How to make the most out of the Coronavirus quarantaine.

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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

future

Your future affects your present.

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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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time

Quality time vs quantity time.

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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

Eddie Abasolo

ZTA podcast #25: Become SilkEsmooth with Eddie Abasolo.

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I remember the first time I ever heard of Eddie Abasolo. It was in a FightTips video where he was giving a demo (you can check the video out here). Back then he was an unknown Muay Thai fighter for me because I didn’t follow the scene at all. Shane Fazen mentioned that he was always looking forward to Eddie’s new Instagram posts because he had such a unique training routine (you can follow him here). That got me curious so I started following him and I quickly discovered what Shane meant. His training routine was pretty unique but so was his fighting style. He’s a trickster of the highest level and guess what I try to achieve when I fight. Being tricky as well (hit and not getting hit). Because in the end people love brawls, the love blood but they get on the edge of their seat when tricksters enter the ring. Their movement is like a dance, it’s poetry in motion and all of them have a style unique to their own.

His fight with PJ Sweda is still one of my favorite fights and I watch it on fight day since my very first fight. You can watch it here. Read More

ZTA podcast #24: Taking Souls With Kevin Ross

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Kevin Ross is also known as the Soul Assassin. He’s an American Muay Thai fighter who’s currently competing as a kickboxer in Bellator. I’ve always been a Kevin Ross fan since he always puts up entertaining fights. He is one of the pioneers in the States for making Muay Thai famous. Because there wasn’t a Muay Thai scene when he started. But I didn’t ask Kevin Ross to be on my podcast just because he’s an amazing fighter. He’s also a blogger and he has an interesting perspective on life. His post about social media fighters is to this day one of my favorites but the other ones are amazing as well (you can read his blog here). You’re missing out if you’re not following his blog or following him on social media (you can follow him here).

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The one year anniversary of me quitting my job.

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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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The curious case of missed opportunities.

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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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The lost fight and the lessons it contains for you.

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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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mediocrity.

Why you’re stuck at mediocrity.

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Have you’ve ever wondered why you’re stuck at a mediocre level in life? Or do you aspire to get more out of life than mediocrity? The thing is that it’s hard to surpass mediocrity and that’s why most people fail to do it. People mostly want instant gratification and that is not what’ll lead to great results. It’ll give you the opposite result but that’s what people fail to realize. They want a good feeling now and don’t care about the long-lasting frustration later on in life. They’re stuck at mediocrity and come up with all kinds of weird excuses why they’re not at the top in life. This slowly puts them to sleep and then the famous phrase of defeat pops up into their head. The phrase goes as follows “Well I tried everything but it won’t be for me in this lifetime”.

After that frustration and disappointment set in. But that begs the question: did you do everything? Or do you assume that you did everything? There’s a big difference between the two. A difference that could change the whole outcome of your life. Read More

misery

Your misery makes some people a lot of money.

By | Motivation | One Comment

It’s a sad reality but people can earn a lot of money based on your misery. It’s so easy these days to get access to people since most people use social media to compare themselves to other people. They want to see how other people are better than them. But then out of nowhere (hint: it was the algorithm), they get this ad from some guru who claims to be able to rock your life. Well, rock your life for a certain prize of course. It’s mostly way too expensive for what it is since a lot of them underperform big time. There’s just one issue, there’s no money-back guarantee and the fact that it didn’t work for you is entirely your fault. You should have listened! But is you not listening to the real issue here or is it that you were just scammed like so many other people.

Chances are that it is the latter because most gurus use a pyramid scheme. So let’s stop wasting time and dive into it.

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