BUSINESS CLUB
Mallorca: Retreat and Inspiration
A guest contribution for Deluxe Mallorca Magazine by management expert Boris Grundl
As a keynote speaker he fills halls in Germany when he talks about the power of one’ s own imagination. His books Steh auf! and Mach mich glücklich show us how to determine our own lives. When Boris Grundl is not travelling on behalf of his Grundl Leadership Academy, he lives in the south-west of Mallorca.
J ust now I am sitting on my terrace in Sol de Mallorca. Naked. In January. In the sun. To my left the deep blue sea. To my right pine woods. To my left the gentle sound of the waves. To my right birdsong. Glorious. In Germany at the moment it is very cold. I am grateful for this second home. Grateful for the freedom to choose. Grateful for being financially independent. The success of the past 15 years still seems to me a little‘ unreal’. It has resulted from a combination of goals, talents, opportunities, concentration, consistency and luck. But we all know the flip side of the coin. Stress leads to overload. And things go downhill from there. It is said that a fool learns nothing from his mistakes, a clever man learns from his mistakes and a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
In my search for wisdom I have found the perfect place here – the perfect antidote. Stress gives way to relaxation. Intensity gives way to reflection. Getting stuck in gives way to letting go. Pushing something through gives way to thinking it through. The Island offers me a completely different way of working from the one I usually allow myself. My everyday working life as a motivational speaker and coach in a wheelchair requires dedicated preparation. Meticulous planning, carefully choreographed routines and many many miles on the road. For someone who is 90 percent disabled this requires a great deal of effort. You can leave nothing to chance. Any kind of deviation uses up extra energy. And I hate that. Because it means I have less to give to my clients. That irritates me.
Our lives are accelerating so fast. The increase in tempo, complexity and transparency is augmented by a constant striving for growth. Perhaps sometimes you too think: just a little more. Better health. More profit. More energy. More freedom. More sex. More fulfilment... in short the self-optimisation trap. Nearly everyone wants to be happier and more successful. What helps is changing your viewpoint. I, too, strive for growth. But I invite you to see things from a different perspective.
I hope you will allow me to offer you a little coaching. As I see it there are two ways to view growth. Superficial growth. And inner growth. Let us start with the superficial. Anything new is incredibly attractive: a new house. A finca perhaps. A new job. A new relationship. A new goal... you know how it goes. But great as these things are, they are mostly just superficial.
Then there is the internal stuff: seeing your‘ old’ partner through new eyes. Seeing your
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