I've never had a great relationship with my Germany, even though I was born here, I grew up here, I have family and friends I love here. I never liked living here. And whenever I came back to spend time in Germany, I always like coming back to a place I didn't belong, nor wanted to be.
But because Germany is such a big part of my life, I wanted to find a way of coming back without feeling that way. And this time around, I asked myself a very simple question to create clarity. I asked myself: What's the most important thing for me during the first few weeks here in Germany?
To me, the answer was simple: I want to spend quality times with my loved ones here. And as long as I accomplished that every day, as long as I shared real quality time with loved ones, where I'm fully present in the moment, then for me, that's good enough.
I won't stress about anything else. If I'm not as productive as I want to be, if I don't get all the things done that I want to get done, if I don't work out as much as I want to work out, if I don't give my time and energy to every friend in Germany that asks for it right away, if I say no to people when they make requests I don't want to fulfill, if I don't eat as healthy as I want to eat, if I don't sleep as well, if I don't stick to the routines and habits I've established for myself, if I don't practice being the best version of myself in every aspect of my life—that's fine. I won't stress about it, I won't beat myself up about it.
It means that I'm fine saying no to a lot of things. Funny enough, I've given entire talks on that topic for startups.
Shownotes: https://steliefti.com/steli-returns-to-germany/
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