Where are you going? And do you really want to go there?

I got the two questions from a friend who is also a therapist and coach.

My friend had listened to my story - about life for the past year. He sat quietly for a while. Then he said; For the first time in your life, you seem to have listened to yourself. It was time. You just need to get a few more tools so you don't stumble on your way forward and accidentally take a few steps back again. You know where you want to go and you are well on your way. 

Where are you going and do you really want to go there? Such good questions. How easy it is to want a lot but still get lost and unable to pull out of old tracks. At my age it's ok to get a little lost. The requirements to go the right way are less. A lost walk can lead to something nice or perhaps an exciting adventure. I am more forgiving of myself today than I was 20 years ago. In addition, I have the experience and patience to focus on the task of finding the right path ahead. Maybe I'll never find it, but then I've had great adventures along the way.

As a company leader, you must have a consequential mindset and a strong gut feeling. Not just sometimes but 24/7. One sleeps with one eye open. You need to identify pitfalls long before the road turns and feel the winds that have not even begun to blow on the other side of the Atlantic. Maybe it's one of my superpowers. My sixth sense. And my courage in combination, to trust my sixth sense. And my curiosity about the future. I work today to secure the future of the next generation. We run hand in hand forward. We have fun in this growing family business and we are curious far beyond borders. The conversations never want to end. Life together with adult children is a fantastic adventure and the best gift of my life.

I listened to Emma Hamberg's summer talk. I had an hour free and I could have chosen just about anyone, but my finger landed on her hour as if on cue. Her attitude to life and death. Her attitude towards choosing life because death still "sits in your living room and stomps the beat of your life". Death is such a much more boring option. In contrast to death, most things you worry about seem like trifles. The alternative of being buried is darker and colder and much sadder.

The fact that she then decided to let Bridget Jones help her make decisions in everyday life awakened the desire in me. What would Bridget do? Then I do the same. Bridget gets to decide and she rarely says no... 

So where are you going? And do you really want to go there?

With love m. and Briget