Listening to your Source: How your consciousness impacts your personal and professional life

By Jan Willem Kirpestein

This book is a profound meditation on inner strength, intuition, and personal freedom. Listening to Your Source is full of fascinating true stories, myths, and anecdotes that engage the reader while subtly guiding them. It gives voice to the struggle of the authentic self to become liberated in personal and professional life. This book describes

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: Mar 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781643458830

Jan Willem Kirpestein

Jan Willem Kirpestein (1959) studied theology and history. He improved himself also in Jungian psychology and analysis. Jan Willem is known for helping multinational and local companies boost corporate performance through transformational changes in executives and staff. As a leadership coach, board advisor, and architect of personal and organizational development, he generates breakthroughs in cooperation among leaders, teams, and stakeholders. He is currently the director of Spirit, Heart, and Mind Corpus, which he founded in 2004. Prior to this, he worked as a reverend in the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands.

Book preview

Musings on This Book

JWK is a man of unflinching integrity, and his book is a profound meditation on inner strength, intuition, and personal freedom. This book is at once personal and universal, and within the first pages I found myself chasing through my own experiences looking for that which keeps me standing in moments when all around me is falling. The power of your source is full of fascinating true stories, myths, and anecdotes, which engage the reader whilst subtly guiding them. This book will surprise you, entertain you, and ultimately enrich you. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

—Danny Scheinmann, novelist at Random House and artist

"I had the change to read the first thirty-five pages of the manuscript and found it wise and resonant with my own life journey. Much of what Jan Willem has written aligns directly with books and movies that have touched me very deeply, from books by Buddhist nun Pema Chodron to Wachowskis’ orginal Matrix.

—Lowell Weiss, president of Cascade Philanthropy, served prior in a leadership role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and has worked as special advisor to President Clinton at the White House

Jan Willem encourages me to be my true self in all that I do. I can relate to the examples he gives. I know that my source helps me use the talents I’ve been given to the best of my ability.

—Aart Bos, director, MasterPeace

Our society is radically changing, with all the uncertainty that entails. People are looking to new sources of inspiration for their choices and behaviour. Kirpestein is a preacher 2.0, helping you find a new, way to the source within: for yourself, for others, and your work.

—Dr. Jo van Engelen, MSc, professor of business development, University of Groningen, and integrated sustainable solutions, Delft University of Technology

A wonderful book in which Jan Willem draws from his broad practical experience to take an entirely unique perspective on how our Creator and Eternal God wants to be the source for a clear conscience. The essential aspect of the decision-making dimension of the psyche is visually explained for organisations by means of several examples. The book draws the attention of present-day executives to new inspiration, necessary to counter attenuation brought on by unilateral shareholder thinking, and to arrive at new impetuses for a day-to-day operation focused on impact on society as a whole.

—Paul Baan, chairman, Noaber Foundation

Jan Willem invites his readers to embrace a way of thinking and living that also instigates radical transformation. He does this with great insight into the dangers and problems that come with understanding ourselves and our circumstance. His openness and intellect make this an invaluable book.

—Dr. Luce Ramaker-Hameete, philosopher, author of several Kierkegaard Studies and articles about philosophical ethics

Through coaching sessions with Jan Willem, I gained the strength and courage to get up again and move on with life. It was a huge achievement, which made me a happier and better person. In addition, he incorporated the theories and myths that are also defined in this book. Are you coming to a crossroads in your life, or have you already reached that point? Then, I highly recommend this book.

—Ingrid Valks, founder and director, Performance Improvement

"I awoke after dreaming of just about everything. (Taking your book as example, I am going to create my own dream book as of today.) A question shot abruptly through that dream like a bolt of lightning: ‘What do you live for?’ I awoke with a start, my body shaking all over. The question penetrated my very soul. I tried to answer it honestly, in all its rawness, and came to the conclusion that I didn’t know! I was (and am) so confused by that, that I became inconsolable. I cried from the very depths of my being.

"Nevertheless, I think life is beautiful. Your post with your essay on the central question ‘What is your source?’ came a couple of days later. I consider it a remarkable sequence of events. Your question is an answer to my question.

"I have several inspirational mottos, but I still ended up back here:

Only those who are naked live in the Sun,

Only the unsuspecting ride the Wind

And only those, who are a thousand times lost,

Shall come home again.

—Khalil Gibran, revised

There are lessons for me in this, but also comfort and promise.

—Marieke van Willigen, literary journalist, magazine creator

"Someone who can pen a book such as this hasn’t only connected with the wisdom of myths and stories from our traditions, but must also have intimate and firsthand knowledge of the individuation process too.

We recognise from accounts of personal experiences—the author’s as well as those with whom he interacted at a deeper level—archetypal processes that the human psyche endures on its way to wholeness. The joy of the design of it in this book in illustrations and stories is a promise for each and every one of us: this is libido according to Jung.

—Herma van der Weide specialised in the Carl Jung school of thought, linked to the Jung Institute in Nijmegen and several other institutions, cooperates in leadership programmes and projects for cultural change

A unique and authentic story about letting go and connecting. This is not theoretical abstraction conjured from within a sanctum. But more than half a century of proven actuality. About the journey within and the connection to the outside. About impassioned life. Against fragmentation. With comprehensible advice: connect with the source that allows you to live fully and honestly!

—Jan Hol, director of communications, Free University Medical Centre

From the very first page, Jan Willem captures a very familiar quest. He knows how to captivate the reader with stories, observations, and questions that, combined, form a practical guide toward taking the first steps in the quest for your source. Very inspiring and identifiable. This book has generated some good discussions here!

—Karel Bakkes, senior advisor, Deloitte China, and cofounder of Remarkable Foundation

This book has prompted me to steer by my own compass and inspired me to subsequently navigate toward my vocation. For people who, from their programming and conditioning, tend to adapt in order to survive but feel that they lose themselves therein, the stories, myths, and reflections that Jan Willem describes form a rich source of reflection and wisdom.

—Bert-Jan ter Hofte, cofounder, The Thrive

Out of the comfort zone… This book elevates, compelling real questions beyond the standard answers. God, the Word, is not a Fata Morgana, but a real dream, a vision that is my strength and inspiration.

—Hanna Ploeg-Bouwman, MA, change strategist / researcher in education, health care, and church, Ploeg Consul

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book: profound subject matter, comprehensible prose, beautifully written. Everyone should read this book.

—Willem Vreeswijk, author, magazine creator, and founder, New Financial Forum

An exceptional book from a fascinating man. A man with a quest familiar to virtually everyone. Only a few have the courage to embark on this quest, this journey. Kirpestein takes you with him on that journey, and while you read, you’re compiling a book about your own quest in your head, your many conscious and unconscious failings. A successful quest that ends exceptionally close to home, in your own heart. For many, an enrichment.

—Dr. Coen van Kalken, doctor, cancer researcher, founder, NDDO Institute for Prevention and Early Diagnosis (NIPED)

Kirpestein writes in the same manner with which he recites and coaches: he stimulates, reflects, and enthuses. And that is now exactly what will bring you, as reader, closer to your source.

—P. M. Steenvoorden, former senior corporate vice president, Risk Management, and former CFO, UK Leaseplan Corporation N. V.

If you’re a little familiar with Jan Willem’s school of thought, then you know that this book was inevitable. A book that reflects his substance and profundity. A flagship of connection, understanding, happiness, and hope. Sometimes you have to look a little beyond the theological phraseology, but they are comprehensible and illustrative in the context. His school of thought is 100 percent chaste. An informative piece for even ‘worldly readers.’ When it comes to the issues in this book, nothing is beyond JW’s grasp. JW supplies answers here in much the same way as the live oracle he represents for many. A practical thinker, who is understood by all who read or listen. And who wishes everyone on this earth, well.

—Frank Buunk, art dealer

This extremely interesting book is about the desire to be yourself, of fooling yourself, and of seeing with your heart. It is also about trust and connection between people. While reading this book, I came across several identifying moments reflecting my personal experiences. Being consumed with thoughts, being gripped by powerlessness and frustration, the loss of individuality, the denial, the struggle, the shock, the surrender, the breaking free and release, the ‘mourning process’—every phase you experience in crisis situations are described by the author in a comprehensible way through myths and stories. Fortunately, the author also offers support and insight that allow you to find yourself again. This book is an absolute must for anyone who has the courage, will and confidence to (re)turn control to his/her soul.

—Ingeborg Kuyvenhoven, former general counsel, Bergermeer Gas Storage (lawyer), TAQA Energy B. V.

This is an extraordinary book. Kirpestein convinces me in his own desire to try and help others find their own source. He does this by means of mythology and Bible texts, but also with wonderful examples of real-life experiences including the management of organisations. His astute observations about the imaginary world in which many live and the apt increase in risks through more rules will surprise and stay with many.

—Henk Breukink, former administrator (ING) and coach (based on the concept of what motivates people)

"In this fascinating book, Jan Willem Kirpestein describes in an original manner how people, who have adapted their expectations to suit others over the course of their lives, can reconnect with their