Navigating the unknown, whatever it is, I am often reminded by the Oblique Strategies card that I pulled out by random from the pack of cards in 2007.
The event was “VlogEurope 2007”, which I co-organized, and which took place in Heidelberg, Germany.
The card read like this:
When I pulled it out of the pack, I stopped short in my tracks for a moment. It became an almost magical reminder of a principle that I had lived by for yeaes already then. The principle of picking a starting point, any starting point, and then taking things from there.
The magic is to Simply Choose! Make a decision: “I DEFINE this area as safe, as my anchor!”
It is Tuesday, November 4th 2025. In a few hours I will travel to the airport here in Oslo, in ofder to travel to Brussels. I will be speaking at this high-level event for people from all over Europe. In the audience there will be some members of the European parliament. There will be some experts in the field.
When I now mentally prepare myself for tomorrow’s event, which definitely is outside my comfort zone, I am reminded of all the other times I was outside my comfort zone. 2001 comes to mind, where I was at the annual meeting of the rectors and vice-chancellors from universities from all over Europe. As President of the Student Wing of the Organization (the network of European universities called The Coimbra Group of Universities), I was asked to hold a presentation. I don’t remember what I said. But I DEFINE that memory as a safe spot, an anchor, and I trust my instincts. I trust that my ability to act within the structure of the situation will carry through.
Around 24 hours ago, during the middle of the night, during my insomniac hours, I had written a text to the local newspaper of Kongsberg, the city that I will move to in January. I sent it in, and yesterday during the day I was sent a link to the published piece.
In the moments of me writing that text, I defined my writing skills as my safe area, and I used that as my anchor.
And I used a word play as the anchor of the text, the gravitational centre. I consider myself as a person from Bergen, on the western coast of Oslo, and Norway’s second largest city. So I am a “bergenser”, a person from Bergen. I googled what the name of a person from Kongsberg is, and I saw that it is “kongsbergenser”. King bergenser, so to speak. So, I used that as the title of my text: “A bergenser on the road to become a kongsbergenser”:
So, I defined that bergenser >< kongsbergenser as my anchor, and then I did storytelling around that, with some self-irony on the fact that I cannot truly become a kongsbergenser all the while I move to the city at the age of 47 years.
I have been super stressed since Wednesday last week. My wife, who comes from Tanzania, was out of reach after the presidential election in her home country. But late last night I received a message from her that she and her family are safe. She will move to Norway me t year, she will join me on this part of becoming a part of the Kongsberg scenery.
This Oblique Strategies card that I picked at random over 18 years ago has often been a mental image in my inner world. And it has been – actually – a comfort.
How?
Well:
1) I have the power to define an area as a safe spot.
2) I have the freedom to use that safe spot as an anchor.
3) If my new anchor fails, I try again, defining another point/spot as my anchor.
I will write about my Brussels experience later on this week.
