This is how you reinvent yourself

How do you adapt in a difficult situation? How do you manage stress? And how do you seek help? In other words, how do you reinvent yourself? In our latest Anders Denken Podcast, photographer and motivational speaker Patrick van der Jagt provides answers. You may remember him from The Rotterdam Project.

Patrick van der Jagt is known from Beau van Erven Dorens' RTL program The Rotterdam Project, in which five homeless people were given the chance to get their lives together. Patrick got help, paid off debts and bought a phone and later a camera. He managed to kick the habit and turned out to be a talented photographer. Patrick has since organized several exhibitions and works as a motivational speaker.

Dare to ask for help

"Wherever you come from and whatever happens, you can reinvent your life," Patrick knows. "And hey, it's okay to ask for help with that. After all, asking for help makes you a smarter person. Unfortunately, that's often easier said than done. I was an addict myself for 25 years and really did ask for help many times. My problem was that I never really listened. I thought it wouldn't hurt to have one more beer anyway and that's how it went wrong again. If you ask for help, you really have to go for it one hundred percent!"

• Want to know more about asking for help? Listen to the Different Thinking Podcast!

Breaking patterns

Reinventing yourself, according to Patrick, means breaking patterns. "You have to dare to take a whole new path. And that's going to hurt, because it doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel like yourself and that's right, because you become a new person. And that doesn't happen overnight. If you want to change, you're going to hit your "bum" sometime. Then the trick is to keep trying, just until that new thing starts to feel "your own. And that can be difficult, especially if you are caught up in your own problem. When something fails me, I tend to start thinking negatively very quickly. Now I know I have to be quick to ask for help then. By sparring with friends or like-minded people, I know I am not alone. That helps me stay positive."

Bring people together

Patrick is regularly invited to companies as a motivational speaker. There he sees something interesting. "Every employee has something in their private life, but they rarely talk about it. So I advocate getting together more often, to really get to know each other. Take people out of the work sphere so they can level with each other in a different way. That brings people closer together."

Everyone has a story

According to Patrick, everyone has their own story. "Everyone struggles with their own problems, so everyone also recognizes something in my story. It amazes you what people go through and how they still live through it. They succeed by asking for help. Nobody can do it alone. Everyone needs others. So dare to ask for help and offer it too, without judgment. It's not about saving people, but about living through it together."

• Want to learn more about Patrick van der Jagt's story? Listen to the Anders Denken Podcast!