Have you ever met someone in the train or the subway and told them things that you normally wouldn’t even tell your closest friends? Or maybe anonymously posted a question about something that has been troubling you for a while on Reddit or Quora?

If you think about it, this is quite odd right?

Even my name on Medium — confession time — is actually not my real name. Apparently there are certain things that I really want to share with the world and write about, but i’d rather not have people associating me with it. As to my writing this is quite an interesting paradox. On the one hand I want people to read my stories and discuss about it, but on the other hand I do not want people to know who I am.

Why is it that we put more trust in people who are completely unknown to us and our surroundings, than we put trust in the ones we love. What makes it so hard to be vulnerable? To expose ourselves to those closest to us?

Personally I think it has to do with the urge to be liked by our surroundings. We want people to feel good about us, so we can feel good about ourselves.

Let’s take my writing as an example again. The reason why I do not want to share it with my friends and family is insecurity. I want to share it with the world, but I am not ready to attach my name to it. I am not ready to be vulnerable because I feel it is not yet good enough.

The reason for it being easier to talk about your problems with strangers is because people do not feel good enough about themselves. In front of a complete stranger we can kind of anonymously discuss our problems. We do not have to worry about how it will influence our social credit score so to say. It will not influence how our surroundings look at us.

It allows us to keep wearing the social make up that covers up the things we are not confident or happy about. In my opinion this is a subject that is not discussed often enough. The social make up, the perfect image that we want our surroundings to have of us — look at how people decorate their Instagram profile for example — is what makes it so hard to be vulnerable.

While being vulnerable actually ensures that we keep moving forward and evolve into a better version of ourselves. The perfect social image that we are desperately trying to hold up is what keeps us idle, what prevents us from moving forward.

A few days ago something special happened in Sierra Leone. A country that through its history has been plagued by fraud and corruption, was able to organize fair and transparant presidential elections thanks to blockchain technology.

For the first time in the history of the country, more than two candidates had a significant chance of winning the elections.

Let that sink in..

This event marks a huge step towards improving the democratic process in countries that have been the victim of electoral fraud and manipulation. It is relatively easy to threaten and bribe the people in charge of counting the votes, threatening a blockchain though is practically impossible.

Thanks to the transparency of the technology it is also no longer possible to simply communicate false election results to the people.

This takes away a powerful weapon out of the hands of dictators who keep these countries in their grasp purely in their self interest. The possibility to organize fair and transparant elections gives third-world countries the opportunity to blossom and elect a government that fights for their country instead of for themselves.

Blockchain might not be the ultimate solution to facilitate a perfect democracy, though it does form an important part of this solution. The possibility to organize fair and transparant elections means that seemingly unbreakable barriers have been broken.

We are in the dawn of the new age of democracy!

Life changing revelations often happen when you least expect it. The same goes for this story. It was at the moment my grandma gave me my first Harry Potter book that she told me about the magic that resides in all of us. The magic that empowers us to give our world meaning.

She began her story in school, where our first real encounter with this magic is. It is in school that we begin to learn about all the different letter of the alphabet and quickly after that move on to make words with them.

In themselves these words are empty and have no meaning, but put them in the order, the right composition, and suddenly they have the power to change the world.

The words you use decide what kind of wizard you will become. The words you pick will have an impact on your surroundings, on the way people think about you.

One of the most glaring examples is the simple combination of four words to form the sentence ‘I have a dream’. These four simple words put together in the right context and pronounced in the right way in front of the right audience, changed the world.

This power is in all of us. We can all make a difference and change the world for the better if we want to. Pick the right words, use them wisely and the world will bet at your feet.

Today the power of this magic is even greater, with all the possibilities that modern society brought us to share our words. It takes just one press of a button to have the whole world as your audience. Think about that.

Publishing these words is my way of saying thank you to my grandma. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with me and everyone who was interested. I hope that by publishing this, the power of your words may live on in eternity.

Everything that happens out of necessity, everything we expect to happen and everything that does happen day in and day out, is mute.

It is chance and everything that is against the odds which gives our life colour. It is the unexpected that has the power to stop us and show us the beauty of life. It is chance that is able to speak to us and stand out from the grey mass of necessity.

For many people the ability to see the future for example seems really appealing. However in my opinion it is the worst super power one could possibly have. If everything would occur as expected, mistakes would be nonexistent and everyone would be having what they want.

Wouldn’t this take the challenge out of life? The struggle, the process and the exciting stuff?

How would love be if you would know in advance how another person feels about you? This would kill it right? Love and everything that makes our life worth living involves risk and forces us to make ourselves vulnerable.

Take this tension away and achieving your goals will feel a lot less exciting compared to when risk, hard work and insecurity is involved.

The element of surprise is what gives our life a dimension of beauty. It are the experiences hidden in fortuities or chance that have the power to change our lives.

Life is all about risk and insecurity. Doing things we do not know the outcome of beforehand are most often the things that bring us the most beautiful experiences. Open yourself up for the unexpected and embrace your vulnerabilities because this is what makes us human.

Chance is what makes life worth living and dreams worth pursuing.

Our lives are nothing more than a little dot on the timeline of eternity. We all get this one short life in which the only certainty is death. So what is the purpose of life? Why are we here and what are we supposed to do, what is our final goal?

Nobody in the world will be able to provide you with the ultimate answer to those questions, because for everyone life is a first time experience. Our life is like a sketch for nothing, the groundwork for a picture that will never come in existence. The first rehearsal for life is life itself. Like my favorite writer Milan Kundera would say ‘’Einmal ist keinmal’’. What happens only once, might as well not have happened at all.

How can we determine which of our decisions are good and which are bad if in a given situation we can only decide once? Simple: we can’t. There is no point in having regret over what you did or did not do in the past. Time is linear, it will never recur.

At first this lightness that is inherent to our decisions, the meaninglessness of life might seem scary. How are we supposed to give meaning to our lives when it is not possible to value our decisions and everything we do will soon be forgotten? What is left if everything we felt certain about suddenly has no meaning anymore?

One thing: life. The only certainty we have is this little bit of time we got between our birth and death. Stop worrying about what other people think of you. Everyone is insecure and in the end nobody really knows what life is all about. That is beautiful! Find out what you love and go do it. Do not let your dreams be dreams because of other people. The world has endless possibilities for those who dare to be different, those who dare to step away from the false securities of our society.

Embrace the lightness of being, stop worrying and start living. Human life occurs only once, better make it count. Nobody knows what they are doing and why they are ultimately doing it. Do you want something in life? Just go for it, stop waiting for the perfect moment and stop making excuses. Do not let your dreams be dreams because of other people.

Human beings have infinite desires. Every time we achieve something in life, there seems to be something else on our horizon that is worth fighting for. We always seem to want more. And because of this insatiable hunger for more and better, we tend to forget what we truly want: happiness.

For example let us have a look at consumer electronics. Every year big electronics giants bring new and better televisions to the market. They are bigger, have brighter colors and lots of other stuff. It is true, they are objectively better televisions, but do they really make you feel better? In the first few weeks after your purchase it probably does. You really like watching the new television and you genuinely feel happier. Though after a while you get used to your huge new television and it starts to feel normal. You forget about your old one and slowly your level of happiness goes back to its mean.

The same goes for achieving goals. There will always be someone better than you, always someone to look up to and always someone to beat. What I am trying to say is that success is a relative thing. If you keep setting bigger goals without looking back on what you achieved already, you will never be truly happy. You will become restless and fall prey to the infinite desires that are part of human nature.

There surely are people who are fighting hard and would give everything to be in the position you are in right now. The fact that you are able to read this article means that you have got access to a computer, internet and the privilege to spend your time the way you want it to. These simple things might feel completely normal to you, but in fact they are not for the better part of humanity.

Modern society definitely certainly does not make it easier to take a step back and appreciate our winners. Everywhere around us we are confronted with people who have more than we do, who achieved more than we did, who are more successful than we are. It definitely is hard to detach yourself from living life according to how other people think you should. We are all being shaped by this mass culture created by our globalized society, which makes it hard not to give in to your infinite desires and be happy with what you actually already have.

Find out what it is that you really want out of life. What are your passions? What makes you feel good? These are the dreams worth pursuing, put your energy where your heart is! Always keep asking yourself why you want to achieve this thing you are so desperately chasing. If it is not something that will ultimately make you a happier person, then why would you do it? Do not let your path, your life, be decided by other people. You are in charge, you have the privilege to be alive in this beautiful world and its endless possibilities! Go explore it, find out who you really are and stay true to yourself!

Life is short. We only get a nugget of time to find out what we want to do with it and an even shorter time to chase these dreams. Time is the most precious asset there is, yet most people treat it like it is the opposite. Why? Because we keep waiting for that perfect moment to go and grab the things we want in life. We are too scared to step out of our comfort zones and because of that we became too damn good at finding excuses for not chasing our dreams.

The title of this article, this simple sentence, this habit is what keeps most people from succeeding and having the life they want. How many times have you heard people mesmerizing about this company they wanted to start, only if they had just a little more money. Or this trip around the world they wanted to make, only if they had just a little more time.

Do you want this girl to like you? Good! Stop waiting for the perfect excuse to talk to her and just go talk to her instead. Chances are she likes the fact that you have the courage to approach her in the first place, what already separates you from probably 90% of everyone else in the world. And if it turns out she does not want to go on a date with you, also fine! At least now you know, you can move on (or prepare to move on) and do something you love with the time you would otherwise have waisted on waiting for the perfect moment to approach her.

This is the little secret to managing the most valuable asset there is in life. Just get out there, take risks and use your time the way you really want it.

Stop being afraid of what other people think of you. The only person that is standing between you and your goals is you. Nobody is gonna stop you from walking out the door to go and chase the things you have always wanted. Do you want to be a great writer? Good! Just get out there and start writing. Anything is possible if you truly believe in it and show the world that you really want it.

You say you do not have the time to chase your dreams? Well start waking up an hour early. Each minute you put into it will bring you one step closer to achieving what you want. Rome was not build in a day, and neither will your dreams. Start building your Rome today! Remember, life is short! Though it has so many beautiful things in store for those who dare to dream, those who dare to step out there and show the world who they really are.

There is no perfect moment to start living the way you want to, the right time is always now. The moment you realize this, is the moment you will find that the world is in your hands waiting for you to shape it!