From dreaming to doing, from doing to dreaming
Inspiration Shot January 2024
Many people make a ‘to-do list’ of their New Year resolutions. However, just like this ‘alternative Christmas to-do list’, we can also make a ‘not-to-do list’ for 2024. Or a list of things that make you happy; that you don’t have to do, but with which you can just be. The preparations for my theater show are an example of this; it gives me so much energy! While I will continue to offer my workshops, writing retreats, and coaching this year, it feels like I have already started just being and doing fun creative things, without planning. What does your (not) to-do list for 2024 look like?
Looking back in order to plan ahead
I always make an overview of the places I have been to last year to then get a feel for what I want to do the next year, and especially where I want to be. Another way to evaluate your year is to look at what developments you have made – and your wishes for the coming year – in each of the following 12 areas of life: Love, Friendship, Adventures, Environment, Health and fitness, Intellectual, Expertise /skills, Spirituality, Career, Creativity, Family, Community. Even a short note on each of those 12 areas provides great insights.
Knowing what you want and what you don’t want
Since I have decided that I will retire on June 28th, 2025, it is becoming increasingly clear what my next year and a half will look like.
My Retreat schedule for 2024 has been announced. The dates for the last writing retreat -ever- in Curacao, Mallorca, and Thailand are posted on my website.
Registration for the very last edition of my ‘One Year to Freedom’ program closes on January 15th (in 2 weeks!). To help as many people as possible, I am offering this at an unprecedented low price, PLUS I am offering everyone who registers a free
1-on-1 RESULTant session. A real no-brainer if you still want to work with me (and budget-friendly too!).
To help everyone as much as possible to apply all my tips, this year I offer to anybody who signs up for my business coaching to receive a number of hours from my Virtual Assistant Jelena as a gift.
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Inspiration bites
QUOTE
PODCAST
I had a great (Dutch) conversation with Briant and Jaldhara (the oldest digital nomads?) about living and working abroad. In this English interview, I share my experiences as a digital nomad; about entrepreneurship, travel, freedom and mindset
INTERVIEW
Who would have thought that I would be interviewed for a magazine of the Dutch EYE association about the problems with my eye?
In ‘Search for opportunities’ I give tips on how AI and other life hacks can help entrepreneurs with good and not-so-good eyesight.
CHAT GPT TIPS
I’ve never been so excited about anything! In an article for the Dutch ‘Schrijven Magazine’ I give Chat GPT tips for writers. In my English blog, you’ll find even more AI tips for writers & entrepreneurs. My ‘Digital Delegation’ workshop is almost entirely about how you can use the magic of Chat GPT in your business and your daily life.
Did you know...?
…almost 200 people have already registered for my (Dutch) theater show on June 28th, 2025? I think that’s so cool that I have extended the intro offer ‘2 for the price of 1‘. I also want to share a nice blooper: when visiting the theater – and negotiating the price – I forgot that the theater had also received my previous ‘inspiration shot’, in which the date AND the theater were already announced 😱. Something about SELLING the skin before you’ve even seen a bear… 😉 Fortunately, I think my contact person appreciated it and perhaps even admired it. (Karlijn, if you read this again: hopefully it will not have a negative impact on my negotiating position… 😜)
Where is Esther?
After Thailand, I spent two wonderfully busy weeks in the Netherlands. I enjoyed wearing jeans, a sweater, and a winter coat, walking through Amsterdam, and admiring the city and lights. This way I could also join the Christmas dinner with my university friends and finally see everyone again! Last year I had a problem with my eye just before the Christmas dinner; I wasn’t allowed to fly and missed the event. And a few days before the joint holiday this year I got Covid… That’s why this dinner was extra special.
Now I am back in Puglia, where it is 17 degrees and sunny during the day; my land is more beautiful than ever. In the evening it is cold and humid, so I am really happy with the expensive underfloor heating that I had installed in my tiny house among the olive trees. I am now getting heating installed in my trullo, so that I can also receive guests in the winter. If you would like to stay in my paradise in February or March, please send me a message.
During my trip to Thailand, I bought another apartment in ‘my’ village via WhatsApp… So now I have another exciting project with renovation to make it super beautiful and then sell it to someone who wants to enjoy the apartment, but not suffer the hassle of a renovation. All my local friends now invite me to apartments that their grandfather, aunt, and second cousin want to sell. I think I bought ANOTHER apartment during my neighbors’ amazing Christmas lunch (where EVERYTHING was homemade, from the pasta grains to the wine and bread)!
I celebrated New Year in the village with 8 other Dutch people who have fallen in love with this part of Puglia and have bought a plot of land here.
In mid-January, during a stopover in Milan, I will go skiing in the Aoste Valley for a few days. Then I will be in Amsterdam for exactly 1 day, during which I have to prepare my apartment for 5 months of rental and pack my hand luggage for two months in Buenos Aires and Curaçao. An hour before departure to Argentina on Jan 21st I will be a guest on the TV program WNL on Sunday. Wish me luck! 🤞🏻
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