Do what you love – The first steps

January 29, 2014 by Helen 1 Comment

Hello everyone,

After getting inspired to spent 10 percent of my time on the things that I love, I decided to sign myself up as a volunteer. I always had the idea to get involved with charity when I have built a career in the commercial industry. But when I was thinking about my life and what I wanted to do, I thought “why not start now?”. I love children and they are the future. I think that every child should have the right to education, a carefree childhood and basic necessities such as food and health. That’s why I have decided to contact UNICEF.

There was a vacancy on the website which I applied to. A week later, I had an interview at the UNICEF store in Breda. It turned out that they needed volunteers for different positions. I decided to help with organizing events and writing articles. Now I am officially signed up as a volunteer and I am excited to start my first project. 

I have also signed myself up for piano lessons. It’s something that I always wanted to do, but never actually took action. And when the years passed by, lack of time and the thought of being too old to start learning to play piano were holding me back. But last year I realized that you’re never too old to learn something. And I wanted to start doing something that I love. So I bought a digital piano and had my first piano lesson.

My teacher is a very talented piano player and his way of teaching is a little different. He doesn’t use any books, but creates his own material. At the first lesson he asked me: “what music do you like?” Alicia Keys was one of the artists that I mentioned, so he wrote down the music notes of Fallin’ and told me this would be the first song to play. I don’t know if this is the right method for me, but for now I enjoy learning to play. 

There are still many things that I would like to do, but I know I have to take one step at a time. To remind myself of all my dreams, I have created a mood board. I did this with a friend. We used a lot of magazines and I even surprised myself with things that I have put on it. It was a lot of fun to do and I would recommend it to everyone!

:) Helen

P.S. Happy 60th Birthday to my inspirator Oprah Winfrey!
“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”

Song of the day (I want to learn to play in 2014): Read all about it – Emeli Sandé