I really like doing these weekly reviews again. I realise that they’re mostly relevant for me, but the rhythm of posting them on this blog is providing me with a lot of value. I just hope that they inspire you in some way too

Progress report on goals

Goal 1: Get rid of 100 things
Goal 2: Strength training everyday
Goal 3: Make music

I made no progress in the 100 things goal this week. It’s been a busy week, with a funeral and some busy days at work after a holiday week. I did sell the cat door this week though, so the total cash in for this activity is €54 now. But this goal needs some more attention, but I have no doubt that I will come to the 100 things before the end of the 42 days.

The strength training goal has slipped a bit this week. I missed two entire days, and that’s not good. But reporting it daily made me aware of the days I’ve missed, so that’s a good habit! Although I was also late with two daily reports…

The music goal made progress this week. I did not practice much, mainly for the same reasons as last week. When I have time, I can’t make noise anymore. I went looking for alternatives to enable me to make music without making noise. It had to be an instrument that I could play while listening to headphones. I discovered that most keyboards (if not all) have that functionality, but I also discovered that it was possible to play electric guitar that way.

That posed a little dilemma, because I want to learn to play the guitar, and I want to make music. Yet I’m an absolute beginner when it comes to the guitar, so playing music on the guitar is something a bit further down the road. And to get there I’d have to buy an electric guitar, the headphone-box and (in time) a guitar amplifier.

So I decided to buy a keyboard. I found a good deal for the Yamaha YPT-410, a nice keyboard with touch-sensitive keys. This means that the keys respond to the amount of force you play them, which kind of resembles the response a piano would give.

I took my 3 year old son with me to the music store. He loved it there, an enormous amount of instruments and they sell all the stage stuff there too. Anyway, we bought the keyboard and ended up playing with it for three hours straight when we came home. Toddlers learn fast! He loves music, and really enjoyed playing with the keyboard.

Blog performance

The blog metrics:

• Average daily visitors: 354 (+4)
• Average subscribers: 319 (old feed) + 990 (new feed) = 1309 (+1)

Hardly any change.

Did you ever notice that some people make it look so easy to be an original? They live and breathe originality. It seems they’re firmly rooted from within themselves, have clear defined opinions on a lot of matters and stand firm when facing resistance. They’ve got so much going for them it seems. Enviable, isn’t it?

the true originals

Some people – the true originals – make it look like it comes naturally. They are who they are, and that inner certainty is the pillar of their existence. They have their opinions, they know their talents, they’re convinved that they’re an important addition to the world, and they stand firm when people or society try to convince them otherwise. They are the authentic originals, the ones that were born with it, and that developed into the superstars they are.

We find them so inspiring that, we’re even ready – happy even – to watch a commercial that features and celebrates them, even more than a dozen years after the commercial first aired. The commercial I’m referring is “This is for the crazy ones” by Apple:

The short clip shows you a myraid of originals, people that made an impact on the world, in their own crazy and special way. Apple wants you to think different, but doesn’t tell you how to do that. And in the face of so many people that seem out of reach, their message to think different also seems out of reach.

the original in you

All the people in the video are well known, they’ve made a name for themselves by doing things that stand out from what is expected of people. And for all of them it looks like it comes naturally to them. Richard Branson has always been a rebel and was destined to become one of the richest people in the world (it seems). Einstein looks like a natural, genius like that must’ve been there all along. And the same can be said of Picasso, Jim Henson, Martin Luther King, Bob Dylan …

But we can’t all be the Picassos, Bob Dylans or Einsteins of this world. Besides talent and ambition, you’d also have to be lucky enough to be in the right circumstances to rise to the top. Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers shows this in a compelling way. The people in the video had those talents and ambitions, and they also had the right circumstances to rise above themselves and above the rest of us.

But being an original is not about rising to the top, it’s not even about rising above yourself, it’s simply about just being you. And that last part is hard enough for a lot of people, because it takes guts to become an original, and to keep on being an original.

For most people being or becoming an original is a process of change and uncertainty. It takes guts to discover your true self. It takes guts to discover and identify parts of you, that aren’t real. It takes guts to let go of the habits and attitudes that are fake, that are simply there due to societal pressures, because “you ought to behave like that”. It takes guts to ask for feedback and opinions. It takes guts to accept failures. It takes guts to claim the successes.

And in all those steps you have to expose yourself, your vulnerable self, the part you’ve been protecting for so long by not showing it to the world.

And you know what … the more biographies I read, the more I discover that those processes are just as present in a lot of the people that we see as the natural originals too. But it’s this myth of the natural original that stops people from exploring their own originality.

But it is a myth.

No posts in the past week, but you figured that out already. This week was a strange week, even though it was a holiday week from work. It started with my family getting sick. One each day, luckily I dodged the bullet so I could care for them. In their recovery period we had to deal with the news that my wife’s grandpa passed away. He was 85, had outlived his wife by six years and lived long enough to see our children, his great-grandchildren. It was special to see them together, three generations apart.

So even though it was a holiday week, it didn’t feel like one. But it was most fortunate that I had all that time on my hands to deal with all the events of the week. In the meanwhile I did get some work done, and I managed to make some progress on my goals.

Progress report on goals

Goal 1: Get rid of 100 things
Goal 2: Strength training everyday
Goal 3: Make music

As the chart shows, progress is pretty good. I did some strength training every day, since the start of the goal. I got rid of 37 things so far, and even earned €10 from selling a fax machine. Nothing major, but nice anyway.

The music goal is somewhat troublesome. Not that I don’t want to make music, but I find that whenever I have time to make some music I can’t make noise in the house. Either because everybody is sleeping, or because my 9 month old daughter is sleeping. I need to find a way to squeeze in some more music, or a way to make music without making noise

If you’re interested, I’m reporting on my goals on a daily basis on my Tumblr blog, beans.

Blog performance

The blog metrics:

• Average daily visitors: 350 (+10)
• Average subscribers: 317 (old feed) + 991 (new feed) = 1308 (-9)

Hardly any change.

Yes, I missed last week’s review. And no, I don’t regret it. I was spending some quality time with my wife in a Japanese Spa (not in Japan though…) on Valentine’s day. Although that last part was more of a coincidence; we usually don’t do much for Valentine’s day. But only a week later, there’s another Sunday. Another chance to do a weekly review, so here it is.

New goals!

If you read my previous article, you know that I set new goals. There are only three of them, and the deadline is only 42 days away. And only two of them are really measurable.

Goal 1: Get rid of 100 things
Goal 2: Strength training everyday
Goal 3: Make music

Number 1 is focused on getting the result. Number 2 is about the effort and shaping a habit, and number 3 is about having fun.

Progress

As far as progress is concerned … there’s not much to report yet. I set the start date for the goals on Saturday February 20. So there’s only one day behind us now. In that day, there was only something to report for goal 2. For those of you interested, I’m keeping a daily score on my Tumblr blog, beans. I’m also in the process of using beans on Tumblr, for assorted links, thoughts, doodles and other related stuff for be an original.

Blog performance

First of all, the blog metrics:

• Average daily visitors: 340
• Average subscribers: 318 (old feed) + 999 (new feed) = 1317

Even though the number of subscribers on the old address has declined a little, there are still a LOT of subscribers on that feed. Please switch to the new feed! The new adress is: http://feeds.beanoriginal.net/beanoriginal

Both visitor numbers and subscriber numbers have increased a little. The fact that I was actively involved in the bootcamp of A-List Blogging Bootcamps last week, may have had an effect on that.

In this article I will be setting new goals, and setting guidelines for how I want to live life. This is the second and final part of this article. You may want to read part 1 of this post on my guidelines and goals to make sense of part 2.

Five states of life – continued

In the previous article I already covered the first three of the five areas:

• Material state
• Active state
• Social state
• Emotional state
• Physical state

The next to work on is:

Emotional state

This is about how you feel, about the inner voice and about inner peace if you will.

The old guidelines

• I listen to my intuition and take it seriously
• There is no failure, only feedback I can learn from

The central values here are Love and Authenticity. This state for me is about being rooted from within (the authenticity part) and in connection with life and people (the love part). In my mission statement I say that I love life, and that I have a lot of love to give. That authentic love needs to be expressed, and there are various ways I can do that.

Obviously love is expressed in relationships with family, friends and loved ones. And even in those close relationships, there are a variety of ways that love manifests itself. Becoming a father really made me aware of that.

What I recently rediscovered is that music is something that helps me get in touch with my emotions too. Apparantly that’s even a common factor for people, as I’ve read in an article that the first language (“goegoegoegaga”) that we communicate in (with newborn babies) is best labeled as music, instead of as language. It serves the purpose of communicating emotions to the baby, helping them to make sense of the world. I’m definitely going to write about this more, fascinating stuff!

But back to my own guidelines: if music is connected to emotions, making music might also be a great way to express them. It may serve as a way to live through emotions, in other ways than is done in relationships. So to sum all these new insights up, here are the new guidelines:

The new guidelines

• Trust intuition
• Keep the music alive
• Express yourself

Physical state

This is about what you want with your body and mind.

The old guidelines

• I listen to my body and keep myself in balance
• I have a lithe and athletic body with excellent stamina
• My diet mainly consists of healthy organic food

The central value here is Growth, although the aspect of design and impact are important here too. The physical aspect is not really represented in my mission statement anymore, at least not specifically. In order to radiate positive energy though, you need to have high levels of energy. When you feel depleted, you won’t be able to radiate that energy.

Recently I discovered that I look at the physical aspect from a threshold level. My stamina and energy levels need to be above a certain level in order to feel good. But above that level, I don’t have great ambitions. So if we look at the old guideline “I have a lithe and athletic body with excellent stamina”, the stamina part is no longer valid. As far as the athletic body part, that is still true. That part is about being visually pleasing (which originates from the design aspect that I mentioned).

This state is not only about the body, it’s also about the mind. If there is a challenge for me with respect to the mind, than it’s keeping it from creating chaos. I have so many interests and such a desire to learn, that I often get caught up by too many things that are occupying my mind. This is something that needs attention too.

As far as the guidelines go, I shuffled them around quite a bit:

The new guidelines

• Feel healthy and energetic
• Shape up
• Free your mind

And that completes the guidelines in all the five states. Now on to new goals.

New goals

Even though I’ve worked my way through all five different states, I’m not setting goals for all of them simultaneously (again). I have done so in the past, and it turned out to be too much to focus on for me. I’ve discovered that having only a handful of goals works better than having lots of goals. I also discovered that goals with a short deadline work better for me too.

I’ve said this in previous articles already, but I’m going to set three goals. One that focuses on a result, one that focuses on effort and one just for fun. They’re three different types of goals, probably with a very different dynamic. I’m also going to work with a six week timeframe, after which I evaluate the goals and set new ones.

After working my way through all these different levels, I have enough ideas for a lot of different goals. The way I’m going to choose them is less structured than the previous part of the process. Because I’m starting with actively working with goals again, I’m going to choose the ones that give me the most energy from the start. It is best to start with a good experience!

So here are the three different goals:

Result goal:

I want to make some real progress in the “Less stuff” guideline in the Material state. So the goal is to get rid of 100 things over the coming six weeks. That equals more than 2 per day on average. Some of the stuff I’ll throw away (responsibly of course), some of it I’ll give away and some of it I’ll be selling (I hope! This would certainly help the “more cash in” guideline as a side-effect!).

Effort goal:

Over the past year or so, I have pretty much neglected working out at all. On the days I work at school I walk between 4 and 5 kilometers (in total) between school and the trainstation, and even though that’s a good habit that benefits my stamina and physique, it’s not really a workout. I want to improve how I look, so for the effort goal I set that I have to do some strength training everyday.

Fun goal:

As far as the fun goal is concerned. I choose to make music. And since this is the fun goal, I will not define a result I need to obtain or a daily effort I have to put in. Making music is one of the things I want to be consciously working on, without pressure.

And there they are. I’ll be reviewing my progress every week in my weekly reviews. These goals start today, Saterday February 20. The six week deadline is on Friday April 2. And now for some progress!

People are the common denominator of progress. So, paucis verbis, no improvement is possible with unimproved people, and advance is certain when people are liberated and educated.

It would be wrong to dismiss the importance of roads, railroads, power plants, mills, and the other familiar furniture of economic development. At some stages of development they are central to the strategy of development.

But we are coming to realize, I think, that there is a certain sterility in economic monuments that stand alone in a sea of illiteracy. Conquest of illiteracy comes first.

John Kenneth Galbraith

In this article I will be setting new goals, and setting guidelines for how I want to live life.

Quick recap

But before we begin, let’s first take a look at the previous two steps that I took to get to this article. First I revisited my personal core values, taking another look at how they influence my life at this moment in time.

My five personal core values are:

Love – Fun – Growth – Authenticity – Freedom

I discovered that the values Growth and Fun have an outward focus, and the others are primarily inward focused.

Based on the new insights, I rewrote my personal mission statement into this:

I, Lodewijk van den Broek, love life and have a lot of love to give. I radiate positive energy and inspire others to learn and laugh. I thrive on growing my freedom and authenticity.

Or as a mantra: learning life laughing

From the conceptual to the practical

Knowing my personal core values is very valuable, because they are the core influencers of my decisions. They do so regardless of me knowing them, but the knowledge helps me understand why I make decisions the way I do (or why I doubt about others).

My personal mission statement is a way of formulating what my “true North” is, it gives me direction in my life. So knowing my values and having a statement, gives me direction and insight in my decision process. But direction and insight are still rather conceptual. To be able to work on goals or to be able to take day-to-day decisions easily, another step is required.

Last time I used a division in five different aspects of life to define guidelines for each. I continued from there and set several goals for each different aspect.

Five aspects * several goals per aspect = too many goals

I still like the five aspects though, and I’m going to use them again for the guidelines. For the goals however I already decided earlier that I only want three of them simultaneously. One focused on results, one focused on effort and one just for fun. And I want to work with timeframes of six weeks.

Five states of life

The five states of life are a guideline to explore different aspects of life. There are probably many other ways of looking at life that will fit this exercise too. I might explore that sometime, but for now that’s not my focus.

My values and mission statement need to trickle down into these guidelines. So for every state, I want to know what the central values are. And I look at the part of my mission statement where this value is represented. I also look back at the guidelines I set last time. So, here we go!

Material state

This is everything regarding money and possessions

The old guidelines

1. I will not buy stuff I cannot easily afford
2. I have financial freedom
3. I own a large and spacious house with free views and a garden

The central value here is Freedom. Looking at the old guidelines, I still like number one. The other two however don’t seem to be fitting as guidelines. Being financially free is more an ambition, that may become a guideline once I reach that point (newsflash: I haven’t). The third one has a solution built in, which limits its function as a guideline.

In my mission statement I state that I thrive on growing my freedom, and that’s very much true for this particular state. My guidelines should reflect that attitude of growth. But what’s does freedom mean in this context? I could write an entire blogpost about that question, but for now I’ll leave it at this:

The new guidelines

• Less stuff
• Less cash out
• More cash in

The last one is tricky though, because it might lead to financial freedom, but compromise that same value on other states. Something to watch out for!

Active state

This is how you are active in life, the way you add value to society. This can be work, volunteer work, but also hobbies.

The old guidelines

• I create grand and beautiful things that have growth and fun as a central theme
• I create positive energy for myself and pass it on in interaction with other people
• Action is the only way of learning
• Simple is always better than complex

The central values here are Growth and Fun. The active state is very outward focused and I already discovered that these values suit that focus for me. I also discovered that high impact and design play a role here too, and that already shows in the old guidelines. In my mission statement I talk about positive energy and about inspiring people to learn and laugh.

So looking back at these guidelines, they’re still pretty accurate. I still like to rewrite them to make them shorter. So here it goes:

The new guidelines

• Teach and learn
• Have fun
• Create beauty

Social state

This is about you in relationship with others. What is your role as human being, as parent, child, spouse, friend, colleague and so on.

The old guidelines

1. I make people cheerful and make them think
2. I help other when they ask me, and the people I love before they ask me
3. I love nature and give her back as much as she gives me

The central values in this state are Love and Fun. At least one of the two needs to be the basis for a lasting social relationship, but preferably both. There are different forms and levels of love of course.

The love and the fun that are connected with this social state are already reflected in the guidelines. The part where I make people think is better off in my active state though, there’s no need to mix these states unnecessarily. But all in all, these guidelines are still pretty much okay. I made them a little shorter though:

The new guidelines

• Love and have fun
• Be there before you’re needed
• Give back to nature

End of part 1

This turned out into an exercise that took me further than I expected at first. I’m half way through here; two more states need to be revisited and the process needs to be result in a set of goals. Those will be in the next part of this post.

There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error and experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work”.

Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

Rules 3 and 4 of Cherie Carter-Scott’s If Life Is a Game, These Are the Rules.

After revisiting my personal core values, it’s now time to revisit my personal mission statement. Even though I feel this term “personal mission statement” is rather overused and overhyped, the concept of defining a single sentence for your main purpose in life is still a powerful exercise.

So to start this exercise, let’s first check my current definition:

I, Lodewijk van den Broek, love life and have a lot of love to give. I enjoy authentic growth and I help others to grow. I’m here to have lots of fun and enjoy my freedom in comfort and vitality.

I recognize all my five values in them, even after revisiting them like I did (that’s a good thing!). But I do feel that it needs to be fine-tuned.

New insights

What I learned about myself is that I want to make people learn and make them laugh. This is rooted in my values of Growth and Fun. These values are very much focused not only on myself, but also on what I want to do in this world.

The values of Love, Authenticity and Freedom, are mostly values that are focused on myself; they are at this moment in time anyway. The lesson I learned at the Bløf concert is a clear example of this.

Growth and Fun are outward focused, and the other three are inward focused. This needs to be reflected in my mission statement better than it is now.

New personal mission statement

I, Lodewijk van den Broek, love life and have a lot of love to give. I radiate positive energy and inspire others to learn and laugh. I thrive on growing my freedom and authenticity.

Or as a mantra:

Learning Life Laughing

Parts of it haven’t changed, love is still in the first place in pretty much the same way it has been for a long time. The outward focus of Fun and Growth is better represented.

I dropped the comfort and vitality bits, because they don’t need to be mentioned specificallyand their meaning and importance have changed over time. They represent only different aspects of freedom (vitality) and fun (comfort).

High impact and design

There are two aspects that are important to me, but are not reflected in my mission statement. These aspects are impact and design. They’re not reflected in my mission statement, because I feel they’re more nuances than core elements.

Impact and design are important, because they describe the “how” I want to work with my mission statement, and specifically with the outward focused values of Fun and Growth.

I want to make a high impact in the work I do. High impact in the meaning that I want to reach a lot of people, but time synchronous as time asynchronous. Working one on one, although valuable at times, is therefore not my focus.

Design is another aspect of how I want to do my work. I like visually pleasing things, and aim to create visually pleasing things. This blog is an example of that design at work. But the design mentality permeates in different aspects of life too. I’m not a “design for the design” kind of guy, because in my opinion design needs to be functional.

So whenever I create something I want it to create impact, I want it to be visually pleasing, and I want to inspire people to learn and laugh.

Next step: Guidelines and goals

I’ve already taken a sneak peek towards guidelines and goals in this article. I’m going to elaborate on those in the next post, pretty much along similar lines as last time.

Not exactly the same of course, because I learned some lessons about setting goals in the meantime:

• Not too many goals at the same time
• Watch out for colliding deadlines
• Make sure to quantify enough
• And watch out for moving targets

It’ll be interesting to see how these lessons relate to the three different goals I’m going to set myself. One based on effort, one focused on result and one pure for fun.

PS: I realize that this is turning out a series of posts that’s focused on me, and how I’m working my way through this proces. There’s a lot of “me” in there, and I leave the translation to you … entirely up to you. I can assure you that’s not going to stay that way. But this is the process I’m going through right now, and it’s certainly a good way to get back into the writing rhythm again.