You Can Save Only One Treasure from Home – What and Why?

Sunday, 7 am. “Do you smell this?” Not exactly the words you want to be woken up with.

Our apartment fills up with smoke, we flee to the balcony. “Do we have bottled water to soak a towel?”, “Are we insured for this?”, “Where’s my passport?”, “Should I take my laptop?”, just to share a few of the 99+ questions firing through your head. Besides wondering whether you need to jump from the balcony. Plus whether you make it out alive, of course.

Firefighters break down our door, guide us outside.

Our home and office is uninhabitable from one minute to another.

For the next few months, my coaching clients experience all kind of different meeting backgrounds from different hotel rooms and short-term rental apartments. Nobody comments – coaching business as usual.

Meanwhile, and in tune with my catch phrase reflection and action, I…

… took some action: I automated a 24 hour complete cloud backup of all files. And with “all files”, I mean every single screenshot currently comfortably living on my machine eating kilobyte after kilobyte.

… had some reflections: If there would have been the acute danger of fire reaching our apartment – what would I have taken with me? Laptop and camera, essential work tools, sure. But replaceable. Bank cards and passport – oh, you don’t want to go through the hustle of replacement, but, sure, replaceable.

There’s one thing I couldn’t have replaced: my saxophone. That’d be my choice.

Most ambitious people I work with know exactly which fires to put out first: the client escalation that could risk a key account, the conflict between two team members that is starting to poison the atmosphere, the deadline that will impact the whole roadmap if it slips, the team member on the edge of burnout – while also showing up for their friends, kids, partners.

And for themselves?

If you pause, you notice that not everything in life has the same emotional weight.

Values become visible from forcing a choice, and from reducing that choice to one.

So, here’s my questions for you, assuming people and pets are already safe:

You can save only one treasure from home – what and why?

Maybe you choose something practical. Maybe something emotional, symbolic. What does it represent? It might represent safety, freedom, or a version of yourself you don’t want to lose. What does your choice tell you about what you truly value? If this value is so important, where does it show up in your calendar?