Archive for the ‘Lifestyle Design’ Category

Photo by Jeremy Jenum
I’m a big fan of efficiency and for quite a while I’ve been caught up in the internet efficiency mode.

But as I get older and wiser :) I come to realize the internet is not always as efficient or effective as it seems.

A lot of the tools on the internet like socialmedia, apps and cloudbased stuff that is supposed to make your life easier, (easier for you to communicate, network, save and share) will eventually leave you with just more work and more things to do. It doesn’t make your life easier, it makes it busier.

So I decided to quit facebook, quit twitter, quit saving my stuff online. Back to simplifying. And you know what? It feels great! Back to playing guitar and spending quality time with the family. That’s all there is to it.

Okay I could dive a little deeper and talk about those nice late morning cappuccinos, how I spend my days with coolest guitar workouts and that kind of stuff, but I’ll save that for later posts. Patience… please!

And then I also decided to give up goals. Meaning: Learning a certain skill or working on a project (how small it may be) with a deadline in mind. No more of that. Nowadays I wake up and just do whatever comes my way and do it passionately and mindfully. With the emphasis on “mindfully”.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have a saying in how I spend my days, I certainly do, but my days flow more naturally and best of all…. I get more done without having the intention to do so. Try it and you’ll be pretty amazed. Just live in the moment and be open and openminded for whatever or whoever shows up on your path. You’ll come out as a better guitar player because of it.

I’ll leave you for now with a beautiful quote by Lao Tzu:
“The world is ruled by letting things take their course, it cannot be ruled by interfering.”

I just spend a wonderful 14 days in Italy with my wife and two kids enjoying the La Dolce Vita at the Garda Lake.

We took our travel guitars with us and we had such a blast.

In the evening we jammed together in the front garden of our apartment while drinking Italian wine.

At noon I would sometimes go to the beach on my own (My zen moment), sitting down on a rock with my feet in perfect water playing my favorite Jack Johnson, John Mayer and Damien Rice songs. The sun burning on my skin and a tremendous view of the lake and the mountains. Just euphoric.

It was just great to have our travel guitars with us wherever we went.

At home I’m also totally head over heels in love with my travel guitar. I don’t know, but there is just something about it that wants you to play it all the time.

But then again, maybe I do know…

Let’s take a look at some benefits I think are really interesting: Read the rest of this entry »

Since I’ve become a simplifier life has become pretty awesome. Things have become better, easier and more beautiful.

Now there is time to do everything I want and I’m doing all of the things I always wanted to do:

Playing guitar, teaching fabulous guitar students and meeting interesting people, working out (at the moment: abs training, push ups, jump rope, walking), reading or writing and spending time with family and friends.

And I ain’t doing all of these things every single day. I’m taking my time.

In the past I always wanted to do a lot more, but now I’m limiting myself to a small number of things (the most important ones). I have let go of a lot of unimportant things and it has made life simply beautiful.

I’m focusing on things I really want to do and not so much on what I want to achieve. You’ll be amazed how things change for the better when you start to let go and live in the now.

If you want to enjoy more with less here are some ways to go about it: Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by cesar bojorquez
Every year I think about new resolutions. I get excited and want to do better in the next year, always looking for a new challenge.

I also evaluate what I have accomplished, experienced or how much I have grown.

I can look back with awesomeness.

In May my son Vince was born (he is really into guitars already), I spend more time practicing guitar and learned a lot of new stuff, Guitarhabits has grown rapidly and I really love the feedback I got from everybody, I started a new blog about simplicity, reduced and downsized a lot of my stuff, I have become an early riser (I wake up at 5 am) and enjoy teaching guitar as a profession at home.

This year I want to spent less time on the internet, simplify more and worry less about achieving goals.

I want to focus mainly on teaching and practicing guitar, Guitarhabits, meditation, running/walking and spending time with my family. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Aimee Heart
A few weeks ago a great bass player asked me to join him and two other muscians that I really admire to start a new band.

I was ecstatic. I said: “Yes of course, great, awesome!”

We met a few days later to talk about stuff like what kind of music we wanted to play, what our goal would be, how many gigs we wanted to play, where to rehearse, etc.

I was thrilled, but at the same time confused. I was in a dilemma.

The picture of me playing with those great musicians playing great music was awesome, but somehow it didn’t feel right. I was doubting and I was restless. I decided to let it rest for a while and leave it up to the universe.

I went through all the different scenarios in my head, the pros and cons and I still couldn’t figure it out.

I called him back and we talked for an hour and a half figuring out what was troubling me and we had a really great conversation. It helped me a lot, but still I couldn’t decide what to do.

I threw the dilemma back into the sky and after a week of going back and forth the answer slowly grew on me. In fact, I think the answer was already clear from the beginning, but I just didn’t want to see it or I didn’t want to believe it. Read the rest of this entry »

Sunrise in Machu Picchu by thecsman
Since a year now I have been waking up early. Going from 6 a.m to 5 a.m. My life has changed because of it.

Finally I have the time to do everything that I love to do: practicing guitar, running my business, writing a blog, writing songs, working out, reading, spending a lot of time with my wife and children.

It’s the greatest reward and reminder for waking up early.

I wake up early at least 5 days a week. I like to wake up early two or three days in a row and then one day sleep late. (7.30 a.m.) At night I go to bed at 11 p.m. Not a minute later. If I go to bed at 12 p.m. and try to wake up early it won’t work. I tried many different ways and figured out the one that worked best for me. I think this is different for everyone so you have to experiment with this.

Originally I am a night owl and waking up early is not something that came naturally for me, but it has become a habit and it’s the best thing ever!

Here are the 8 tips that do work: Read the rest of this entry »