24 Valuable, Beautiful, and Sometimes Unexpected Lessons 2024 Taught Me

The Christmas lights have been twinkling beautifully on the tree for a few days now. And it won’t be long before one porncorn after another goes into the microwave. This year is almost over. And that is always the moment for me to be a sentimental boy and look back with a laugh and a tear on the year that we will soon end with a bang. I would describe my 2024 as special, intense, educational and precious. I know for sure that I will end the year as a much calmer person than when I started it (in the middle of our moving boxes in the old house). And partly because of that, it is also a year that I am especially proud of. But okay, enough cryptic nonsense! These are the 24 most valuable lessons that 2024 taught me.

1. Feel. Feel. Feel. Try not to just be in your head or talk about things. Your body sometimes says more than you can express in words. Just feel the anger going through your whole body. Just feel sad. Allow your fear. And also feel joy from head to toe, even if someone else thinks that is exaggerated. Don’t stay stuck in your head. And yes, it is sometimes overwhelming to also feel things like fear or sadness. But it can also give such a relief if you do get it out. Plus: it brings you much more than not (daring to) feel.
2. Don’t be too quick to think “No way, this isn’t for me!”. The things you think you don’t need to know about in advance are sometimes the very things that can benefit you a lot. For example, this year I ended up on a massage table for a deep tissue massage for the first time, while I always thought that “fiddling with my body” wasn’t my thing. But it turned out to be heavenly. I also started meditating and gave a workshop for my work that was miles out of my comfort zone. In the end, all those things turned out to be not only exciting, but also very nice and fun.
3. Things are allowed to take time. I am the type who immediately enrolls in a yoga class the moment that “I want to do something with yoga!” pops into my head. Letting things rest and giving them time? Not my cup of tea. However, I have tested my patience more often this year. For example, it took much more time than I had anticipated – with my overambitious planning – to make all the rooms in our house liveable. In that respect, moving has taught me that it is also okay to consciously take a break sometimes and not want to achieve everything at once. You will survive that. And it also serves a purpose: it is actually quite nice not to arrive at the finish line exhausted.

4. Take back control of your phone. Don’t let your phone control you. This year I radically changed my phone usage. I was used to always having my phone sound on. The beeps and chirps didn’t bother me that much. It didn’t distract me either. Or so I thought. Until this year I decided to always set my phone to ‘Do Not Disturb’. In my case, this means that people I know can always call, but I never hear sounds for text messages, emails or calls from unknown numbers. I was amazed at how much difference that makes. Since this new phone policy, I can enjoy appointments much better without having to pick up my phone every time it beeps. The world on your phone really does keep turning while you’re busy with other things.
5. Don’t give up if attempts 1 and 2 fail. Learn from them and persevere. This is what I learned – as crazy as it may sound – from baking cakes. How many times have I taken collapsed cakes out of the fridge or had to watch my beautiful airy cake batter turn into a jelly once it came out of the oven. Baking is a hobby that teaches you to fall and get back up again. Quickly, throw away the failure and try again with the lessons learned! I try to apply this to other areas as well. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes, as long as you don’t give up after a  mistake. 

6. Robot vacuum cleaners are fantastic. It is a miracle that I have only just come to this realization. But really, our Freek (as we affectionately call the Philips robot vacuum cleaner here at home) is phenomenal. I no longer have to deal with dust or cat hair in corners, and I no longer have to chase after a vacuum cleaner hose every two days.
7. Be 100% yourself. People have to deal with it. I think that being and becoming yourself is a lifelong learning process. With each passing year, I feel more myself. And this year, that accelerated because (after all the moving pressure) I hit the brakes more often. This year, I became more sensitive, assertive, open and vulnerable. And sometimes that felt very – well – vulnerable. But I also came to realize that the best thing you can do in every situation is to be completely yourself. Life is far too short to adapt to how the other person prefers to see you or to play a role in every situation. And if that gets strange looks, then so be it. After all, we are all different, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.

8. When in doubt, go for blue. I have applied that advice extensively in my home, and I am still very happy with it. Especially with my blue study and our blue bedroom with crane wallpaper I am still happy every day.
9. Invest in ergonomics. It’s always worth the investment . Oops, a renovation is not particularly good for your ergonomic working posture at home, as I noticed. I worked at a desk made of moving boxes for a while and then exchanged it for a desk that turned out to be 15 centimeters too high. Purely because I liked it so much. After a few visits to physiotherapy, I learned that a nice desk is anything but nice if it gives you a sore neck. So I gave in to a less interior-worthy sit-stand desk. And because I really want to do it right now, I also invested in a good ergonomic cushion. You will quickly earn back those few tens of euros if it saves you a physiotherapy appointment 😉
10. Even when everything changes, a lot doesn’t change. Moving felt like a huge step that made me both excited and nervous at the same time. What scared me most? The idea that everything would change. Funnily enough, moving taught me that even with big milestones, a lot stays the same. I still had my sweet Bart and Pippa around me, I was still the same person, I still did the same job, I still have the same family and friends. If you hold on to what does give you certainty, a change immediately becomes less scary.

11. You don’t have to do what’s ‘normal’. You get to create your ‘normal’. Just because everyone likes to plan their weekends full, doesn’t mean you should. If your normal is keeping your weekends empty, that’s okay too.
12. Silence can be wonderful. Strangely enough, I always had a bit of trouble with deathly silence. When I was cooking, I would automatically put on a podcast, audiobook or music. This year I started experimenting with what it is like to do those activities without any sound around me. Sometimes that turned out to be exactly what I needed. Since then, I feel what I need at any given moment. Do I long for a nice podcast conversation while cooking? Do I want to listen to a book? Or would I rather be in silence for a while? The latter is sometimes so much nicer after a busy day than also efficiently listening to an entrepreneur podcast.

13. If you want to cut time off something, don’t let it be your sleep. “Oh, I’ll get up half an hour earlier!” was often my tactic when I had a busy schedule and little time. I now have a different attitude: you can cut time off everything, but not your sleep. That doesn’t do your mood and productivity much good anyway. So if you’re short on time, cut back on other things first. It’s better to wake up refreshed in a house that isn’t dusted to perfection than to wake up with your skirting boards dust-free but you’re too tired to enjoy it.
14. Outsource things that someone else can do better, faster or with more pleasure than you. And I’m not talking about my writing, but about renovation jobs in our home. After a while I couldn’t stand the sight of a paintbrush and work clothes anymore, and we decided to leave some of the painting to our great painters. It cost a lot of money, but it was so worth it. While they painted (a job that would have caused me a lot of frustration!), I could do what makes me happy: writing.
15. Listen to your body more often. ‘ Think less, feel more ‘ best summarizes my most important lesson of this year. And no, I didn’t learn that from a self-help book, but in practice. This summer I suddenly started having neck and headaches. And to be clear: there was no medical cause, I did my exercises and lived healthily. After a while I realized that your body sometimes gives you signals that you need to do something about. In my case, the headache wanted to tell me that I should rest more often and that it is also nice to not be on sometimes. I started meditating, walking and yoga, but apart from that I mainly did less than I did. I left my weekends empty more often, said ‘no’ much more often than I ever have and only then did I notice how much peace it brought me to give in to my introverted needs much more. It taught me that your body sometimes has so much to say. It is up to you to listen to it. And that headache? It did indeed become a lot less because of all that.

16. Two mini-meditations a day do wonders. For the past six months, I have been meditating twice a day – a regular occurrence! – very practical with the app ‘Insight Timer’ (a recommendation that is also free!). These meditations are worth their weight in gold to me to sometimes press the pause button. A mini-break helps so much to regain an overview afterwards and let things sink in. Plus: I am much better at setting boundaries since I started meditating, simply because I am no longer quickly carried away by the hectic pace of the day and quickly say ‘yes’.
17. Yoga classes at a yoga school are really better than online classes. I have been doing “things with yoga” for years. But often that “doing things with yoga” consisted of occasionally putting on a YouTube class. Until now! It was only at a yoga school that I discovered that I had been doing some poses incorrectly for years (and therefore overstretching parts of my body). So yes, a yoga school where someone points out to you if you accidentally sag too much is really nice. Apart from the fact that it is a good stick behind the door to not let my yoga habits go to waste.

18. Ultimately, it’s not the stuff that makes the house, but the people. I was amazed at how much home this place felt when our living room was still made up of boxes and we were forced to eat dinner on bar stools. Sweet but true: ultimately, home is not in the collection of stuff or in the fancy kitchen appliances, but really in the people (and pets) around you.
19. Even in all the hustle and bustle, you can always create a moment of rest. Rest is always just a few phone clicks (towards your meditation app), a pair of walking shoes (for the next walk) or a notebook (for journaling) away. Just because the world is rushing along doesn’t mean you have to run at the same pace. You set the pace. And you decide whether you even want to keep up with that rushing train.

20. Silken tofu works surprisingly well in cakes. Sounds crazy, I know. But after one try, I was sold. If you want to make ganache or vegan cheesecake, silken tofu is a genius ingredient. For example, I made this festive chocolate cake with strawberries with it (which also works well on the Christmas table!) .
21. You can’t change the situation. You can change how you deal with it . Unfortunately, not every situation can be adjusted and sometimes you even have no influence on it. You do choose how you deal with it. Do you let your feelings be there or do you push them away? Do you try to learn lessons from them when you slip up or do you mainly remain upset that it happened? Do you continue to fight the situation or can you – no matter how difficult – row with the oars you have? You can decide (partly) yourself.
22. People like you when you are yourself, with all your sides . So even when you sometimes let your hyper-enthusiastic side be there, don’t swallow your tears or occasionally chatter away about something you think is great. And yes, you are also allowed to say it when it doesn’t work. Especially then! The people who love you, love YOU with all the sides you have.

23. There is a whole range of choices between ‘No’ and ‘Okay, we’ll do your plan!’. Know that you don’t always have to say a resounding ‘No’. You can also propose alternatives. It’s not always either sit at a birthday party for 4 hours or not go at all. You can also go to that birthday party, but return home after 1 hour. You can also meet up with that friend, but make it a phone call instead of an afternoon in the city. Know that you can always make a counterproposal and that there are endless middle ways.
24. Always keep learning new things. This year I followed a lot of workshops. From food photography to instagram marketing. And it was great! I have always had an intense hunger for new knowledge, and this year I gave in to it even more. Also by following courses and workshops that have little to do with my work as a copywriter. I always came home full of enthusiasm. There is so much to learn in this world, and learning is also so much fun. So feel free to invest time, money and energy in things that interest you. Whether that is through a workshop, a book, a podcast, a YouTube video or a complete coaching program. Always keep learning!

What was your most important lesson of 2024?