Being Mindful Of Your Trade-Off's Between Hustle & Health
Although we are no longer hunted by preying tigers, our contemporary selves are still ruled by strong primal reactions in case of perceived threat. Evolution is not going to catch up to this anytime soon, and I think we've all had a moment in which we realized how counter-productive some of our survival responses can be in the context of modern civilization.
If you're actively and independently pursuing your goals, you will encounter these moments more often than those who go along with whatever, and the consequences of your responses may be magnified. In order not to hurt our lives, our careers, the people around us, but most importantly ourselves and our well-being, we must learn to keep our cool in these (inevitable) crisis moments, and handle them mindfully. To breathe through our survival reflexes, and get back to a place of reason - as it is only from here that we can make conscious choices with our own best interest at heart.
This is far from an easy practice.
But it surely is one we must master if we plan to live life like bosses.
At times your goals will suffocate you. You will feel as if you're drowning in to-do's, lost in challenges that need solving, paralyzed by insecurities about what you're producing and pressed by the minutes ticking away on the clock. On top of that you might be running low on sleep, lacking nutrients and human contact and neglecting the limitations of our human brains and refusing to truly allow them a break.
If you're hustling hard, these moments are inevitable. On your road to financial and emotional autonomy, there will be moments of stress, doubt, even desperation. Although posing no physical threat, your body may very well interpret your spike of adrenaline as a sign of danger. Your body can not distinguish between the stress of physical danger and the stress of perceived danger. As a result it can react as fiercely to a social rejection as it would to a life threatening situation, and this stress comes at a price.
There is a very thin line between employing this temporary survival mindset and being stuck in a prelonged state of severe stress. Where one will fuel you to get your shit done and deliver in the moment, one will slowly but surely break you down and dim your magic over time.
Crisis moments are inevitable, but crucial. What matters is how we handle these moments.
Although we must manifest our hustle, we must always honor our health.
From where I stand, finding my balance between both seems one of the greatest challenges in (girl/boy)bossing.
These moments actually offer us a unique opportunity to reflect, and to take a stance on what this balance means to us. How often will we sacrafice our peace for productivity? For how long? How do we determine when it's enough? When is it wiser for us to give up on our task? How do we cope with short-lived stress spikes? How can we come down from them after? How can we make sure the severity doesn't linger on? How may we make sure that this doesn't affect our long-term health?
I believe we all have a different natural place of balance when it comes to these factors, and it's a lifelong learning. But I believe the key for all of us is to be aware of the trade-off's. To witness our bodies' survival reactions and then decide at each single instance whether it's more appropriate to exploit the stress spurt or to tend to our anxieties and find a place of calm. Ultimately, it's only us that can determine our boundaries to maintain a balance between our hustle and our health. And so we should.
Let's try be mindful of our trade-off's.
Breathe through the crisis moments.
Hustle hard, stay healthy, and boss on.
Introducing my Millennial Mental Health project
I've been working on this project for sometime now and although I may have dropped some references on the Gram, I never properly introduced it yet. That day has come.
Let's start with a little bit of background and a quick summary. Early on in my IBIS studies, we were instructed to work on a long-term project and advised to pick a problem that was dear to us. Having my fair share of mental health challenges myself, this has always been a relevant topic for me, but what really motivated me to look into this is the incremental rise in mental health issues, however mild or severe, amongst young people. I see so many of my peers struggle that I can no longer consider this an individual issue, but rather a societal and cultural one. I started researching and developing this all the while learning more and getting more passionate about tackling the issue.
Fast forward two years and my school project is completed (with a score of 100, by the way) but my vision has only grown stronger. So, I decided to dedicate myself to this mission for the months to come, dig deeper into it and contribute in whichever way I can.
So, that was everything squeezed into 160 words but if you have grown an interest in the project, I describe it in more detail below. I'm very excited about being on this journey and hope you will join me along the way.
What's happening?
In the past few years, we have seen a strong increase of mental health issues amongst young people.
Recent research by LSVB shows that 50% of HBO (bachelor) students within The Netherlands are currently or have recently been struggling with mental health issues. The World Health Organization considers it a global health crisis and predicts depression to be the main cause of death by 2020. This data only confirms my everyday observations. Depression, burnout, anxiety and other psychological problems keep increasing among young people and start affecting them from an increasingly younger age.
This trend of deteriorating mental health is worrisome.
Besides individual suffering, this development has real implications on society, culturally and economically. As this generation will enter the workforce and soon become tomorrow’s leaders, we will need them to be sane, resilient, agile and emotionally intelligent in order to face the wicked issues of today’s world, and take care of their communities.
Considering the magnitude and increase of mental health issues, we may conclude that young people are simply not sufficiently equipped with the skills to maintain their mental health in today’s world. HBR recently published an article on ‘Why some people get burned out and others don’t’, attributing people’s ability to handle external pressures to their levels of emotional intelligence. Following this logic, the burnout epidemic and rise of mental health issues simply makes apparent the gap between the general level of EI and the EI required to navigate the challenges of one’s personal and professional lives in today’s world.
What can we do?
If we wish to work towards a prosperous and sustainable future, this gap needs closing.
I believe we should all learn how to take (basic) care of our mental health, as we do with our physical, as Guy Winch famously argues in his famous TED talk ‘The case for emotional hygiene’. We need to find a way in which we can offer resources, guidance to young people and help break down the stigma around the topic in all of society.
And exactly this is my project: to explore
how may we best assist young people in maintaining their mental health?
Why me?
I am passionate about this topic because I am them. I myself have been struggling with depression, borderline and later on, burn-out as a result of workaholism. Luckily my pro-active mindset and the support of my loved ones has often kept me one step ahead of my destructive self. But it hasn’t been easy. I have gone through multiple years of therapy, and independently experimenting with techniques such as reflection, self-help, philosophy and mindfulness. Surprisingly, once I started opening up about my mental illness, and got more into teaching and coaching, I started to see that many of my peers were struggling with similar themes. Both the resources and the sharing have helped me greatly and I would say I’m close to functional being now. These issues have affected me and so many of those around me and I believe that with a little bit of help, a lot of their struggles could be prevented, or restored. However mild or severe, I want to help others overcome their mental ailments, as I continue to battle my own.
This project, an initiative by Nadia Piet, is dedicated to improving mental health and emotional intelligence amongst young people. With a focus on The Netherlands, because that’s where I am located right now, and the sphere of education, as this is a place where young people come together and a formative life phase in which most of these patterns develop, I aim to develop a solution at the intersection of all key stakeholder’s needs, taking into account students, educational institutes, government and aligned partners and initiatives.
Why you?
Although a wicked issue in itself, I truly believe in the importance of this issue and am determined to contribute in whichever way I can. But I can’t do it alone. If you feel affected personally or are interested in contributing professionally, please do join the cause simply by spreading awareness, maintaining your own health, supporting those in need and keeping your eyes open to all insights and potential solutions.
If you are any of those stakeholders, or one of the amazing people already fighting the good fight, have an insight or opinion you’d like to share with me, would like to collaborate or contribute to the project, or are involved in this topic in any other manner, don’t hesitate to reach out and contact me at contact@nadiapiet.com.
If you'd like to stay updated on progress just follow me on any social media channel.
I look forward to hear from you and thank you for your time and interest so far.
With love,
Nadia
Art by Sara van der Beeke, Electric Prisms.
Speaking at inaugural speech of new lectorate
An event was organized by the Hogeschool InHolland to officially inaugurate the new lectorate of Rutger Kappe and present its research team and agenda. Each of the researchers facilitated a workshop introducing their themes. On behalf of Nikkie Gubbels, a passionate researcher on the topic of student (mental) well-being, I was invited to share my experiences, observations, and visions on this issue from a unique student + teacher perspective. I spoke on my own burn-out and the thought patterns leading up to that, turned the personal into political by recognizing the increasing pressure to achieve on a larger-scale, illustrated how I see this development impact many of the students around me, and how I believe education should create more space for the development of emotional intelligence, resilience and mental health.
On Multi-potentialites
Today I'd like to share with you one of my very favorite TED talks (and trust when I say: I watch many). It's 'Why some of us don't have one true calling' by Emilie Wapnick and goes out to all my fellow philo-and polymaths. It is in this talk that she coined the term multipotentialite, which Wiki describes as an individual whose interests (and jobs) span multiple fields or areas, rather than being strong in just one.
Although not a new concept, the way Emilie acknowledges the power of extensive curiosity and exploring many fields, rather than dismissing us as job-hoppers or fickle-minds, has really empowered me and helped me in my journey to embrace this trait of myself in a world of specialists. She has re-framed something I once perceived a weakness as a strength, and I thank her for this.
Emilie herself has been a musician/songwriter, a web designer, filmmaker, writer, law student and entrepreneur. "This is how I’ve always lived," she writes, "moving from interest to interest, building on my skills in different areas, and synthesizing the knowledge I acquire along the way."
Myself having been a marketeer, webdesigner, UI designer, artist manager, ecommerce manager, blogger, consultant and teacher amongst many more things, I relate to this strongly and definitely identify myself as a, what Emilie calls, multipotentialite. I will surely write more on this topic later, but think this is a great place to open up the discussion. Emilie hits the nail right on the head in portraying a life of plenty passions, spread curiosities and multi-disciplinairy mastery.
If you'd like to learn more about Emilie's view on multipotentialities, you can check out her website Puttylike, her home for multipotentialites where she blogs about the topic weekly.
For now: enjoy the talk below and let me know your thoughts on multipotentiality in the comments.
Is this concept new to you? Are you a multipotentialite?
From TED: What do you want to be when you grow up? Well, if you're not sure you want to do just one thing for the rest of your life, you're not alone. In this illuminating talk, writer and artist Emilie Wapnick describes the kind of people she calls "multipotentialites" — who have a range of interests and jobs over one lifetime. Are you one?
Host The School Of Life On Tour events
010117: A Call For Bolder NY Resolutions
Hello and happy freakin' new years! I hope you had a loving and turnt up transition into 2017. As you've now (hopefully) recovered from that, we may start preparing ourselves for what's to come. Whatever new years resolutions you may have, or perhaps you don't have any, or way plenty; let's evaluate them for a sec.
If you’re like most of us, your new years resolutions are focused primarily on incremental improvements, supported by the belief that progress comes with small repeated changes. It's not necessarily untrue that dropping 5KG or cutting back on smoking can change your life. But much more often, the greatest impact lies in the less obvious and more personal, and therefore easy to miss if not sought out, ambitions.
I can speak of myself as an example. Amongst my new years resolutions have been all the usual suspects such as start having breakfast or sleeping earlier. Although a firm believer of small steps, I'm also a fan of bold moves and in that spirit, I'd like to pose myself, and you if you like, a different challenge this year.
"Out with the old, in with the bold"
As I moved into my new home last September and was determined not to bring all the clutter that has been hiding and building up in those moving boxes, I decided to go through them all. As you may know, I have a tendency to do excessive life planning and in combination with my hoarder tendencies, there was loads and loads of artifacts of this. Notebooks and loose papers filled with plans, ideas, resolutions and whatnot. Most of the notes were madly outdated, but overwhelmed me with long forgotten memories and nostalgia. Looking back at them, I realized how far I had come since. Like the things I wished for back then, that are now so abundantly present in my life. I felt very blessed.
On the other hand, I found something painfully confronting there. A recurring theme that I kept on mentioning and supposedly pledging to on practically every piece of paper, meaning that time after time, I failed to actually start on it. Year after year, semester after semester, month after month. While my other habits gradually improved, this ambition (that was actually really important to me) somehow got left behind.
Fast forward 5 years and I'm still stuck with the desire to do exactly that which I had written down so many time. Still. Trying to wait for the right moment, as if there's such a thing. Waiting for my knowledge to expand and writing abilities to sharpen, before publishing. Hoping for my confidence to one day just flourish, so that I would dare to share my work. But of course this day and this level of whatever never comes.
So this year I decide to attack this fear-fueled procrastination head-first and to focus on that one thing which I've been putting off for far too long, for far too many silly reasons. For me the case is blogging, but it can be anything.
The Questions
Does this pattern sound somewhat familiar? Maybe self-reflections and past resolutions are flashing through your mind, maybe it’s just one big question mark, but if you’re open to examine your resolutions; I recommend you try answering the following questions, just for yourself, from wherever you are right now.
1. What may be that one thing that you have been putting off for too long?
2. What is that one thing that if you’d do it this week, it would be your achievement of the month? If you'd do it this afternoon, it would make your day?
In the words of the famous Tim Ferris, "it is often what we fear most, that we should do most". Now, we'll talk about fear, it's functions, limitations and tactics another time; but for now let's try to to answer this one honestly.
3. How would you feel if you never get to do this thing?
4. What's the worst thing that could happen if you do?
5. What would you do if you know you could not fail? What is that one thing that you have been avoiding out of fear and insecurities, but you deep down know is yours for the taking?
6. And whenever you’re feel like you're getting somewhere, what could be your bold move(s) for (early) 2017?
Although habit building is powerful, so is the magic of audacious acts and daring experiments. Let's stop obsessing over the petty things, look at the big picture, get our balls and courage together and kick fear in the butt. Let's stop blaming ourselves for some of the things we do, but start doing the things we truly want to be doing. Let’s channel our curiosities rather than our compulsions, protect our energy rather than our ego, and follow our aspirations rather than expectations.
Perhaps the truest of our resolutions are not those in which we try to be better,
but in those that encourage us to be bold.
What do you think? Should we dare to take on bolder NY resolutions? Will you?
Let me know in the comments below and if you enjoyed this read, please consider sharing it.
With love,
Nadia
Illustration is by Dmitry Zubarev for Offset x West Elm.
Participate in a Council of Europe study session on female leadership and SDG's
I was selected to participate in a Council of Europe study session focused on Using Technology for Young Women's Empowerment within the framework of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in cooperation with the European YWCA. Hosted in Strasbourg from 14 -17 November 2016 with the goal to mobilize as young women leaders to actively engage as key stakeholders and change agents in the shaping of Agenda 2030 for the SDG's.
Blogs From the Past
2016
De Keerzijde van Keuzevrijheid (NL) on 800woorden.nl
2014 (on The Tika)
The Flip Side of BETs Banned Artist List
Kanye’s ‘New Testament’ Surprisingly Speaks Some Sense
5 Ill Millenial MC’s: Generation-Y Rappers Rockin’ It In Their Teens
Brother Ali on ‘The Hip Hop Battle: Cultural Catalyst vs. Colonial Consumption’ (Video)
Inspiring TED Talk on Hip Hop Character Strengths Being Predictors Of Success (Video)
9th Wonder is ‘The Hip-Hop Fellow’ in Harvard Documentary (Video)
Bboy for Life – Trailer and Snippets (Videos)
GZA Lectures the Origins of the Universe in a Rap (Video)
Design and facilitate a self-leadership workshop to young professionals
Develop and facilitate a self-leadership workshop covering topics such as personal productivity, emotional intelligence and mental hygiene. In October 2016, I hosted a 2,5 hour pilot of the workshop to my fellow students. Two of the participants left the following testimonials:
"This course needs to be seen as a necessity for modern society in order to make this world a happier place to live in." - Tudor Mihai
"I loved the atmosphere in this workshop, I felt in a safe place and I felt I was understood. It was good to organise my goals and understand how to go for it, taking small steps and connecting them with my habits. I wish this workshop could be in my class. It would help a lot of people! Thanks Nadia." - Diletta Dissegna
This is how I positioned the workshop:
Do you have difficulties dealing with the pressure from work and school, or are you simply curious on how to improve your productivity and happiness?
During this course we’ll be hosting an interactive workshop on self-leadership with a focus on improving your personal productivity, stress release and emotional intelligence. The exercises we’ll do there will be targeted towards giving you practical tools and tricks, along with insights, that you can apply in your daily life.
Our first pilot of the progam took place on the 18th of October in the IBIS lounge and was a big success. Although the date yet to be announced, we'll surely host another workshop someday soon.
Consult KPN on innovation capabilities and innovation culture
"Thanks for the proposal. Very good observations and some really nice suggestions!"
- Myron Laagland, Product Manager KPN Compleet at KPN
Consult Future Navigator on their visual foresight tool, the Future Graphic
Consult Future Navigator (Copenhagen) on how to move forward with their visual foresight tool, the Future Graphic. After research, ideation and concept development I presented them with a short report with recommendations and considerations for the tool, the diffusion and the project management.
"My experience working with Nadia Piet is great. Nadia helped my evolve the FutureGraphic model and her insights and ideas were very valuable to the concept development. She applied empathy and a user-centered design approach which gave rise to fresh perspectives. She is self-motivated, self-guided and able to work with very limited guidance. I highly recommend Nadia." - Henrik Hovgaard, Futurist and Director at Future Navigator
Management of independent (Hip Hop) record label Da Shogunz
Long-term management of independent (Hip Hop) record label Da Shogunz. I started as webdesigner, then merchandise manager, quickly moved onto marketing manager, then general manager, and now business advisor.
link: dashogunz.com
Finding The Strength to Give Up (3/3)
Once you've hit a vibrational rock bottom, the only way must be up. If you're like "huh what just happened?", you've probably missed part #2 Slippin' Into Darkness of my journey, in which I describe the gloomy period I found myself in only shortly after posting part #1 Confessions of a Millennial Burnout. Following this depressive episode, I was confronted with one of the hardest yet most empowering decisions I’ve had to make in a long time; not because of the outcome, but for the symbolic value that both ends represented. Let's rewind.
Having moved to Sydney with nothing but my own literally a week after my 18th birthday and having lived in Canada for 3 months, I didn't think of moving to Spain past January as a major challenge. Although I did casually forget to take into the equation my seriously disturbed and distressed state at the time, and I was painfully reminded of that. This time moving abroad, it was different. The city itself being nothing short of beautiful, it was the unfortunate combination of my vulnerable condition with troubling language barriers, a bunch of practical setbacks, the inability to make friends, on top of all the usual turmoil that comes with moving to another country. As much as I had been trying to get used to the new environment that I had escaped to, I could not seem to find my place in Valencia, and was growing increasingly unhappy being there.
This is where the internal conflict begins. A big part of me desperately wanted to come back to Amsterdam, but the other (even larger) part - the bit that has kept me there already for months - refused to give up on the mission and surrender to such weakness. I told myself maybe I should learn to be alone for once, deep down knowing I had been alone so often yet wouldn’t get through this with the support of my friends and loved ones around. I told myself maybe I shouldn’t give up on something I had worked so hard to make possible, deep down knowing the experience had no value whatsoever in the current mind space I was in. I told myself to return would be to fail, knowing that by staying I was failing myself, my soul. I am aware now that this negative self-talk has been one of the major drivers in bringing me down and I am trying to be nicer to myself during mental dialogue.
A photo posted by '93 til infinity ✌️ (@nadiapiet) on
This strong discord and back-and-forth indecisiveness continued for sometime while I kept throwing euros at back-and-forth tickets between Valencia and Amsterdam. My inner dialogue was driving me mad until someone close to me pointed out the following. For most people going back home would have been moving back to their comfort zone; a state of being I’ve always been panically afraid of (probably even more than depression). But for me it wasn't like that. Ironically enough, giving up on all those goals and ideals I had held myself to and that kept me in Spain - and the overall vicious circle I was in -, and choosing instead to do what I thought would make me feel better; that was leaving my comfort zone; that was my challenge; that was what I needed to grow. What a mindfuck. Isn’t it mad how lost we can get in the chambers and illusions of our own thinking? So the question now boiled down to: should I stay in a miserable situation merely to live up to more of my fake ideals?
From there it still took me a few weeks of silent attempts and loud denial to come to a place of acceptance, but I did give in. For the first time ever, I choose what felt right over what I told myself would be the right thing to do. I took my experiencing self over the striving self. Like I said it wasn’t so much about returning up North, but all about the symbolic meaning of doing so. A choice I had finally been able to make for myself and made so powerfully: to prioritize my happiness, my joy, my feel state, over all else. The time had come to return to the base I had always been running from, and work on my very foundation.
I am still working through the bureaucracy of this change of plans and on recovering the financial loss that came with it; but those are all practicalities. As soon as I made the decision, a strong and intense sense of relief and strength came over me. I just got back from Valencia and finished it all up, packed my stuff back up and enjoyed the Spanish sun for before I came back to the Northern lands. So far, the transition has been smoother than I could've ever hoped for.
I have found perfect peace in my resolution to return and think that in a way I might have needed this radical confrontation to be able to truly give up, truly give in, and trust myself and the journey of life to carry me to wherever I need to go. I guess sometimes we need to make decisions that signal the universe and our unconscious who we are, what we stand for and what we wish to attract in our lives. Like a turning point; indicating our new direction with full intent. I feel like this has been one of those moments and I couldn't be more excited about the path I've chosen to travel. I made the conscious choice to prioritize my happiness over all else; to finally respect myself enough to value my feel state over some silly achievement. Dedicated to my self, this is where the healing truly starts.
Slippin’ Into Darkness (2/3)
Okay I did not manage to keep track of my every step as I said I would so a double catch-up post is in place and will both be published today. After this I'll be up-to-date and you updated and I should be back on this grind. I could just skip this bit and fast forward to today, but I feel like this was an inevitable and even vital part of the journey; so here we go.
It seems almost as an universal law that shit needs to get worse before it gets better. And so it did; first worse, then better.Read more
Facilitate a Design Thinking workshop for the government of Valencia, Spain
Facilitate an interactive workshop going through the Design Thinking process with the regional government of Valencia, Spain. Two participants of the team I facilitated were so kind as to write me a testimonial:
"I have met Nadia as a trainer in a workshop on business innovation and I think she is a very knowledgeable person about it with great human qualities that can generate a good integration of the group. I recommend her for issues related to innovation management.” - Alejandro Mendoza Gamiño, Ph.D Innovation Management (Mexico)
"Despite the very short time I had to meet Nadia (4 hours during a training session in Valencia), getting to collaborate with her in the workshops was a very interesting, productive and satisfying experience. One can notice her enthusiasm and energy in everything she’s doing. I can also imagine that ‘impossible’ is not in her personal dictionary.” - Enrique de la Cruz, Innovation Project Leader at Everis (Valencia, Spain)
Confessions of a Millennial Burnout: Speaking my Full Truth
Beyond the date that most new years resolutions have long been forgotten, I have finally grown the courage to carry out mine. My resolutions this year do not look anything like the extensive lists and ambitious implementation plans that have dominated the previous years. Because this time around I enter the year not flourishing with fresh energies, but burned out - and where the logging of goals would normally fill me with anticipation, the mere thought of it seems to me nothing more than empty and exhausting at this very moment.
Develop and teach a Webdesign with Wordpress class to 110 bachelor students
Develop and teach a Webdesign with Wordpress class to 110 first year IBIS (International Business Innovation Studies) students. Some of the students left me testimonials after I explained to them how useful I think they are. One of the most flattering ones was the following:
"Nadia as a teacher? For me she is more than that! She doesn't only have the power to make everyone listen but also to make the whole class understand. By explaining digital processes, using her own experiences as well as discussing individual problems made me develop my web design skills faster than expected. Learning from Nadia means to learn relevant content every future innovator should know about. Her fine way of addressing her students made all contents easy to understand and clear to actually execute. I really enjoyed working with her and I wish her all possible success for the future.” - Vera Jordan
Help Deloitte expand their Innovation Capabilities
Deloitte asked us for suggestions on how to expand their innovation capabilities amongst its massive workforce. The innovation department functioned well yet independently of the rest of the organization. The other departments were largely unaware of innovation practices and strategies, as applied within the innovation department. What I proposed was to introduce a new employee role for leaders that would bridge the gap between both parties. It would be their responsibility to take information and plans from the innovation department and cross-check them with the others, both to inform them and to gather new insights to then return to the innovation department. This serves everyone involved as there will be a better fit between the products and services the innovation department develops, and the departments that have to execute them, and it keeps everyone engaged with the progress the company is pushing for. Everyone wins and Deloitte was pleased with my suggestion.
Consult Impact Hub (AMS) on a positioning strategy & trend forecast
Product/Service Innovation and User Experience Design for Schiphol Airport
CHALLENGE: Innovative solutions to improve the customer experience on the airport and potentially make it a memorable one. We decided to focus on one of the biggest pains in airport and overall travel journeys: delays. We combined this with an insight we gained from our own experiences. We discovered that there are many interesting facilities around the airport neither of us knew about such as a library, an indoor park and a Rijksmuseum, which are then underutilized resources.
SOLUTION: A service called Explore Schiphol, which creates a custom itinerary with interesting facilities, shops and other activities around the the airport based on the interests, needs and time available to the user. Besides entertainment, offering a support system for those misfortunate with a delay shows care and will make a lasting impression on the visitor.
RESULT: Detailed mapping of each touchpoint and step in the customer journey, wireframes for the interfaces and a proposal with 3 alternative or complimentary routes for implementation along with a prospective low-investment approach to pilot the concept.