Posts in life
ONE STEP BACK, TWO STEPS FORWARD

Since deciding to run Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc (“UTMB”) in August 2015 and turning into my dream, I have come a long way. It feels like the journey in itself has turned into an ultra trail, filled with plenty of steep ascends and wild downhill sections, mental highs and lows. More than eight years into this journey, the most recent segment of this adventure best compares to a difficult, technical trail. Running countless races and accumulating thousands of kilometers by foot, I came to realise that it was time to hold my breath and pause. So, let’s take one step back and rewind my journey until today.

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GO SLOW TO GO FAR

How should I run? Where should I start? What’s the secret to sticking with it? As a new year arrives the same question comes pouring in again: How do I run? People never want to hear the simple truth: run slower. Most of us are blessed to move daily in some form, but our ego often is not prepared for the low rate at which our body can stride after time off.

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THE ROMANCE OF RUNNING

There is a special pleasure in embarking on a run of unknown duration or undetermined distance. It brings time closer. When I set out on a long run, I check the clock and calculate progress. During speed workouts, my mind is focused on the intervals that are yet to come, and even easy runs sometimes have me ticking off sections, with each turn becoming an item on a to-do list. In recent months, I had decided to discard these preconceptions in favor of open-ends, curiosity and adventure.

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LIFE LESSON: GOAL SETTING - LIVING LIFE IN TIMES OF THE UNKNOWN

One cannot deny that it has been a year filled with plenty of ups and downs, and a need to adjust, requiring patience, while facing the unknown. I began to note a number of similarities between running an ultra-marathon and living life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It has become clear to me that having a defined goal, offers purpose and direction, while navigating towards an unknown future.

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PHYSICALLY DISTANCED, DIGITALLY CONNECTED, SOCIALLY UNITED

Humankind is facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. To stop Coronavirus, we will need to radically change almost everything we do: how we work, exercise, socialize, shop, manage our health, educate our children, take care of our family. We all want things to go back to normal quickly. But what most of us have probably not yet realized is that things will not go back to normal after a few weeks, or even a few months, of staying at home. Some things never will. Facing such realities, it is tempting to press pause and question how we got here, but it feels prudent to retrace our moves in hopes of unearthing some explanation in the past. Hitherto, COVID-19 offers opportunity and reminds us of something we have lost long ago. This time gives us a chance to rebuild the broken parts of our world and create a life less hurried, but more conscious.

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LIFE IS NOT CANCELLED BUT POSTPONED

Things are changing fast with the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. While the The New York Times, Die Zeit, El País and all other media outlets continue to offer a wealth of information, this is my personal take on the situation. I am not a doctor, and the following post is not medical advice. It is, however, a summary of what I have researched, as well as I am sharing my thoughts on the current crisis that we are going through. If you do not have the time to read this post, the key takeaway from this piece of writing is to isolate yourself as good as you can, stay at home and follow further notice by authorities and governments.

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THE BEAUTY OF A DNF

In 2015, I visited Chamonix for the first time and witnessed the start of Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc (“UTMB”) - an experience that has changed my life ever since. Hooked by the atmosphere and the magic of this event, I turned UTMB into my life goal. I left the French alpine resort with the ambition to complete the course, turning this endeavor into a part of my everyday life.

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LIFE LESSON: PATIENCE & PROCESS - ULTRA-TRAIL DU MONT BLANC

Before arriving in Chamonix, I was digesting the words that my father had shared with me last year about making decisions and pursuing them. So, when I had decided to run Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc for a second time (Race Report: Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc 2018), I committed to the five steps and continued my journey to complete the course this year. Unfortunately, things turned out to be different than planned and for a second consecutive year I had to drop out of the UTMB (Race Report: Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc 2019). Another missed chance and shattered dream is heartbreaking. I was progressing through the mountains, but after more than 150 kilometers, my race was once again stopped by hallucinations. 

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LIFE LESSON: DECISION MAKING - ULTRA-TRAIL DU MONT BLANC

I was exhausted. I was sad. Could I have gone further? Should I have continued? A couple of hours before, I had decided to drop out, or DNF - Did Not Finish - as they call it in runners jargon, the Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc. After I had visited the hospital for check-up and sort of collected my thoughts, I went for lunch with my dad. He said: ”Nicki, you have made the right decision.”

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RAY DALIO - PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS

Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, is known as much for his unique approach to corporate culture as he is his investment philosophies. After founding Bridgewater Associates in 1975 at the age of 26, Dalio began chronicling the reasons behind every business and leadership decision he made, a 40-year exercise that culminated in his recently released book Principles. In a recent discussion with Goldman Sachs, Dalio describes the two predominant themes that have framed these principles and thus shaped the culture at Bridgewater over the years – idea meritocracy and radical transparency.

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THE BUSINESS OF BELONGING

Belonging has always been an essential ingredient in the business of brand building. However, as attention spans decline, the use of multiple screens rises and fragmentation grows, this fundamental need has been increasingly on our minds. What does this erosion of “belonging-ness” mean for individuals, society and businesses? How have and will these shifts change people’s expectations of brand experiences and the role brands play in their lives?

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lifeNicki LangeibmComment
CONNECTING THE DOTS

In 2005 Steve Jobs gave his infamous commencement speech at Stanford University. It was six years before people would revisit it and hang on every word out of grief. Standing before the nation's next generation of innovators was the genius who never graduated from college. Jobs told the story of how he came to connect the dots of his past and went on to revolutionize technology. 

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IN SEARCH OF SILENCE

“You never find a place that is total silence,” Mr. Kagge said. “I’ve been looking, and I have not found it.” Erling Kagge is a 54-year-old Norwegian explorer, author and publisher. The closest he came was trekking to the South Pole, which he reached in early 1993. He was alone in frozen isolation for 50 nights and days. Given a radio to make emergency calls, he’d tossed the batteries on Day 1. “When you start, you have all the noise in your head,” Mr. Kagge said, but by the end “you feel your brain is wider than the sky. You’re a guy being part of this bigness, this greatness. To be alone and experience the silence feels very safe, very meaningful.”

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4 LIFE LESSONS FROM THE FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN TO WIN THE NYC MARATHON IN 40 YEARS

One week ago, at this year's New York City MarathonShalane Flanagan did what no American woman has done in 40 years: she won. The four-time Olympian beat the three-time NYC winner Mary Keitany to win the 2017 New York City Marathon in an astonishing 2:26:53 hours. Her victory came after a seven year-long road of frustrations and disappointments over the past decade, yet she knew she had to persevere, remain patient and keep working hard, in order to get her first major win.

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THE SECRET TO GERMANY’S HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS: ITS VALUES ARE THE OPPOSITE OF SILICON VALLEY’S

If Silicon Valley ever formed a political party, it might look a lot like the current iteration of Germany’s Free Democrats, or FDP. In the 2017 German election, the FDP offered a platform that reads like what Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg would come up with if they decided to disrupt the political landscape. Its primary aspirations include creating a startup-friendly economy, digitizing Germany’s bureaucracy, and reducing income taxes, which currently top off at 45% for the highest earners. A few weeks ago the re-invented party returned to the parliament with 10 per cent of the vote in the election.

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lifeNicki LangeComment
SLEEP IS THE NEW STATUS SYMBOL

“Sleep is the single most effective thing you can do to reset your brain and body,” Dr. Matthew P. Walker of U.C. Berkeley said. “We have a saying in medicine: What gets measured, gets managed.” The New York Times has spoke to a number of entrepreneurs, influencers and researcher from Silicon Valley and beyond that have invested into the sleep space. Formerly, inhabited by old-style mattress and pharmaceutical companies, today it is a USD 32 billion market.

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