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.
My summer was all "in between". In between ending and re-starting kindergarden. In between day trips, visiting relatives and even our first real camping get-away with the kids (which felt like five minutes at the lake wrapped in two days of packing and two days of unpacking...
A few weeks ago I hired a cleaning lady. I thought the difficult part would be finding someone I trust who is efficient, autonomous and flexible. That part turned out to be quite easy. Within four days I had found a great match. The tough part, however, is figuring out whether I really want a stranger cleaning my house. Whether to put yet another fixed appointment in my calendar. Whether to let someone take a close look at each and every corner of a lovely, but pretty imperfect home. Not an easy taskf or me. It turns out I'm the kind of person who cleans before the cleaner...
The greatest people I know are currently becoming the truest versions of themselves. M is spending a lot of time in prayer with Jesus, soaking herself in a feeling of love and belonging. J recently started a sexual liberation, entering unknown territory and tearing down the walls of monogamous relationships. L is slowly and steadily writing her way out of the business world into a place less polished and more true to her. E is no longer trying to please everyone at her own expense and S is radically rethinking the importance of her job, breaking the chains of perfectionism and unfruitful comparison, giving herself room to breathe. There is no one way of cutting through the noise of voices that are not our own. But whenever...
Today, I was supposed to board a plane to Morocco, to do some yoga with my dear friends Judith and Stefanie and to put some daylight between myself and my every-day life. Instead, this morning I had to go for a run in the *freaking* snow next to my house. I am surrounded by my every-day laundry and my every-day kids. For weeks, I had this feeling that something was about to go wrong with this trip. I have extensively been wearing face masks, got tested several times and planned every little detail about this trip. I am literally sitting on a perfectly packed suitcase with a negative PCR test, a triple-checked excel packing list and a pre-filled entry form for the airport in Morocco. The one tiny...
This is the first time I missed my bi-weekly Friday slot to send out my Butterflies. It's also the first time we ever took in a refugee family. After weeks of feeling overwhelmed and helpless looking at the terrible war in Ukraine, we had an opportunity to make a difference for someone in need - and it turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. We had registered on several platforms at the beginning of the war, offering a room for a small family, but the moment I received several Whatsapps from strangers asking whether they could stay with us made me quite nervous. Was I underestimating the support they would need? Would the kids get along and be able to...