The Power of Conscious Choice: Creating Your Life from Intention, Not Circumstance

School for Authenticity teaches conscious creation. You learn to consciously create a life that truly fits who you are. In some ways, you already do this. However, in other important areas, you act unconsciously and allow yourself to be led. This is truly unfortunate because a completely different reality is possible.

You're Already Creating—But Only Partially

The simplest example of this is education itself. You go to school and university to learn. You're consciously working to create—in all likelihood—a certain future. So far, nothing new.

However, on this learning path, you can become enormously distracted. You might experience tremendous stress, loneliness, or intense competition with peers. What you experience doesn't matter as much as the fact that it distracts you. You want to study, but you can't because you get pulled off course.

Being distracted is a way of being led. You're no longer at the steering wheel. You want a happy life, but you're constantly distracted from organizing it. You're being led... You make choices that don't result in a happy life.

My Own Journey to Awareness

Until I was 57, I wasn't a conscious creator. Superficially, things looked good, but I remained dissatisfied with the life I had. I usually felt fine—happy and optimistic even. Yet as I said, I remained dissatisfied with my circumstances and my life. My parents would have said: don't complain, just carry on. But that didn't get me very far. I didn't complain, but I had plenty of reason to.

At 57, a shift occurred. Not because I didn't know this before! But because I hadn't fundamentally changed my behavior. Of course, this is nothing new—everyone knows this phenomenon. For example, everyone knows that being overweight isn't healthy, yet the number of overweight people keeps growing. The percentage of Dutch people who are overweight rose from 50% in 2022, with predictions reaching 64% by 2050. We all know, but we don't act!

The Core Principle: Choice vs. Reaction

What's at the heart of this? What did I learn in 2020 that now enables me to realize what I want to realize? It's about making conscious choices and not reacting to circumstances.

How do most people make choices? They make choices as reactions to events, to situations. In my life, I made choices reacting to how my partners behaved, how the business developed, and so on. The circumstances determined everything. I wasn't making choices based on what I desired, what I longed for.

The Student Example: Mood as Master or Tool

Let me return to the opening example: students who find themselves in a negative mood during their studies. This example illustrates what I mean. What happens? They react to the mood! They let their mood determine what direction they should go. And their mood is a reflection of the challenges they're encountering. The mood is, for example, somber... so they go along with that sombriety.

Their choice of actions stems from their somber mood, not from conscious choice.

A Different Approach

But how could it be different?

You have a desire to pursue a certain degree. You start that program. Unpleasant events occur along the path—but those events don't pull you off your path. Instead, they strengthen your conscious choice. Instead of making the choice to go along with that emotion, you make a different choice. You ask: "How does this depressive mood help me develop into the person I want to become?"

Conscious Creation: Everything is a Tool

In conscious creation, we see life as a long journey of development—becoming more and more the person you truly are. Everything—literally everything—on your path can be used as a tool for growing toward your authentic self.

You just need to make conscious choices yourself.

The circumstances don't determine your choices. You determine your choices. The question is not what happens to you, but how you choose to respond. Will you react from circumstance, or will you create from intention?