Hi friend, Eating breakfast and talking about self-reflection and journaling doesn't happen that often. But last week I had the real pleasure of sitting down with a mentor of mine. Someone deeply self-reflective, who shared his secret with me. On top of that, I once again had the opportunity to stand in a room full of managers and senior managers getting ready for their next step as leaders. Sharp, ambitious, all looking for the one tool that would get them there. I've worked with a lot of...
12 days ago • 3 min read
Hi friend, the middle of a long crossing. The water is 19 degrees. My shoulder is screaming. And there are 29 kilometers still to go. In that moment, I get to choose what I do with my own head. I have three options. positive thinking. Tell myself the water is warm, the shoulder is fine, the distance is nothing. But the water stays 19 degrees. Lying to myself doesn't raise the temperature a single degree. the spiral. "This is too far, I'm too cold, my shoulder is done." Also useless, and it...
19 days ago • 2 min read
Hi friend, The Sunday after I swam across Lake Lucerne, I stepped on the scale. 100.1 kilograms. Wtf?!? Ok for swimming in a cold lake but now too much. More than I want to carry, in the water and out of it. And my first instinct was the wrong one: weigh myself every morning, watch the number, will it down. Bht that instinct is the real trap. I can't control what the scale says tomorrow, and obsessing over it changes nothing. The number is the 95%. So I did what I always do, do it differently...
26 days ago • 2 min read
Hi friend, I made it. I swam the length of Lake Lucerne, from Küssnacht to Flüelen. Last time, I told you I was getting in the water, scared, shoulder and all, and I promised I would come back and tell you what it was really like. This is that letter. Plus a gift for you at the end, so you can reach your goal too. 32.4km kilometers. Done. The water was colder than I expected. That set the tone from the first stroke. We had a funny start. The ramp was so slippery I slid straight down into the...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hi friend, today, I swim. I get in at Küssnacht 5am, and by the time you read this, I am most likely already out there. 30+ kilometers across Lake Lucerne, to Flüelen. Solo. No wetsuit. No sleep. No touching land until it is done, around 11 hours later. Every kilometer for NF Kinder. I told you last week that I was scared. The cold, and mostly the shoulder, and whether it holds. On the morning of, I will be honest with you: I still am. The fear did not disappear. I stopped carrying it alone....
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi friend, one week from today, I start. 36 kilometers across Lake Lucerne. Küssnacht to Flüelen. Solo, no wetsuit, no sleep (fine, it's not a 24h swim, but it sounds hard), no touching land, from the first stroke to the last. Around 12 hours in the water. Lake five of the Alpine Seven. Every kilometer for NF Kinder. The forecast right now is cold, with almost no wind. In open water, wind is what ends a swim before it begins. So as of today, it is a go. But I will be honest with you. I am...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Make 5% your 100% Hi friend, last Saturday, we swam. 20 kilometers through the Danube, under 20 of Vienna’s bridges, with my friend Johannes. And then the messages (mails, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook...) started coming in. Swimmers and especially people who do not swim, who have never called themselves swimmers, wrote to tell me they got in the water that day too. A lake near them. A pool. The sea. They saw us go... ähmm... swim, and they went. Because of them, NF got heard. Radio....
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Make 5% your 100% Hi friend, last Saturday was the M. Momentum. The people who get in the boat with you. That was the last of the four. S, W, I, M. The whole arc. Today, none of it is on paper anymore. Today is the 22nd. Today we swim. My shoulder has been hurting for weeks. It still is. This week I swam anyway. 6.7 kilometers one day. 6 the next with a shoulder that would not stop complaining the whole way. And 20 are planned for today. But Why? A faster time does nothing for me. Another...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Make 5% your 100% Hi friend, last Saturday was the I. Inner Belief. Believing you can before you have a shred of proof. I told you about a young man in a cold room in Innsbruck, calculus in front of him, no evidence anything would work, who opened the book one more time. Today, the last letter in SWIM. The M. Momentum. And this is the one people get wrong. They think momentum is willpower. Something you generate alone, by gritting harder. It is not. The momentum that carries you when...
2 months ago • 2 min read