Why Do We Give Up Halfway?

Why Do We Give Up Halfway?

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2439918/fan_mail/new] Why do some people push through… while others stop when it gets hard? In this episode of Quo Vadis, I explore a fundamental question on the journey of following your calling: Why do we give up halfway? Inspired by a young boy one morning in Nuuk fighting on his bicycle uphill I experience a living metaphor for perseverance. As he climbs a steep hill where most people give up, something unexpected unfolds. Along the way, I reflect on stories and perspectives that challenge what we think we know about talent, effort, and endurance: * Can greatness be created, or are we born with it? The remarkable experiment of László Polgár and his daughters suggests one answer. * What happens when discipline replaces passion? The story of André Agassi reveals a different truth. * What carries us through when desire fades? * And what does it really mean to “love your fate” — amor fati? Drawing on the lives of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Viktor Frankl, this episode explores how meaning — not talent, not even passion — may be the deepest source of endurance. Because when everything becomes difficult, what is it that keeps you going?

Camino del Norte 2 - Walking Home

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2439918/fan_mail/new] In this episode I follow people and their masks, the longing to be seen and loved — and discover how I myself am searching for something that does not quite allow itself to be grasped. I encounter Mary in the apse of a church as High Priestess and keeper of the veil, finish Lea Korsgaard’s book about butterflies and God in nature, and have a dream of the child within me who longs for home.  The episode explores the difference between seeking and finding, and how you sometimes only finds home when you stop looking. A story of pilgrimage, spirituality, and of making oneself available to the small miracles that reveal themselves along the way.

Camino del Norte 1 - The First Steps

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2439918/fan_mail/new] Welcome to Quo Vadis, In this special Camino series, I temporarily leave the Continental Divide Trail — the very trail I am hiking right now — and set out on a different pilgrimage, one I walked in the summer of 2025: the Camino del Norte in Spain. The first chapter begins at the airport — with anticipation, unease, and a glimpse of the long road ahead. Along the way, I share impressions, encounters, and reflections from the first steps of this six-week journey, one that leads not only toward Santiago, but deeper into life itself. 🎧 Listen in if you are considering walking a Camino, setting out on a pilgrimage — or simply feel like walking a stretch of the road with me.

Do you know your Daimon?

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2439918/fan_mail/new] In this episode, I explore the ancient Greek idea of the daimon — not as a demon, but as an inner guide that accompanies each human life. Drawing on Plato’s Myth of Er, I reflect on the possibility that the soul chooses its life before birth, and that something within us still remembers — even after we have forgotten. The episode weaves together philosophy, psychology, and personal experience to examine: Why we feel a persistent inner restlessness How calling appears not as clarity, but as tension The role of intuition, symbols, and life events as expressions of the daimon Whether purpose is something we create — or something we uncover This is an exploration of calling, memory, and the quiet force that seems to guide us, even when we do not understand it.

Synchronicity – when the universe whispers to you

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2439918/fan_mail/new] Have you ever felt a moment where the world seemed woven together by invisible threads, too intricate to be mere chance? In this episode of Quo Vadis, I explore Carl Jung’s idea of “meaningful coincidences”: moments when inner experiences and outer events seem mysteriously connected, without any visible cause. Synchronicity is a call to listen to the deeper layers of our psyche and discover that we are not isolated islands, but part of a larger, interconnected whole. Drawing on literature, psychology, physics, and my own personal experience, this episode reflects on how synchronicity may arise when something within us is ready to change — from the strange chain of events on a remote trail to the psychological difference between projection and those rare moments where the world reflects our inner state in ways we haven't created. Synchronicity cannot be summoned. But it may meet us when we loosen our grip, let go of our ego's small plans, and allow life to unfold in a harmonious and meaningful way. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – C.G. Jung Have you ever experienced a moment that refused to be called a coincidence?