In February, I was back in Thailand, continuing my tradition of visiting every three years. It’s been so interesting to see how I am in completely different stages of my life every time I come.

My main goal during this trip was to learn how to grow my business by reading a book called How to: $10M, which my friend Derek recommended, and to apply what I learned right away.

One day, while browsing MeetUp for activities in Chiang Mai, I saw a meditation group that got together every Sunday morning at a beautiful temple in the old town. Meditating in a 500-year-old Buddhist temple is definitely something I’m not going to find in Berlin. It sounded interesting, and I knew I would learn something, so I signed up.

When I saw the location on the map, I was surprised. It was at the same temple where, three years ago, I was walking around and felt something about that temple pulling me in and inviting me to meditate inside. Now, three years later, chance was bringing me back to the same place. If you’ve been to Chiang Mai, you know there are hundreds of temples, so this didn’t seem like a coincidence. It felt too meaningful to ignore.

So Sunday came, and I went.

The meditation, led by David, was so insightful that I wanted to learn more, so I ended up spending the whole day with him and the group. We ate together and then attended another one of his talks at a forest temple. At the end of the day, David mentioned that he was teaching a five-day course the following week and that I was more than welcome to attend. I said I would, but only for one day since I had things to do.

I went back to working on my original goal of learning how to grow my business. I did this for two days. But it felt off.

On Sunday, I had gone with the flow, following the advice from The Surrender Experiment of letting life lead me, which my friend Corazon had recommended to me a long time ago. Now, it felt forced, and that my time could be better spent elsewhere.

So, on Wednesday, I went back to the temple to attend part of the five-day course. I knew right away that I was where I was supposed to be. I decided to let go of my original goal and attend the rest of the course. Three full days, from 9 am to 2 pm each day.

During this time, I learned why I was stressed and worried. I realized that I had been holding on tightly to ideas, expectations, goals, and routines. I was attached, wanting things to stay the same or to change exactly the way I wanted. All of this was making me unhappy.

I learned to let go, to deepen my meditation practice, and to be more intentional with my actions. I also learned to be more patient with myself.

On my last day in Chiang Mai, looking back at the two weeks I had spent there, I felt a sense of peace, knowing that life called me, wanting to teach me something, and for a change, I listened.

So thank you, Antonia, for making it possible for me to be there. Thank you, universe, for making it very obvious what the wisest use of my time was. Thank you, David, for giving your time and energy to teach this class. And thank you to my classmates for your support.

Now I’m back in Berlin practicing what I learned.

What about you? Has something like this ever happened to you? Have you ever allowed life to lead and simply watched what happened?

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Until next time,

Angel

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P.S. I’m in full training mode. Last week I had my first gym session with my trainer John in 11 months, after recovering from my broken arm. Now the goal is to ride 100 km in 6 hours. Right now I’m at 20 km in 1 hour, so I’m getting there :)

P.P.S. For the last two weeks, my wife and I have been working on a summary of what was discussed, ideas, action items, and next steps from the 10-Year Vision Retreat we did back in February. Looking at everything we accomplished in those two days reminded me how powerful this retreat was, to take time to pause life, and design the next 10 years of your life on purpose.

If you’re at a point where you feel ready for clarity about what the next 10 years could look like, this kind of work changes everything.