tanja(at)tanjalau.com

+41 (0)32 511 20 09

Bern, Switzerland

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Personal Blog Posts

Being a solopreneur can feel quite lonely. So can being a mother, a product person, a highly-sensitive individual… I made it my mission to bridge the gap between my professional and my private life to show up as authentically and whole-heartedly as I can, inviting others to connect with me from human to human. In this section you can check out extracts from my personal newsletter «Tanja’s Butterflies».

To follow my product-related writing, I recommend subscribing to my Substack blog Learning Organisation. Some of my articles can also be found in the section Publications & Templates.

the stories we tell

In my last newsletter I wrote about unaltered truths, parts of us that never change and that form the core of our essence. But you know what else shapes us profoundly? The narratives woven by others about who we are, often repeated until they become ingrained in our identities:“You’re so funny, your jokes are hilarious.”“You’re such a sweet girl.”“You’re so good with words.”"You never talk about your feelings."“You are so responsible.”"You're not the romantic type."“You are just not able to be in a steady relationship.”“You always overspend.““You’re the type of girls guys like to hang out with, you’re just not girlfriend material.” Some of these affirmations can be empowering, boosting our confidence. But others, if we let them sink in and take root, can be constraining. And...

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(un)altered

Today’s my birthday, and birthdays are a great moment to reflect on life. (Last year I shared a bunch of deep learnings with you, remember?) I usually take some time to think about what has changed in the past year, what I want more or less of in my life. However, this year I somehow put more emphasis on thinking about all the things that have not changed. All the ways in which - deep down - I have always been the same person. Sometimes we deviate from our core believes for a while (I sure did when working in a somewhat shady startup…), we manage to mask our true colors and take on layers of learned behavior or multiple identities. But the most nurturing connections in life are...

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Beginner’s Mind

Shall I tell you about one of the greatest fears in my life? It's to feel boxed in and get bored. To stop growing and to run out of firsts – in my job, in my marriage, in my life.  Luckily, in the last couple of months, I have been busy with a lot of “firsts”:  I took a salsa class with Tobias. Actually, I have done a lot of salsa dancing back in the days, but dancing for the first time with your partner who is just taking his first salsa steps forces you to let go of your expectations and embrace this new beginning. It was a really interesting challenge to let him take the lead, and the course definitely felt a bit like couples...

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Addiction

If I told you that I drank an entire bottle of whisky before lunch to drown my sorrow several times a week, I guess I would get quite a few messages from people concerned about a potential alcohol addiction. Luckily, that is not the case. I do, however, do sports almost every day and don’t feel at ease when I can’t move my body. I do catch myself taking out my phone several times an hour to look at it for no particular reason. I do feel FOMO when I don’t visit Linkedin for a day. Hardly a day goes by without me eating several servings of chocolate or sweets. Now, does this make me an addict? As someone who has gone through an intense phase of...

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Smart Luck

I have a thing for expressions that are almost intranslatable. That only exist in one language. Like bagnasciuga. L’appel du vide. Gluggaveður. Saudade. (Go ahead and google those, I’ll wait :-) Or my all-time favorite word: Serendipity The Cambridge dictionary defines it as “the fact of finding interesting or valuable things by chance”. To me it’s a life philosophy. It’s my safety net against boredom. My antidote to being boxed in. And although chance is a defining element in it, to me serendipity is the opposite of “blind” luck. Blind luck is something that happens to you without your influence. Serendipity is what I define as smart luck. And I'm not the only one. Christian Busch, author of Serendipity Mindset (see box below), thinks of serendipity as “unexpected good luck resulting from unplanned moments, in which proactive decisions yield positive...

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