You take yourself with you

No matter where you go or stay. You, your habits and your thoughts always come with you. Escaping your old environment is a short-term solution to the problems you think you have.

But, changing your environment does shine a big light on the things that you are attracting, thinking and doing. So it is a great way to grow in awareness and start the process of changing these habits of thought and doing.

One of the things I learned and have witnessed is that when first changing my environment, changing habits seems like an easy effort. And it is - as long as you stick with it. But old thought patterns still exist and as soon as you introduce them back into the daily life, they will be back and feel as usual.

An example of this is using or not using the phone in the morning for me. I can acknowledge that if there is a thing that can distract me from my “feel good” routine it’s taking the phone to see who contacted me, what’s happening in the world and whatever could distract me from what I actually set out to do.

It’s not the phone - It’s breaking the rhythm of coming into the good flow I set forth to be in. It simply adds no value so (dis)attracts the things I do want. You see - it’s really very simple. If you set forth something you want to do - you better do it. Otherwise you will feel like shit.

So, number 1 is: leaving your usual environment is a great step towards understanding your habits and thought patterns but it is not the solution in and of itself. It’s a great to for awareness and a good place to launch your new efforts towards a better feeling, more energetic and happier life. But it is not the answer it the magnifying glass to make those things happen.

Now, a month in, from utter wellbeing and clarity, to the same habits I had before I am taking the power I have to revert these things. Because if one thing does help, it’s driving through the beautiful nature, spending time thinking and observing your thoughts and consciously shifting those thought patterns to the things you want. That’s the work we have to do. Calibration. That’s what it’s all about.

Seeing beauty takes time

Beauty is literally everywhere. I come from a small village in The Netherlands, Axel. Surrounded by beautiful green farm fields, forest and nature. More than enough to enjoy. But, at one point, you just see things as normal - things that just are. Shifting environment - especially beautiful places like Bali really sharpens your perspective of the beauty of the world around you.

Even when you live In a city, there is so much to appreciate.. from the building architecture to the branding of shops and the interior design of restaurants. Everything has beauty. You simply need to take the time to stop and see these things and learn to appreciate them for the beauty that it really is.

Live in the moment

One thing I took on is a new way of organizing my day. I know certain things really help me kickstart so I hold on to this because it makes me feel amazing throughout the day - Wake up early, take a shower, meditate, drink a coffee, have a walk, write my first 2 things to do today and get rollin.

The last thing is my new introduction to productivity. Systems, schedules, to-do and planning are helpful tools to guide us to our intended goals. But, big lists can overwhelm, unreachable goals can overwhelm and if you are a one man show. Things can get pretty tight. However, I found a way to tackle this. A very easy format and it goes like this.

1. Create a morning system that helps YOU kickstart the day. I am not going to tell you what feels best, you know this better than anyone else. You just need to do it.
2. After your morning system, write 2 simple things you want to do. Not ALL-DAY tasks, just 2 things that are checked off in 15 minute brackets. If this is not possible, break up the task in smaller parts.
3. Finish one, move on to the next one but first write down the third task. Follow this process during deep work sessions of around 3 hours and see how insanely much work you can do in just a few hours.
4. Then, with that time saved, give your mind some time to recalibrate. Enjoy some nature, go for a run or go for a workout. Again, you know best what clears the mind.
5. If you are ready, repeat this system. If not, enjoy the hours you now have extra because of your insane productivity.

The key of living in the moment is understanding that ALL your power is in the now. Not looking back or in the future… NOW.

So if you focus on what you want and need to do NOW, you have access to ALL your power within and you will do more, do it better and do it faster.

Then you finally have the time for what life is ment for - enjoy your freedom. Again, this is up to you how you fill this out. If that means playing games with your friends - you do you. Nothing is wrong, you decide.

Beautiful people are everywhere

Just like the beauty of surroundings, it takes some effort to see the people in people. A smile, a greeting, a hand gesture or a walk down a local place can teach you a lot. Especially in Bali Xd. Most people here have quite a serious face and you would think they are just simply very angry people. But the moment you consciously smile, greet or give the a gesture, they light up from the world within and bring up the brightest smile ever.

One thing I learned is that assumptions, are simply that. You don’t know what they are thinking at that moment, people sometimes just have a certain face. In the core, everyone wants to be friendly, everyone wants to be loved and everyone prefers good over bad. Whatever that means anyway. I guess what I am trying to say with this is that you just don’t know unless you try.

That being said, like anything - it starts with you. If you want to see the beauty in people, you have to feel the beauty within yourself. Because for a great part the world is a reflection of who you are.

Learn to open up, more and more and you will come to understand that people really are beautiful. You become vulnerable when you open up the heart - but you will encounter way more beauty in life this way. Sometimes we just have to set our ego aside and do.

That being said - on the other hand I have come to learn that people don’t really give a F about you. In a good way. I think that is the biggest plus of plunging yourself into a new environment. You start to giving less fucks about what others think about you.

I still have residue of this from back home I notice. When I film myself walking across the street, I feel watched. When I think of setting up a film setting next to the road, I feel watched. The opinions of other flow through my mind and I kind of freeze. Something I can still work on - just do it. #Nike

Less is more

Something I already embraced in life is less is more. Not “materialism is bad” but focus on the things that are necessary and the things that you really want to be, do or have.

There are three aspects to this and I am not going to overcomplicate it.

Be less, be more

The person you are is an accumulation of your core, our source of power and guidance combined with the experience you have lived. This makes you who you are. To simplify, don’t listen to others and overcomplicate life.

Do what YOU want to do, do what you FEEL like doing and do what you are guided to do. Your emotions are your compass, use it. Feel bad? Go the other way. Feel good? Follow it. There is no artificial good or bad in this world. We are all different. Your job is to find what feels good to YOU.

Do less, do more

The key take away here is focus. Focus on the now and what is really important. Not next week, not next month. NOW. This brings clarity in the head and helps you to enjoy the moment way more than your probably ever experienced in your life. You still set major goals and milestones, ofcourse. But you focus on what’s important that minute to achieve this. Not what you should do next week.

Have less, have more

As someone who combines all kinds of beliefs and spirits together, I came across and have friends that believe that materialism is a bad thing. I do not agree. It’s the world we live in. And from that perspective, to be a bit spiritualalla. IF you believe we are spirit in a physical body having a physical experience as spirit. Then, is it not the other way around?

What about: we are spirit, living a physical experience to experience physical life. You can have anything you WANT, you can buy anything you WANT, you can create anything you WANT. It’s that simple.

However, to clarify the WANT this is very specific to you. For example - reading books like think and grow rich let me write multiple times that I want a MILLION. Why? Because I thought why not to be honest and still do. However, there was no specificity in there. I do have a great example of what works for me. I'm quite the minimalist yet I do like leading edge experiences. AKA technology is my vibe and really gets me kicking.

Instead of buying a mercedes, I would buy a fully decked new MacBook every year. Why? Because it’s something I use everyday, something I appreciate everyday and I love using the fastest, best available tools and tech on the market.

A mercedes? I could not really think of a use case right now - at least for now. So that’s not something I wrote down on my WANT list. You see - it has to be something YOU want and something only you want because you are inspired to have it, it thrills you and makes you bump out in chicken skin thinking of having it.

Now I said it, I do have to admit there is a car I would really LOVE to have when I get back home. The audio Q3 sportback Hybrid 2025 model. It’s soooo beautiful, but for now it wouldn’t serve me yet.

And I cannot deny that buying a house and moving to Bali is also getting my hair standing up straight at the moment. So let's see how that plays out hm :)

So... Less is more?

What does this have to do with Bali? Well - the life here is simple. You see it all around you. People do what they are and are completely living in the moment. It’s also because they are Hindu, the spirit of this lives in the belief system.

The power of momentum

Momentum is a big subject in life. You cannot have one without the other. Action is necessary to start momentum towards a certain goal, thought or habit, the more you do it, the more focus you get. The less you do it, the less focus you have. Another simple principle which harnesses the value of living in the NOW.

If you want to accomplish something In the now, your focus should be in the now and all you need to do is get momentum going. AKA, start. And the rest will fill in.

There are many tricks that can help you with this and funnily enough, things of books are starting to come back to me as of the writing of this. James Clear writes in the book Atomic habits about initializing habits with 1 minute intents. In other words, intending to do something for one minute is a very small effort and helps you get going. Once you get started, momentum takes over and you just roll in.

Someone else of which I do not know the name.. meg something. Has the 5 second rule. Where you set your intention, count from 5 to 1 and blast into the momentum from there. They all work as tools, but are not the solution, they are exactly what they are: a tool.

The power of habits

As stated before. Systems are valuable tools to feel better, feel stronger and give you a head start on your day. (Morning systems as example)

A system is comprised of small habits that work for you and linked together to create what many call a routine.

It’s up to you to decide what feels good. Don’t look at anyone for reference. Do what makes you feel good.

A small clarification: something I learned along the way is that setting intentions is very important and being specific In this is even more important. I used to say to myself: I am going to wake up early. And I did, but I stayed in bed and fell back to sleep. What I intent now is to wake up early and go straight out of bed and take a shower. Simpler said than done, it took me years to figure that out. But here we are.

I ask of you to do a comparison for yourself. Example: what feels better for me? Wake up early or wake up later? Go to sleep early or go to sleep later? Eat breakfast or fast in the morning? The more you can clarify why, the more clarity you have and the more power you will have to do it.

Some things just make sense. So here’s a list of inspiration and my own routine:

1. Wake up early and get out of bed instantly.
2. Take a (cold) shower/cold plunge.
3. Brew coffee
4. Have a walk (while coffee is chilling)
5. Drink coffee
6. Eat breakfast (only when I gym)
7. Brush my teeth
8. Meditate/yoga/breathwork
9. Set my 2 task daily intention (this can include personal things I need to take care of)
10. Get started

Scooter is freedom

Believe it, I am 29 years old and never driven a scooter in my life. That is, until I came in Bali. A week ago (21 Jan) I had a single driver lesson from a local friend Wayan and went from there. First cruising through the village - then the medium city and for my big self asserted driver lesson I went to the main city Denpassar to pickup some new tech toys. (I needed a reason you know ;))

Before this, I walked everything which in and of itself was a beautiful experience, that’s up next.

But WOW, riding on a scooter in the most freeing thing in the world. It feels so amazing, the traffic here is amazing, it is the most chaotic ever, but it just flows, there are practically no speed limits, people chill on their bikes people race on the bikes and people are still nuts. But somehow it just works. It’s amazing.

And then the best thing of all, driving from location to location is just nothing else then beautiful rice fields, nature, trees, happy people in villages and the list goes on. It’s just so relaxing to drive here, while also taking your full attention as there are big holes in the road, people double crossing you, speeding over you left, right and left-right at the same time. But it’s just all normal here. It’s so amazing I can’t stop saying how amazing it is. Damn. It’s amazing.

Walking brings you in touch

On the other hand. Choosing to do things by foot - people are just not familiar with, and I found out - for good reason. I walking in Ubud for the first 3 weeks practically explored the whole city and the Mas area by foot.

And although it’s really exhausting because of the fumes and humidity, it really gives you the time to appreciate the beauty of the architecture, meeting people and having fun interactions with things you would otherwise simply overlook.

I would suggest doing this too - If you are up for the task. Or just go by foot sometimes - no matter where you are and don’t just go from point A to point B. But keep your eyes open along the route and just jump in somewhere you would never go normally. You will be delightly surprised by the fun and beauty you can find doing this.

Learn to love

A loving environment helps to love. To love your surroundings, the people and everything within. Your body, your mind, your house, your thoughts.

In the end, it comes down to you. What you feel about yourself will be the most active, so use the beauty on the outside to see the beauty on the inside of yourself. And visa versa. In the best world - you use the beauty within to create beauty on the outside.

You can and are allowed to use good things on the outside to get stronger within. But know, that this is not the META. It's the reverse. Things come from within, then they express itself outward.

Namasté. Feel good, be good, have good x