9 February 2017
What if ....?
This morning I suddenly wondered: “What if Donald Trump was actually a cheerful househusband?”. It was meant as an attempt to stop my own negative train of thought – generously fed by news and social media – and take a different perspective.
It could be a suggestion for the producers of ‘What if?’, an internationally awarded and hilarious sketch show on one of our Flemish channels. Every sketch is the answer to a hypothetical question that starts with ‘What if’ – ‘What if men were dogs?’, ‘What if Barbie was a real woman?’, ‘What if the grumpy Flemish were right?’, … The sketches show you a new reality, life that is slightly off. Sometimes the sketches are completely absurd, sometimes eerily realistic.
What if you would use a different perspective to look at what you have always assumed to be the objective reality? Does objective reality as such even exist? The media are anything but objective, though they (and we) sometimes assume they are. Objective news reporting is not possible if you stop and think about it. As a news channel, a paper or a journalist you are somehow always driven by your own values, by your judgment of what is right or wrong – not to mention commercial motives. All of this has an influence on the choice of news facts that you bring, and the way you bring them.
We in turn are equally selective – driven by our own values – about which news papers, books, posts, … we read and who our Facebook friends are. And before you know it, you are completely stuck in your familiar, self-confirming but therefore not always comfortable perspective – an uncomfortable comfort zone.
It then becomes very difficult to think creatively and out of the box, to make different choices than those you would go for automatically. This can feel restrictive, as if you have no choice, as if you are lived.
During a coaching session we can work on this. I will ask you similar ‘What if’ questions to look from different angles where you’re stuck . Then we see if other choices can be made that better tie in with what gives you true satisfaction.
What if you would reverse your familiar perspective on life and work? I will be glad to help – contact me for a free sample session and who knows it might even change your perspective on Donald Trump.
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Ancient Wisdom as a vaccine
In De Standaard of 21 April (one of the major local newspapers) there was a beautiful article entitled "Art as a vaccine in the post-corona era". Why wait for that post-corona era? Yesterday the parable "This too shall pass" ended up in my mailbox.
28 April 2020
The invisible dog or how being hard headed does not pay off
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. Humans excel in that. We somehow believe that if we keep trying harder we will ultimately succeed, even if we keep ending up with the same result, time and time again.
2 November 2018
From King of the Mountain to Swimming Champion
23 August 2018
What if email, mobile phones and social media did not exist?
12 July 2018
Don’t make change too complicated. Just begin.
14 June 2018
Why not take a mini-holiday
10 May 2018
Lost in deconstruction
"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star" [Friedrich Nietzsche]
19 April 2018
How Dog had a breakthrough – a contemporary fable (part 2)
15 March 2018
How Cat & Dog should follow the example of Mouse, a contemporary fable
15 February 2018
Winter’s life lesson
21 November 2017
A juvenile delinquent dog or the price of adulthood
When we reach the age of adulthood we seem to have internalised all those responsibilities, expectations and limitations. As if the free creatures that we once were are forgotten.
18 January 2018
Lessons taught by wild geese
16 November 2017
Who is the King of Creation?
What if things were different from what we have always assumed? It can make you feel very unsafe to question your normal perspective. On the other hand it also offers incredible freedom and creativity to step outside the beaten track and become curious.
19 October 2017
From prey to predator and vice versa
From prey to predator and vice versa, the natural order put upside down. The animals themselves do not seem to be bothered by it - for sure Django isn’t, and the hens appear to find it quite normal to be on top of the food chain.
5 October 2017
How is your Monkey Mind?
We all have a Monkey Mind, Buddha said, with scores of monkeys, all demanding attention. The fear monkey is the loudest of them all, he is constantly ringing the alarm bell, drawing our attention to things we should be wary of and to everything that can go wrong.
21 September 2017
The parable of the businessman and the fisherman
We always have a choice: do we listen to our sabotaging inner voices or do we opt for what we really want, like the fisherman?
24 August 2017
Mr Goldberg and his assumptions
It is worthwhile to take a closer look at the assumptions you have about the persons with whom you have a relationship. You could develop the habit to ask yourself if a certain assumption is really true. And what if it is not?
10 August 2017
Help!
Asking for help is something we struggle with and we will only ask when we have no other option. We believe that asking for help and putting ourselves in a vulnerable position is a sign of weakness. Asking for help creates a warm connection between the asker and the giver.
20 April 2017
Frieda just asks
Asking for help is something that is hard to do for a lot of us. Self-reliance and autonomy are highly respected in our individualistic society. Another aspect of asking for help is that we build up a 'debt' as it were, We also do not like to disturb others with our problems
18 February 2016
