Put on your own oxygen mask first!
We just published our second book!
Do you like our thoughts, musings and approaches? Want to read more? Have it all in one place? Read offline when you’re not glued to your phone or computer?
Get our newest book and join us on our journey to uncover and leverage the principles of life. Well, that’s a pretty big statement, but let’s at least together try to scratch the surface. 🙂
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Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First
A practical guide to living healthier, happier and more successful in 52 weekly steps
“You will read about many of today’s energy sources and drains in this book, while also finding excellent tips and suggestions on how to manage them. Decide and pick the ones that are working best and are most meaningful for you.
With this book, Alfons and Uli offer a plan in simple weekly steps and short, clear chapters that can be readily applied. Look at those suggestions as a menu, a selection, an offering of ideas, impulses, and opportunities that are both simple and proven over time.
The key is to do it and to find the right balance. The same is true for deliberately doing nothing. I hope you will enjoy this straightforward, beautiful and inspiring book.”
– Thomas Aschenbrenner, 2019
About the book
Alfons has been working at Amazon, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard in Executive and Senior Leadership roles for the last 25 years. He has studied various martial arts over the same period. As time progressed those worlds and their principles merged for him and enriched each other. When he became a parent, a whole new world of insights opened up.
Ulrike is a well-known Tai Chi and Ikebana teacher in her community. She serves as a staff teacher for ‘Mindfulness for Kids’ at our Elementary school, where she also leads the PTSA art docent program. Before moving to the US, Uli practiced as Medical Doctor (OBGYN) at the University of Aachen in Germany.
Live happier, healthier and more successful in 52 weekly steps
At many points in my professional life, I felt challenged to ‘go all in’ and sacrifice family health or my personal passions for success at work. Not that I was asked to do it, but I thought I had to. Luckily, I caught these imbalances early enough to avoid going down on a doom spiral. I started to pay close attention to principles and methods that helped me be more efficient and allowed me to have both a great professional career as well as a healthy and fulfilling personal life.
Live is a marathon, not a sprint.
Our lives must be balanced to have sustainable success and fulfillment. In this book, I want to share the principles that helped me achieve that balance. Those principles and methods are based on scientific research as well as what I learned from mentors and role models at work and in my personal life.
Much of what you will read stems from martial arts lessons and strategies I learned in business. A significant contribution also comes from my wife Uli and her thoughts on minimalism, simplification, the arts, and focusing on experiences rather than material possessions.
None of what you will read is rocket science or my own discovery. However, it is a summary of principles and approaches that worked for me over the past 25 years, leaving out all the things that I learned the hard way not to work. Those principles helped me stay sane and healthy in environments of extreme challenge and pressure.
If you are curious, here is a sneak peak into the first pages:
Tai Chi, Wellness & Life Coaching | Keru Uma Budo 