Hello world!

Welcome to my personal blog. This is my very first blog, which I set up by myself. I am very proud! I used the momentum of my reflections on the year 2008, the things that I was grateful for, the things I wanted to change as well as the ones I wanted to continue. 

So, this will be my experiment for as long as it lasts. The intention is to have a medium to reflect my thoughts and actions over and above being the head of self, the network by and for social innovators I initiated in 2006. Like any being, I am so much more than my roles and especially I am so much more than ‘just’ self. self is a great way to express myself, my values and principles, my learnings, my beliefs. And yet, I noticed how I get identified (and identify myself) more and more with self and the Hub Berlin, our first large project. 

Here I’d love to share of myself and everyone and everything around me that inspires me, motivates me to get up in the morning and work late at night, that rocks my world, my pains and sorrows, counts of luck and wealth, wisdom evolving and heureka’s hitting. And I’d love to see it becoming an instrument of sharing with others – with friends near and far, with colleagues, with strangers and like-minded. 

The thought of starting a blog is not new. In the past, I kept it neatly to myself. I couldn’t, I kept saying to myself. I can’t write, I don’t have anything to say, I won’t have the time to keep at it.I make myself to naked, vulnerable. Sure… Good excuses, aren’t they? Anyone else knows them?

What made the difference that pushed me into action is a small-medium personal crisis. In this crisis I keep going on in loops and loops of the same thoughts. Obsessively. And they aren’t the most positive thoughts for that matter. I noticed a habit. I’m pretty good at noticing other people’s strengths, I validate them, I would like to think of myself as resource-oriented and a positive thinker, optimist when others have given up a long time ago. And yet, I don’t do that in all areas of my life. 

And as I was browsing the Utopia Website on New Year’s Eve, I came across the forum articles by Nils Horn who wrote about happiness. And that happiness is in our very own hands, even a continued feeling of happiness versus just a moment of it. According to latest research only 10% of the feeling of happiness is influenced by external circumstances. Only 10 percent!!! 50% are influenced by our genes and hormones. The rest – an incredible 40% – are depending on our thoughts.

Then there was many tips and hints how to go beyond just mere positive thinking. And one of them was a diary of gratitude. Wow, I thougt. How about that as a focus for reflection?? Remembering how it had touched me when I met ‘Mr. Bean Counter‘ in December, I decided. This would be my way of counting those little white beans in my (virtual) pocket.

And WHO is this blog for? I don’t know yet. First of all, for myself. And of course, for anyone else who cares to read it, share of themselves, comment and contribute.

May you all have a blissful New Year!
Wiebke