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Why this booklet exists

This is not my whole story. This is the part that saves you time: the lessons that, once they landed, changed everything fastest.

I learned them the slow way — through a breakdown in 2017, stepping away from the national team in Spain, a serious fall on my head, and years in what I call The Septic Tank. Professional guidance helped me through it: people who confronted me with my own part, asked the difficult questions, and stayed with me for years.

What they gave me is now in your hands — not as theory, but as questions and lessons that broke through fastest. Written for the eighteen-year-old I once was, and for you.

Every question is optional. Write in it, skip pages, come back later. But don't skip lesson one.

Lesson 1

Don't let anything stop you from where you are going

The fastest breakthrough of my life came from the hardest confrontation. Someone showed me that I had been complaining about circumstances and had slipped into the role of the victim. In the end, I was the one who was the 'somebody who quit'. I gave up my potential because of external factors: frustrations, the coach's decision to put me on the bench, conflicts.

Saying that out loud to the team, vulnerably, at the coach's request, paradoxically gave me energy and focus. But the mistake was the decision that followed: stepping out of the team. I should simply have positioned myself vulnerably — without giving myself the option of leaving.

The lesson: return to ownership. Claim that you are unbreakable, whatever comes at you. Goggins style.

This moment is described as I remember it, not as a verbatim quotation.

Lesson 2

You don't have to do it alone

After my breakdown — when I thought about quitting and didn't want to pick up my hockey stick — I started professional guidance. That decision gave me back the energy to keep going. In the years that followed, honest conversations and recorded reflections carried me through an important part of The Septic Tank.

What a good conversation partner gives you:

• Room to break the silence — to say what is hard before you have an answer.
• A mirror: someone who reflects what they notice, as an invitation to explore together.
• Difficult questions — confronting is not the same as humiliating.
• Accountability: coming back to what you set out to do, and adjusting when needed.

The lesson: the strongest move is not carrying it alone. It is asking for help early.

A lofty question from The Innerwealth Mindset:

Lesson 3

Keep going — by changing your approach

I searched for ways to keep going. Not giving up. Getting stronger. Back to personal training, life coaching, online courses, working on my weaknesses. Coaching through Tim Grover's 'Winning' and Bob Proctor's 'Thinking Into Results'. Everything I could to get better and find my way through The Septic Tank — even when it sometimes felt like sinking deeper and deeper.

The lesson: persevering does not mean doing the same thing harder. Sometimes it means changing your approach — while refusing to quit.

Lesson 4

Become a student again

Along the way I became a student again. I met someone whose profession was guiding people in transition periods to restudy — the same step I had just started myself. That coincidence taught me something: the moment you feel lost is often the moment to learn.

I wanted to develop my thinking and build skills outside sport. That step became part of what my New 100% came to mean: making room for learning, a broader identity and new possibilities.

The lesson: your identity is bigger than your current role. The fastest way forward is sometimes to become a beginner again — on purpose.

A lofty question from The Innerwealth Mindset:

Lesson 5

Strength can be adaptive

My hardness and drive had taken me far. At the same time, I noticed how much listening, openness and the way you deal with people matter. When I watched My Octopus Teacher, the image stayed with me: a soft-bodied animal that perceives its surroundings and adapts in impressive ways. For me it became an image of how strength can adapt without erasing itself.

The lesson: you can be vulnerable and still have ways to respond. Adapting never means erasing yourself — flexibility stays connected to your own choices, values and boundaries.

This connection is my own association.

A lofty question from The Innerwealth Mindset:

Lesson 6

Mind the invisible side of the game

Reflections from the coaching material — not universal psychological explanations.

The lesson: the game you see is not the whole game. The invisible part decides how long you last.

A lofty question from The Innerwealth Mindset:

Your move

The conversation you need

Every lesson in this booklet started with a conversation. Yours can too. Use these questions to prepare one with someone with whom you feel room to be honest.

A lofty question from The Innerwealth Mindset: