Happy New Year Dreams!

This is the first blog I publish on my new website. It’s still under construction so please give me your suggestions for improvement! I have transferred some of the blogs from www.blogg.ybj.se to the new blog.

How do you feel about 2017 now when it is about to end? Was it your best year? Or do you look forward to 2018? I admit I will miss parts of 2017 but not all of it. I have had some experiences that have been among the best of my life. I have traveled to Thailand and Cambodia with my youngest daughter and published a book about the amazing trip to Angkor Wat and the most fantastic islands. I also traveled to Bosnia, Croatia, and Venice with her and will soon publish a book about that gorgeous journey too. I have also published “Leadership & Wisdom – How to Motivate Yourself and Others,” and the Swedish e-book “Ledarskap & Klokskap – konsten att få dig själv och andra att vilja.” Seen in this perspective, it was a good year. As a finale, I had family, relatives, and friends for one of the most loving Christmases ever although I am rather tired of food and doing dishes now it is over, and I will miss it. One of the major findings of most research is that it's when you work hard and manage to accomplish what you intended you are happiest. I choose to not focus on the less good things but let's summarise it with "a lot of work for too little money" so the wish for 2018 is that I get more money. I am who I am so I will continue to work as hard as I always have.

How will you and I make our dreams for 2018 come through? I suggest a few simple steps that I will take:

  1. Make a wishlist. Don't aim to be realistic. Be crazy and dream big! In big dreams, you will find a pattern that shows what you love doing. You are always better at what you love so the success potential is much greater when you do what you love.
  2. Make a vision board with pictures that visualize your dreams. Keep it where you see it often. It will make your brain look for opportunities that support your dreams. You have a very cooperative brain so make sure you tell it what to do for you. 
  3. Set clear goals that are in line with your dream so you always can see the contours of your dreams when you work to reach your more, but hopefully not too, realistic goals. Dare to aim high also when setting goals!
  4. Take the first step towards your goals, and your dreams, immediately. No matter how small step you take you have started the journey. 
  5. Celebrate every progress you make! If not with Champagne due to health goals, celebrate with whatever you appreciate. Yoga, sauna, or maybe a good book.

I look forward to following your journey through 2018 and am always here to support you.

Happy New Year!

This picture is from a New Years Eve with my daughters in Samara, Costa Rica

This picture is from a New Years Eve with my daughters in Samara, Costa Rica

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Storytelling

What should your story tell about you? What is the result you should get from your private story and your business story? Whose story should you tell and who should tell yours?

I attend many seminars and lectures and I always take notes. Sometimes I note what they say and other times I note what the speaker makes me realize. Today I found these notes.

  1. Your story should strengthen your identity.

  2. Do something others want to talk about.

  3. Other people should deliver your story.

  4. How can you fascinate your environment?

  5. Be honest, humble and transparent.

  6. Be the most daring!

  7. Passion is key! Everything else can be copied.

  8. Work hard and be nice to people!

I know I tend to give up at number 2, get back on track at number 5, become too scared at number 6 but be totally committed on 7-8.

Remember that the value when someone else tells your story is so much greater than when you tell it yourself so whose story can you tell today?

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Denial?!

Denial is a good way to stay positive but also a perfect way to miss the early signs that you are facing a challenge. Early action will lead to better result faster in the vast majority of cases. So here is a fast track to handle challenges, changes and to succeed with improvements. 

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Face facts! Skip denial when you face challenges - recognize, accept and act as fast as you can. It’s always better to catch and treat problems early! You can still keep a positive attitude. It’s actually much better since that will keep you focused on the solution instead of the problem.

Stay calm - don’t panic! When you stay calm you think clearly and act rationally.

Focus on what you are good at and can improve and quit some of the things that take time and sucks energy. Dare to leave a job or an assignment - trust your instinct!

Believe you are better than you are! When you believe you can run maximum 5 kilometres you won’t ever run more but if you believe you won’t have any problems running a marathon you will definitely be able to run at least 10 kilometres. It’s just the way it works. The lower your expectations are - the less you will achieve! Tell your brain that there are no limits and it won’t show you any.

Plan ahead! Be prepared to act on coming challenges. Don’t get caught with your pants down - definitely not if you are the one in charge. You need to be prepared and act before your staff gets worried.

Work hard! Activity will make you happier that being lazy and it will get you closer to your goal faster that if you relax on the sofa. Happy from working hard + happy for reaching your goal = win-win!

Have fun! You will have a much nicer ride with a smile! Everything you do gets easier if you decide to enjoy it!

  • Be prepared and positive!

  • Believe in yourself!

  • Have fun!

Projects - shortcut to success!

What is the status of your projects when you are back on track at work again? Did you find it easy to recap the latest achievements? Are everybody fully up and running? Or maybe you had to have several catch-up meetings to recover where you are and what you have achieved and even more common - some of the decisions from May and June might be revised or reversed!

To lead and manage projects is a profession! And not an easy one. So you have to be on your toes and let new thoughts into your brain each and every day! Your role is to manage change so of course you need to know a lot about what is going on. You are not the one to talk about “the good old days”. It is quite easy to administrate project tools, fill in the necessary parts, send out the material and even make a summary and a presentation. The challenge is to keep the project moving in the right direction at the right pace and be able to have enough documentation so people read it and at the same time keep track on why different decisions were made so they are not questioned again, and again, and again delaying the project.

The single most important factor in a project is to not over analyze! Do you agree?

If you agree you are definitely on the right track. You dare to admit that you might spend too much time on the analysis which has a negative impact on the solution and the implementation.

If you don’t agree you are still in denial! You don’t admit that you don’t dare to skip details and trust that you will take care of them in the later phases. I promise you that even with less time spent on the analysis the important details will come up - they always do - trust me!

I have over and over again seen that the greatest project risk is that you don’t spend enough time to describe the solution, theoretically test the solution (this is when the details you might have missed come up), design and implement. You never get enough time and resources to do everything you want so in each step of the way you have to prioritize! And hand on heart - don’t you always have too little time for everything? Do you often hear people telling you they have too much time for work or private projects? if you know someone of that unique sort - please let me meet that person! After having interviewed him or her I will write a couple of good blogs or even a book about effective time management.

Shortcut to success:

  • Don’t over analyze!

  • Dare to trust that the most important details will be handled even if you don’t document each and every one of them.

  • It’s better to write 5 pages that will be read that 50 very detailed pages that no-one will read!!

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Gratitude and patience

Today I feel grateful for what I have - a fantastic family, great friends, a great brain, good health, a beautiful home and that I am positive, creative and supportive. There is more to be grateful for but this will do for now.

If you are tired of people telling you about their fantastic lives it might be good to bear in mind that talking or writing about bad things is a good way to tell your brain how bad things are and that does not help you to get through your challenges. If your brain believes that things are going your way it will continue to find solutions and new routes to get you back on track and that is where you want to be! So be kind and supportive even if you realise that your friends are not being “realistic”.

So if some part of you knows things are not going well? How do you stay motivated? It ain’t easy that’s sure but are there any alternatives? I would say no. If you do nothing you will be dragged along the wrong path. But gratitude and patience will get you through and back on track!

  • Always try hard to find something, however small, to be grateful for in every situation; family, friends, sunshine, a walk, flowers or a good book. Any problem seems smaller as soon as you are a bit happier.
  • Be patient. Continue to go step by step, however small, in the direction you want to go. Think and say uplifting and motivating things to yourself and you will get there!

The last couple of years were not easy. I made a decision to give! I was fortunate to having learnt a lot about how to motivate myself and others and decided to write a book and blog about it. My goal was to improve people’s private life and to improve leadership in companies and organisations. So I spent plenty of time and money to write, edit and publish my book “Leadership and wisdom - how to motivate yourself and others”. I have celebrated every step of the way - the Swedish book, the Swedish E-book and finally the American book and E-book.

So what is the result this far? I learnt a lot as I wrote in my last blog but did I manage to sell many books? Did I get any reviews? The answer is no. I know I did not do enough marketing and the things I have done were obviously not the right things so I don’t blame anybody else. But have I given up? Absolutely not! I continue to write new books. I keep tweeting, blogging and being active on Instagram. I am still convinced that “it will be alright in the end and if it’s not alright it’s not the end” (from Hotel Marigold).

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So I will continue to be grateful for everything I have and keep giving. I hope you will too and if you need an uplifting word or a piece of advice you know where to find me. My next book series will be #motheranddaughter #travelling but I am also working on several books about #projects #leadership and #change. I am just not sure about the best next step to take. If you have any tips for me I would really appreciate if you contacted me.

Get yourself going and keep smiling! Make this ride a good one!

I did it! And I will do it again

Today I finally pushed the “publish button” for #Leadership and #Wisdom - How to #Motivate Yourself and others. Both the ebook and the paperback is now out there. You who have been close to me during this process know how relieved I feel right now but also nervous. Will the book be appreciated on the international market? Will it be visible among all good books out there? I will know soon enough but for the moment I am celebrating. As I say in the book - you should take every opportunity to celebrate - if it’s not a success you have at least had a good time celebrating. And if it’s a success you can celebrate again! 

What did I learn? Plenty! It was much more difficult than I expected. And yes - some people told me it would be - but I was, as always, an optimist. Without strong drive and a lot of motivation I would have given up months ago. So I learnt that it was possible. Next time it will be so much easier. I already look forward to publish my next book, probably “Mother and daughter travelling in Cambodia and Thailand”. Title to be decided and the manuscript is being reviewed right now.

I also learnt that a file that looks ok on your screen can show up in many different ways when uploaded. I am fortunate to have a good friend who is really good at these things. We learnt that processes can be so streamlined and automatic that they become almost impossible to master. But if you can’t master the process you have to buy support….

I learnt a lot about how to use Word to create a book. I had never even been close to setting headers and footers in different positions on even and odd pages and other, to me, advanced settings. But I learnt also that I can learn! I managed to create the ebook all by myself. But I also learnt that its better to know how pictures, bullet points and text boxes will appear in an ebook before you decide the layout in your book.

I learnt that the best way to self-publish is to first learn the publishing process on Amazon and Createworks - and then write the book. So if you want to follow my example test the process. Learn how your manuscript appears as a book, learn what different categories there are to put it in and what key words you can use. Check out books similar to yours. There are plenty of books about writing and publishing. I have read a few of them. You might get a bit depressed since most of them suppose you have thousands of followers and a substantial email list but my advice is GO GO GO. Take the obstacles as you run into them - you will be able to handle them as long as you stay motivated. Keep me posted!

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Let go - dare to live your dreams!

One evening this week I had an interesting discussion with people from different businesses. Why don’t we live our dreams? It’s sad that people often regret not having lived their dreams when life is about to end. We all agreed that life is here and now and too short not to live our dreams . A “failure” is much better that not having tried. So what is holding us back? Do you want to have your own horse, go mountain climbing, move to the countryside, learn to dive or run a marathon? When I ask people why they don’t quit their job, set up a company, move houses, go for a health challenge or leave their partner a common respons is “that’s easy for you to say”. And then they come up with many more or less creative reasons - or excuses - for not living their dreams. “I can’t afford it”, “I will lose my pension”, “If I fail I will not find a new job”, “I don’t have enough energy”, “I will be alone for the rest of my life” etc. Most excuses are related to security! Security can never be measured or viewed objectively it’s always a personal assessment. You decide when you feel secure enough. The more time you spend outside your comfort zone the less security you will need.

Dreams are never fulfilled inside your comfort zone!

So is it easier for me than for others? Of course not. I have left well paid jobs with no parachute for dreams that did not work out and for dreams that worked out ok. And I am not done living my dreams. I am always prepared to work hard to do what I love and I enjoy the ride. Follow me and you will find out!

So why should you live your dreams? Small dreams are still dreams! There is no such thing as security! You might live in a bunker with supplies for the rest of your life but not even then can you be totally secure. You might turn ill or misjudge your need of supplies or find out security without challenges is worth nothing. Things are changing so fast! There are no jobs you can be sure to keep the rest of your life. Pensions are suddenly worth nothing and your partner might decide to leave you. When you start to take small steps outside your comfort zone you will soon dare to take more and bigger steps! Dare to dream, dare to take that first small step to live your dreams and you will increase your level of security when you are more in control of your own security.

When you are prepared to live and work outside your comfort zone you will be able to take on the challenges that come your way, suddenly everything is possible and to lose a job or a partner is just another possibility in life.

See you outside our comfort zones!

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Pass the hurdle!

I have lately taken two projects as far as I can and have handed them over to others for action or respons. While I am waiting, I am not very good at waiting, I started a new project, a new book.

I don’t know about you but I love the feeling before I start! I can see and feel what I will achieve. It’s so clear in my mind. Fantastic feeling and I can wait to put it in writing! What happens? I almost drown in details and lack of structure.

Do I have a clear goal? Oh yes, check on that important factor.

Do I know why I do it? Oh yes, I have discovered an area that is in great need of my knowledge and since writing is easy for me I can’t find a better way than to write a book about it.

Am I a structured person? Do I find it easy to structure masses of data, material and steps? Oh yes! Any person that has ever worked with me will confirm that.

And anyway I find myself shuffling text from one place to another and back again. I find my main theme, and lose it again, find it, doubt it, lose it and find it again.

What is the message with this messy blog? Pass the hurdle! Don’t give up. Continue to shuffle things around until the best structure turns up. And be prepared to change it again when you come up with better ideas. The best way to solve your problem is to “just keep swimming”.

I have succeeded with loads of big projects so I never get scared by the feeling when I lose touch of ground since I know I will soon be back on track again and the track will be even better than the one I started with.

  • Set your goal!
  • Clarify your why!
  • Set a structure - anything you come up with is good enough to start with!
  • Keep swimming!
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Ingenting är omöjligt - så länge du inte måste vara perfekt!

En av de saker jag brukar poängtera oavsett om du är ledare, ska hålla en workshop eller bjuda på middag - var inte perfekt! Uppskatta när andra hittar fel och rättar dig! Ifall du bjuder på en mindre perfekt middag ökar chansen att andra vågar bjuda tillbaka. När du ber andra granska något du gjort kommer de att göra det med så mycket större engagemang ifall de hittar ett och annat litet fel. Inte så att du ska vara slarvig men överarbeta inte. Låt andra få bidra till att förbättra ditt material! Jag har fått testa det extremt praktiskt när jag har kontrollerat och justerat mitt eboksmanuskript “Ledarskap & Klokskap”. I början fanns det massor av fel. Verktyget hittade på intressanta tokigheter som att lägga in mellanslag mitt i ord lite här och var etc. jag hittade fel och rättade med stor energi. Till slut var i princip allt rätt och jag märkte hur slö min granskning varv fem var när jag bara hade hittat två fel i senaste granskningen. Jag insåg att jag satt och tänkte på annat. Jag hade ställt in mig på att allt var rätt nu.

Precis då jag skulle publicera boken, och gjorde en snabb granskning hittade jag fel redan i inledningen!

Eftersom jag alltid letar efter metoder att göra saker lite effektivare letar jag mig ofta utanför malströmmen - där är jag aldrig perfekt. Otaliga är de gånger jag har fått höra att det jag vill göra är omöjligt även om det i mina ögon är väldigt enkla små saker jag vill testa att göra. Självklart vill människor för det mesta skydda mig från misslyckanden för inte tror jag att någon skulle missunna någon annan framgång. Nu är jag oftast funtad så att när jag får höra att det inte går blir jag bara mer taggad att genomföra det - efter att först ha legat i fosterställning ett tag och sörjt den förlorade möjligheten.

En av de senaste “omöjligheterna” är jag precis klar med - att ge ut “Ledarskap & Klokskap - konsten att få dig själv och andra att vilja” som ebok. Inte var det omöjligt men inte var det helt lätt heller. De flesta saker man gör är första gången inte helt enkla men de är oerhört mycket lättare andra gången. Om du inte ställer krav på dig att göra det perfekt lovar jag att det blir mycket mer möjligt. Och du får massor av bra träning inför nästa projekt precis som jag har fått inför mina kommande böcker.

Varje “omöjlighet” blir möjlig om du minskar kraven på perfektion och istället ser det som en ny sak du ska lära dig. Varje ny sak du lär dig utvecklar din hjärna och trycker ut dig ur din komfortzon. Kanske blir du lite tilltufsad av att du inte lyckas så bra första gången men om du bara värderar dina lärdomar har varje platt fall varit värt det. När du reser dig har du en bättre verktygslåda, en ännu mer tränad hjärna och har utökat din komfortzon!

Jag är alltid här för dig som vill prata om ditt nästa omöjliga projekt så gör vid det möjligt tillsammans!

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Dare to share!

How brave are you? Do you dare to do something far outside the box among a lot of people you don’t know if it is for a good cause? 

Today we went to honor Olof Palme, the former Swedish Prime Minister. Today it was 30 years since he was shot dead in Stockholm City walking home from a movie, besides his wife. We still remember the shock and it’s so sad we never found the murderer. 

When we came there we found to our surprise a painting standing on the street behind all the flowers. It was a beautiful painting from a photo of Olof Palme and Anna Lind. It took me a few seconds before I realized that my good friend Nikos #LaonicosIcons put his painting there. Suddenly all people paying their respects had the picture to refresh their memory. They could also tell their children “you can see him in the painting" and perhaps they also told their children about Anna Lind and her tragic death? 
 

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Such a brave and nice initiative! We spent hours walking around Stockholm, visiting a museum, having lunch and the painting was still there to refresh people’s memory when we came back in the afternoon. Nikos talked to people and I can assure you that none of Nikos’ paintings has gotten this much attention ever and he did it to honor another person. I hope that Nikos somehow will benefit from the attention but I think that the fact that he gave some people a more positive moment today might be exactly what he wanted to achieve. That he got his painting on the news he can see as an extra bonus. 

I know we all could do with a few more, a little crazy, initiatives like that. What is there actually to lose? Not much compared to how much there is to gain. You can open eyes, get reactions or give others something good to remember.

Trender och tankar

För att jag är så galet intresserad av att lära mig nya saker och att ha saker att skriva om läser jag böcker, artiklar, inlägg på olika sociala medier, pratar med människor och lyssnar på föreläsningar. Igår var jag på Kistamässan på #personalchef17 samt #motenevents. Jag går varje år för att föreläsningarna är många och bra samt för att träffa nya och gamla kontakter. I år hade jag turen att få bli inbjuden till gott och trevligt kvällsevenemang genom en god vän och kontakt på City Conference center #stoccc. Som för övrigt är ett fantastisk val om ni ordnar evenemang. 

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Till er som inte var där eller var där men inte lyssnade på de föreläsningar jag lyssnade på kommer här lite av det jag tog med mig från dagen.

Alexander Bard pratade om paradigmskiften på ett fängslande sätt och jag uppskattar så att han vågar sätta ord på känsliga och svåra fenomen. Istället för att se historien som tidsåldrar i sten och metall kan vi se dem som tidsåldrar i sätt att kommunicera - talspråk, skriftspråk, tryckpress och Internet. Äntligen någon som säger att urbaniseringen inte är en självklar trend! “Nodaliseringen” var ett helt nytt synsätt för mig men en bra beskrivning av vad som krävs för att vi ska få ordning på det kaos som fortfarande råder i vår “internetrevolution”. Ta dig tid att lyssna på Alexander Bard eller läsa det han skriver! Det ger dig nya perspektiv även om du kanske inte delar hans uppfattning - ännu!

Teo Härén är mästerlig på att prata om kreativitet som jag och många är övertygade om är den viktigaste konkurrensfaktorn och det svåraste att ersätta med AI. Kreativitet kräver mod, tid och energi. Se och lär av barn och uppmuntra och träna din egen och andras kreativitet. Sluta med 2DO listor och börja med 2FIX listor! Ber du hjärnan att lösa ett problem istället för att göra en sak kommer den att hitta fler och bättre lösningar. Lägg till en kreativ CV till din CV och rekrytera mer kreativa personer! Musik för mina öron!

Jag lyssnade även på ett par föredrag som jag tyckte var ointressanta och tråkigt upplagda men blev förvånad (trodde jag hade slutat förvånas) när åhörarna till ett av dem uttryckte “äntligen ett föredrag som handlar om verkligheten”. Så olika kan vi se på saker.

Johan Staël von Holstein höll ett, för mig som var med när han var IT-miljardär, överraskande varmt och personligt föredrag om hur han vände sin ADHD till en positiv och användbar egenskap genom att lära sig hur han lär sig - i bilder! Han gav inte mycket för svensk politik och banker som är stor skuld till att Sverige har avsevärt färre entreprenörer än övriga Europa. Det krävs bara en idé och mod för att bli entreprenör - alla kan bli entreprenörer. Störst av allt är kärleken och näst störst är entreprenörskapet. Finansiella bubblor kommer och går. Bästa läget att göra affärer är precis efter en krasch.

Mia Törnblom är ett exempel på att det går att ta sig ur de värsta av omständigheter och hon höll ännu ett bejublat föredrag. Hon har sålt 1 miljon böcker, blivit grundlurad i affärer för att hon inte lyssnade på sin man “när jag vet att det kommer att komma något tråkigt ser jag ut som att jag lyssnar”. Hon berättade också hur hon kom att framstå som hysterisk i TV när allt lugnt och djupt klipptes bort. Precis vad som händer i dagens kommunikation med snabba korta budskap. En sanning blir en osanning! Det bästa jag tog med mig var PUNKT. Tänk positiva tankar om andra men skippa jämförelsen med dig själv. “Vad kul att hon är så framgångsrik.” och att vi fick träna på att skryta. Vi behöver säga mer bra saker om oss själva.

Till sist fick jag skratta mycket åt Klas Hallberg som skapade intresseväckande oro i publiken genom att vara medvetet rörig. Smart och utmanande! Naturligtvis fick han ihop föredraget på ett föredömligt sätt. Är du mask, mört eller gädda? Vad är du bra på? Det ska jag fundera vidare på. Vi ska hångla mer och det är inte förrän det är “opraktiskt” som det får effekt. Jämför med torra pussar. Vågad och kul metafor. Han berättade om Johan som aldrig vågade fråga chans fast han hade den och Janne - en enastående tågvärd som var bäst på allt från mask till gädda. Storytelling när den är som bäst!

The world is changing - so what?

If you read some of the books and articles I do you know how rapidly the world is changing even though you might not want to admit it. I choose to discuss the #changing world from a business and technological perspective. There are plenty of less good changes in the environment and politics that I leave for those who are better suited to write and talk about.

The last two weeks I have listened to leaders of big #financial companies as well as young global #leaders and just finished reading “The industries of the future” by Alec Ross. My summary is that the big traditional companies in the financial industry say “yes the world is changing but it will not affect us very much”. I am not that sure!

Alec Ross says that the major reason for Google not running it’s own superior bank is current regulations. Will regulations change? Looking back they definitely have so why shouldn’t they continue to change? Will there be new and totally different business opportunities in the future even in the financial industry? Definitely - we just don’t know exactly which.

I don’t blame people in good positions with high salary and nice benefits looking forward to a good pension resisting change. If they make changes and fail they might get fired and lose their nice benefits. So they’re probably (personally) better off just sitting still and hope their competitors will do the same.

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But if you are the #leader of such a company or a shareholder you need to admit that we will see robotics and other technological innovations in most areas where we have been doing so called “intelligent and qualified work” like financial analysis and project administration. Even legal work and implementation of regulations is mainly reading and analyzing data which artificial intelligence will do better than humans - very soon. We cannot resist #change it will happen even if we continue to say “The world is changing - but I am not”. Such a negative blog! Not at all. I love change and what would our lives be like if we would know exactly what tomorrow will bring us? Boring! We would soon lose our drive to get up in the morning to pursue the day. We need a bit of surprise in our lives and the world IS changing. The only thing you need to do is to be more changeable!

  • See change as something interesting that you will find new, maybe a bit challenging, ways through!
  • Be here and now and look forward to the future! It will come anyway so why not look forward to it?
  • Don’t ever say “it was better before” (you might have been better before) and try hard to avoid thinking it.

As always I am here to answer any questions you might have. And if you don’t agree with me I am happy to listen to your arguments!

What can you learn from your favourite hobby?

It’s often from your hobbies you learn the things that are most useful at work or in challenging situations. Why? When you do things you love your mind is open. You are more willing to learn. So listen and learn from having fun! Me and my family love to travel. A convenient well planned trip is not for us. We look forward to see places that not too many people visit and learn from the challenges we run into. Here are some of the things I learnt during the latest trip to Thailand and Cambodia.

Most things have more upsides than downsides

For the majority of our holiday we had barely decided which country to spend time in so we let people we met, or circumstances, have impact on our decisions. When a German couple we met on a bus from Phnom Penh asked us to accompany them to Otres Beach we ended up sharing home with too many grasshoppers but we also met Mickey on the beach. He sold us a boat trip to paradise in form of Koh Ta Kiev. There we found the biggest spider we have ever been close to, except in an aquarium, in our bathroom. If we can call a toilet without running water a bathroom. Definitely more upsides than downsides! Paradise is not easy to find and Koh Ta Kiev is definitely one! Unfortunately there will be a Chinese complex on the island in 2-3 years so hurry up if you want to visit paradise outside your comfort zone.

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You can get used to almost anything

The first days we found grasshoppers disturbing and at the end of our trip we lived happily with big lizards and not even dangerous centipedes scared us off. It does not take long to get used to new circumstances if you want to. My 15-year old daughter admitted that she was a bit scared even of small insects at the beginning of our trip but they did not bother her at all at the end. She was so brave! She shared bathroom with 3 big lizards without a blink except for the “almost hart attack” she got the first time she opened the door.

You learn from everything

The loose plan we had was to visit Koh Kong but too many advised against it so we went to Koh Rong Samloem instead. There we learnt that it does not matter how nice the surrounding is people can still be negative and rude. We loved the island but the lack of service, visitors finding a problem to every solution and everything being so “difficult” made the stay on the beautiful island less memorable.

You can find a meaning with most things and you find it quicker if you look for it

Every time we ran into problems, and there were quite a few which is normal when you travel the way we do, we directly talked about the upside of the problem. When boats and buses took of before schedule we found it to be good that we had chosen to have margins those times and that we learnt the lesson so we would not miss more important connections. We learnt how important it is to keep calm since there is absolutely no use being stressed or upset. The best thing you can do is to sit back and hope you will catch the boat in time. The driver is doing his best and you will only risk your life by shouting at him.

Learn by having fun you too!