Week 6 | Being busy is for losers | THE highlights of my trip! |

In the final weeks of my ‘workation’ I am flying back and forth from and to Australia. At this moment I’m back in Australia and I will be spending my last two weeks in Brisbane en Byron Bay. It was a great week with a beautiful salsa party: definitely one of THE highlights of this trip. The internal collaboration in Lightworks gave me the opposite feeling. I realize that the way some of the projects are working now (with distance, without clear agreements about the collaboration and the amount of time spend) don’t inspire me, but frustrate me. It’s time for action! 

Friday – The 6-hour workday

My first day back in Australia was a relaxed one. This time I’m in Brisbane. After a intense night and day I wanted to fire away with my work this morning. To do this I used a method I’ve learned by a good friend and entrepeneur: The 6-hour workday. By using this method I’ve became 40% more productive. I’m going to write a blog about this method so you can try it and also be more productive.

But this time the method didn’t work that good. Not that this was a really big problem, because I needed to write a text for the Byron Spirit Festival where I’m giving two workshops. Writing sales like texts is not my best skill. To help my procrastinating my dad and sister wanted to Skype with me. After the calls, and the inspiration giving by my sister, I had 4 hours to write a 100 words text. The process took way too much time of course, but I’m happy with the final result.

After working from ‘home’, after encouragement, I went out to explore. The thing  enjoyed most was the 2-hour boat trip I took. I was just staring over the water and wrote down every idea or inspiration I got for my love books and documentary. That evening I went along to a birthday party and the dinner and going out was AMAZING. It turned out to be a salsa party in a great club. I’ve danced with men from Columbia, Indonesia/Holland, Mauritius, Brazil, Nigeria and Poland. I danced my ass off! This was definitely one of the highlights of my workation, because I really love salsa dancing.

Saturday – Rather a beach babe than a city girl

Despite the fact that I’m in a beautiful surrounding I have not interviewed anybody yet. I think this is because of a cultural difference. In the bigger cities people are more reserved and I feel that they live to work instead of the other way that I experienced in Bali.

I’ve worked the whole morning and in the late afternoon we went to Mount Kuta to eat and enjoy the view. Because my time in Brisbane was up I made a home made dinner that evening like I always do at the end of my stay to thank my hosts.

Years ago I made a cruise through the Mediterranean with Dr. Wayne Dyer. The year after we all had a reunion in Dubai with the family who was also on the cruise. The one who flew from south america brought presents and snacks for the family. The image that stuck with me is how happy she was to give, how grateful the family was to receive and how bad me and my friend from the US felt because we didn’t bring anything, besides a dutch cheese slicer. Since this moment I always try to bring something special (something typically dutch) for people who open their house and family for me.

Sunday – Last stop of my trip 

After spending a long weekend with friends in Brisbane I packed my stuff and went to my final stop on my workation. The stories I’ve heard about Byrone Bay are promising: people walk bare feet, there is only one road, the city is situated at the beach and people wear whatever they want. I suspect that Byrone Baye and me will get along just fine.

And maybe the thing I’m most excited about is staying with Claire. I interviewed her for my movie and books about love in Bali. We had a lunch together when we were both in Sydney. Now I get to stay with her place for a week and she already mentioned she wouldn’t mind me staying longer. If I didn’t have a foodparty planned and want to say goodbye to my dad who is leaving the Netherlands forever I would definitely have stayed longer. I like it here.

Immediately after I arrived we walked on the beach and had dinner at her favorite restaurant ‘Tree House’. The evening was amazing and we had beautiful conversations about manifestation, what it means to me and why she doesn’t like the word.

Monday – Time for a new story 

When I arrive to a new place I make sure to arrange some thing immediatly. This time was no exception. I did my shopping, touched the beach, followed a yogalesson and researched the wifi. In this search I came across some inspiring things that I want to do with and in my Happy & Health Center.

A couple of days ago I send this message to my ex. To my surprise he answered that he was doing great as well. I found this hard to believe. He was in a worse state than me when I ended the relationship and he didn’t spend years on healing and recovering. I wondered why I kept referring to the destructive relationship and the consequences when he seemed to have moved on a long time ago. I think that with this trip I closed my chapter about recovery, healing and rebuilding and that I’m ready for my new chapter. A chapter that is about BEING instead of working hard and doing. It’s time for change!

Tuesday – I’ve had it! 

Today was my day off. I didn’t have any Skype calls, no coaching and no planned meetings. It was an old Shanti-day with me, myself and I. I went swimming, bathed in the sun and fell asleep on the beach. It sounds amazing, but it wasn’t. I felt restless most of the time and eventually I did a short meditation to calm my mind.

This was what I feared would happen when I would take it easy. That I wouldn’t want to do anything anymore for me, my development or my business. Maybe it’s good to be this honest with myself. This is how I know what I don’t like or want anymore. I’m done loosing energy on useless, time consuming and energy draining things. Sign me up for a simple life somewhere on a beach where I get up and go to bed with the sun. Here most people live like this. being busy is for losers somebody said to me. And being busy by inefficiency is really for losers I believe.

That evening I had a serious talk with myself, because it’s not like me to settle for a situation that I don’t want or that doesn’t fit me. Since I’m working with brilliant and highly capable professionals it shouldn’t be too difficult to change things to what they must want as well: working together effectively, doing as little as possible with the biggest results and enjoying the collaboration. So I made a list with actions and meetings I needed to feel that everything is going the right way. I also made a global analysis on the situation that will come shortly.

Maybe I should take up the last advice of the man with who I dated a couple of months: ‘When you have a new idea don’t start doing it immediately but put it in an idea box.’ I imagine that I open this box at the end of the year and pick one or two ideas to do instead of starting a new project every one or two months ;-).

Wednesday – I want to emigrate 

My day started out good with my daily walk on the beach, morning meditation AND two spontaneous interviews about love! I’m proud ad happy that I got back on track again. One of the things that I was losing a lot of energy on was arranging meetings with people that I wanted to interview. I’m not made for planned interviews, but the ones on the spot. A man walked over the boulevard that made me curious and I just spoke to him. And you know what? That interview is definitely one of the most awesome interviews I did. What a great guy! So much love, wisdom and very down-to-earth. Perfect for my project.

The afternoon I spend talking with my future business partner, roommate and good friend Claire about how we get things done. She doesn’t make any agreements and leaves everything open. She goes with what the universe gives her, she calls it creation. My style is exactly the opposite. I mark point on my horizon and create agreements with my intuition or heart. I need this to keep moving and eventually to create manifestation. We can both learn a lot from each other. I MAKE things happen and she LETS things unfold.

The evening we listened to beautiful music and we spoke about my business. It provided me with a lot of insights and I realized once again that I payed a high price for a lot of my learned lessons which I don’t want to do anymore. Maybe I write a longer blog about this.

Thursday – Life work 

Since last night it looks like a tropical rainstorm here. The rain is just not stopping. Because of this most of the day we spend indoors working on it. I helped take apart and rebuild a bed which I’m very proud of. In my whole life I only once put a nail in the wall to hang a painting.

This was followed by reading a book about the question ‘What would you do if you would have 100 days to live?’ I could write a book about this – and maybe I will -, but I know that I’m not going to be held back anymore. I’m on the right track. With the big difference in the speed that I do things. My transformation continues from a human DO-ing to a human BE-ing who realizes herself and her mission in life from inner strength and effortless. I’m on the right track and I’m enjoying every step.