular exercise.

First of all, it doesn’t matter if you go to the gym, swim, run or play football, basketball or another team sport. What matters, is that you give your body a physical impulse on a regular basis – let’s say 2-3 times a week. To achieve considerable results, there is no need to work out 4-5 times a week for several hours a day.

Very often, I hear people say: “I don’t have time for that”. You might not have time because your work consumes your entire agenda, and you have a social- and family life on top of that. Let me tell you this: The investment of exercising 2-3 hours a week contributes so much to your mental concentration, your sleep cycle, your physical fitness and your overall ability to perform, that it’s worth the investment multiple times. You can simply handle more, in a shorter time, and still feel good afterwards.

It is good for your body. Regular exercise strengthens your heart muscle and your blood vains. It also improves your digestion and metabolism. It strengthens your muslces, decreasing the chance of injury. There is a complete consencus amongst scientists that regular exercise simply prevents you from a lot of disease, increasing the chances to live a longer, healthier life. It will also help you to sleep better, especially when you stick to a reasonable diet. Ask a professional at your gym or sports club, or your family doctor for advise!

It is good for your mind. According to research by the Dutch Trimbos Institute, people who exercise 2-3 times a week have a 50% smaller chance to develop mental problems such as addiction or depression. Those who do experience mental unstability, recover considerably faster on average than people who do not exercise on a regular basis. After a training session, your body produces hormones like serotonin, endorphin and testosteron (mainly with men, but also with women), that all make you feel good.

Some advise to go ahead:

1. Start to consider it as something crucial. Lack of time cannot be an excuse
2. Ask yourself: What do I want to achieve? Do you want to lose weight? Improve your physical condition? Want to feel better mentally?
3. Think of the sport you would like to do most. Try different things. Most sports clubs offer a free trial, so take advantage of that!
4. Ask a professional at your sports club of your family doctor for advise when you have no experience. They can do all sorts of tests to determine the best way forward for you. This helps you to avoid injuries and gives you the fastest way to achieve your goals
5. Hold on! Plan it in your agenda. Stick to it. Go with friends. Commit yourself. Reward yourself for going. Do everything possible to make sure you stick to the discipline

Personally, I never considered myself a sports person. But as soon as I went, I started to experience the positive effects instantly. Since I exercise one, two and sometimes three times in a week (in various forms), I feel better physically, can handle more emotionally, sleep better and find it much easier to achieve other goals in life.

Photo by johnnyberg

Our brain. It’s the most fascinating organ in our body. While the heart, liver and lungs are more or less well-understood by science, the brain keeps surprising us, both physically as well as what is is capable of on a level of thought and, even more, subconsciously. In line with this blog, it is the final organ that determines whether something is ‘Wow!’. But the brain isn’t faultless. It has some very interesting glitches. Fortunately, some of these glitches can be beaten or even used in your very advantage! I’ll tell you how!

First of all, let me credit Nikki, who posted the blog Top 10 Common Faults In Human Thought to Listverse.com. This blog inspired me to write this post for you. I will briefly quote from that blog, and only made a selection of three out of ten. If you would like to read more, check out the original blog posting!

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Self-fulfilling prophecy is engaging in behaviors that obtain results that confirm existing attitudes. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that causes itself to become true. A common example can be found in relationships: “I think my relationship with my significant other is going to fail, so I start acting differently, pulling away emotionally”. Because of your actions, you actually cause the relationship to fail. Economic recessions are self-fulfilling prophecies. Because a recession is 2 quarters of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decline, you cannot know you are in a recession until you are at least 6 months into one. Unfortunately, at the first sign of decreasing GDP, the media reports a possible recession, people panic and start a chain of events that actually cause a recession.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is great when it’s in your favour. But if it’s not, simply reject the prophecy and focus on a more positive prediction. When the first signs of an economic crisis appeared on the surface, back in 2008, I right away declared that I am not going to take part in it and that I will even aim to benefit from it. So far, that prophecy indeed fulfilled itself!

Escalation of commitment

Escalation of commitment is the tendency for people to continue to support previously unsuccessful endeavors. With all the decisions people have to make, it is unavoidable that some will be unsuccessful. Of course, the logical thing to do in these instances is to change that decision or try to reverse it. However, sometimes individuals feel compelled not only to stick with their decision, but also to further invest in that decision because they have sunk costs. For example, say you use half of your life savings to start a business. After six months, it is evident that the business is going to be unsuccessful. The logical thing to do would be to cut your losses and drop the business. However, due to the sunk costs of your life savings, you feel committed to the business and invest even more money into the project hoping that the additional cash will turn the business around.

A good way to avoid to get trapped in escalation of commitment is to gather a group of three to five knowledgable people and ask for their opinion. For example, when your business adventure is not going so well and you feel in your guts that it is about to fail (which is often the case), ask a group of successful entrepreneurs for their judgement. If they agree in (overwhelming) majority, face the facts and shut it down, despite the losses. Obviously, if unexperienced people without any credibility tell you to stop doing whatever you feel is right, this advise does not apply!

Placebo effect

The placebo effect, which has a lot in common with the self-fulfilling prophecy, is when an ineffectual substance that is believed to have healing properties produces the desired effect. Especially common with medications, the placebo effect has been observed when individuals given a sugar pill for a real ailment report improvement. Placebos are still a mystery. It is theorized that placebos cause a so-called expectancy effect (in cases of uncertainty, expectation is what is most likely to happen). Individuals expect the pills to cure their disease, so they feel cured. However, this does not explain how the ineffectual pills actually cause a reduction in symptoms. The term ‘placebo’ is used when the outcomes are considered favorable, when the outcomes are negative or harmful; the term is ‘nocebo’.

You can actually use the placebo effect in your very own favor. A good example of this is the so-called Law Of Attraction, which basically says that like attracts like. If you set your mind to a certain wish, concept or idea and focus upon it, you will materialize it. Because you ‘believe’ in the ‘healing properties’ of your mental placebo, your thoughts and following actions will actually contribute (often significantly, in my personal case) to materializing whatever was on your mind.

Photo by SteveTaint