I once a blog wrote a blog and inserted the following quote “effort is what it takes, for God’s sakes”. I still stand by this since life is all about the little things. This is something that most people don’t seem to understand. Most people are treating everything they do like a sprint rather than a marathon. They put in a great effort and then they get comfortable which is the beginning of the decline of whatever they’ve invested in. This can apply to everything: career, friendship, relationship, sports,… This attitude makes sure that a lot of times they either quit, are forced to quit, or do enough to get by but not enough to improve. I don’t understand these people to be honest. I don’t want to either. Relating to lazy people isn’t something that I want to be able to do. They never see the beauty of daily effort. To them, it’s just a burden all along and that mindset will hurt them in the long. Let’s take a look at the beauty of daily effort.

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When you complain, you create unnecessary pain. I remember my last fight vividly and it is exactly one month ago.  My game plan was simple, figure him out and take him out in the third. Everything went according to plan until my calf got hit in the second round. I didn’t feel pain back then but I remember sitting down after the second round and looking at my left leg. My calf was almost as big as my upper leg. There was no time for panic, I just needed to adjust to this because I couldn’t kick, block or even put a lot of pressure on that leg. The bell rang and I just went after it in the third round, sometimes even kicking with that leg. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug.

I lost the fight on points after 5 rounds and was devasted because I know I could have won that fight. They had to carry me outside of the stadium, bring me home and I had to ask a housemate to turn off the light in my room because I couldn’t walk. I would walk for 2 weeks with an old man’s stick to make sure that the swelling would go down. It hurt pretty badly for about a week and a half. Do you know how much I complained during that whole period? The answer is zero because there’s just no point in doing it.

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The Coronavirus is everywhere and most countries seem to be on full lockdown. Borders, schools, bars and everything else are closed as well. The only thing that doesn’t seem closed is the airports (for now). The people who are in countries that are in full lockdown have a hard time but there is hope. Multiple sources claim that everything will be fine in April. Whether that’s true or not is something that only time will tell. So best case scenario you’re in quarantine for another 3-4 weeks. 3-4 weeks that you should use fully in my opinion. Note that this blog isn’t for people who’re bored and are looking for attention. This blog is for people who want to improve their life and potentially quit their job.

The Coronavirus has shown a lot of people that their jobs can be taken away in seconds. No job means no paycheck right? Not quite, I don’t have a job but I generate income. Everyone can do it. Let’s take a look at how you can make the most out of the Coronavirus quarantine times. Read More

Did you know your future affects your present?! Most people will be extremely confused since the quote is that most people know is “your past affects your present”. This is true in some way and it can be true for the better or the worse. Most people use their past as an excuse for their fucked up present which will then lead to a fucked up future. This excuse is equivalent to shooting yourself in the foot, we all have fucked up things that happened to us in the past. Yet not everybody ends up being fucked up. Some people have a fucked up past and end up doing great things. They live a life that most people didn’t even consider possible. So that brings us to today’s topic. Your future will affect your present. It’ll affect it way more than you imagine.

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These days everything is about how much time you spend doing something. It applies to everything. Well at least according to most people. You have to spend X amount in the gym, X amount on dates, X amount with a girlfriend, X amount with family and so on. You need 100 hours in a single day if you follow this approach. Most people don’t understand the concept of quality time. They spend a lot of hours doing something but it’s barely quality time. What I mean by that is that people focus more on the hours they put in rather than the quality of work they put in in those hours. It looks better for the Gram I guess. That’s why some people get more done in a single hour than some people in a whole week and they don’t share it on the Gram. That is where quality beats quantity. It’s hard to understand this if you always strive for quantity and the validation of others. It’s like the mandatory 2-hour visit to the grandparents on a Sunday where you talk for 30 minutes and then stare at each other for the rest of the time. Or you spend the rest of your time on your phone. People who do stuff like this rarely value their time. They’re mostly bored and just want to kill time (still no clue how that is possible). This can both ways. Some people will overstay because they have nothing better to do. Others will want you to overstay for the same reason. Read More

So It’s exactly one year ago since I quit my soul-sucking job.  I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was working at a desk job for about 1 year and 4 months and was 10-15 minutes late every single day. The fact that it was a 15 min bike ride didn’t seem to matter. The fact that I was late didn’t seem to matter either. They didn’t care and I didn’t care. I guess it worked out in the end. But that one day was different; I left for work 40 minutes ahead, yet that bike ride was the longest one of my life. I felt my heart pounding in my chest all the way through. That’s the funny thing about this whole story: I knew that I was doing the right thing, yet somehow, the pressure was all over me. It must have been that I had flirted with the idea for 3 months, yet being scared of other people’s reactions made me anxious.

When I finally arrived at the office, I asked my boss to talk in private; I told her I wanted to quit and that I was traveling to Thailand. I had booked everything beforehand just in case they would try to convince me to stay (which they did). It made sense that they tried because I left during the busiest part of the year. They told me that my life was over but in reality, it was just getting started. In the past year, I have spent more time abroad than in my home country and all I can say is that the adventure just has started.

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Have you ever heard the following saying: “missed opportunities are like buses, there’s always a new one coming around.” I forgot the exact saying, to be honest, but it’s something like that. The message behind the quote is easy, don’t dwell on chances you missed out on because there will always be another one right around the corner. Well technically speaking of course. There is some truth to this saying and it gives people a lot of hope (doesn’t work, more on this in a later blogpost). It’s also fair to say that a lot of people have missed out on great opportunities. It’s even fair to say that a lot of people dwell on these past mistakes and never get over them. So this whole quote got me thinking. The saying kind is understandable because there will always be new opportunities. But what if there’s a part of life that’s get neglected by this principle?

What if this saying is not so great as it might sound?! Time to find out.

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Reflections on the lost fight. On the 16th of January, it was 8 months and 2 days ago since I had won my first fight in Thailand. I kind of was still feeling the hype from that fight. I mean, a skinny inexperienced white kid fights a bigger more experienced Thai fighter and wins in the 5th round. It was almost like it was a movie scripts for a new Rocky movie. During those 8 months, people kept asking me when I would fight again and my answer was always the same. I was ready but for some reason getting a fight seemed a bit harder than expected. In Belgium, the earliest I could fight was near the ending of October, so I left Belgium once again to fight in Thailand. Eventually, I ended up back in Koh Phangan. Back to the roots. They asked me to fight as soon as I arrived and 3 weeks later I stepped into the ring. Better than ever, more confident than ever and more relaxed than ever.

the walkout was a party on its own but then… I lost after 4 rounds because they stopped the fight without a reason. The referee went to the judges and the fight went to the opposite corner. What can I say… it’s Thailand (shrugs shoulders). So there I was confused because they never let me fight that 5th round but also happy because I barely took any damage and put up a fight. So that brings us to the topic of this blog. I lost a fight and you could probably care less but I suggest you keep reading because I’m not the only one who can learn lessons from this loss.

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