De Zwarte Creations

24/11/2024

Are you open to work?

Considering a move in your career?

Really want to get deeper self-knowledge?

Open to an experiment?

Are you willing to try something new?

If you have answered yes to some of the questions, I want to invite you to an experiment.

To something that has been really valuable for me in the previous 6 months.

No strings attached, no investment needed other than a few minutes (which may become many hours) of your time.

Are you ready?

Just follow these steps.

Don’t judge, don’t overthink, just follow my lead, give it a try and see what happens.

Excited? Great.

Sceptic? Great.

Curious? Great.

Please go to genekeys.com and create a free account.

Go to the beta-profile and create your profile.

My suggestion: first read the parts My Life’s Work and My Purpose.

Sit with the information for a moment. What do you think? What do you feel?

Make some notes.

Next, go to your actual profile.

Start at the top, your Life’s Work / Brand. Click on the circle.

As you read those words, what shows up for you?

How do those words show up in your life and how might they be related to your career?

Click through the descriptions offered and make some notes.

Now do the same thing for Vocation.

Next, move to Purpose.

Pause.

Look at your notes.

What are you learning about yourself?

What are you realizing about your career, current or future?

Gift yourself a pause today, experiment, tap into your potential and into your humanity.

05/11/2024

The emptiness of potential.

It is all there.

A lot untouched.

Waiting for us to connect with it.

To commit to it.

To co-create with it.

What else is possible?

What is waiting inside the potential?

Ready … As a possibility … As a seed?

To be made probable?

To be brought into the world,
in service of humanity?

Be still.

Silent.

Listen.

To the potential.

27/10/2024

Nature. Nurture. Narrative. Navigate.

Contemplating on the Human Journey one topic that shows up regularly for me is the concept of Nature-Nurture.

As humans, a big part of who we are is connected to nature. Our parents and their genes and how based on those gene pools merging and melting our specific DNA was formed. This is all about our biological make up.

Another part we hear a lot about is Nurture. The environment we grew up in and the upbringing we received. The culture and country we are in. Our education. The institutions around us.

An extension of Nature-Nurture could be Narrative.

Besides our biological make up and the conditioning from our environment, we are also conditioned and formed by the unique story of our individual experiences and personal journey.

Experiences of joy and pleasure, experiences of tragedy, trouble and trauma. Moments we remember with gratitude, moments we try to forget. Moments that together formed our Narrative.

These three elements, Nature, Nurture and Narrative have brought us where we are today.

And today, in our (extra-)ordinary world, we have options, choices and decisions to make.

We live in specific circumstances, context.

We have our unique Human Condition and Human Experience.

One thing I came to understand more and more is how we can Navigate our life.

That doesn’t mean we control the outcomes.

We do have some power over what we initiate.

How we engage with others.

How we show up on the playground of Life.

What we respond to and how we respond.

For that it is helpful if we have a sense of direction, a dream, a vision, a dot on the horizon. An idea of what we want or need.

In order to be able to plot a course, it is also very useful to know where we are, to have an understanding of who we are, truly. To be aware of our circumstances, our reality.

Once we embrace our personal power, our untapped potential, our unexpressed humanity, our life force and energy, we can Navigate our Human Journey with purpose, power and in a playful way.

We can use our creativity, curiosity, compassion and courage to be of service to the whole.

In the way we choose to play, in the present moment, we are able to influence our Narrative, our Story, to change the trajectory of our Human Journey.

To live a Life of Purpose, experience fulfillment and satisfaction as we Navigate the challenge we face, crossing thresholds together with the companions on our journey.

23/10/2024

Are you still satisfied with your current career? Or is time for a change?

In a previous post I shared some of the main reasons why a lot of people are no longer fulfilled and satisfied in their current work environment.

The work is no longer seen as meaningful, they don’t feel empowered by their manager or the experience of ongoing and increasing pressure and toxicity is no longer sustainable. There is a general lack of well being at work.

Together with the people I coach at the moment we take a forward looking approach, towards their dream job, so they can look forward to being part of a fulfilling and enjoyable work environment again.

The journey to that dream career, as I look at it, contains three foundational elements:

Step 1: Define your dot on the horizon, design your dream career.

In this first step in this journey we work with questions like: what is the perfect first or next career, for you?

If you could have it your way, what would it be?

The idea is to start building clarity towards a dream job, to get a better sense of direction.

Even if you may not find the 100% fit, having clarity on what you want may bring the job that has 80-90% fit and makes the journey a lot more pleasurable and less frustrating.

Step 2: Get to know yourself better and have a stronger foundation.

In this second step the intention is to have a strong starting point, a strong and solid foundation. A deep understanding of yourself.

3 of my favorite questions to use here are:

Who are you?

What do you want?

Why are you here?

These questions will help you to be able to formulate better answers during interviews and also show you how well you are aligned to your dream job and the jobs being offered out there.

Step 3: Co-create your individual and unique journey towards your dream career.

Based on the first two steps, having the bookends for the journey, which provides your direction and the foundation, we will co-create some specific steps for your individual and unique journey.

We will look at assets that need to be created or updated, look at your online presence, see how you can leverage your network and how to find the companies that are hiring for the career you desire.

When you have thought about these questions and found your answers and created your path, it will be easier to get ready for the next step, preparing for interviews.

More about that in a next post.

If you are willing to invest time, money and effort in landing that first or next career, defined and designed by you with my support and guidance as your coach, please let me know.

And if you know someone else who is looking for their first or next career and would like to have a companion on their journey, please share this post with them.

18/10/2024

16/10/2024

Pause for a moment.

Reflect.

Consider.

Contemplate.

What did you learn?

To what realization did you come?

Now that you know better, can you choose better?

Be better?

Do better?

Say better?

Ask better?

Give better?

Share better?

Serve better?

Receive better?

Have better?

Experience better?

What is now possible that wasn't possible before?

14/10/2024

You are playing for something important.

Towards a dream, a vision, a goal.

You face challenges in the outer world,

that are related to your inner world.

Your environment can be designed.

Your inner world can be explored.

Life can be practiced.

You get to engage on your human journey

with a bigger sense of freedom.

Realize your potential.

Express your humanity.

Serve the whole in your chosen role.

14/10/2024

Are you ready to start to make a (bigger) difference in your life and in the lives of others in the next few months?

If you answered “YES” to that question, I may be looking for you.

You can be a founder of a start-up, recently retired, looking for a new job or a change in your career, having a big dream to do something for the environment, do something for humanity.

You can be a creative who is writing a book or wanting to bring your music to a bigger audience.

What all of the above have in common, is the desire to initiate a big(ger) transformation in their life and to better serve the whole.

I am here to be of service to people who are committed to live more purposeful, to experience more inner freedom and start doing the things for their dream they haven’t been doing so far ….. the things they may have been dreading, postponing for a long time and just the thought of doing these things makes them experience resistance and reluctance.

With 2025 around the corner, some are really busy now, working towards a close of 2024.

Others may make a conscious choice, or maybe are forced, to take the time to explore their dreams, find clarity, build confidence and get out there in the world and play for their dream in a different way.

If you are ready for a change and want to invest in yourself and in your dream, this might be for you.

Are you:

- ready to move towards the life you want (and away from what you don’t want) with a bigger sense of clarity, confidence and freedom?

- willing to play with guided practice to prepare for the conversations that you know will move the needle for you, would change the trajectory of your life?

- 100% committed to do the work, not only show up for your coaching sessions but also do what you commit to in between sessions?

- willing and able to invest time, energy and money in yourself and your transformation, in your dream, and

- coachable, willing and able to share what is on your mind and heart honestly?

If you read these questions and answered a deep “YES” to all of them, we should meet and have a conversation. A conversation for me to Get To Know You And Your Big Dream, .

Please send me a Direct Message and let’s liberate your potential and initiate some ripple effects.

PS My life purpose and the purpose of my posts is to inspire you, to serve you, to offer you questions for reflection and contemplation. On the image attached there are a few of them … if you can, pause for a moment, look at the questions and notice what shows up for you.

13/10/2024

For about a little over half a year now I have been contemplating on both Gene Keys and Human Design.

From my work as a Transformational Coach, I had already been playing with the idea of Soul-Role(s)-the Whole.

Noticing how many people globally are looking for a new career, a new job, I started to consider to combine all these ideas.

The first version of that is visible in the attached image.

The idea behind this is we all have a lot of untapped potential.

Through the Gene Keys, by engaging with the Activation Sequence, we have a great starting point to have language around our Purpose and our Life's Work. We can look at our Evolution and our Radiance.

From a career perspective, we would obviously also consider the Pearl Sequence, starting with Vocation, moving into Culture, Brand and back to Vocation to make the Quantum Leap to the Pearl.

By contemplating on all this we may get a better understanding of what our unique and differentiated contribution to the whole may be. We start to get a better understanding of how we can best contribute our potential, how we can best serve the whole.

Our role(s) start to emerge.

By using Human Design, we get a refined perspective on our role.

Making sure we find something that aligns with our type. So we can truly prosper.

In my case, as a generator, which is the type for 70% of humanity, it's all about trusting my sacral in combination with my solar plexus. I started to ask myself more and more, "Do I have the energy for this?", to support and guide me in making decisions.

That, in combination with the contemplation of the Gene Keys, really started to liberate my potential and my life force, using my energy for the right things and slowly but gradually transcending the shadows more and more towards the gift.

Would love to read some of your thoughts on this.

By the way, both the Gene Keys Profile and the Human Design Chart are based on my data.

If anyone has an insight they want to share based on this, please leave a comment.

13/10/2024

Sunday morning contemplation, October 13th 2024

After I listened to a podcast this morning about conditioning and deconditioning, how we can start to move more towards our “best” life (however you would define that), I was ready for another cup of coffee.

Next to me was a pile of notes that I had recently taken out of my notebook.

One of the papers had a lot of notes on it relating to the Human Journey, the concept I have been playing with for a while now. As I looked at the notes I took back then, I turn the page around and see some notes from almost a year ago.

In the middle of those notes is a reference to a song by Paul van Dyk, “The time of our lives”. A song that has a lot of personal meaning for me as it is connected to someone who has played a major role in my life and is no longer here. His human journey ended 19 years ago and I still miss his presence.

The lyrics in the song captured a lot of the feelings that showed up for me during this time and still do today.

Last Friday I had a conversation within a small group with 3 others. We meet every Friday to talk about our Dreams, our Worthy Goals and what is happening in our lives, what we are working on and towards. During that conversation somehow I mentioned the song as well.

As my eye fell on the notes this morning I felt compelled to share both the song and the notes.

29.12.2023.

The Human Journey. Our daily lives.

The extraordinary in the ordinary.

The seemingly irrelevant & insignificant moments that have major influence and impact.

The big choices, the big changes.

The moments of choice that set the direction for our trajectory, our path in life.

The moments we pause, stop.

Reflect … redesign … redefine … realign.

The moments when confusion amidst complexity turns to clarity.
The moments of consciousness, compassion, curiosity, creativity, courage & commitment.

(obs … feels like an alternate version of Time of our Lives / Paul van Dyk).

“The moments of your life"

The moments you use your voice to speak your truth.

The moments to stand up and speak up, for others who can’t.

The moments where you ask for help and raise your hand.

The moments where you lend a hand, when your help is needed.

The moments of your life, where you make a difference, in your life and the lives of others.

Where a ripple is initiated, the first domino falls, the chain reaction starts, the gift waves start rolling.

This is your life, your human journey.

12/10/2024

Saturday morning contemplation, October 12th 2024

Thursday evening during a group conversation one of the participants shared this:

"Anytime you want something other than what is, brings unease".

As I listened to and captured the words in my note pad, my Transformational Coaching side kicked in.

We all experience a form of unease during our days.

Some of this as a result of the behavior of others. Something that was said or done. Maybe a decision taken in the organization that we work in, that makes us feel uncomfortable. Maybe an expectation that was shared by our manager and we are not sure if that is something we are capable or willing of doing.

Some of it as a reaction to a change in circumstances. People leaving our team, or new people joining our team. The introduction of new technology that we now are expected to work with. Maybe something that changed in our environment.

Some of it as we try to do something in the outer world. When we try to create, relate, explore and experiment. When we try to speak up, when we reach out to people, when want to invite others into conversations. When we are unsure of the outcome.

The question that showed up for me is:

"Can you accept what is, right now, that you are not able to change / transform in the moment?"

Accept the current situation as it is.

It might be something we can't undo.

It happened.

And it somehow creates a sense of unease for you.

What we can do is observe our unease.

We can sit with the experience of unease.

By the way, this is one of the most difficult things for many of us.

For sure it has been something I needed to learn, and still am improving.

Instead of distracting our-self away from the unease, just sit with it.

Allow the unease to be.

How does it show up?

Is it a thought in our mind?

Is it a physical sensation in our body?

What really creates the unease?

Often it is not (only) what happened. Of course, this was the trigger.
What was triggered? What inside us actually gave us the experience of unease?

As we sat with it for a while, we can ask:

"What can I do differently, what transformation is needed, so in time (with some effort and patience) the unease will be rel-ease-d and the state of ease will return?"

What created a sense of unease for you last week?

With hindsight, what happens if you would sit with it?

What can you actually do differently to initiate a transformation, for you?

Have a great Saturday.

06/10/2024

As a transformational coach I love open questions.

A prompt to get the mind started, to explore, to expand, to generate options.

And some times, there is nothing better than a good closed question.

Just one of two answers possible, either a YES or a NO.

Clarity.

Two questions I started using a lot more myself are:

Do I have the energy for this?

Will this be satisfying, for me?

They may sound very self-centered, they are really about self-care.

If the answer I receive is a full YES, I am all in.

If the answer is a NO, it depends. Some things are more or less non-negotiable, at some point they need to happen.

For other things, when we clearly have a choice, the NO can be a very clear signal and a very clear answer.

If I won't be able to generate energy from this, if it won't be satisfying for me, if i don't feel it will somehow serve the whole, why would I choose to engage with it, whatever it is?

What do you say YES to? What can you fully lean into as it will generate energy?

What do you want to say NO to? What do you want to lean away from as it will most probably drain your energy?

The satisfying game of asking the right question at the right time.

That is one of the things I love about being a Transformational Coach during Transformational Conversations with people who want to transform their career, their business, their life.

05/10/2024

Penning and publishing

Saturday morning, October 5th 2024

A moment of solitude, studying, synthesizing.

Contemplating about Transformational Coaching, having conversations.

Something we all do, every day, all day.

Conversations with recruiters and hiring managers, as we are looking for a new job.

Conversations with investors, as we try to get a next round of investment into our business.

Conversations with our leadership team, about our dream and the challenges we face and how to best approach those challenges.

Conversations with our customers, business partners, colleagues, managers etc.

What I notice in the world around me related to conversations and presentations:
- There is not a lot of clarity about the purpose of the conversation or presentation, the yes or the prize we are playing for;
- There is limited time allowed for and allocated to preparation, the thinking through, being intentional and deliberate;
- There is hardly any practicing done, the dry run, experience the thresholds, the pivotal moments and try them with different approaches, find out what is most effective for what you are trying to achieve;
- During the conversations and presentations, especially the virtual ones, only a few people are visibly taking notes as we start to rely more and more on artificial intelligence to do that for us. AI is great to capture what was said, by who and yet it can’t capture what we think and feel, what we observe and notice. This is where we need to put pen to paper, or fingers to device.
- The notes that were taken are only occasionally shared with others.

This is where penning and publishing comes in.

My curiosity got hold of me as I was wondering if there were any words starting with the letter p, that would describe the idea of note taking and sharing those notes.

Penning and publishing. Funny how these words never occurred to me before in this context, as I love to put my pen to paper (penning) and share what I wrote (publishing).

Something I don’t just do here, I also do that during and after my coaching sessions to enable you to become better and more effective in your conversations and presentations.

So let me ask you these questions:
What is hard for you to do, during your conversations and presentations?
What would you like to practice to become more effective and prosper?

03/10/2024

Earlier this week I had a conversation where the concept of start, stop, continue showed up.

A concept often used after a workshop, training or coaching session to integrate what was learned into our daily life.

During that conversation it first dawned on me that the word Improve was somehow missing. Integration of what we have learned can be certain actions to Start, Stop or Continue, it may be useful to specifically consider what to improve.

When the word consider appeared, the next thing happened.

How present are we? What do we actually consider?

In order to see options and be able to Consider them, we need to Observe, Notice, Listen.

That brought me to where all of this begins.

The present moment. The Pause. We Breathe. Create The Space. Contemplate.

Many of us are so busy, booked back to back. To time to wonder.

If we don't Pause, if we don't get Present, how can we start to create and receive options, ideas on what is possible, on what to do next?

And now let's get back to integration.

Now that we have thought about what to Start, Stop, Improve or Continue, it's time for the next step. Knowing this is one thing. Having the list.

Now it's time to make it happen.

We need to Decide. Commit. Plan. Initiate.

And in the present moment, where we started with a breath, it's now time to Prepare, Practice, Play, Perform and make Progress.

Until we take next Pause.

29/09/2024

A large part of our mindset, attitude, programming and conditioning is unknown to us.

It is unconscious.

In order to become conscious about it we can actually bring dormant memories to the surface to discover the imprint and conditioning they caused.

If you want to change your mindset, attitude, conditioning and programming, the inner journey is your path to move forward.

29/09/2024

How well do you know yourself?

Last night I had the pleasure of attending day 1 of a conference organized by Gaia, featuring Richard Rudd talking about the Gene Keys.

About 6 months ago I stumbled onto the Gene Keys and was immediately hooked.

One thing a lot of people talk about these days is their purpose.

What I realized is how many different definitions we have of that word.

For some it’s about what we bring into the world, for others it’s about having a deep sense of fulfillment.

In the Gene Keys the definition of purpose is the presence we bring to all we do.

In the language I have been using, purpose is the merging of our potential and our humanity as we bring it into the world.

When I take a good honest look in the mirror, I see a lot of untapped potential. There is so much more I can contribute to the world in different ways than I have done until today. That is something I am working on, I am playing with. Like the videos on the human journey I have been recording and posting recently.

The idea of liberating humanity’s potential, including my own.

Liberating it from all the limiting conditioning that has happened over a lifetime.

Liberating it from all the imprinting and indoctrination that has happened through our education and society / culture.

My humanity that is yearning for expression and realization. The core of my being, my creativity, my curiosity, my compassion and my courage. Some of it I easily express, some of it is still hard to do. There are still thresholds to cross.

This is about becoming the next version of myself as much as it is about returning to who I really am.

Circumstances and culture, environments (including people) and experiences conditioned us to see ourselves in a certain way.

We believe what we were told.

You can’t …

You don’t have the capacity to …

You don’t have the intelligence to …

Our dreams, squashed.

Our potential, squandered.

And yet, it is possible, we can liberate our potential and reconnect with our humanity.

Reconnect with our true self.

Reconnect with and express our creativity, our curiosity, our compassion and our courage.

Step into our human journey, in a direction of our choice. Using our imagination.

Every moment we have the possibility to become the next version of our self, to return (more) to our true self.

If you pause for a moment, if you take a moment to contemplate, if you would really listen to yourself and get to know more about yourself, what dream do you have right now?

What part of your potential do you want to realize?

What part of your humanity wants to be expressed?

What would need to happen for you to take a small step towards that dream, towards the realization of your potential, towards the reconnection with your humanity?

Enjoy a pause, a moment of contemplation, to get to know yourself better, and live (more) from your purpose.

28/09/2024

One for the weekend ... free.

This morning I thought about some of the words that showed up in the previous weeks and how they relate to us being human.

It started with FEAR, Former Experiences Affecting Reality (Relationships and Results).

This week through one of the exercises in Tim Clare's the 100 day writing challenge I went deep into a Former Experience in my life. More a period of interwoven experiences. It became clear to me how much that period, and the imprint it created, still Affects my Reality today. It hasn't been fully processed, not mentally and especially not emotionally.

The unprocessed imprint of that period partially inhibits me from Living Openly and Valuing Experiences (LOVE).

There are "things" which are hard for me to be, do, say, ask, give, receive and experience.

I came to understand that there are multiple of these imprints, which are a part of being a human being on the human journey, they are part of life and being alive, that affect our capacity and ability to realize our potential and express our humanity.

When we start to notice the moments of choice in our life, the moments where we either move forward towards our dream and cross a threshold or choose to stay where we are, we can start to become more free.

So, I asked Co-Pilot: If FREE would be an acronym consisting of single words that shows how we can live our lives not being hindered from former experiences that affect our reality, relationships and results and expresses how we can live openly valuing experiences, what would that acronym be?

This is the answer I got:

"How about this for the acronym FREE:

Forgive:

Let go of past grievances and mistakes, both yours and others’, to free yourself from emotional burdens.

Release:

Release negative thoughts and limiting beliefs that hold you back from experiencing life fully.

Embrace:

Embrace new experiences and opportunities with an open heart and mind.

Evolve:

Continuously grow and evolve by learning from your experiences and adapting to change.

This acronym emphasizes the importance of letting go of the past, embracing the present, and evolving for the future. What do you think?"

I think it's worth the effort and energy to notice where we limit ourselves, where we inhibit the realization of our potential and the expression of our humanity, in order to be (more) free.

Where could you be more free?

Have a great weekend.