Daniel is a long time friend and joins me in the studio to share his passions. He is a graphic designer and freelancer and I would also consider him a master in communication and why is that? Well being associated to the marketing world how you communicate is essential and certainly he understands this thoroughly.

What I really love about Daniel is his passion to discover more about life. He is phenomenal at bio hacking and really experimenting on himself in order to make himself the healthiest he can be in order to live a long and energetic life. Ultimately he wants to treat his body as best as possible to reach peak performance. He does this by experimenting with diet, questioning the status quo and pushing the boundaries to live his life with as much potential as possible.

“How is your mindset and relationship with food, is it serving you?”

What does living life with passion and purpose mean?

Being honest with yourself and finding what it is that you want to do. At some point your life will end and you have the potential to choose from so many variables. When you don’t see life with great options and variables you have a closed mindset. Finding what you want to do is so critical and could mean anything. When you know you’re not happy you have the choice to make a change.

Summary

His passion to continually learn and improve himself has not always been evident in life. Along the way he describes himself as being disillusioned in life. In his early 20’s he remained confident but many of the people he associated with he observed would lie to better themselves and get the one up and essentially just speak bullshit.

With all this B/S that surrounded him he started again to question everything. He stared listening to podcasts and reading and then with this inspiration he was motivated to really just start being himself. It was this regained confidence that has pushed him to question everything in life including all there is to know around health.

We discuss mindset and how that with a strong mindset we can become aware of all the possibilities in life. Daniel tests the boundaries and certainly has been the catalyst for me testing the boundaries and inspiration for me to continually improve myself.

With a background in marketing he has consistently been faced with the ability to as he states “polish a turd”. He understands that we can influence the message we want to convey by eliminating information. It was this understanding that has allowed him to question the deeper reasoning and understanding behind any message in life that we face.

The conversation really revolves around questioning everything in life. Dig deep and really understand with and open mind everything you confront. This ability to question life openly will lead to phenomenal growth.

We talk about meeting life’s basic needs and how the elements in life need to be meet to allow us to have positive forward momentum. We discuss how his relationship has given him even more momentum and motivation to improve. How comparing your-self to others can be destructive. Your perspective on your life will always be more critical than it needs to be but from an external perspective how does it truly look.

We also need to understand that when you juggle many different things and try following too many passions we can struggle to succeed in one particular area. You cannot be everything at once. Do one thing and do it well. If you’re doing things that you’re not passionate about perhaps you need to make a change. Occasionally you may simple need to do things as means to support your passion and that’s fine but while doing so you need not compare.

Remove the excuses that stand in the way of your progression. In order to remain on purpose try complete one task or goal before moving onto the next and if it’s a goal that is not really that gripping you, get rid of it.

A large part of the discussion revolves around health in which we could all learn to work on and is a topic that Daniel is really knowledgeable on. It’s amazing how his opinions on health have changed and developed over time and really for all of us this will happen in whatever we do. Importantly the message here also is not to discourage your-self when your opinion on something changes.

What you say and do now may not be the same as what you say and do in 5 years and that is ok. This is a normal part of growth. While your values will remain the same your perspectives in certain areas of your life will change.

The conversation starts out strong and ends strong and is a really cool chat with my mate about how to get more out of life and certainly leading a life with greater passion and purpose.

Have a listen, leave your comments and thoughts and until next time, peace, passion and purpose.

His Moment of Realisation

Daniel has always been resistant with life but equally so has tried to follow the path that society makes us believe is normal. When things weren’t working out as he expected them to go he started to really question the why behind his life. It was a moment that he realized that it is ok to just be himself. The more is moves towards how he wants to live and what he wants to do the more he finds positive things presenting themselves.

Before this he felt he was always swimming against the tide. Now he is really taking care of himself and has found ways to be internally happy within. With this he has started to make much greater leaps forward. He has let go of the idea to compare himself to others, his peers and to where his life is in relations to what society may expect. This has allowed him to become completely comfortable and calm in life.  

This clarity in life as allowed him to gain considerable momentum now in following what he is truly passionate about. He is now working behind the scenes in creating a life all around his passion and giving his value back to those that care to listen.

Key Take Outs

·      Find yourself. Be comfortable within.  Stop trying to do and be like everyone else and just do and be who you are. When you do this you will find comfort in life, which will propel you forward like you wouldn’t believe. This is a struggle that most of us face as we find our place to fit in so I would suggest that you don’t pretend that you’ve found your place, know it.

·      Question the status quo. Question everything. Don’t accept what is just because that is the message you and everyone else receives. If you think there is a different perspective than question it, question everything. This ability alone will allow you to learn and open yourself up to a world much larger than what most live.

·      Live with an open mind. Its ok not to agree with things you read and hear but don’t be closed to another perspective. Having and open view on life is a key behind most of the very successful I look upon. When you are closed to the world you are closed to reaching your full potential.

·      Face the resistance. Don’t swim against the tide. When you burn all your energy trying to swim against the tide you will struggle to progress forward in life. This goes back to the above point of being who you are meant to be and finding comfort in who you are. The easiest path forward is one in which you are yourself.

·      Stop comparing yourself. We need to compare ourselves to others but rather know where you are with your level. Be satisfied with what your doing and remove the focus on what others are doing.

·      Meet your elementary needs. When you satisfy fundamental needs you will better allow yourself to move forward. These include health, relationships, you emotional state and even your financial position. With these things out of balance your priorities will change.

·      Focus on one thing. Stop trying to be the best in every field and just focus on being the best at one thing. When you reach success here at whatever level you desire than you can move onto the next thing.

·      Remove the excuses. Excuses are just a reason to delay life. Remove the excuses and start taking action instead.

·      Pick it apart, take what you must and leave behind the rest. You need to look to those you admire and take everything they say onboard. Pick apart the good and leave behind the stuff you don’t need.

·      Wants vs. needs. Sometime what we want can distract us from what we actually need yet it is often what we need that will really benefit and reward us in life. Do you need this or do you simple want it?

·      Control what you can. There are so many external factors in life that are out of our control yet there are certainly a few things that we can. Including our we respond and react, what we choose to believe and even how we treat our bodies.

·      Take action, take a step. Real change comes by taking action and nothing will change immediately but a step each day is another step towards the end goal.

·      Remove limiting beliefs. Like excuses our belief in the impossible is likely just that a belief. Remove these limiting beliefs if you want to realise your true potential to what is possible in life.

·      Make small improvements each day. A 1% improvement every day for a year is an overall improvement each year of 365%. Imagine the cumulative effects over a lifetime.

His interpretation of success

Success means basically that I am working towards a goal that everyday I wake up I am content and healthy and leaving to my full potential and being honest with myself so that the next day I can do that little bit better.

Quick round questions

Favourite Food

Today it is Kiwi Fruit

Favourite Leisure Activitiy

Video work and photography

Favourite book(s)

The 80/10/10 Diet by Douglas N. Graham

How to Find Daniel and other Links

To find Daniel just Google his name Daniel Van Veluwen and you may just be able to reach him through one of the social media channels.