Samuel Engelen's Blog, page 5

How To Love Your Work

This Sunday morning I happily got up at 4am to write.

If you would have told me this a few months ago, I would have laughed at you.

But when you’re truly passionate about something, and you find satisfaction in performing the task itself, it becomes self-evident.

Granted, if I got up at 4am every day and didn’t change the rest of my schedule I’d burn out really quickly.

I knew I wouldn’t have time to write my novel the rest of the day, so when my son woke me up at 3am I carried him until he fell...

The Fear Of Emptiness

Most people I meet are afraid of minimalism.

They think it’s an interesting idea, and they like to discuss it at great length, but when it comes to getting rid of clutter they stop dead in their tracks.

They can’t imagine living out of a backpack, because they think they need their house, their car, their television and all their clothes and gadgets.

Most people react roughly the same way when it comes to meditation.

They think it’s an intriguing concept, and they like to discuss the benefits ass...

Your True Heart

The heart has been inextricably linked to romance, love and Valentine’s Day.

When we speak of it, we think of butterflies in our stomach, that special someone or terrible movies starring the likes of Jennifer Aniston or Matthew McConaughey (no offense).

“Follow your heart.”

“The heart wants what the heart wants.”

“He/she broke my heart.”

We use these expressions gratuitously in the same hopelessly boring conversations.

I don’t mean to sound bitter, but I personally believe it is outrageous that rom...

Comfort Is Killing You

There is a particularly unhealthy side-effect to what we consider progress.

The old business adage of solving people’s problems has turned into making everything as easy and comfortable as possible.

And we’ve been led to believe that comfort is the ultimate goal.

We want a comfortable bed, warm clothes, lazy couch, tasty food, top-of-the-line entertainment system and god knows what else because we feel we deserve it.

The big promise is job security, financial security, retirement and all possib...

The Art Of Losing

We live in a culture focused on success. It’s all about winning.

And if you’re not a winner, you’re a loser.

And you mean nothing.

The problem is that it’s always someone else deciding which outcome is winning and which outcome is losing.

Success in society gets defined by the people who think they’re at the top. The winners.

They turn everything into a competition and the winners always get what they want, no matter what the cost.

I’ve always had a problem with competition. When I was a little kid...