How Fear Can Hold You Back

You might have heard these before: What you’re doing right now, is that what you would be doing if you had only one day to live? Are you happy with your studies, your work, your free time? If you had a choice, would you do the same you’re doing this very moment? Do you have a choice?

Asking a person questions like these can cause a feeling of slight unease, that’s why a lot of people don’t dare asking them, because they don’t want the other to feel bad about themselves, they want to preserve a pleasant atmosphere. Yet those questions are important, as the answers might reveal new possibilities and inspire you to make your dreams come true. Read more

A New Year of Learning: Resolutions

Last in this series about starting a new year of learning it’s time for some final thoughts. The beginning of a new year is a good moment to have a look what we would like to improve in our habits in order to learn better.

We all have our own weaknesses, those things we know we could improve but we just don’t have the discipline, or we simply don’t know how. It’s easy to just say “Well, that’s the way I am, I’ll have to live with it”, but wouldn’t it be better to just face our weakness and see a challenge in it, an opportunity to change things?

Maybe you want to stop coming late all the time, or hand in your assignments on time. Maybe you want to be more focused, to absorb more of the information given to you. I’ll have a look at a four resolutions that are important to me: Read more

A New Year of Learning: Preparations

While summer holidays and traveling can be a very educational experience, the inspiration to write about it is more present during the period the real learning takes place and lessons are being taught. Now things are starting up again, Streamlined Mind gets a little check up (you know, checking her oil level, tire pressure) and now seems ready for a new year of productive learning!

Before we start off, a big thank you to Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann, the President of DEVONtechnologies for linking to my post Would a Paperless Life Make You Happy? on his blog The Balcony. I love their products, DEVONthink in particular! Read more

Say Thank You and Make Someone Smile

In januari we launched the Thank You Project. It comprises small businesscard-size booklets containing removable cards with a short sentence followed by ‘Thank You’. You can give those cards away to someone you like, or just a stranger. Put them in someone’s bag, mailbox, leave them at a restaurant or put them in a book for someone else to find.

This month we launched a new website! Here you can read what the project is about, order freshly printed booklets, postcards and a Thank You stamp. For the really thankful people there is also a complete Thank Pack available, with two booklets, to sets of postcards and a stamp. There are two other new things on the new website: You can choose a postcard, fill in a message and the address of the person you want to send it to and we will write the message by hand on a real postcard and send it off. You can also write your own Thank You sentence, which will appear on the website, and maybe even in a future version of the booklet! Read more

Will You Follow Your Dreams?

Do you ever sit back and wonder why you are doing what you are doing? Why you are studying what you are studying? If what you are doing right now will bring you where you want to be?

The way our life is organized can lead us in a certain direction without really consciously deciding to go there. Expectations and habits can influence the choices we make in life. Without being aware of the road that brought us here we might find ourself in an unwanted position. Maybe according to what others expect from us, but not according to what makes us feel happy or confident. Read more