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Getting Sh** Done

16. Juli 2024

“All of my favorite underpants are gone!” my son exclaimed in frustration last week. And rightly so—they were indeed all missing. Confession time: I’m a squirrel. (Some of you might remember my newsletter about packing strategies…). I start gathering items weeks before any trip, stashing my family members’ favorite socks, t-shirts, and trousers right from the laundry, and piling up games and equipment in different stacks. At times, various upcoming trips simultaneously occupy different corners of our house… “Why on earth would you do that?”, you might ask. It’s simple. I’m a precrastinator. We all know procrastinators: They wait until the last minute to submit their taxes, buy a gift, book vacations, hand in their reports at work—you name it. For some, it works out quite well...

freedom

13. Juni 2024

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"Sometimes, a person reaches a point in their life when it becomes absolutely essential to get the fuck out of the city." (A Psalm for the Wild Built)I had reached that point last week. I was so fed up with everything lately that at first I thought I needed at least six months to break free. That's how long it takes to walk the Pacific Crest Trail. And some day I might - but not right now. Then I thought, I needed at least four weeks to do some meaningful pro-bono work down in Africa to reconnect to a purpose. And one day I might - but not yet. I was convinced I needed 11 days in silence to help me recharge. Turns out all...

the stories we tell

20. Mai 2024

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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...

(un)altered

10. Mai 2024

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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...

Beginner’s Mind

28. März 2024

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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...

Addiction

24. März 2024

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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...

Smart Luck

23. Februar 2024

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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...

Curiosity

8. Februar 2024

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“Don’t be nosy.”“Don’t ask stupid questions.”Curiosity killed the cat – they say. There was a point in my childhood where I shifted from asking lots of questions to expecting myself to figure things out by myself. The Encarta encyclopedia (who still rembers the good old CD-ROM?) turned into one of my best friends. I refused to eat with chopsticks instead of admitting that I had no clue how to use them. When someone asked my if I had read a certain book, I'd rather say yes and hope I'd get through with it than asking what it was about. At that time, I would never have guessed that one day running classes about product discovery would become my bread and butter – let alone that I would...

1% – Drifting into Failure

8. Januar 2024

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A little scratch on the leg, maybe a dry nostril that cracked open just a tiny bit - we will never know what caused my husband’s leg to develop a severe bacterial infection last week. Despite several visits to the doctors and even a check-up at the hospital, the unlucky combination of his symptoms manifesting with delay in his blood results, Tobi’s eagerness to make his ski holidays count and medical practitioners not laying out the possible range of scenarios to pay attention to led to two surgeries and a week at the hospital. I couldn’t help but notice the parallels to a book I am currently reading, called Drift into Failure (see section below for my review). Our bodies are in fact living organisms that represent...

Poetry

26. Dezember 2023

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My first true love was ink on paper. Letters lined up neatly on a piece of paper. The smell of a new book. Sentences scribbled into carefully hidden notebooks to caputure a fleeting feeling. I was, am and always will be in love with books. Since I was a kid, I would pour my heart and soul out on paper - just to find it again in someone else's writing. In fact, I got so obsessed with certain books that I would hide them from my sister, afraid that by reading them she might be able to take a sneak peek into the deepest chambers of my soul...

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Getting Sh** Done

freedom

the stories we tell

(un)altered

Beginner’s Mind

Addiction

Smart Luck

Curiosity

1% – Drifting into Failure

Poetry

Tanja’s Butterflies

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