Keep reinventing yourself

Inspiration Shot November 2023

People often ask me: how do you do it? How do you turn seemingly irrelevant experiences such as raising money for charities, a relationship with a playboy, being fired from the Netherlands, dancing tango or picking olives into a successful workshop, book or retreat?
The secret is: use what presents itself. Don’t resist new developments, but be curious, try to find ‘the present in the shit’.
Some people have been following me for 15-20 years. They say they get inspired because I keep reinventing myself. Nice to hear, of course, but for me it is just different aspects of myself that suddenly become visible in a certain context.
In this inspiration shot I’ll give you some great examples and tips on how you too can continue to reinvent yourself.

Turn your weakness into a strength

In Judith Webber’s new book ‘Self-love in action‘ I explain how you can turn your most annoying trait into a positive one, just by changing context. Somewhere else your ‘irritating’ characteristic IS appreciated! Since the book is in Dutch the link and image lead to my English blog about this.

Esther AI

I have a new ‘assistant’. Her name is Esther AI and it is an Artificial Intelligence experiment. My friends at Coachvox.ai have built a platform on ChatGPT, where you can upload all your books, articles, and frequently asked questions & answers. The AI coach will then answer questions in your own tone of voice, in any language! I am now training Esther AI to give real ‘Esther’ answers. Sometimes that works well, sometimes less so. Want to try? You can already see and test the beta version here. I’d love to hear your feedback!

Tim Ferriss: from tango to 4-hour workweek, to…

Tim Ferriss became famous with his ‘4-hour self-help books’, including ‘The 4-Hour Workweek‘, ‘The 4-Hour Body‘, and ‘The 4-Hour Chef‘. He’s a master at life hacking and speed learning, and he’s not afraid to use himself as a guinea pig. He has learned Japanese and other languages and is the first American to compete in the Tango World Championships in Buenos Aires and achieve a Guinness World Record. Tim is also an early tech investor in companies such as Uber, Twitter and Shopify. Nowadays he uses his podcast to research the use of psychedelic drugs to improve mental health. His ‘5-Bullet Friday’ newsletter has become a bit commercial but is still inspiring.

Neil Strauss: from pick-up artist to survival specialist

As a journalist, Neill Strauss took several ‘deep dives’ into worlds unknown to us. For example, he wrote a biography of a famous porn actress. For my book ‘Have you found your Mr. Wrong yet?’ I read his ‘The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists’ for which he took undercover lessons with well-known Pick-Up Artists. For ‘Emergency’ he spent three years among survivalists, tax evaders, billionaire businessmen and the government itself. When he got into a relationship, got married and became a father, he used those experiences in a new book: ‘The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships’.

Workshop alert