Better Mind Better Life - Think BIG and the world belong to you | Simon Steenholm | TEDxKenyalang
Simon Stenholm details that achieving big dreams requires action—specifically, externalizing goals onto a tangible "poster"—and maintaining a constant focus on daily improvement, resilience, and personal development. He illustrates this journey by describing his early ambitions in professional football, his subsequent career building through entrepreneurship, and his ultimate renewal found through travel and personal introspection in Kuching, Borneo. He concludes by asserting that individuals are products of their own mindset, urging the audience to own their thoughts and actively work toward making their dreams a reality.
## Speakers & Context
- **Simon Stenholm** — Speaker from Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Event setting: An invitation to share personal life experiences regarding achieving big dreams.
## Theses & Positions
- Dreaming is insufficient; dreams must be actively worked towards by translating them from the head to the future.
- The best method for achieving goals is to create a physical "poster" containing images, memories, and symbols of the desired future.
- Sustained success requires continuous daily effort, focused mindset shifts, and accepting failure as an intrinsic, non-disruptive part of the process ("I pop up and I just continue").
- True self-mastery comes from recognizing that one's mindset dictates reality; one is a product of their own thoughts.
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Poster Method:** The technique of creating a physical board detailing desired outcomes (pictures of stadiums, trophies, etc.) and placing a picture of oneself in the center to keep the dream visible and tangible.
- **Daily Mindset:** The proactive focus on concrete daily actions, habits (sleeping, eating, training), and self-improvement necessary to move closer to stated goals.
- **"I pop up":** A metaphor for resilience; the ability to repeatedly recover and continue fighting despite daily disappointments or setbacks.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Goal Externalization:** Moving a dream from an internal mental state to a physical, observable object (the poster) to maintain focus.
- **Entrepreneurial Cycling:** A pattern of achieving success in multiple ventures (opening 20 businesses between age 21 and 31), which eventually leads to burnout or a personal failure cycle.
- **Self-Correction Cycle:** Recognizing personal failure (e.g., becoming greedy, excessive partying) and initiating a radical change, such as selling all businesses to dedicate a period solely to self-improvement.
## Timeline & Sequence
- **Age 6:** Started playing football in Copenhagen; formed early ambitions to play for Real Madrid.
- **Age 14:** Coach instructs on the concept of the "poster" for goal visualization.
- **Age 18:** Experienced a severe injury (broken feet) that derailed the immediate football dream.
- **Post-Injury:** Advised to create a business plan ("I'm going to make my own company").
- **Age 19 to 21:** Initial success in coaching and training others in Denmark.
- **Age 21 to 31:** Successfully launched 20 different businesses in Denmark.
- **Age 31:** Experienced personal failure (greed, partying); realized focus on business eclipsed personal well-being.
- **Subsequent Period:** Sold businesses to dedicate time to personal improvement, followed by traveling the world.
- **Three and a half years later:** Arrived in Kuching, Sarawak, and began deep personal transformation.
- **After 3 years in Kuching:** Remained for an additional 5 years, developing into a new version of self.
- **Age 61:** Returned to Denmark, focusing on coaching and developing worldwide video coaching services.
## Named Entities
- **Copenhagen** — City in Denmark where the speaker began playing football and started his first coaching business.
- **Real Madrid** — Football club visualized on early dream posters.
- **Spain** — Country where Real Madrid is located.
- **Munin Glad park** — Location in Germany where the speaker broke both feet at age 18.
- **Denmark** — Country of origin and primary base for much of his early career.
- **Singapore** — Location visited during international travel.
- **Boro / Sarawak** — Geographical area near Singapore.
- **Kuching** — City/location in Borneo where the speaker underwent significant personal renewal.
- **Maria Isabel** — Wife from Brazil.
## Numbers & Data
- Age at starting football: **6**.
- Age of first visualization/coaching: **14**.
- Age of injury: **18**.
- Duration of limping/recovery: **6 months**.
- Number of businesses opened between 21 and 31: **20**.
- Total years traveling/self-focus (post-business collapse): **1 year (initial plan) + 3.5 years (travel period) + 3 years (Kuching) + 5 years (staying in Kuching)**.
- Speaker's current age: **61**.
## Examples & Cases
- **Initial Football Dream:** Imagining playing for Real Madrid starting at age 22, visualizing the success via a poster.
- **The Injury Setback:** Breaking both feet at age 18 at a camp in Munin Glad park, leading to the immediate collapse of the football dream.
- **The Pivot to Coaching:** Being advised to start a business when football failed, using the poster method to write down "motivation," "inspiration," and "self-confidence."
- **The Ultimate Transformation:** Choosing to combine self-improvement with world travel, which eventually led to settling in Kuching, Borneo, for profound personal growth.
- **The Current Goal:** Developing a worldwide video coaching/training platform from Copenhagen to live out the dream globally.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Poster/White Paper:** The primary tool for externalizing intangible goals, used initially for football visualization and later for writing positive affirmations ("motivation," "inspiration").
- **Video Coaching/Training Website:** The current mechanism for achieving his worldwide dream.
## References Cited
- No external books, papers, or quoted people were cited; the talk was purely autobiographical.
## Trade-offs & Alternatives
- **Football Career vs. Entrepreneurship:** Choosing to abandon the high-profile sports career after injury for the more flexible, scalable, and ultimately personally fulfilling path of coaching/business building.
- **Focus on Success vs. Focus on Self:** The trap of focusing excessively on business/money (leading to greed and partying) versus refocusing on being a "better person" through travel and solitude.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- The speaker acknowledges that his early life, focusing only on sport, left him academically underdeveloped ("I learned absolutely nothing" in public school for 12 years).
- The early failure to sustain positive habits was due to a failure to apply the mindset work to his personal life, leading to excessive partying.
## Methodology
- **Visualization & Mapping:** Using physical aids (posters) to anchor amorphous dreams.
- **Iterative Improvement:** Building upon previous success (multiple businesses) while simultaneously correcting profound personal flaws (greed, self-neglect).
- **Retreat & Immersion:** Spending extended, dedicated time in a specific, focused location (Kuching) to force internal transformation before re-entry into the public sphere.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- **Core Message:** Own your brain; own your thoughts; your dreams belong to you.
- **Actionable Advice:** Be faithful to your inner vision and daily practice, recognizing that external inspiration is impossible; the inspiration must come from within.
- **Final Call:** Keep dreaming and maintain a huge mindset, resisting external forces or negative self-talk.
## Implications & Consequences
- The consequence of unchecked ambition or failure is the collapse of personal integrity and lifestyle.
- The necessary consequence of true self-realization is a shift in focus from external markers of success (money, trophies) to internal ones (better mindset, personal virtue).
## Verbatim Moments
- *"I love football from day one."*
- *"it's good to have Big Dreams Simon but they can also disturb you so much if you only has it as a dream so what you have to do if you really want to have your goal and you want to achieve it you have to take your dream out of your head and you have to put it in the future"*
- *"The best way also to do it is actually you in your room at home you make a big poster clean sheet of a piece of paper and on this paper you put pictures from all the football stars from Real Madrid..."*
- *"you have to have even bigger dream bigger thoughts bigger ideas what you have to do in your daily life to get closer to your dreams"*
- *"I pop up and I just continue and fighting that is how it sounds when I pop [Applause] up"*
- *"I don't have to have any education to open up your own business"*
- *"I was totally and I knew it I had this voice every day actually that told me Simon what are you doing stop it do you also sometime have this voice inside yourself stop it get right do it better"*
- *"so be faithful to it live it out as far as I know we have one life"*
- *"you are a product of your own mindset"*
- *"keep dreaming keep have a huge mindset don't let anything stop you a better mind a better life"*