What are you grateful for?

Who inspired you? What got you to the place where you are now? Who do you owe gratitude to? 

Here on Linkedin I sometimes get the feeling it is all about what we do. What we do successfully. Succes does not just fall in your lap. We work for it. Which is of course true. But then we brag about it. Posting messages about ourselves. About what makes us successful. Hoping others will notice. 

Today I like to write about gratitude. About who inspired me. Who helped me to get to the place were I am now. On who’s shoulders I stand. Who I would like to express gratitude to.

I’ll start. And I hope you will follow....

I thank all the teenagers I ever worked with for giving me the best training in group dynamics and communication skills ever. For mirroring my behaviour and giving me insight to who I am, and how authenticity is key to connection. 

I thank all the young people from Jimmy’s who showed me adults and youth can be equal partners. And Fanny for asking me to join them.

I thank my TEDxYouth team for showing me what epic stuff can be done when you want to. 

I thank Annemieke, Jeroen & Laura for the steps we are taking in working together

I thank the desert, the camels, the Bedouin and Joyce, who give me the place I can always retreat and reload.

I thank Janne en Maarten for showing me you can just go on and make the world a better place all by yourself. ( And please do buy a t-shirt https://notafactory.com/) and have a look at all these beautiful moments ( https://www.seizeyourmoments.com/)

I thank Sam and Phoebe and all of the Going Horizontal team for showing me the realm of work is a field that can be changed. 

I thank my family that teaches me love has unknown dept. 

I thank Nick for being the first one to open up an allow me to help his team with my new way of working.

I thank Arne Rubinstein for teaching me the Rite of Passage framework.

Thanks to all of my teachers who made me go on where I thought I could not and to find out I was stronger than I thought I was.

And I thank my best friend Marleen who shows me having a BFF is actually a great thing. 

All of you were and are part of my journey. Thank you. 

P.s: writing this list made me realise it is endless, I have so, so much to be grateful for.