10 days meditation. 10 leadership lessons.

There’s this Indian folk tale about five blind people who get introduced to an elephant for the first time in their lives. Since they can’t see, they’re asked to touch the elephant to get a good feel. The first blind person feels the legs and states: “It feels like a big lamp post.” The second person gets to feel the tail and states: “It feels like a broom,” The third person while touching the trunk, comments that it feels like a water hose. And so on. You get the point:

Reality may look different to each of us.

There is no single version of the truth. There’s our truth, but that’s not necessarily the same truth for someone else. We have our truth, and when we decide to always stick to our version of the truth, we won’t get very far in life.

My truth has recently gained a significantly new dimension.

I spent ten days in the last two weeks, and it was a life-changing event.

• Ten days of meditation, ten hours per day.
• Ten days of waking up at 4 am and sleeping at 9.30 pm.
• Ten days in silence. Participants were not allowed to speak to each other. Men and women lived separately, and all types of contact, even eye contact, were to be prevented.
• Ten days with my phone locked away without access.
• Ten days without anything to write on is almost a prison sentence for a writer and somebody who loves to journal.
• Ten days of healthy, vegetarian eating with a good breakfast, lunch, and two pieces of fruit for dinner.
• Ten days with only water and tea (or instant coffee, no thanks).
• Ten days where the only resource you had was your mind.

Ten days of thinking about my truth.

It was the most challenging mental thing I’ve ever done. To sit with yourself in a not-so-comfortable position for one hundred hours requires a lot of mental strength and strong determination. And I’m incredibly proud that I made it without hesitation about whether I should quit. About ten percent of the participants dropped out and did not get to complete the course and the…