Creating an amazing year

What a whirlwind of a year this has been! There have been so many changes. So much that I let go off.

My country of residence. My friends. My clients. My house. Most of my possessions. And a way of life that was comfortable, known and safe.

Wow, what a whirlwind of a year this has been!

In Miami in December

There have been so many changes. So much that I let go off.

My country of residence.  My friends.  My clients. My house. Most of my possessions. And a way of life that was comfortable, known and safe.

When my daughter first had the idea of going to school in Europe, I told the Universe that I am open for this, but that I am not prepared to struggle. If all runs smoothly I would take this as the confirmation that we are supposed to go.

And smoothly it went. We found a school and an apartment 5 minutes away, right in the middle of Berlin. My furniture and car sold easily, and the house got rented out. 

I found a wonderful person to take over my yoga classes, and then we left Africa on the longest night of the year and flew into the longest day.

So the external got sorted quite easily.

But what I hadn’t really bargained for where the internal changes required to make all of this work.

Without a comfortable routine, without knowing the city I moved too or anybody in it, I became so aware of what it really takes to create a happy life.

Optimism, happiness, strength, determination, have to come from within first, and then they manifest in the outside.

While I knew that theoretically, waking up to sunshine, going out into my garden, talking to the trees and the chickens and the birds, made me effortlessly happy every morning.

LA in March, before moving to Europe

Now we are living in a big city with a lot more people than trees, and more grey skies than sunny ones. And I realized that being happy is a decision I make, and then follow through on, no matter what.

Just like having a business I love, and living life more or less completely on my terms. It all first starts within, it starts with a decision, with making it a non-negotiable, and then sticking to that no matter what the outside circumstances seem to look like.

You keep that up and they have to adapt. They have to form themselves into the image you are projecting. We truly are the creators of our reality!

Where I think it goes pear shaped for a lot of people that watched 'The Secret' and kind of believe in all of this, is that they expect it to be easy.

It isn’t easy to hold the faith when what you see around you isn’t reflecting the reality you want. It is probably the hardest thing there is for us, because we grow up learning that we are not in charge, that there are parents and a school and a church and a society that know better who we are and what is good for us than we do, that it is important to fit in, to be liked, to fulfill your role.

Going against all of this brings up a lot of fear. And fear and faith are pretty much mutually exclusive.

So holding the faith in the rightness of your inner knowing long enough for the outside to change is difficult.

In hindsight, this was my biggest take-away of the year, and this was the reason why we had to move.

It is easy to feel good when the outside is warm and welcoming and sunny and beautiful. It is not quite as easy being a stranger in a strange city in the rain. But it is possible. And it is actually fun!

And it creates a true independence. I know now that I am able to feel good no matter the outside circumstances, and this brings such a sense of freedom.

Arriving back in Berlin after having spent Christmas with my parents, I realized that i have grown quite fond of this city. It starts to feel like home.

Which doesn’t mean that I have given up on wanting nature, sunshine and the ocean. But for now being here is just fine.

Paris in June

Another thing I learned this year is to become a lot more practical in terms of implementing.

While it I great to have plans for the year, if you actually want to change anything, be it your financial situation, or your work, or your relationships, giving yourself a year to do it in general doesn’t really work. We are all fired up about our goals at the beginning of the year, and by end of January we are back in the routine of our day-to-day life, and nothing changes. Which we realize around November, at which point we decide that next year will be the year we REALLY go for it…

After going through many cycles of this, I realized that it works a lot better if I have goals for the next 100 days.

Get clear on where you want to be 100 days from now.

What do your finances look like?

What has changed in your business or your work or your home or your relationships?

How do you want to feel?

And then work backwards from there.

What has to happen for you to get there? Which skills to you have to develop? Which actions do you have to take?

And then make a commitment to taking these actions every single day.

Print out your 90-day goals and hang them up at your desk. Or use them as a screen saver.

Remind yourself of where you are going daily, and take time once a week to make sure you are on track. See how far you have come in this week, what you have to do more off, and what you have to stop doing.

With my mentor

Lessons learned in 2014:

Being happy is an inside job

If I want something, the quickest way to get it is to commit first and figure out the ‘how’ afterwards. This approach got me to LA, Paris and Miami.

A freedom-based lifestyle can only happen if I feel that freedom within first

Creating awesome things is scary but fun!

Thank you 2014!

Lots of love to you, and a very happy New Year!