Intro
Hello my dear readers,
I hope you are doing well and getting ready for the upcoming spring. I don't know about you, but for me the last month was harsh in terms of my mental health. I started to feel that I am stretching my limits. It just feels too long...
Anyway, writing my blog posts and engaging with more and more like-minded people like you always boost my motivation. So I'm happy to share the summary of my thoughts from February.
Let's dive straight into it:
My Monthly Fail Story
Investing
In 2021 I decided to commit sharing more failure stories on social media and less of “Look, my dear network how well I am doing!”
So here is my third story: In 2016 the oil price was recording low - it dropped till 36$ per barrel. I thought this was a good time to invest and bought oil exchange rate fund (ETF) shares when the oil price was around 42$.
I have checked the historical data and it seemed there was a direct correlation between the oil price and ETF.
Well, that didn’t work as I have expected. Even though I have predicted well that oil price will recover, my ETF price didn’t perform as expected. After two years I was very happy that I didn’t lose money, but earned nothing even though I sold my shares at the oil price of ~70$.
Lesson learnt - past performance is not necessarily an indication for the future performance.
I would love to hear your failure stories too! Please share it by replying to this email.
Find Your Purpose
The story of a girl who realized that purpose isn't just ONE thing
There is a constant dilemma among bloggers - how much of your personal self are you willing to show to others?
Many blogging experts will say that it is a must to get your readers engaged. But for me this has been always hard, especially that I come from a reserved North European culture.
Nevertheless, I sense I reached a mini breakthrough this month. This blog post includes a personal story on how I grew up together with my most recent purpose discovery journey.
I hope this encourages you too to share your own story with others whom are still searching and could use some inspiration.
Ikigai concept coming from Japan
When I think of Japan, the first thought comes into my mind that this is the country where LEAN thinking was born! Since the start of my professional career I have been always interested in studying and practicing LEAN mindset not only in my professional environment, but also in personal life.
Nevertheless, LEAN is mainly associated with waste reduction, efficiency gains and continuous improvement culture nurturing. So recently I was very happy to discover another interesting concept coming from Japan - #kigai which translates as 'reason for living'.
Japanese believe that cultivating Ikigai culture contributes to the population's longevity. In fact, there are a couple of research studies which show health benefits of having a clear Ikigai in your life.
While I cannot comment about the health benefits and validity of the studies, I definitely agree that having your Ikigai contributes to personal happiness.
Personal Growth
Input determines the output you get!
This is a principle which applies to so many things in our lives.
Recently I especially remembered this principle while doing my root cause analysis on why some expert discussions turn out to be so fruitful, while others not at all.
👉 Read more about the importance of high quality questions and tips on questions you can use while talking to experts.
3 tips on how to increase your job satisfaction
Have you ever thought where do you spend most of your time?
In my case it's WORK followed by sleep. I suspect most of you will have the same answer.
Since most of us spend so much time at work, it's crucial that we feel good there.
Here I decided to talk more about how we can increase happiness at work and what YOU can influence to make it feel better.
Business
Four tips on how to extract business value from digital transformation
While working as a digital transformation consultant at a very cool technology company called Schuberg Philis, every day I am confronted with a question - how can companies extract more business value from digital transformation?
Combining my previous work experience with my recent knowledge upgrade in the digital technology area, I wrote an article which precisely attempts to answer that challenging question.
This time I decided to share it on Schuberg Philis Medium account.
Books
Strengths based leadership by Tom Rath (from Gallup)
Are you really aware of your strengths?
I always thought that I am! I do have a tendency to analyze everything surrounding me and this doesn't exclude myself. So I always felt like a decently self-aware persona.
Nevertheless, recently a great colleague of mine triggered me to take another look at my strengths. So I bought a book which includes a code to take a Clifton strengths test.
This was very interesting! The test results showed me my top 5 strengths: Activator, Input, Command, Achiever and Learner.
I highly recommend you to buy this book and better understand your strengths too.
Make An Impact
Bracelets with a story - also a great gift idea for kids
Just look at these charming ladies from Amsterdam showing you the Bracelets with a story!
I love this picture so much! And even more how my dear colleague Annefloor is already embedding strong values to her little girls. Wearing sustainable recycled paper bracelets which also help to fund new business ideas for women in rural Uganda.
If you too would like to continue this beautiful chain of supporting entrepreneurship in Uganda, go and check out Bracelets with a story. It's a great gift for anyone!