Recently I have been doing a lot of thinking of how I want to set up my life.

What makes me happy? What gives me energy? What drains my energy? How should I spend my time?

I don't see this as a box to tick once and move on. It's something that I'll keep coming back to all my life. Staying critical of how you spend your time.

So this is a post straight from my mind, straight from my heart, just putting it out there.

Without getting into too many details, at the end of 2024, something in my life shifted. For the first time after a long time, I was alone with my thoughts again. This might sound like a midlife crisis. Maybe it is. Either way, here we are.

I felt like I had not been critical of how I spent my time for a long time. I just 'went along' with life without really 'stopping to think'. At least, that's how I look back at it. I've had an amazing life so far, it's just that I feel I could have done 'more'. I could have done better. So now, I'm trying to do better.

I went on a motorcycle touring trip at the beginning of 2025. I bought a drone and decided to make some videos about it. Because I bought the drone I thought the videos might actually be worth watching, so I did my best, and put them on YouTube.

To my surprise, people actually started watching the videos and commented. So many nice comments, which I am still very appreciative of.

I loved it.

The trip made me realise that I can be on my own, making memories, out in the world, and have a good time while doing so. I socialised with travellers, I rode incredible roads and I never felt like I was doing it alone, because I would be recording it to share with friends, family and the world.

Nearly every day I would wake up and think 'what to do today' and the choice would be all mine. A great freedom to have. I'm privileged.

Fast forward a couple months. I was not having as much fun at my job as I used to. My rent was extremely high. My savings were going down. I had always wanted to go on an adventure abroad, to see the world. Something needed to change.

I visited my parents over the weekend, I don't remember details, but I told my family that I wanted to work abroad. New Zealand came up. Family lives there. I’ve always wanted to go, but never made any concrete plans. There were many reasons to go. Many reasons to not go. I decided to make it happen.

Fast forward a couple months. End of 2025 I moved to New Zealand. I managed to land a really cool job. I had about two months to travel around the country — and I did that in the way I love to travel: on a motorbike.

So, once more, with my new motorbike, I traveled around the country. This time I made over 15 videos (I'm still in the process of editing). People watched and commented and I became YouTube partner on the 1st of January of 2026. A very cool milestone I never thought I'd achieve.

Anyway, there's a point here, of course, and I'm getting to it, but you'll need this context first.

Moving to another country (especially on the complete other side of the world) is as tough as it is fun. One thing is for sure, it sets you up with something unique: a complete reset.

A reset of your life structure. A reset of your social circle (physically). A reset of 'who you are'.

Anyway, there's a point here, of course, and I'm getting to it, but you'll need this context first.

I could have gone and put up a funny accent, pretended I was a Russian spy, or a successful olympics athlete. Just to 'take on a different identity' which we all have done some times when going out, but that's not my point here.

The point is that you've got time to decide how you want to orchestrate your life. So, I've been focusing my thoughts on that lately. A lot.

It's not an easy question — or perhaps better worded, it's not an easy answer. I think a lot of people avoid this question altogether and just 'go with the flow'. If it works, hey, that's fine. It's all very personal anyway. I found myself really asking the question and figuring it out.

While I'm still in the process of 'figuring it out', I've found that, looking back at my life, almost everything that has made me happy has to do with creation.

I've always loved being creative. One of my favourite activities as a kid at school was 'knutselen' which is a Dutch word for 'crafting' or 'puttering'. We made objects from all sorts of materials, papier-maché, wood, yarn, wire. At home, I spent a lot of time building a pond with a waterfall.

I tinkered on my computer. Built websites. Did graphic design. Loved Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 (I still do). Designed the school year booklet. Did the video editing for the projects we had for an arts class. Made the video graphics for the local football club. On holidays with my friends, I would record everything and create a video.

My point is, for each of those good memories I was creating something. It's how I like to spend my time. Even now, writing this, I know I will feel good once this is a published page, even if not many people will read it, it's a 'finished product'.

The world is a chaotic mess. Always has been. It's a privilege to even have the freedom and wealth to decide how you want to plan your life, living in the chaos. When reading 'Man's Search For Meaning', Viktor Frankl found that in the darkest of moments with the littlest freedom of possible, the people clung on to something, and that something was 'to have a choice'. It's a heavy reference, I'm aware, but it's the most extreme example I know for showing the value of choice.

I met a dad and a son on my trip around the South Island a couple months ago. Stefan and Theo. Stefan mentioned that he switched jobs to become a builder, he said 'I used to be an accountant, and then I decided — I want to be proud of what I do'. 'At the end of the day you've got a finished product, and you can say 'I made that''. It's something that resonated with me.

So, whatever happens, I'll make room for creating. Whether it's objects, digital products, blog posts, videos, art, drawings. My schedule will have to make time for it.

I love my job because I'm creating on a daily basis. The digital product that I design is my new 'pond', the interactions are the new 'waterfall'.

I'll make the choice to create, selfish as I am, because it makes me happy.