Everything was going fine until it wasn’t

After almost two weeks of snow and ice, the sun finally showed up again this week. The Netherlands is slowly warming up. It brings the energy of new things.

Over the weekend, I already caught some spring-cleaning vibes and started doing all kinds of chores around the house.

• Tidying up the garden.

• Cutting some firewood.

• Cleaning the gutters with the neighbors.

• Burning down the Christmas tree with the kids 😈.

All was well.

Until it wasn’t.
Until I stepped on a nail.
A big one. Rusty. Dirty.

It went straight through my shoe and almost an inch deep into my foot.

Damn.

I immediately knew I needed a tetanus shot. The pain wasn’t that bad at first, so I was mostly annoyed by having to call my GP and arrange the injection.

But then the pain slowly crept in. And I couldn’t put any weight on the front of my foot anymore.

Shit.

Somewhere between this very dumb, very self-inflicted accident and my broken laptop from last week’s email, I noticed myself slipping into self-pity.

Thoughts like:

“I’m so unlucky.”

“What a bad streak.”

That familiar negative spiral where your brain starts collecting evidence.
”You see? Everything goes wrong.”

It’s a perfect setup for a self-fulfilling, very personal version of Murphy’s Law.

And it’s exactly at moments like this that this visual is my own mental cue to snap out of it:

My problems aren’t real problems. Real problems have names. They affect health, safety, and family.

With the current state of the world, a broken laptop and a foot that hurts for a few days are, at most, minor nuisances.

(And yes, I did get my tetanus shot.)

Moments like this make me genuinely grateful that I started creating these visuals. They help me reflect better on my own experiences and emotions. They help me reset. They help me live a better life.

That they now also help thousands of others do the same still feels a bit unreal.

If you’re interested in doing something similar for yourself, the Visual Starter Kit is a good place to start.

Once I get my laptop back, I’m planning a significant upgrade to the Visual Cheat Sheet that’s included. After that update, the price will go up.

The Visual Cheat Sheet helps you quickly choose which visual framework fits your idea. It’s a living Notion document, so buying now means you’ll automatically get future updates as well.

Depending on the pace of Lenovo’s repair process, the current introductory price will likely be available for about another week.

Cheers,

Hidde

P.S. Still writing this from my trusty old Notes app 😇