Changing the algorithm of life, what you say? What things, thoughts and people make me feel better? And which things, thoughts and people make me feel shitty, less and insecure? Why do I feel anxious so often and how come it’s so hard to switch the button and just be happy? Unfortunately I don’t have the answers to these questions but that’s due to the fact everyones answers are personal. No one is just like you nor should you want to be like anyone else. Although we’re often encouraged to be like someone else, think like someone else or even look like someone else. In the process of us just looking at other people, our own identity chips away, we loose touch with what really matters to us and we adjust ourself to the image that has been laid out. Because this is so embedded in our culture I don’t think there’s a quick fix, a magic pill or a life changing advice, nope I think it all starts with you showing interest in life. Asking yourself, is this really it? Society often tells us that we need this or that in order to have succes, to act a certain way in order to make it. When we’re in school we set out to have a great career, have a family and a big house with a stylish car parked upfront. No matter how you’ll get there, most important is that you get there. In all honesty I think that’s a great goal, I just don’t think it should be a priority.. Like Jimmy Carter once said “Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns” Which for me, bangs the nail on the head. 

But where do you learn more about adopting a different mentality? Rewiring your brain to not get stuck in this trap of ‘I shoulds’. Everyone has been handed a bag of shoulds and it’s often not appreciated if you look in the bag and say ‘well I think I’ll take a look around and who knows I might find another bag’. However the negative reactions you might get, looking around for another bag can work very liberating. Imagine walking around without that ‘I-should-do-this and I-should’ve-achieved-that’ bag, making your own bag and filling it with shit you want to do instead of carrying a bag around you don’t actually enjoy, I’ll tell ya the first bag carries a whole lotta more weight. 

For me taking a look around has mostly meant surrounding myself with inspiring people, in the form of their words and voices. Since many of us don’t have acces to these great minds and aren’t lucky enough to have the Dalai Lama as their neighbor, I suggest you listen to them. Go and take a look around, what people do you look up to and make you feel better instead of insecure, which people are real and speak truth rather than acting like marketing tools. Concerned about their own bag of shoulds and reaching their own goals no matter what.  Down here I’ve listed some of the kick ass people I look up to, that have done things in their life to commend and did it in a way that speaks truth. These are some of the tools that helped me unriddle the puzzle of my messy brain.