Before you read on, pause for a moment and think: What is the very first thing you usually do upon waking up? Where does your attention go in those first few minutes of the day? How does a typical day of your life look?

The blue shine of your phone illuminates the room before dawn. Your thumb taps snooze, then lingers, scrolling through headlines and flashes of TikTok or Instagram, the noise settling in before your feet touch the floor. Steam rises from your coffee, but your eyes are on a screen, partially listening to the television’s chatter in the background. Later, you slip headphones on and ride the commute cocooned in music, or sit at your desk at home, hardly glancing outside while notifications pop and tasks pile up. The real world dims quietly behind the pulse of mails, tasks, pixels, and feeds.

It isn’t uncommon nowadays to live our entire lives in front of a screen, with high levels of consumption.

We don’t truly live our lives. We are passively consuming the curated lives of others or executing tasks dictated by external forces. Either by viewing life through the view of our favorite content creator, by executing the tasks our boss requires us to do, or by buying the thing that the ads tell us to buy.

In fact, the average adult now spends more than 7 hours a day staring at screens, a number that has sharply increased in recent years. That’s nearly a third of your entire waking hours.

Visualize this: if you spent that same time walking, you could cross your entire city from end to end each day. Meanwhile, studies show record-breaking rates of loneliness and disconnection, even as our virtual communications multiply. There is little attention for the real world, little of one’s own creation, little own purpose, no excitement besides the short dopamine hits of a funny reel.

It is no surprise that we feel increasingly isolated and claustrophobic. Our minds become narrow, our lives become small, our thoughts become depressive.

Your smartphone, your desk, your TV, they become your prison.

This isn’t simply a passive existence. It’s a steady decline of your agency, a dulling of your senses, and a quiet descent into a life you are solely observing, not living.

The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to remember what it felt like to create instead of consume.

So how can we break out of this prison? In this letter, I will provide you with a tool that everyone can apply to help you break out of your prison, regain your attention, calm your mind, create more agency in your life, switch from consumption to creation mode, and become authentically present for true fulfillment.

The tool: Outdoor Photography

Outdoor photography is like carrying a portable mindfulness bell in your pocket. It invites you, with each press on the shutter button, to step out of your usual routines and really pay attention to the world around you: landscapes, streets, wildlife, and the overlooked details of nature. From vast horizons to the smallest glimmer on a leaf, it provides a strong way to break out of the prison our screens create.

Outdoor Photography as motivation to break out of the prison

When you start with outdoor photography, you need something outdoors to photograph. Therefore, you need to go out and away from your desk, your couch, and your feeds. This alone is the first step to break out of your prison, the small apartment, and social media. You step outside into the free, real, and wild world around you. You might argue, “But yeah, it’s not that special or wild around my apartment.” At first glance, this may seem true. But what if you treated this not as a limitation, but as an invitation? Here’s a dare for you: step outside and find the wildest pattern, the oddest shadow, or the tiniest marvel within 100 steps of your front door. Challenge yourself to see what others overlook. Often, what first appears mundane may spark the sharpest curiosity if you look closer. You just need to be aware of your surroundings.

Photography promotes attention

That bird sitting on the tree right there, thebeautiful, shimmering reflection in the puddle after a rain shower. The detailed fractal patterns of frost on a window. The proud gaze of your neighbor’s dog. The delicate unfurling of a flower petal. These aren’t just ‘things to photograph’. They are invitations to see the world, not just look at it. This is a fundamental shift that rewires how you experience reality. All of these are great examples of things in the world around us that we normally miss when we are on our phones, completely consumed with thoughts, or rarely leave our homes. When you are out with your (smartphone) camera and on the hunt for the next picture, that forces you to be aware of all these things, to be interested in the details, and fully take in your surroundings. Photography is attention in action. The Stoics called this prosoche (purposeful attention): the practice of deliberately directing your focus moment by moment. When you frame a shot, you are practicing the Dichotomy of Control: You cannot control the light, the weather, or the landscape. You can only control your perspective and your presence. This attention and the focus on what you can influence and what you cannot also helps to calm your mind.

Photography as a way to calm your mind

When you are fully aware, your thought cycles and stress symptoms stop. Awareness alone calms your mind. If you take pictures outside, you will quickly be fully in the zone, which helps your brain to relax. Neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman has described how directing focused attention on the present, especially in natural settings, helps shift brain activity out of stress mode and into a calmer, more regulated state. Notice how your shoulders drop as you focus on framing a leaf, or how your breath deepens as you line up the perfect shot. By trying to capture a specific moment or feeling in a photo, you are forcing your brain to organize raw sensory data into a meaningful structure. This reduces mental “noise” and replaces it with clarity.

Outdoor photography also means there is downtime:

• You wait for the perfect sunset.

• You wait for the bird to appear.

• You wait for the clouds to get into the right spot for the perfect light or picture composition.

• You wait for the person to disappear behind the tree.

• You wait for the long exposure to be finished.

All these situations are a pause in life. Enjoy these pauses:

So Pause.
Let silence settle.
Look around. Really look.
Let the air brush your skin.
Breathe deeply.
Notice the small things you missed before.
Rest.
Let your mind become quieter.
These moments are a gift. Space for your brain to process, to close the open loops.

This is your release valve for the internal. Unexpressed thoughts and emotions tend to take over your mind. They lead to a claustrophobic feeling. Pauses in nature help to overcome these thought patterns. It has been shown that 20 to 30 minutes in nature already has a positive impact on your nervous system. It reduces salivary cortisol levels, allowing your nervous system to release stress and relax. Another study showed that visuals of nature also help regulate heart rate variability, which helps balance your mood and reduces depression. So time in nature stabilizes and balances you.

The science makes sense, but I find it most convincing on a personal level: One afternoon, after a stressful day at work, I forced myself to go out into the local fields around me for half an hour with my camera. I remember how my breast opened up while I focused on photographing the sunset behind the trees. I started to breathe more slowly. My shoulders lowered. My mind became calm. A few minutes became an hour. By the time I walked home, I could literally feel the tension draining from my body. I could finally breathe deeply again, succeeded by a quiet steadiness that lasted hours.

This practice of deliberate attention inoculates you against anxiety. By engaging fully with the present moment, you’re better prepared for all challenges tomorrow may bring.

What doors could a calmer mind open for you next? Which ideas, risks, or adventures might you attempt once clarity makes room for them? Let your growing presence today energize the possibilities of tomorrow.

This mental clarity and stability isn’t the end. It’s the foundation. Once your mind is calm, you have the space to create.

Outdoor Photography as a way of creative expression

Outdoor photography is a great way to express your emotions, your thoughts, and your feelings. Imagine capturing an image of a bare dark tree towering into the sky in front of the mountains. In that frame, you can transfer a sense of hope or resilience, or maybe the quiet ache of being overlooked but still reaching toward the light. Once these feelings are captured in a picture, your brain can fully release them, leading to greater capacity to become even more creative and free. Once it’s “out there” in a photo, it no longer has power over you; you have power over it.

When you create, you aren’t just making “art”. You are building a bridge between your consciousness and reality. You don’t “find” yourself. You create yourself. Creative expression acts as a mirror. When you frame a shot in outdoor photography, you are making a choice based on your distinct viewpoint, values, and tastes. Over time, your body of work reveals your mental patterns to you. It shows you what you value, what you ignore, and how you see the world.

In addition, outdoor photography, as a tool for creative expression, provides a container for your attention. Your mind naturally moves towards chaos when it lacks focus. It moves everywhere, even to the darkest places. Creative expression aligns your focus for structure. It helps you to overcome passive consumption and just watching others’ lives on social media. Instead, outdoor photography switches you from passive Consumer to active Creator. This is the ultimate act of agency. It proves to yourself that you are not merely a victim of your environment, but an active participant who can shape how it is perceived and remembered. This flips the switch from mental chaos to order.

Creative work is the most reliable path to the Flow State, the highest form in human experience. In Flow, the “self” as an ego disappears, and you become one with the activity. This is where true “inner calm” lives. It’s not the lack of activity, but the presence of total, unfragmented attention and authentic presence.

The Formula of Authentic Presence

In this letter, we learned that three things combined help us to uncover authentic presence.

Nature + Attention + Creative Expression = Authentic Presence

Nature provides a restorative environment. Attention engages it. Expression processes it. The result isn’t just a “nice photo”; it’s a reconstructed self. You are moving from a passive consumer to an active architect of your own reality. You become an authentic and present self.

Visualize this: A lone hiker steps onto a quiet trail in the morning. She pauses in a bright clearing; the aroma of pine in the air is Nature. She notices the delicate web quivering between two branches and brings her camera up, fully present in that fragile moment; this is Attention. She clicks the shutter and makes the scene her own; that is Expression. In that quick sequence of pause, focus, and click, the nature, attention, and creative expression merge into one vivid sense of authentic presence.

This formula isn’t simply about feeling better. It is about becoming better. Authentic Presence isn’t just a state of mind; it’s a state of character.

I remember the moment it shifted for me. I was walking past the same street I’d walked a hundred times, but this time I had my camera. I observed the way light hit the wet pavement. The texture of moss on a fence. The geometry of shadows. I took the first two pictures. Then a third, and a fourth. Suddenly, the world wasn’t dull anymore. It was alive. I felt and saw everything. I was truly me and truly present…

Go out!

Go out now!
Seriously!
Give yourself ten minutes to find and photograph three different textures.
Maybe you spot a rough tree bark, the shimmer of damp asphalt, or the smooth surface of a mailbox.
Notice how a small challenge turns the familiar into something worth exploring.
Let your camera guide your search for details you normally miss.
Experiment with different perspectives. Go lower or higher than eye level. Go around an object and search for the best point of view.

If you have no big camera, your phone is more than enough. In fact, any device with a camera will do: a tablet, an old digital camera, or your everyday smartphone. Skill level or fancy equipment is not important here; what matters is your willingness to explore and notice details. Don’t worry about technical knowledge or perfect results. Turn on Do Not Disturb, open your camera app, and simply focus on being present. This experience is about discovering, not performing.

The resulting pictures are for you alone! There is no need to show them around. The result is not important. The act of taking the pictures is the meditation. If you take 100 photos and delete them all, the session was still a success because your attention was engaged. Focus on the effort, not the outcome.

Thirty days from now, you scroll through your phone’s gallery. Instead of the endless feed, you see a collection of your own moments, a sunburst through the trees, rain beads on a bus window, your environment in a different kind of light. Each image is a memory you shaped. Each photo is proof of authentic presence. Your month has become a visual diary of attention, creativity, and change. This is what awaits you, one mindful picture at a time.

I’ll meet you there outside!

— Andreas

Today’s world is polarized to extremes. News cycles overflow with disasters, crises, and aggressive debates. Riots and demonstrations dominate headlines. Society seems split into binaries: haters or lovers, good or bad, left-extremists or right-extremists.

Social media amplifies this. Platforms deliberately engineer addiction using emotional content and extreme posts like slot machines because every additional minute of user engagement translates directly into ad revenue. These platforms are intentionally designed to provoke and maintain user interaction.

Think back to the last time a social media algorithm kept you scrolling through an autoplay reel or suggested endless videos. How many minutes slipped away?

This reflective moment can highlight how seamlessly these systems infiltrate our daily life, taking time you might have spent elsewhere.

The incentive structure is perverse: your attention is the product for advertisers.

And did I say ads? Yes, they are everywhere:
Online, they are on news pages, social media, and search engines. Even offline: In and on trains, on the streets, in the shopping centers adjacent to the bus station, everywhere.

The result of all of these points above is information overload:

• Too many crises.

• Too much extreme content.

• Too much black-and-white thinking.

Your brain cannot process it all resulting in one thing: Stress.

To cope with this stress, we tend to use cheap dopamine hits that we think will help us relax:

• “Just a short video on social media.”

• “Just an episode of the TV show.”

• “Just a bit of fast food.”

The problem with these dopamine hits is that you always need more of them to really get your next high, similar to other addictive drugs. And the tools we use to get this high usually bombard us with even more information and ads—a vicious cycle. As a result, we become more and more addicted to these hedonistic behaviors, and they consume more and more time in our daily lives. This ever-increasing demand for time creates even more stress, since we have less time left to do the things in life we want to do. Unconsciously, we tend to feel guilty for wasting so much time, which in turn leads to even more stress again.

This stress and overwhelming bombardment of information diminishes our critical faculties. It erodes our willingness to question the narratives presented to us, leading us to gravitate toward ideas that reinforce our existing beliefs and to neglect scrutiny of their arguments. Instead of rigorously evaluating the perspectives of those we follow, we become dull and dependent on the thinking and opinions of others. We become easily manipulable individuals.

To test this, try a simple exercise: scroll through the last 10 things you’ve liked on social media and note the viewpoints they represent. Are they reinforcing what you already believe, or do they challenge your perspectives?

All of that stress and shallow thinking in the end will lead to a loss of critical cognitive functions. We can’t listen deeply. We have less energy and time left to handle personal challenges that would help us to personally grow; instead, we flee into hedonistic behavior to numb the pain.

This growth avoidance leads nowhere good. It leads to misery:

• Dependency on social media

• lack of freedom to

  • Do what YOU want to do,

  • Read what YOU want to read,

  • Watch what YOU want to watch,

  • Believe what YOU want to learn,

• Instead, you do, read, watch, and believe what your feed tells you to.

• Lack of the ability to think deeply and to focus and get things done

• Shallow thinking that makes you boring to others.

• Lack of authenticity

• Lack of courage

• Lack of time to care for yourself

• Lack of physical activity

• Health problems

• Insecureness

• Isolation and loneliness

• Demotivation, inaction, passiveness, nihilism

• Depression

In short: Hell!

How, then, can one break free from this cycle of stress and stagnation? How do we get out of the rut?

You only have this one life. You probably want to use it well.

I found the antidote in the animal kingdom. Specifically: The Lion.

The Lion

Imagine you are traveling through the South African steppe. It is dry, hot, and rough. You drive around a corner, and behind a few sparse bushes, you see a lion king lying in the shadow under a tree.

What are your first thoughts?

Mine would probably be: “What a strong and confident animal lying there. It exudes confidence and is fully aware of its surroundings, but also absolutely calm and relaxed.” and I would probably imagine living his life for a moment:

The king of the animal kingdom. The whole steppe belongs to you. You are the king of your own life. You are strong, confident, relaxed, and free. No noise, no information overload, no stress, no depression, just freedom, calmness, positivity, and confidence.

The lion embodies many of the qualities and skills we humans wish for most nowadays, but find increasingly challenging to adopt.

Let’s go through each of these characteristics of the lion one by one and understand what we can learn from the lion and how we can adopt these healthy, valuable characteristics ourselves.

Physical Strength

The lion is considered one of the world’s strongest animals. Even though there are officially stronger animals in the world in terms of brute strength, the Lion has an impressive bite force of around 650 psi, which is 5 times that of a human. They routinely drag prey of 400 kg or more over a distance. Their incredible leg strength allows them to run up to 80 km/h and jump up to 11m.
All these abilities help the lion survive and stay healthy and efficient.

In the end, this is the same for us humans. We need a reasonable amount of physical strength to ensure a fulfilling life. Yes, we rarely need to drag our prey, but at least our groceries need to get home somehow. We also need physical fitness to achieve our daily lifestyle and stay as free as possible. It starts with the basic things:

We need the ability to stand up in the morning to walk to the bathroom, kitchen, the train or bus station, our car, or meetings. For all of this, we need at least a certain amount of strength and cardiovascular fitness. The more we have, the more we can endure and achieve. The fitter we are, the longer we can sit and stand if necessary, the longer we can walk or hike. Some people can reach the most remote places on earth, while others can’t because of a lack of strength and physical fitness, limiting their freedom to move and do as they please.

Additionally, a substantial body helps us to live longer, stay healthy, and be full of energy. You can focus better when you are fit and fresh rather than in pain and soreness. You can defend yourself and your loved ones more effectively when you are fast and strong, reducing the likelihood of being attacked or injured.
All in all, physical strength, health, and fitness are the foundation for an enjoyable and free life, and it is worth working on them.

I am neither a fitness coach nor a doctor, so please take all of my advice with a grain of salt and take responsibility for your own body, but here is what I have learned about becoming more fit and healthy:

First, it’s crucial to understand the connection between physical activity and mental well-being. Engaging in regular exercise is not just about muscle gain or physical endurance; it directly shapes neural pathways, enhancing your mental capacity and promoting mental hygiene. Movement can stimulate brain regions responsible for mood regulation, creativity, and critical thinking, providing a sense of calm and power. We will come back to this later, when we discuss mental strength.

So if you have a physical health problem, visit a doctor. Work on your health because it has direct impact on your mood and your brain. If a doctor can’t help, I recommend a good physiotherapist or learning and researching the topic yourself. Never give up. As an example, I have recurring neck pain and headaches for years now. I gave up multiple times, but it just made things worse. If you stop working out or trying new treatments, you have already lost, and there is no hope. If you continue researching and exploring solutions, you may find the solution. And from my own experience, I can tell you that everything in your body is connected. Sometimes the root of a problem lies in a completely different part of your body that nobody has considered.

Therefore, if you are unfit, change your behaviour. Visit the gym. Start working out. Start with walking or cardio to get yourself going, then book a trainer and start training your muscles slowly but steadily. Visit a physiotherapist, work with them on your nervous system and posture, and improve the positioning of your joints. This is absolutely important for your body: it keeps the blood flowing, keeps muscular tension at a minimum, and increases your body’s functions.

Additionally, a good way to get things going and dive into health is the use of a fitness tracker. For beginners, you can start with a smartwatch to track the most critical health and fitness data. For advanced people, I recommend Whoop, which provides even more insights into your data. These two will provide you with meaningful insight into your body. Of course, they are not perfect. Never trust these devices alone. But they can help you a lot to become motivated and learn what is good for you and what to avoid. As you can imagine, these topics alone would fill several letters, so we can’t go into the details here. But one last quick win I want to share with you:

Ensure you get enough and regular sleep. Make sure you get 7-8 hours of sleep each night and go to bed and get up at the same time each day, regardless of whether it’s a weekend or a workday. These two factors alone will significantly influence how much energy you have for the day and how confident you will feel in yourself, which brings us to the next characteristic of the Lion: Confidence.

Confidence

The lion is one of the most confident animals in the world. Its behavior displays its dominance, fearlessness, and authority. But where does this come from? Lions are apex predators, meaning they are at the top of the food chain with no natural predators (the only real danger is from us humans). This alone implies that a lion knows there aren’t many dangers to fear, and if they do appear, they can probably handle them. This confidence also leads to a dominant behavior of patrolling its territory and chasing off intruders to protect its family. One of its most important tools for that is its dominant roar, which can be heard up to 8 km away.

Fortunately, the same applies to us humans. We are also apex predators, which means we don’t have to fear many dangers. The only real danger is other humans. To feel confident like a lion that knows it can handle nearly everything, we need to make sure we can handle every danger and protect ourselves and our “territory”. Fortunately, we rarely need to fight for physical territory nowadays, but we often need to preserve our mental territory, and rarely even our bodily integrity.

Let’s start with bodily integrity. Your bodily integrity depends heavily on your physical strength. The stronger we are, the better our posture, the better we can defend ourselves, and therefore, this significantly influences how confident we feel. Yes, fortunately, it is not necessary for us to defend our lives daily nowadays, but these old patterns of fighting back are still wired into our brains. If you stand up straight with your shoulders back, your nervous system will send signals to your brain that make you feel less stressed, more relaxed, and confident. The more fit and strong you are, the easier it is to hold this confident posture, and the more confident you will be.

Because of our ancient wiring in our brain, your physical appearance will also help you exude this confidence to others. People will see and feel your confidence and treat you differently, consciously or subconsciously. This is your roar, your signal to other humans: “I am here, and if necessary, I will defend myself. It will hurt if you attack me.” This is also one of the main tools in each self-defense class for protecting against physical attacks: Don’t be an easy prey! Let the potential attacker know that you will fight to the death, and even if they win, it will hurt and cost them a lot. This alone is often enough to avoid a physical fight.

Since this posture and mentality are hard to maintain in dangerous situations, I wholeheartedly recommend you take a self-defense class. After visiting several self-defense classes, I can tell you that training and drilling your body to maintain an upright posture and calmness in extreme or dangerous situations not only increases your likelihood of staying alive or unharmed, but also boosts your confidence. Even if you are short or light, you can use these properties to your advantage if you know how, and this is what you will learn in such a self-defense class.

This confidence in your own body and strength will also help you defend your values, your way of life, and your liberty, because you know that when you speak up, and in consequence, the other side leaves the factual discussion and turns to a physical fight, you are prepared. If someone harms your values or tries to take advantage of you, then your values, your independence, your way of life, and your freedom are in danger. Agreeable people tend not to say when they are hurt because this could lead to conflict and offend others. But conflict is not always destructive as long as it stays factual. Sometimes you need to go through a conflict to reach an agreement that benefits both sides. If you don’t say what offends you, people don’t know your boundaries and tend to take advantage of you, be it consciously or unconsciously. So if your primary values are hurt, you need to draw a line in the sand. This is important not only for you but also for the people around you. They might share your values, feel the same way you do, and be just waiting for someone to find the courage to speak up. It is not your values alone that you defend. It is also your family, your friends, colleagues, or neighbors that you should take responsibility for.

So next time, gather your courage, speak up, and draw a line in the sand, because this will also protect your liberty and the independence of those around you. Which is our next characteristic of the lion: Independence.

Independence

Lions are independent animals. We already discussed above that they have no natural predators and that they protect their territory, which helps them avoid physical harm and protect their families. Of course, this also helps with independence. If you are less likely to be attacked, you can act more independently, walk and eat without constant fear, and not depend on others to stay safe.

Therefore, lions adopted the behavior of making active, independent decisions about where to move and what to hunt, independent of what happens around them. They can also live for a period without water, so they are even less dependent on water and weather. Why is that important? You can’t control others or your environment, but if you are reasonably self-disciplined, you can control yourself. Being independent of your environment means you can put your life into your own hands and, therefore, create freedom.

So what can we learn from the lion here? We already discussed protecting our bodily integrity and defending our values, and setting clear boundaries in our relationships. All this reduces our dependency on others, because others can’t influence us too much when the guidelines are clear.
What we have not yet discussed is how we can protect our time, attention, and energy from external influences, so we can decide for ourselves how we want to use them and become less dependent on external factors that try to distract us.

Let’s start with how you can achieve this in your professional area of life:
If you have a job, I recommend ensuring your position has a clear role description. Clarify which responsibilities and accountabilities you have to clarify your focus.
If you are self-employed, create a vision for yourself and your business. What do you want to achieve? What is necessary for that, and what is just a distraction?

That helps you focus on what matters and allows you to block all other requests. From my own experience, this can help you a lot with getting rid of unnecessary or inefficient meetings (a topic I already discussed in more detail here).

In addition, this also provides you with a good reason to focus your attention. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s crucial to prioritize time for focused and deep work on matters that truly matter to you, regardless of whether you’re employed in a traditional 9-to-5 job or are self-employed. Without this time, you have no way of making progress in your life. It needs thinking, it needs attention, it requires focus to move the needle, to think things through to draw your own conclusions, to get things done. Protecting your focused time from social media, advertisers, games, TV shows, and colleagues is essential to live the life you want. Because if you don’t protect this time, advertisers and influencers start to tell you what to buy and what to eat, people on social media will tell you what to do and how to behave, and streaming companies will tell you what to watch. Yes, their name “influencer” already implies that their job is to influence you, making you more dependent on them and their advertisers. You start to live a life others want for you. Instead, protect your focus time and develop the skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary to make independent decisions and draw your own conclusions. I have summarized in detail how to set aside and protect focus time in a previous letter.

Along with that, you also need to protect your off time. Let no colleague or customer bother you after your work hours; you need this time to fill your battery. Let no one bother you during your well-earned vacation. Recharge to become like a lion that can endure a longer period without water. Store enough energy so that you become independent of what the next workday will throw at you. You know, if necessary, you can work during work time without much need for a break because you recharged the night before. Eat well, sleep enough, and stay independent of colleagues or customers during this time. It will also help them if you can be there for them, fully recharged, the next morning.

As the lion can hunt for itself, it is also essential for you that you can earn your money as independently as possible. You could lose that job, or the work environment could change. Your income is most independent of others when you have generated passive income by investing enough money in a diversified global investment portfolio. Of course, this is not possible for all of us right away. But you can start by first becoming less dependent on your job. Pile up an emergency fund in your bank account, so that a loss of a job does not put you in a bad position right away. Start a side-project to generate a second income. Reduce your expenses to put more money in worldwide diversified investments. Step by step, you become more self-sustained. The larger and more diversified your income streams are, and the less money you need for your lifestyle, the less dependent you become on that one job, that one customer, that one business idea, that one investment.

The same holds for the skills you need for your life. The more you need a skill in your life, the more you should own these skills yourself. Because the more of these skills you have, the less dependent you are on the help and skills of others. Of course, I don’t say, never ask for help. It is faster to learn a skill from an expert than to make all the mistakes and reinvent the wheel on your own. The same goes for skills you rarely need; you can externalize them to stay efficient. There are also situations where you need a second view, a second opinion; don’t refrain from these just to be independent. But the main skills for your life need to be in your own hands. So always block time for learning, for becoming more competent, for sharpening the axe: Book a coaching, buy and do that course, or read that book. Learn to use AI since this tool can help you learn much faster. I recommend Dan Koe’s letter, “How to Use AI Better than 99% of People.” Additionally, learn to write and bring your own thoughts to paper. There is a lot of significant evidence that this will help you understand the things you wrote about even better—one of the main reasons I started this newsletter.

And the last factor that gives you more independence and freedom is being hard to break. The less others can deteriorate you and the more stoic you are, the more you can live your own life. Therefore, another factor arises: Mental Strength.

Mental Strength

The lion is used as a symbol of courage and mental strength in various cultures and throughout history. This is because lions act despite their fear. They fight for territory and to protect their family, even with the risk of getting hurt. But Lions also fight only when necessary. If necessary, they will fight courageously. But if there is no need to fight, they won’t waste their energy. Then you often see them lying around in the shade, resting, relaxed, calm, yet fully present and awake.

They also learned to stay positive and never give up if a hunt was not successful; they never stop trying again when the next prey is in sight.
They also learned to become diligent. Diligently, they sneak near their prey to increase the likelihood of getting it on the first try, which is much more energy-efficient than needing a 2nd or 3rd try.

These are also essential skills for us humans:

Speaking up to protect our boundaries, as discussed above, requires courage. The same goes for starting that new job or business or traveling to a new place. This all requires courage—to act beyond fear: fear of rejection, fear of discussion, fear of aggression. Fear is an important mechanism that signals to us that there may be risks or bad outcomes ahead. This was much more helpful in the Stone Age, when security was less and danger was more life-threatening than today. Today, we often overestimate the risks. In most cases, the negative outcome is less likely or less severe than we expect. Knowing this, it becomes much easier for us to act beyond fear and with courage. If you are more interested in this topic, I highly recommend the book Courage is Calling by Ryan Holiday, which explains fear and how to act beyond fear in detail. My main learning was: Courage is important for us to push our boundaries outward, to make our lives richer, and expand our mental territory. Without courage, your life becomes narrower, less free, and less worth living over time.

As the Lion, we also have a great need to stay calm, relaxed, and fully present. Only in a balanced and calm mental state do we have the best brain capacity. But how do we achieve this calmness, this mental clarity? There are several essential strategies here:
Firstly, reduce the number of low-value inputs for your brain to process:

• Less social media

• fewer TV shows

• less news

• less distractions

• less meetings

• less slander

Instead, give your brain time to process thoughts: Start journaling. Write down your thoughts. Ignore grammar and spelling; it’s just for you. What went well today? What are you thankful for? What other things are on your mind? All of these questions help your brain process the information that came in over the day and conclude it. This helps close many thought loops in your unconscious mind, leading to a much calmer brain with more capacity for attention and focus.

Additionally, I recommend trying out meditation, breathing exercises, or vagus nerve stimulation. Your brain needs time to calm down to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, so that your body can reduce cortisol levels and relax. If you have too much cortisol in your system, the parasympathetic nervous system can’t activate, and you can’t relax, even if you want to. So give your body time. These things don’t work overnight; you need to train them diligently, like your muscles.

Another tool to stay calm, relaxed, and attentive is to avoid letting your surroundings press your buttons too much. So, we need to avoid getting triggered, react less, and act more. Try to slow down your response to your environment. When something happens,... wait,... breathe deeply,... give your brain time to think,... to work things out,... to make a conscious decision.

This is the difference Daniel Kahneman described as “fast vs. slow thinking” in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Fast thinking is the system that reacts; it comes to decisions automatically, quickly, and intuitively by using associations and heuristics. This thinking mode is very efficient, but it has one big problem: It is prone to biases and overconfidence, especially with complex choices. This thinking system is therefore only suitable for situations with less time: immediate danger and emergencies. Or low stakes: routine decisions like “which clothes do I put on today?”

Unfortunately, the more stressed we are, the more our bodies are in “Emergency Mode” due to elevated cortisol levels, so we tend to overuse this thinking system despite its clear disadvantages.

Instead, we should use the slow-thinking system more often. This system makes deliberate, analytical, and controlled decisions. It is also more intentional, but, of course, it costs us more energy because we need to actively override the fast-thinking system to make a conscious decision. But it is worth the effort. In the slow-thinking system, we can overcome impulses and make more rational decisions. It is less reaction and more a deliberate action given the current circumstances. Using this slow-thinking system makes you more present and attentive, increasing the likelihood of making the best decision. It also slows down your life, and you feel more in control, which makes you calmer and more relaxed.

The last important characteristic of the lion of never giving up is equally essential for us humans. As Mike Tyson formulated it famously, “You never lose until you actually give up.” So it is pretty simple, if you never want to lose again, never give up.

But there is a critical caveat to this. If you keep trying without reflecting on what worked and what didn’t, you’ll keep making the same mistake over and over. That is actually the definition of insanity: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” and will lead to burnout.

Instead, take breaks, reflect, and learn from your mistakes, then try it again. Because if you don’t, you have no chance of winning. If you instead adapt and try again, there is at least a chance of winning at some point.
Of course, trying again and again also requires a lot of diligence and trust in ourselves, our skills, and our ability to get there to find the working solution. Here, the other factors from above, the physical strength, confidence, and independence, are constructive. The more self-discipline you gain, the more skills you learned, the more you train, the higher your trust in yourself, the more diligence you will have, and the higher your chances of success.

The Lion’s Lens

Physical Strength, Confidence, Independence, and Mental Strength—these characteristics can help us to overcome the challenges of modern humanity. But how do we remind ourselves about these characteristics? How do we internalize them? I personally remind myself of these characteristics daily by reminding myself of the Lion, who represents all of these characteristics for me. I switch the perspective; I imagine being a lion and viewing the world through the lion’s lens. This helps me internalize and adopt these characteristics step by step, improving my life a little bit each day.

And now you know why I called this newsletter “The Lion’s Lens”.

Thank you for reading. If you found value in this letter, consider sharing it with someone who might benefit. To continue exploring the journey of living like a lion, subscribe for future insights or browse previous editions I linked below.

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I wish you a powerful and free day – Andreas

Problem

Many upper-level managers and executives in agile IT companies are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of decisions they must handle. The root cause? Employees often can’t make decisions independently or aren’t permitted to. This isn’t just a matter of skill; it’s about a lack of clarity on the company’s direction. Without a clear vision, team members hesitate, fearing misalignment with strategic priorities. For example, a product team might stall on a release, unsure if it fits the bigger picture.

Consequently, as a leader, you may doubt their ability to make sound choices, leading to micromanagement of trivial matters. This creates a vicious cycle: you’re involved in every detail—from technical roadmaps to sprint disagreements—resulting in personal overwhelm and organizational bottlenecks. Research from Gallup indicates that leaders who fail to delegate effectively can face a loss of revenue of 33%. Without alignment and trust, decision-making grinds to a halt, jeopardizing the agility your company depends on.

Solution

The key to breaking free from decision overload lies in aligning your teams with a clear company vision and empowering them through structured goal-setting frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). A defined vision provides a North Star in decision-making. Similarly, aligning teams with strategic goals frees you from constant oversight, allowing focus on higher-level priorities.

Define Your Company’s Direction

Begin by clearly articulating your company’s vision, mission, values, and strategy. These aren’t mere buzzwords—they’re the foundation for every decision. For an agile IT firm, your vision might be “a future where every person, from remote villages to bustling cities, can instantly connect to life-changing technology through any device, erasing the digital divide and empowering billions to learn, work, and thrive without barriers.” When everyone—from engineers to sales reps—understands the “why” behind their work, they can act confidently within their domains as Simon Sinek notes in Start with Why, people rally around purpose, not just instructions. A shared direction reduces your need to intervene on every issue.

Implement OKRs for Alignment

OKRs, a framework championed by companies like Google, should be adopted to make this alignment actionable. Objectives define “what” you aim to achieve, while Key Results measure “how” you’ll know you’ve succeeded. OKRs cascade across levels—company-wide goals inform departmental ones, shaping team and personal targets. This ensures everyone knows their role in the bigger picture. For instance, a company Objective of “Lead in cloud solutions” might have a Key Result like “Increase customer retention by 20%,” while an engineering team’s Objective could be “Enhance system reliability” with a Key Result of “Reduce downtime by 15%.”

Foster Autonomy and Trust

With OKRs in place, trust your teams to execute. Resist the urge to micromanage; let self-organizing teams - core to agile principles - innovate within the guardrails of aligned goals. As John Doerr writes in Measure What Matters, OKRs drive focus and transparency, reducing decision paralysis.

The payoff? Teams can prioritize tasks without second-guessing, creativity flourishes, and you are freed from tactical firefighting.

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Implementation

1. Articulate Vision, Mission, Values, and Strategy

   • Schedule a leadership workshop to define your company’s guiding principles- where you’re heading, how you’ll get there, and what values shape your path.

   • Communicate these through all-hands meetings or internal tools like Confluence, ensuring constant visibility.

   • Reinforce them in sprint retrospectives to keep direction at the top of mind.

2. Roll Out OKRs with a Dual Approach

   • Train your leadership on OKRs using resources like Measure What Matters by John Doerr or guides from WhatMatters.com.

   • Start bottom-up. Have employees draft personal OKRs, which team leads aggregate into team goals contributing to departmental aims.

   • Then, align top-down by setting company-wide OKRs (e.g., “Drive AI innovation” with a Key Result of “Launch two AI tools by Q3”) and refining lower-level goals as needed.

   • Run OKR cycles quarterly, mirroring agile rhythms, and use tools for tracking.

3. Enable Autonomy with Trust

   • Avoid stepping in unless absolutely necessary, offering support through bi-weekly check-ins instead of control.

   • At cycle’s end (3 months), hold a review and retrospective on each OKR set level to celebrate wins, analyze gaps, remove impediments, improve the process, and refine next steps

   • Commit to a hands-off approach for at least one cycle, adjusting based on outcomes.

Final Thoughts

Your role as a leader isn’t to decide everything, but to create an environment where decisions happen without constant input. By aligning teams with a clear vision and OKRs, you empower autonomous action and innovation while reducing personal overwhelm. Start small: schedule your vision workshop or explore OKR guides today. Let’s break these bottlenecks and build a future of agile excellence together. Share your thoughts or challenges below. I’m eager to learn how this approach shapes your leadership journey.

I hope this was helpful.
Here are a few more related letters:

Nearly every knowledge worker describes the same problem: They must make decisions with their teams and inform others to take the next step in their projects. To that end, they often invite all stakeholders to a meeting, and the whole meeting explodes:

Two people arrive late and ask for a summary amid an ongoing discussion, while some others discuss a completely off-topic point.

Another person did not prepare necessary information for the meeting, while someone else disinterestedly answers emails. Suddenly, the meeting goal has become a distant memory. Twenty minutes over time, they conclude the meeting and feel miserable: Why did this meeting explode that way? Why did they not make any progress? How can we have better meetings?

Solution

Most of this article’s ideas come from the book No Fail Meetings by Michael Hyatt. However, I also added some thoughts, experiences, and opinions derived from my daily practices.

To avoid confusion and lost time during meetings, we must prepare beforehand.

I always recommend starting with defining the goal.

What is the goal of the meeting?

What do you want to achieve with the meeting? When will the meeting be a success? Try to write down your goal in one sentence. You must do this to become aware of what you really want and to explain the meeting’s goal to its participants. Meetings tend to get derailed if there is no goal to achieve, so the scope must be clarified. If you define the goal, you can also use it to continue preparing for the meeting.

Is there a better format for achieving this goal?

Is a meeting truly the best solution? Is asking for your team members’ opinions on Slack or Teams enough? Can you talk to them during your next lunch break? Is a short phone call a better option?

If a meeting is the only way to achieve your goal, you can continue by preparing the program for the meeting.

Prepare the program

Ask yourself: What needs to happen to achieve the meeting goal? Who needs to present what? Who needs to contribute their opinion? Do we have to decide something? Write down every point and the presenting person. After your short brainstorming, bring the issues in a meaningful order and annotate the time you estimate for each point or person who contributes something. Also, schedule at least five minutes in the beginning to explain the meeting goal and program and another 5–10 minutes to decide about the subsequent actions. With this information, the following two questions are simple to answer:

Who needs to prepare what?

In the program above, you have already decided which person must present what information. Of course, the presenter must prepare this presentation or report before the meeting. Therefore, write down who needs to prepare which presentation or report for the meeting.

Who needs to attend the meeting?

You already wrote down who must contribute information to achieve the meeting goal. These people are set as required participants in the meeting. Additionally, there might be other people you want to invite to keep them in the loop. But be careful here: Always ask yourself if they really need to attend or if it is enough to send them the meeting minutes afterward. The more you invite to the meeting, the higher the chances it will get out of hand and the more difficult it will be to find a suitable meeting location and time slot.

Where to meet?

Most appointments these days occur online. Conveniently, no one needs to travel, and the daily schedule of each participant is more flexible. However, in some cases, a face-to-face meeting is better. The more sensitive a topic is, the more I advise face-to-face meetings. In these cases, try to find a location that best fits the meeting topic. Where is enough space for all participants? Which environmental conditions help us reach the meeting goal? Sometimes, a restaurant is the best fit and sometimes it is a meeting room.

When to meet?

Once you have decided on the meeting location, you can find a suitable time slot. Add up the times for each item on the program and round up the final duration to the nearest 15 minutes to calculate the length of the time slot you need for the meeting. In the best case, all invitees will share their calendar information with you so that you can look for a free time slot in their calendars. If not, I recommend using tools like Doodle or Fantastical to identify a suitable time slot.

Send out the invites

The final step is to send out the invitations. In nearly all cases, I invite people with my Apple or Outlook calendar to a meeting. Add the meeting goal, the program, the required preparation, and the location to the meeting description and invite all participants identified above.

Now, you are all set for a successful meeting. Everyone knows the goal, the program, the location of the meeting, and what to prepare. Your meeting will be a success!

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Implementation

1. Define the meeting goal in one sentence.

2. Is there a better solution than a meeting?

3. Prepare the program:

   • What needs to happen to achieve the meeting goal, and how long will it take?

   • Include five minutes to explain the meeting goal and program at the beginning.

   • Include 5–10 minutes at the end of the meeting to write down the subsequent actions.

4. Who needs to prepare what?

5. Define the participants.

6. Define the meeting location.

7. Find a suitable time slot.

8. Send out the invitation.

Sources

• No Fail Meetings, Michael Hyatt and Company

I hope this was helpful.
If you want to read more:

Our brain needs a certain amount of time to switch to a new topic. Usually, during travel time, our minds have a few minutes to change the subject. Without those minutes, it must switch in seconds, leading to attention problems at the beginning of the next meeting.

Another problem is that we often need more time to do our work because we sit in meetings all day. Even if we have a few minutes, we are usually already tired and unable to do our best work. But how do we shorten the time we spend in meetings?

Solution

There are two solutions to reduce time spent in meetings. The first is to participate in fewer meetings. The second option is to decrease meeting length by improving efficiency. I will cover both below.

Do I have to attend the meeting?

Many people accept every meeting invitation and suddenly find themselves in an entire week without free work minutes. But in many cases, our attendance is optional. So, the first step is to stop accepting all appointments right away. Instead, ask yourself: “Do I have to attend this meeting?”

Your attendance is only necessary if you are the only person who can contribute significantly to reaching the meeting goal or if you need to receive the information shared by others firsthand. But be careful; in most meetings, it is enough to read up on the most essential information from the meeting protocol.

If the answer is no, you should decline the meeting and explain your rejection to the organizer.

Suppose you are unsure, or the answer is a clear yes. In that case, you should look at the meeting description and ask yourself the second question:

Does the meeting have a clear goal and agenda?

If the meeting description does not state a clear goal and agenda, respond with Maybe and explain to the organizer that you need a clear goal and agenda to prepare for the meeting to help make it a success.

This step is essential in three ways:

First, the organizer may still need to prepare for the meeting and only have a rough idea of the desired outcome and how to get there. Suppose you ask the organizer to provide a goal and an agenda. In that case, they must prepare for the meeting, which increases efficiency and helps you and all meeting participants.

Second, the organizer could also have prepared for the meeting appropriately but did not include the goal and agenda in the description. By asking the organizer to add these, you and the other participants can better prepare, resulting in a much more efficient meeting.

Third, suppose the organizer sends you the goal and agenda of the meeting. In that case, you can better decide whether to participate (see previous question), and it is easier to explain why if you choose not to participate.

Conclusion

If you apply these two simple questions above, you will drastically reduce your time in meetings. You will have more time, energy, and attention to get things done or for your family and friends.

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Implementation

1. Ask yourself about each existing and new appointment:

2. Do I have to participate?

3. No -> Decline and give a reason to the organizer.

4. Yes or unsure -> Go to the next step.

5. Is there a clear goal and program for the meeting?

6. Yes -> Prepare for the meeting.

7. No -> Answer maybe and ask the organizer to provide a goal and agenda.

8. No, and you are the meeting’s organizer → Prepare a Meeting Goal and an agenda to achieve this goal .

Sources:

• No Fail Meetings, Michael Hyatt and Company

If you want to read more here is an article of how to use the free time effectively:

The communication overhead increases. We receive many messages and calls, our smartphones bombard us with hundreds of distracting notifications daily, and our calendars explode.

The problem is that these many distractions and meetings rob us of our time to grow and get things done. They also lead to stress and mental health problems and keep us from becoming the best version of ourselves. Instead of getting active and implementing things, we only discuss them in meetings or calls. And even when we have time for a task, we get distracted by e-mails, messages, or notifications. Therefore, our colleagues wait for us to finish our duties, and they, in turn, block others waiting for our colleagues to complete their tasks. Ultimately, the whole company gets blocked, paralyzed, and in a state of deadlock, and with it, we get increasingly frustrated, unmotivated, disillusioned, and mentally sick.

How can we avoid this situation?

Solution

We can overcome this situation with focus time. The concept of focus time for deep work was popularized by Cal Newport, a computer science professor and author, in his book Deep Work.

Focus time is a dedicated period during which you eliminate all distractions and immerse yourself in concentrated, undisturbed, deep work. The idea is to allocate specific chunks, usually 30 minutes to a few hours, where you focus on a single, cognitively demanding task or project. By doing so, you can reach a state of flow, referring to deep concentration and optimal productivity.

Advantages of Using Focus Time:

1. Enhanced Productivity: Accomplish more in less time by dedicating specific periods to undistracted deep work. The concentrated effort allows for higher-quality output and greater efficiency.

2. Improved Concentration: With continuous practice, deep work focus blocks strengthen your concentration. Over time, you will find staying focused and resisting distractions easier.

3. Creative Flow: Deep, focused work can lead to creative flow, where ideas stream more freely, and problem-solving becomes more natural. This heightened creativity often results in innovative solutions and breakthroughs.

4. Reduced Stress: Focus time offers a break from stressors, promoting a sense of calm and control.

5. Professional Growth: Consistent deep work sessions can significantly improve skills and expertise.

6. Work-Life Balance: By effectively using deep work focus blocks, you can achieve your work goals efficiently, leaving more time for personal pursuits and maintaining a healthier work-life balance.

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Implementation

How do you implement focus time in your life:

1. Add a repeating focus time event to your calendar. (30 min +)

2. Let your colleagues know what focus time is, why you will use it from now on, and that you do not want to be disturbed during that time. You can find a template for this message below in the templates section.

When your focus time approaches:

1. Set a status message in your work messenger to inform your colleagues you are in focus time. You can find a template for your status message below in the templates section.

2. Activate the “do-not-disturb” mode on your phone, tablet, and laptop.

3. Close all unnecessary applications & browser tabs and remove everything unnecessary from your desk.

4. Close your door or put on headphones.

5. Start to work on an essential task with full attention.

Templates

E-Mail Template:

Dear colleagues, Since I get more and more meeting invitations, messages, and e-mails, it gets difficult for me to have time to be focused and get the tasks done that you and others are waiting for. To avoid creating a bottleneck for you, I have blocked time for focused work in my calendar to ensure I have enough time to finish my tasks. During focus time, I would like to remain undisturbed. You can tell that I am in focus time by the fact that I am wearing headphones / I close my door and set my <Work Messenger> status accordingly. In an emergency, you can call me two times within 30 seconds to get through the focus mode on my phone. You can find more about focus time and why I use it here: <LINK TO THIS ARTICLE>. Please let me know if you have questions about my approach.

Status Message Template:

Focus Time: I am currently concentrating on a task and want to remain undisturbed. In an emergency, you can call me two times within 30 seconds to get through the focus mode of my iPhone. You can find more about focus time and why I use it here: <LINK TO THIS ARTICLE>