Sunday scribbles #19: A day off in Düsseldorf.

Something I find harder and harder to do is take a full day off. My life is pretty structured right now. Most of my days during the week look quite the same. I wake up doing my morning routine and get ready for my main job. I am fortunate in having a job which provides me with one of the most precious goods ever: freedom. So even though my days mostly consist of the same activities, they aren't always structured the same way, which I find very enjoying to say the least. Four times a week, I add a workout to my day. I switch between going climbing, only bouldering, and doing fitness in our modest home gym in the garage. Two other days in the week I plan time in my arena to have fun making new paintings. One of those days really is all about having fun and having zero idea of what I want to make, and the other is dedicated to making a set of two paintings in the same style. During the weekend I also make sure I have time to write these Sunday scribbles. You may have already read that aside from all the above, I also do some work as an event model. This happens both during the week and the weekend, but it depends on what jobs I am accepted or asked for.

Now, my weeks are all structured around the things I have mentioned. This is the stuff I must have done by the end of the week, and *fingers crossed I have been able to do this for quite a while now. If you would have told my younger self that at this point my life would be looking like this, I would have declared this older self both old and crazy, not in the good way. The funny thing is that I feel like I'm at a point where I love my life the most I have ever done. Structure really is key to building something, and building something is a huge part of my happiness. In trying to keep everything in balance, there is one big thing I have long neglected: taking days off. Don't get me wrong, I'm still not as busy as every human being in those motivational videos on YouTube. I take time off daily to engage in brainless but relaxing activities, but taking a full day off without doing any of this stuff is something I haven't done for a long time, until now.

In the beginning of this year my girlfriend and I went to Mexico for a Mayan-trip where we visited the Mayan region in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. During that holiday we met some really nice people who were travelling with us. After a Vietnam trip where we planned everything ourselves, we wanted to try out an organized trip this time. So as it goes with those trips, you do this with a group of people. There was one guy there whom we both strongly connected with really fast, so we decided to visit him. He lives in Düsseldorf, Germany, which is only a 3 hour drive from where we live in Belgium. Friday evening we left, just to spend the Saturday abroad, and head back home Sunday morning. Seeing how busy it is, I couldn't afford spending the whole weekend there. I still want to get a lot of stuff done, both for my main job as my art. Now, this won't be the longest of blogs, but I did want to share the following with you. I have long been thinking that you have to stay busy most of the time and keep working hard to progress. I mean that's what a lot of books and self-proclaimed motivational guru's say, right? Well, even though that is truth in those words, I can now confirm that is beneficial to take full days off, and engage with the world. I still find it hard to describe, because even though I love being home and building the life I want, there is something to be found in visiting new places, meeting new people and just connecting with the world while you take a day off, both physically and mentally. With the physical part I literally mean being at a place you don't know, or haven't yet been. With being there mentally, I am saying you shouldn't think about everything you still have or want to do at home, but really live in the moment. Many of you are probably doing that a lot already, but I thought it interesting to share how someone focused very strongly on himself, sees the importance of occasionally taking days off. Not to recharge your batteries, because I don't believe in running through life, only to be recharged during holidays, or escapes. I mainly think it is important to broaden your horizons by just having fun of actually living in the moment, wherever that may be.

Well, dear internet, I am off again. Because strangely, I have a lot of stuff to do today. Some stuff may sound weird to you, but it is a strange feeling I am trying to describe. Hopefully you'll get the point I'm trying to make, and if not, I'll do my best to describe again after another horizon broadening trip.

Cheers! And yeah... I still do dabs, which are very much appreciated by my other half, especially in public.