When my father turned 40 in 1990, I bought him a naughty comic book featuring drawings poking fun at the midlife crisis and middle-aged life in general.
28 years later it’s my time to hit the magic number. Truly a day for some reflections.
2017 in Review - Growth in Challenging Times
2017 is behind us, and personally I am not that sad about it. Nevertheless, let's look back, dive into the data and see how Life-Sparring did over the past 12 months.
The Resolution to Your Problems? – Goal Setting With the GoMoTo- Framework
Despite knowing that you actually could change your life on any given day, I am a committed practitioner of New Year’s resolutions. The change of the year has this magical aura that calls for big changes, even if we then often fall back to our old ways.
The Quantified Self Hong Kong meet-up discussed in December about “How to Quantify Your 2018 Goals”. One of my contributions to the debate was the idea of a little 3-step framework to put self-tracking into a larger context of self-improvement.
While the framework is actually quite simple, I thought it might be worth to write the idea out in full, give it a funky name and open it for a broader discussion. So, without further ado, let me introduce the GoMoTo-Framework.
Food for Thought 2017 – The Life-Sparring Books of the Year
Food for Thoughts is the traditional book review article, summarizing the highlights of my reading over the past year. Who claims the throne for the Life-Sparring book of 2017?
My Data as a Coach - Training with the Everlast and PIQ Boxing Sensor
I came across the PIQ Blue Robot sensor in spring of this year. As a certified Quantified Self (QS) nerd, the idea of a sensor quantifying my pitiful boxing workouts was instantly intriguing. A bit more than half a year later, PIQ Sports Intelligence, equipped me with two review samples of the Everlast and PIQ boxing sensor. Can my own data coach me to peak performance? And what is my PIQscore anyway?
From Montauk to Tudor - Life-Sparring Gets a Fresh Look
Life-Sparring just got a complete facelift. Say goodbye to the old template "Montauk" and welcome "Tudor". How do you like the new look?
Soul-Searching Above Rainy Clouds – A Journey to Bhutan: Part II
Already vacation deprived, a particularly stressful summer at work added to my chronic wanderlust. It is fair to say, that I barely ever felt so in need of a vacation. Looking for the perfect destination for an adventure holiday, we settled for the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, the self-proclaimed happiest place on earth. As our visit in August fell in the middle of the Monsoon season, would rain clouds get in the way of our soul search?
Soul-Searching Above Rainy Clouds – A Journey to Bhutan: Part I
Already vacation deprived, a particularly stressful summer at work added to my chronic wanderlust. It is fair to say, that I barely ever felt so in need of a vacation. Looking for the perfect destination for an adventure holiday, we settled for the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, the self-proclaimed happiest place on earth. As our visit in August fell in the middle of the Monsoon season, would rain clouds get in the way of our soul search?
Stress and Me – A Complicated Relationship
It has been a while since I published a full-length Life-Sparring round. My excuse? Stress! The perfect opportunity to take a closer look at my strange relationship with one of the strangest side-effects of our modern lifestyle.
The Deal Making Approach to Job Hunting – Making an Offer They Can’t Refuse
Life-Sparring is all about the exchange of ideas and concepts to optimize life in all aspects.
Creative ideas come especially handy when life throws some lemons at you. Being out of work is a such a test, especially in Hong Kong where you do not enjoy unemployment benefits like in Europe and even more if you have a family to care for and a mortgage to pay. A good friend of mine, JB, just recently was in this exact situation.
What impressed me immediately when talking job search with JB, was his positive energy and his unique approach to the existential challenge. An approach that not only proofed to be successful for JB but is also replicable by other job searchers for a wide range of positions. It was an absolute no-brainer to ask JB if he would be interested in sharing his job hunting strategy in a Life-Sparring round and luckily, he agreed.
Enter JB Deal, the master of what I call “the deal making approach to job hunting”!