I met Vanja at the Business Retreat of the Women Entrepreneur Club in Summer 2015, hosted by Marja. As a buddy, she supported me since then in developing my vision and forming this project with her smart questions and remarkable intuition. Vanja studied Spanish in Slovenia and moved to the North of Tenerife in winter 2015. For the interview, we met each other for three hours at Frankfurt main station, when she spent a weekend in Germany. I never had such a good time at a train station, the only shortcoming was that we had no daylight for the portrait.
HAPPINESS
It seems a really easy question, but it's not! ...What really makes me happy is being true to myself. And being happy doesn't mean to me just to smile all the time and jump of happiness, but I am also happy when I can cry. When I can say „I can not do it anymore“. And... when I do spontaneous things and when I am angry. So I would say: Being authentic to myself and especially to my feelings, my emotions. When I am really connected with myself – This is what makes me happy.
HOME
My home is, where my soul feels... like at home. And a lot of people say, that home is, where certain people are and I partly agree with it. But mainly, I think the most important thing is the decision of your soul, your inner self. This tiny little voice, which is hardly to hear, which says „I would like to stay here!“ I don't know exactly what it is, if it's good vibrations, the feeling of your body... This is it, I would say – When your body says „Here!“ - and not your mind. It is so powerful that your mind can not keep it off. And it is so... magical to get to this point. Even if you have to search it for a really long time. But all of the path, all the changes and wrong directions are actually not wrong, it is like exploring, which leads you to this moment, this place... Which is actually inside of you. I was looking for it for a really long time outside of me and it was okay, this way was needed, but then the answer came from the inside. And this is what makes me feel at home, when I am at home in my body.
LIFE
First of all, my parents. Without them, I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be where I am now. They kind of.. didn't know what to do with the role of being a father and a mother. So this was... their only mistake, not knowing it, and not being able to be parents. But without this, without this kind of parents, I wouldn't be where I am now and I wouldn't have this kind of experiences that made me to go towards my dreams and my path, towards my authentic self. This is for sure one big thing that influenced me.
Another one was the decision to leave Slovenia. I was always feeling that Slovenia is too small for me, that my energy is on a higher level, which I am not able to express and live in Slovenia. I felt myself flourishing, when I was abroad. And for a long time, I thought, that this was wrong, that I had to change this, that there is something wrong with me. But then I started to meet people that were just living their life like this and I said to myself „Okay, I am just… normal“. I don't like this word, but it was also like: My way is alright, although it may be a little bit different. Leaving Slovenia was for sure a big decision, but the best ever.
And the third one. The third one was starting to know myself. In totally new environments, but especially getting to know myself from the inside. Because I think when you know yourself, you can start creating your life. The life around you is like the mirror of your inside. And when you start changing things in your inner world, the surrounding starts to change, too. And here, I include people, work, projects, new ways. And this lead me to leave my past life behind. It was quite a hard way. But you have to leave things, people, places, behind to create space for new ones, because you are changing. And when you are changing, and I am changing continuesly, your comfort zone needs to spread out.
David's question: In your actions concerning your future, what is more important to you – love or money?
Love. Because love is also what brings you the money. Nowadays, we tend to want more and more and more – but you are happy when you have love, when you belong to somebody. When you belong to yourself. And when you have this, you start to create and attract things. I think there is nothing as powerful as living your love, nothing that can attract so many good things.
Money is something that is important, but if you have money and don't have love, you have nothing. And if you have love, you got everything. And money just comes and goes.
Vanja's question to you: No matter how (!) you are going to achieve it - But what do you really wish to do?