Making Exercise Work

I read a lot of books on successful entrepreneurs and what it takes to be successful (whatever you may define as successful). One of the common threads throughout most of the books is the importance of working out and getting in your exercise for the day. Think about it. How many overweight successful people do you know? Definitely not as many in shape people I’m assuming.

There are many reasons why exercise is so important for those who are successful and are striving towards the road of success and here are just a few…

1. Exercise helps tremendously with keeping stress levels at bay.

2. Exercise gives you energy which entrepreneurs and busy people need because there’s always lots to do in a day.

3. Exercise strengthens the immune system, keeps you healthy, and away from that sick sneezing coughing fun

4. Exercise creates ideas. Have you ever been out running or walking and end up with coming up with an amazing business idea or a solution to a problem? Could be because of being surrounded by nature but I have gotten some of my best ideas from taking a walk. And biking counts especially since we bike everywhere around Amsterdam.

5. Exercise clears the mind. If you’re playing a sport or have to move using any eye-hand-foot coordination you’ve got to be present. Being present gives you the space to not worry about what else is going on in your life. It’s focusing on the now and all of your surroundings. Exercise keeps you focused on what you are doing at that exact time and space. It feels wonderful to not have think about your responsibilities for 1-2hrs.

6. Exercise just makes you feel good about yourself.

In my vision of my life in 10 years, I have written down that I get up early everyday (though there isn’t an exact time), meditate and intend for 1/2 hr and then workout doing either yoga or some other fun activity I’m involved with at the moment like CrossFit before I get my day started. I know that to be the type of successful person I want to be in 10 years I have to workout and act like a successful person.

So here I am back in the present and committing myself to workout for at least a half hour every day. My fitness goal for February is to workout 29 times and my health goal is giving up sugar for 29 days.  Keeping the goals easy to track is the trick to achieving goals as well as telling everyone around you so that you’re held accountable. I’m starting up Knowmads next Monday so I know I will be a lot busier since I’ve gotten to Amsterdam Jan 11th. Making sure I make the time to workout is going to be a nececesity and one that has to turn into a habit.

Since living here in Amsterdam, I’ve slacked off with my exercise habits (i.e. attending bikram yoga every day). I did go running 3 times in a row once I got some stability with my living situation thinking I had created a habit for myself but when that 4th day came around and it was raining and the 5th and 6th day just the same, there was no way I wanted to go outside for my run. I thought I’d be able to get myself accustomed to running in the cold because that’s exercise you can do anywhere but I’ve realized the costs of going out in the freezing windy city of Amsterdam are too much for me. After the running stint I found a bikram yoga studio and ended up going twice with the deal they had for new students. On top of the yoga, I also went to 2 basketball practices. Although I enjoyed every minute of the exercise, it was the time in between I wasn’t enjoying like the soreness, the fatigue, and the constant desire to take a nap.

What I’ve found is that it is not going to be possible for me to do 2 hours plus of working out a day all while being a student at Knowmads plus working at my ‘au pair’ job. Hitting the 2 hour intense workout milestone then wanting to get lots of things done and go to fun places makes for a pretty exhausting Knowmadic Kristin. The long workout actually has an inverse effect on my body and all I end up wanting to do is take naps. I realize I don’t want to workout for 2 hours here in A’dam because it’s not the true focus of why I’m here. I know that working out is extremely important which is why a mentality of “get in and get out” at the gym/apt is perfect for me this Knowmadic year. No fooling around, lolly gagging or slow jogging around A’dam. A quick intense workout on most days and relaxing recuperating yoga on the other days I think will do just the trick for a balanced lifestyle.

I’ve always been a person who will work my butt off at a gym and will go to 2-4 different classes just because they sound fun. But looking back on those times, I was usually unproductive the rest of the day because my body was so exhausted. Changing my mindset to small intense workouts (30 mins max) plus yoga sprinkled heavily in between is the best bet for me. Do I smell some CrossFit Amsterdam in my future?

Here’s to balancing work and fitness!

Are you getting your daily exercise? If not, set some goals, get an exercise buddy and start moving!

Lessons Lived and Others Still Learning

Lesson #1: Get a bike if you want to get around Amsterdam

I officially became a dutch last week when I bought a bike. This isn’t any old bike. My bike is legit. It’s got a basket! And a bell! And came with flashing lights lights lights! And a lock! And a 2nd seat to transport friends! You need a bike around Amsterdam because there are so many streets that the buses, trams, and metro don’t go to and I’m not saying that because the public transportation in the city is bad, it’s actually quite good. The public transportation is also super cheap but the trick is to buy a prepaid transit card and then rides are less than a euro. However, if you pay when you get on the bus the trip will cost you over 2 euros no matter where you go. So maybe that’s lesson #1 1/2. Anyways, now that I have a bike I can get around the city and beyond (see lesson #3) anytime I want and what’s great is that I don’t have monthly expenses like I did for my car. I feel so free!

Lesson #2: Get a real lock

My bike came with a built in lock which I thought was an extremely great feature of my new bike. Then I went to a dinner of friends of friends last Friday and I told them I had a bike with just my little built in lock. They said “Oh! You’ll already dutch then and you’ll really be dutch when you get your bike stolen.” Hint, hint…get a good lock. I ended up getting the cheapest lock at the bike store but figured if someone wants to break through 2 locks then they clearly need the bike more than I do. See above for my cool green lock. Makes finding my bike a bit easier amongst the hundreds of bikes parked on the sides of the streets.

Lesson #3: Go to a hippie (alternative) village only when there are events happening

The first day I had my bike I asked my Swedish roommate, Rebecca, where I should go. She got really excited and said “Go to the hippie village!!” It sounded pretty cool from the website and in my head I was picturing a communal society where they shared in the growing of the food and being a sustainable community filled with love of course…they’re hippies. So we google mapped it and I naively thought it didn’t look that far away by bike…It took me an hour and half to get there by bike but I’m also pretty sure that the 30mph winds didn’t help much with time. When I got to the village I immediately thought I’m in a scene of a scary movie. The houses were filled with junk inside and in their yards and some were shaped funny. There were writings and paintings on the walls of the houses which I’m sure said wonderful things but I couldn’t read them because of  my lack of the dutch language. But the creepiest thing about the village was that the place was eerily deserted and not to mention the scary looking old church. The energy in the air was freakin’ me out so I snapped a few more pictures and rode out of there with the wind pushing me from behind (clearly a sign). I told myself I’d come back when there is a drum party scheduled and I’m with friends. I realized though the village has a lot of money making potential becuase they could easily rent out their neighborhood and creepy old church for making scary movies, perfect setting!

Lesson #4 Best Place to Buy Dutch Apple Pie is Cafe Winkel

I had a dutch apple pie date with Anastasia on Saturday at Cafe Winkel right next to the organic market. The apple pie came fresh out of the oven so it was nice and warm which made the whipped cream melt fast if you didn’t eat the pie right away. This apple pie doesn’t have the crunchy topping like the dutch apple pie we have in America. The top of it was latticed and the pie was about 3 inches high from the crust to the money bite. If you want to experience dutch apple pie in Amsterdam then you must go to Cafe Winkel. The cafe wasn’t serving anything else but pie and drinks but the cafe was packed as well as all the outside seating and it wasn’t even ‘warm’ out Saturday. Now that I’ve tried a dutch apple pie, a friend told me via fbk that now I have to try a dutch oven but I may have to pass on that, something tells me they could be worse here then back home

Lesson #5: Canned vegetables aren’t located in the canned goods aisle.

The other day I wanted to make chili and of course what’s chili without corn? So I went to the local market called Dirk. I grabbed the chili seasoning, tomato paste, tomatoes, and brussel sprouts (those go surprisingly well in chili) but I needed that corn. I searched everywhere for the canned vegetable, going down every aisle and I just could not find that corn. I went to the canned tomato section thinking the corn would be with some other canned vegetables…wrong. Where the heck was that corn? Then I saw a girl coming from the produce section carrying a glass jar of peas. Eureka! They’re in the produce (vegetable) section, duh! The dutch have an interesting way of setting up their market and I’m not entirely sure it’s the most profitable but I can’t complain. Food here is cheap! I got everything in the picture below for 2.40! Can’t make that happen in America.

2 Lessons I’m still figuring out:

1. How to make a left hand turn on your bike.

I have had my bike for almost 2 weeks and I still get anxious when attempting to make a left hand turn. I pray that there’s no bikes behind me (there always is), I pray that the traffic going with me has already sped by, and then by that time I’m praying that there isn’t anymore oncoming traffic. If all my praying works out I’m able to make that left hand turn but that has only happened once. Most of the time I find myself crossing the intersection and then stopping awkwardly, getting off my bike to turn it in the left direction and then waiting for the green bike light to turn. Every time (except for that 1 good left hand turn) I have had an awkward experience with another bike rider. Usually I make them almost fall off their bike. I yell “Sorry!” get embarrassed for a second and then laugh it off. Silly American. So if anyone has pointers I am open to all advice on how to handle that left turn so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment!

2. Not all hazelnut spreads are treated equally.

Apparently not all chocolate/hazelnut spreads taste like nutella. Could have fooled me! I’ve been buying the cheap brands and experimenting with taste and texture. Only thing I’ve noticed is the texture and they all taste like chocolate. My Swedish roommates tell me the chocolate spread I’m always eating tastes like chocolate butter. <Is that a bad thing?> And it tastes significantly different than nutella (in a bad way). I don’t notice the difference. It all tastes like yummy goodness going straight to my hips. I got to thinking that maybe there is a difference and what I’m really eating is chocolate icing in disguise. I can imagine eating a layered cake with this as the icing <salivating>.  As I’m writing this post all I can think about is what else I have in the kitchen to help me consume more of this yummy goodness…guess I’ll just grab a spoon!

Update: I quoted my Swedish flatmates wrong. They said it didn’t even taste like chocolate…just butter.

writer’s note: My goal for February is to give up sugar so if you see me eating any nutella-like products, smack it right out of my hands. Thank y0u

Still learning so much so look out for more lessons in the future!

The Picassos of Visual Mapping

You are either a auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learner. You are still able to learn through all 3 ways but honestly you are strongest in one of them. I know for a fact that I am a visual learner. I’d watch basketball games in high school and be able to pick up on the moves with just one try all because I saw it first then watched myself do it in my head. Bam, once I got on the court I could do the move. It’s also better for me to read something and have it visual because I can then picture it in my head so when that test comes I can recall what I saw on the page. However not entirely true because then I would be conisdered to have a picture memory but I’m pretty sure my camera lens is broken. I can visualize the information on the page but the picture is very murky that I ALMOST make it out but not quite. Sooo close to being a brainiac in school…so close. Instead I had to fall back on that thing called hard work.

Yesterday, I went to Knowmads because I thought I was meeting up with Anastasia to talk about our fund raising projects. As it turned out, Anastasia never got my message but I came at the perfect time to be asked to join the last bit of the visual thinking workshop. Manuel Sturm, a student from Tribe 1, who runs ModelMinds a business that helps organizations create visual tools along with his business partner Oscar was leading the workshop and Manuel asked if I wanted to join. Just like the dance workshop my body was tell me “Don’t do the workshop! Drawing is scary. You don’t know how to put ideas into visual form so you will fail. Make up an excuse and go home.” However, something told me to experience it and since I live in possibility I thought who knows I may end up drawing some pretty awesome visuals like the ones already posted on the walls. No expectations just possibility.

Before the second half of the day’s workshop started, Manuel and his workshop partner Martine Vanremoortele from Visual Harvesting gave me the run down on visual learning to sort of catch me up on what was happening at the workshop. Instead of having pages and pages worth of notes on lectures, workshops, assignments, etc, it’s much easier to create a visual board of what you are doing or have learned. Looking through your notes is tedious and there’s usually a lot of wasted words and unimportant ideas. With the visual learning tool you end up highlighting the most important parts of the notes. You have 1 page to look at and it makes the recap so much more concise and memorable. It’s much easier to show in a picture, it is visual after all. This is Manuel’s visual recap of the WTF Lecture: Michael Doneman on Love.

Isn’t that something? There’s actually an organization to the madness and that was what Manuel and Martine taught us. They had us each create a visual template that would take the place of note taking or something to help us be more organized. For example, templates on WTF Lectures, film making projects, and job interviewing. I chose to create a template to help me organize all the books I read. Since I read so much I have notebooks filled with favorite quotes of books and learnings I want to implement into my life but I find myself rarely looking through them because they are just a bunch of unorganized quotes.

The fun began when we sat down to create our templates. Where the heck do I start?? I saw all these beautiful visuals around the room filled with cool looking icons and nice calligraphy but I tell myself these are things I cannot do. I didn’t even know where to start. Finally I came up with the idea to just write down all the things I want to extract from a book I read. I’m guessing that as one gets better with this visual mapping they lose the step of writing down what they want to visualize and immediately go straight to the mapping. Now I have all the general information I want from a book so now comes the part of putting it down on visual map. Chunking it up into circles, squares, and other shapes I figured was the best place to start and then I could make it prettier with the inspiration of the examples. Here is my first draft of my book template. As you can see clearly not a pretty visual.

1st draft of my visual template

As I sat there trying to find inspiration through the template examples, Manuel came over to see how I was doing (thank goodness!). He helped me take my first draft and turn it into something that makes more sense visually.  With the help of his creative mind and drawing hand we came up with my 2nd draft.

2nd draft which is a whole lot prettier

Then I took a book I recently read, How Successful People Think by John C. Maxwell and tested my template.

First time using the template

I realized after filling out the template that I really had to choose carefully what I wanted to take away from the book. I had to be concise with my ideas because there was only so much space. It is nice though that I have one organized page about 1 book so I can look at it quickly and remember what I have learned. I know that as I continue to use the template I will start using better shorthand and create icons that have lots of meaning and the page will start to show a resemblance to Picassos!

How will I use this knowledge of visual mapping? I know there are a lot of opportunities with visual mapping but at the moment I don’t know all of the ways because I only participated in 2  1/2 hrs of the workshop out of the 2 days. What I have learned though is that I can create templates to help me organize the thoughts from lectures and use templates in the projects I’m involved with. My goal is to create 2 more templates by next Wednesday so I practice the art of template making. I’ll put them in future posts to see how I evolve in my template making skills.

If you think that visual mapping will help your business, organization or workshop I highly suggest you contact ModelMinds in Amsterdam or  Visual Harvesting in Belgium. They’ll provide you with a completely new way of working that is so unlike the traditional brainstorming and note taking. They’re the real Picassos of visual mapping. Check ‘em out!

Is it the money or the education?

Forbes.com had an interesting article posted last week on their site called, “A Free College Education For All.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2012/01/19/a-free-college-education-for-all/

It starts by talking about due to the economic times, universities such as SUNY in New York (SUNY UAlbany is my alma mater) and school systems in California have had to raise the cost of tuition significantly. Also that it has been increasingly more difficult to find grants and other traditional sources of funding for college because of the government budget crisis. The article then goes into how colleges and universities can greatly reduce the cost of education and basically get your education for mere pennies.

What I find interesting about this article is that it doesn’t solve the main issue of our education system. The author mentions in the article, “Is college teaching what students really need to know? Will it really be able to guarantee graduates a place in the middle class as it has done in the past? Do the benefits of college justify the increasingly burdensome student loan debt that our nation’s youth is now saddled with? Higher education, already unaffordable, may no longer be worth the cost.” So they clearly know these are big issues. But most of the article’s focus is on how to get education for free. If we know that education at the college level isn’t worth it these days, why is the solution to make education worth nothing to get?

We need to focus on different solutions to our education system. Don’t get me wrong. The cost of a college education is ridiculous and you don’t get much for your money, not even a guarantee of a job and you paid them $100,000 for 4  years! What other types of business do you let take advantage of you like that? So yes, figuring out innovative ways to lower the cost of education is a must. I particularly like what students at UC Santa Barbara have proposed to their school in regards to tuition. They propose that students pay a certain percentage of their income after college instead of paying up front. That way colleges have a vested interest in where and what their students get into after college. Not caring or helping students find jobs in their fields of study (doing things they at least enjoy) I find is one of the biggest problems with education.

Still the question remains…how do we make education worth something again? That’s my mission at Knowmads…1 of them.

Here’s the link to the UC Santa Barbara story: http://www.dailynexus.com/2012-01-17/ucr-students-unveil-unique-payment-plan/

This is the Rhythm of the Night

I just wanna dance.

Can you hear yourself or friends saying that on a Saturday night? All you want to do is just move your body. No determination to get drunk out of your mind or the need to pick up a girl or go home with a guy. Just dancing. Though what has usually happened for me at clubs in the past is that I end up getting hit on by guys who buy me drinks which I kindly accept (I’ve gotten better at this…water please) and then I get these <insert adjective here> guys all up on me (you know what I’m talking about girls) trying to dance with me. Not my definition of fun.  I just wanna dance gosh darnit! So here I am in a club/bar, drunk but still completely self-conscious of my my dancing and how I look. Never truly letting go or allowing myself to just move my body how it wants to. The identity I always make up in my head is that I don’t know any good dance moves. Everyone has better moves than me. My friends go out all the time (I usually am low key) they’ve had practice. My friends watch music videos (what are music videos? oh right, that show that used to be on MTV called Making the Video) they know the newest Beyonce and Rihanna moves. Of course I can say all those things but what it really comes down is I want to look good and avoid looking bad.

So today at Knowmads was a 5 rhythms workshop. Don’t ask me what the 5 rhythms are because I made it to the last hour of the 3 hr session so I missed a lot. Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5Rhythms   <—-YAY! wikipedia’s back And here is the instructor’s sight: http://www.5rhythms-amsterdam.nl/contact.html (does anyone know how to put hyper links into my post??? This is getting old).

Summary: It’s dancing in a ‘wave’ of rhythm.

It was 3 hours of straight dancing with a very short introduction by our instructor Mirjam so I was told. I only made it to the last hour. To be honest I didn’t want to dance when I came to Knowmads in the afternoon. Dancing sometimes gives me anxiety and I say ‘sometimes’ because sometimes I can be in that “I just wanna dance” tranquil mode. When Pieter Spinder told me that I might like the dance workshop in the other classroom because I like sports, I first thought “Dangit, I’ve gotta live up to that identity. I don’t feel like dancing right now.” completely silly I know…and second, “Heck, I’m in a foreign place. People don’t know me. And remember what Landmark taught me. People are motivated by wanting to look good and avoid looking bad.”…and third, “Get the most out of this Knowmadic experience and get your butt over there!” And so I went.

In that hour that I was in there I learned to let go. I felt the space to just be me. Let the music direct my movement. Forget about what other people thought of my movement. Move because that is what I wanted to do. I found that the crazier peoples dancing and movement, the more inspiring they were to me. It made me want to push myself to think of other ways to move my body. I racked my brain of all the past memories of dancing that I’ve witnessed throughout my life and did my own interpretation of the movements. I realized that a lot of my dancing/movement was inspired by basketball moves, fitness exercises and yoga moves. Can you envision that? Pretty friggin’ sweet dance moves.

After we made it to 4 o’clock and everyone ending up sprawled out on the floor, we reflected on our experience. Nikolaj, the newest member of the council, asked Mirjam how this dance workshop could be useful in business. Legit question. The tribe members helped answer the question by saying that dancing get’s your blood flowing. It’s movement and when your group has been working on an assignment for hours, that movement can awaken new ideas. It get’s you new energy and possibly a new outlook on the direction of your project. However, I think all those outcomes can happen with any sport and movement activity. Why choose dance over a few sun salutations or a game of basketball?

I think the answer is in the music and the art of truly letting go with no rules or sequences holding you back. If you’ve ever taken Nia which is a form of aerobics hehe (you’d get the joke if you’ve ever taken a class) then you can pretty much relate to what I did today. Nia is a movement based on self-discovery and personal transformation. When we really let go and let be in our movements, we transform and discover new ways of doing and seeing things which is what we want to accomplish as changemakers and leaders.

And guys: A study I just found… flamboyant male dancing attracts women best…check out this site http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2586063/posts

 

72 Euros

 

Me in 14 days…not a hand model yet but now that I think about it, a good way to make 72 euros a day

72 euros in 14 days = 1000 euros by Feb 6th

That is what my fellow Tribe 5 member, Anastasia, and I came up with today. We both need that much to put a down payment on our tuition fee. Breaking down the big goal makes it seem very doable (it works for any goal just try it).

72 euros a day! That’s it.

Now comes the time to put on the ol’ entrepreneurial hat and create ways to earn 72 euros day. We spent 2 hours today brainstorming ideas. Talking about what we like to do, what we are good at, useful skills, birthday parties, cash flow game nights, meditations for manifesting, all sorts of things. We didn’t come up with any solid solutions thus far but we created a lot of great places to start.

Being surrounded by people who want to create cool things and who have similar intentions is why I’m so excited to start this journey with the Knowmads Business School. Anastasia and I both want to create sustainable social businesses that provide us with a passive income because what it really comes down to is the desire for freedom. The freedom to do whatever we want so that we can help people live lives full of passion and happiness. A fun possibility just as possible as 72 euros a day.

As I write this post I’ve come up with a brilliant idea. Taking our love of food and cooking and combining it with our passion of helping people achieve their dreams, I have manifested this brilliant idea and now have a fun challenging mission to accomplish <Look! I’m already manifesting and I haven’t even started my manifesting meditations tonight!>

The mission: Cooking dinner (and dessert of course) for 15 people each night at Knowmads and give a goal coaching session and possibility lecture. Attendees pay as much as they see fit. Perfect world would be 10 euros/person. The fun challenge is to get food from restaurants, food market, and farms around Amsterdam through donation (and we’ll give a coupon for a free goal coaching session in return). That’s finding 15 people each night who want to eat, set goals, and live in possibility!

Dig the idea? Want to help Anastasia and I reach our goal of attending the Knowmads Business School? Spread the word. Share it. We have 210 dinner seats available. Now through February 6th.

If you don’t live in Amsterdam and you want to help us achieve our mission, I have started a social student loan where you can loan whatever you feel like loaning. If you mention this blog post in your ‘donation’ through the site I will give you a free goal coaching session via skype. Goals change peoples lives so it’s a pretty sweet deal

Go here to ‘donate’: http://www.greennote.com/student.aspx?id=475

Now off to do my manifesting meditation on gratitude!

Unconditional Love

This week I received the same message in 2 very different situations. I believe that everything is energy so of course I begin to wonder what I am giving out to the universe that is making me receive this message.

THE MESSAGE:  LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY EVERYTHING YOU DO BECAUSE YOU HAVE A CHOICE

I first heard this message during the Knowmads WTF Lecture on Love by Michael Doneman. He compared love and your business to a lasting marriage. When people ask Doneman the secret to his 30 year plus marriage he says, “You don’t get divorced.” Meaning that no matter what happens you stay committed to each other because you love each other even though you hate each other at the moment. Doneman also mentioned arranged marriages and that the reason they work is because the husband and wife learn to love each other (because their moms and dads tell them getting married is the best choice).

It is instilled in us that most marriages don’t last. I just googled “do marriages last” and the US Census Bureau told me, “Many Americans stay married and have long marriages. Did you know that the median duration of American women’s first marriages in 2009 was 20.8 years? Even when American women remarry, the median duration of their second marriages in 2009 was 14.5 years.” However that really doesn’t tell me if the marriage lasted unless after those 20.8 years one of them in the marriage dies. Anyways, I digress. We always hear someone is getting a divorce, the marriage fell apart and it that is supposed to be normal.

The same is true of start up businesses. We are told most businesses don’t last. What Doneman pointed out (to get it out of the way) was that it’s because of the cash flow that businesses fail. Cash flow is like the blood in our body. We need blood in our body to function just like we need cash for our business to function. But cash flow isn’t what keeps us motivated in our business, it’s just in the background like blood. So what keeps us motivated to stay with our business? Love, just as in marriage. You make the choice to stay with your business (wife/husband) because in the whole scheme of things you love it. It’s when you start to lose focus on what you love about your business that your business starts to go towards that tragic business statistic. When you have a great business idea and things seem to be going south instead of jumping ship and allowing your business to fail you hold tight. You remind yourself why you started the business in the first place and find that love again to do whatever you have to do to keep it alive. You always have a choice to love your business. You either make the decision not to love it and watch it fail or you make the choice to love it and watch its heart beat.

The 2nd place I heard the message about unconditional love was at dinner tonight. Being a real friend is about having unconditional love for them. Not expecting anything in return. What’s interesting is that it’s actually easier to love someone else than to love ourselves <—so true! We treat others better than we treat ourselves because we lack the unconditional love for ourselves. Why don’t we have as much compassion for ourselves as we do for others? We’re the ones that have to put up with ourselves 24hrs. When we make a mistake we beat ourselves up over it even though the best way to become a better person is to make the mistake and then learn from it. Pain is the messenger, it helps bring out the medicine. I’m excited to see the day when we glorify mistakes and failures instead of perfect performance. Because these days we constantly crave that perfection and end up being tight and therefore never reaching perfection. And does that make us happy, being a perfectionist? This constant state of trying do perfect things is tiring. Let’s let go of perfection and choose compassion. Let’s praise the mistakes and failures and learn so much more from them but remember to not beat yourself up over those mistakes/failures. Remember that love is a choice and when you choose to have unconditional self love you just be. Which brings me back to my quote of the day (what a coincidence!), “Whatever you are, you are. Be proud of it.” – Yogi Bhajan

Question Your Education

Question your education.

Are we doing enough of that lately? Or are we so brainwashed by society that going to college/university or getting a master’s degree is just the next step we take in life.  You can’t get a good job without a college degree. You have to get a master’s degree in order to move up in the company and make more money. These statements are told to us constantly and we end up believing it then telling it to the next generation. The cycle continues.

Maybe you do need that pre-med or mathematics degree in order to obtain the knowledge to be a doctor or an actuary if you aren’t a Doogie Howser or John Nash from A Beautiful Mind. And this could be true for all types of degrees because maybe you don’t have a lot of knowledge about science but you do know that you want to learn a lot more of it. If that’s the case then still, are you questioning your education?

Do you want to learn by listening to lectures? Do you want to purchase expensive books that are so dense and boring you barely retain anything? Books that get updated every 2 years so that some people can make even more money (this a whole other topic). How much are you learning by dissecting a case study? By solving problems that come from a book? Memorizing vocabulary word after vocabulary word? Taking notes and forgetting half of what the professor is saying?

Has this form of education and learning been working for you? Look at where you are now and where that education has gotten you. Has it helped you reach your goals and dreams? Are you happy with this type of education or have you craved something different? Question your education.

What is this?

Some of you are wondering what exactly I’m doing here in Amsterdam. What is this Knowmads business school? What do you do there? What’s the point?

I honestly thought I had a good idea of what Knowmads was about before coming to Amsterdam but I was wrong. They are up to some pretty cool sh^t. Working with Werald Winkel, TED, Edgard Gouveia Junior with the Oasis Game, invisible learning, and having their own Shaman. Yes, their own Shaman. There are workshops going on, businesses pitching their project to the students, presentations happening, events being planned, projects developing and so much more going on and all happening in one week every week! There are no tests here or required books to buy or a strict schedule to adhere by. This is the real world…in (alternative) business school form.

Last Thursday and Friday, 11 applicants (I was one of those) went through an application workshop to see if a) they get accepted into Tribe 5 Knowmads and b) they like what this school is up to and it fits their idea of education. During the workshop we did a series of energy boosting games (some that I will take with me like the dual game and slow motion rugby), speeches to get know each other,  lots of reflection and feedback (thanks to lululemon I’ve gotten super comfortable with feedback!), and working on real business projects. These projects weren’t hypothetical, we had 24 hours to come up with a solution to their problems and hope that we delivered.

My group worked with an organization called Economy Transformers (ET). They are a community of over 400 individuals with a common goal of creating an economy that serves humankind and nature. Their community is getting so large that they don’t know how to handle it. ET wanted us to create a business model out of their community, make it sustainable and do it in such a way that followed their mission. Our group thought we were on to something good at the end of the first day finally coming to an agreement with an effective sustainable business model. However, when we pitched our idea the next morning to the school and the other applicants we got a nice surprise from one of the members of the counsel saying we weren’t creating anything innovative. So back to the drawing board and many more discussions. I don’t think I’ve discussed something so much and gotten no where. I’m pretty sure we were all frustrated in someway. But in the end we were able to deliver something to our client. Was it the solution they were looking for? Probably not but it most likely got their wheels turning on where they could take Economy Transformers.

This is what I believe Knowmads is all about. Clients pitching projects to students and having the choice to take that project on depending on the interest level. Projects that are so ambiguous that it’s actually a good thing because there is now so much space to create whatever the heck you want. That’s what these clients want. They come to Knowmads because they are working with students who have a different view of the world and work in a way that is different then the norm. The clients know they will get a solution to their problem that they wouldn’t be able to create themselves because Knowmads provides the space to create and the audacity to think outside the wine glass.
Can I tell you exactly what I learned those 2 days? I could give you some small learnings such as the idea that it isn’t about the winning it’s about the entertaining or learning to never leave a conversation until everyone understands. However, I think with this type of action learning you realize you learn the most when you’ve done a few more projects. When 1-3 months have gone by and you’re working on different projects. You see how you’ve changed as a leader, a follower, a facilitator, a presenter, and a person because these projects become a part of you. You see your evolution because you reflect, give feedback and are constantly taking action moving forward or to the left or right and possibly even backwards but always learning.

And that’s the point of Knowmads in my opinion. Learning by constantly taking action.

2012 The Year of Going For It

The new year means a new cycle. A reason to get a jump-start on an action we want to turn into a habit. We see 2012 as a new cycle but we also use months as cycles and weeks as cycles like when someone says they’ll start at the beginning of the next month or “I’ll start Monday. I can’t start today because that doesn’t make sense to start on a Tuesday.” We use these excuses and play these mind games with ourselves to hold us back from becoming better person.

I have tried to find every new beginning time on the calendar to start a new habit. I’ve used my birthday, the next month, Columbus Day, the full moon, the Chinese New Year but I’ve noticed that never work unless I talk myself into really committing to the goal. It will be the day or the week of a holiday and I want to change an eating habit or start an exercise program or intend and I won’t start it that day. I tell myself l have to wait till that glorious holiday or certain cycle is beginning for it to really make sense in my head to start to cultivate that new habit and even when I get there 50% of the time I don’t start the habit that day.

The crazy thing is that I have the opportunity every day to start a new program or become a better person. I don’t have to wait until next Monday even if tonight is Monday and spending that entire week moving backwards because “I have one last week to enjoy those yummy baked goods/chocolate!”. Every day is a new cycle! It’s all in how you perceive it. If I’m truly committed to taking on that habit then there is no need for me to wait a specific day just because it’s an important day on the calendar. Everyday is important. When I don’t take action immediately I’m subconsciously telling myself that this day or the next day doesn’t matter in the whole scheme of my life. That is bananas because it really is all about little actions every day that will eventually turn into a habit.

Today, the first day of January, I missed my new rituals I want to start for 2012. I want to get up at 7am everyday…I somehow slept through my alarm and woke up at 7:45am. I want to meditate and intend for at least 5 mins each every morning…Didn’t do that when my 2 little nephews came jumping onto my bed at 7:45am. I didn’t work out …because I wanted to spend as much time with my family (but playing with a 5 and 3-year-old counts doesn’t it?). But I’m completely ok with my decisions today. There is no hating myself for the choices I made because I am committed to doing them tomorrow. If there is one thing I learned in 2011 it is to have compassion for myself and I can say that I am definitely living into that.

I’ve been contemplating a lot if going to Amsterdam and attending the Knowmads school is the best decision for my life. I have no idea how I’m going to reach my financial goal. If I had the money in my account right now it would be a no brainer decision with attending the school and there would be no worry or anxiety. Then I remind myself of all the books and ideas I have read on the Law of Attraction and the power of positive thinking and I find my brain filled with all these ideas I have learned like

If you take the leap, God will always provide safety net

Worry is just putting bad energy into the Universe and it does no good. Think positive possibilities which puts positive energy towards the situation.

Concentrate and have the end in mind. Don’t worry about the cursed ‘hows.’ Do all you can with what you can and you create pitches for the Universe.

This big leap of faith into the unknown is a huge test for me and is giving me an opportunity  for practicing all that I have learned and read. I realized that I have to truly go after it and go after it 100%. I have to leave everything on the court. Then at the end of the game, I will know that I did everything I could to make it happen. No regrets. If I don’t end up getting the financial assistance that I desire I will still be proud because I left it all on the court. But of course there is the other side of the coin where I get the assistance and I continue on with my dream. Either way, I will have known I went for it. That I did the scariest thing I’ve ever done,* that I stepped out of my comfort zone and I went after a dream. I’m going for it 100%. My courage is kicking my fear’s butt and I am only picturing myself in Amsterdam attending the Knowmads International School of Business in February 2012!

This situation is building my Go For It muscle which is why I’m declaring 2012 as the year that I go for it all. Everything! No holding back. Being the true Kristin and having the courage to show the world that Kristin. This scary stuff is all just a cycle. It is here and it will go but it will come back. So I am enjoying the journey  and just Going For It!

*I was asked on one of my first days at lululemon what would be the scariest thing I would ever do. I thought about it for a few seconds and then replied, “I would sell all my belongings and travel the world!” Crazy when you say something out loud and God does his little magic to make it happen