{"id":59294,"date":"2026-03-21T14:10:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T14:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.la-blonde-blog.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/21\/das-unperfekte-ueber-die-freiheit-im-zeitalter-der-staendigen-selbstoptimierung\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T15:16:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T15:16:02","slug":"an-imperfect-life-on-freedom-in-the-age-of-self-optimization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.la-blonde-blog.com\/en\/blog\/2026\/03\/21\/an-imperfect-life-on-freedom-in-the-age-of-self-optimization\/","title":{"rendered":"An Imperfect Life | On Freedom in the Age of Constant Optimization"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Today I\u2019m tackling a topic that might make you wonder what it has to do with a travel blog. But it was actually on a trip through the South of France, here in Saint-Tropez, that I started thinking about it. Because the contrast between what life feels like in Munich and in St. Tropez is pretty striking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anyone who lives in a big city knows it: life is fast. Full of appointments, deadlines, obligations. Even with close friends, you have to plan weeks in advance. Spontaneity? Almost impossible. St. Tropez, which still carries the charm of the old fishing village from the 60s<\/a>, feels like the opposite: calmer, lighter, more beautiful. A different frequency. No constant rushing from one appointment to the next, no endless flood of information and events, no permanent availability and none of that subtle pressure to always be better, faster, more efficient.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”right” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

And at some point I thought:
\nthis can\u2019t go on like this.
\nSomething is wrong.<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”20″ down=”0″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_single_image image=”59290″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” eltd_css_animation=””][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][vc_column_text]Shortly after, I came across an interview with Gunter Sach<\/a>s recorded in 1997, but only recently fully released. I couldn\u2019t get it out of my head. What you could feel in that interview was this sense of freedom from back then when the world didn\u2019t know the internet yet, when jet set life wasn\u2019t constantly on Instagram, when we didn\u2019t have the \u201cperfect lives\u201d of others in front of us all the time. Today, when almost everyone is online and present on social media, we constantly see the perfectly constructed lives of others, compare ourselves, put pressure on ourselves, monitor each other and judge when something doesn\u2019t fit the narrative. Shaming, blaming and cancel culture didn\u2019t become common terms for no reason.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201eThe place and\u2026 Bardot brought with them a philosophy that was completely new. They wanted to be individualists and live their philosophy of life freely. That was real freedom.\u201c<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”20″ down=”0″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Gunter Sachs, 1997<\/em><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][vc_single_image image=”59286″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” eltd_css_animation=””][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][vc_single_image image=”59288″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” eltd_css_animation=””][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][vc_column_text]The world and our role models have become much more complex. And almost impossible to live up to. We try to be better professionals, better mothers, better versions of ourselves all at the same time. Always perfectly styled, in a good mood, sporty, organized, prepared for everything. Self-optimization, efficiency thinking, mindset, biohacking, self branding. When I wake up, the first thing I do is open Instagram and see how, by 8 a.m., other people already have their kids ready for school, a perfect breakfast on the table, a workout done, meditation finished, fresh bread and three cakes baked, two meetings completed and on top of that, half a business built. Meanwhile, I\u2019m standing in the bathroom at 8:30 with messy hair, trying to wake up. The face in the mirror is definitely far from the \u201cbest version\u201d of myself. And every time I scroll through my feed, I feel like everyone else has their life completely under control and I\u2019m the only one constantly failing.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][vc_column_text]Another reason why life today feels mentally so uncomfortable, in my opinion, is that we as humans are simply not built for this kind of speed. Twenty years ago, a B2B order would take days and often ran via fax. Today, everything happens in seconds, and anyone who is professionally active receives a constant flood of emails. According to scientists, the human brain hasn\u2019t really changed since the Stone Age certainly not accelerated but technology has. So here we are, modern humans with our Stone Age brains, trying to keep up with all of it and master it perfectly. As a result, statistics show that in Germany, every second person feels at risk of burnout.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201eThe new generation feels much more suffocated. In the post-war years, the world was very open to new things and above all, to enthusiasm. Today it\u2019s much harder to stand out. You go with the flow much more and can\u2019t really break free into a certain individuality. We had it easier.\u201c<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”20″ down=”0″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Gunter Sachs, 1997<\/em><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”52px” image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_single_image image=”59284″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” eltd_css_animation=””][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”20″ down=”0″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

We\u2019re standing with one foot in yesterday and the other already in tomorrow. No wonder it feels so uncomfortable that\u2019s the price of progress.<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][vc_column_text]And maybe that\u2019s exactly the problem. It doesn\u2019t just take away the freedom G\u00fcnter Sachs was talking about, but also the creativity every life needs to unfold. We\u2019re in a transitional phase into a new era that has, in many ways, already begun. One foot still in the past, the other already in the future. No wonder it feels this way. I accept that. I benefit from technology, I see the opportunities AI brings, and I\u2019m open to everything new. But sometimes it all becomes too much and then I just want to escape to St. Tropez. To a place where time seems to have stood still, where the spirit of the 60s is still alive, and where I can take a small break from all of it.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][vc_column_text]For me personally, St. Tropez has become something like a protected space a place where I don\u2019t have to function at full speed. Its small streets, the little beach that has barely changed since the days of Brigitte Bardot and Roger Vadim, Senequier, and the white yachts in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez all remind me of a time before this global acceleration when life felt different. More carefree. More open. More spontaneous. Simply more alive. So imperfect. And so beautiful.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”59282″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” eltd_css_animation=””][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”center” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Do you also live in a big city or somewhere smaller?
\nAnd do you have places that help you slow down?<\/h5>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”30″ down=”0″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”center” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”25″ down=”0″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

MORE LIFESTYLE<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”25″ down=”0″][vc_single_image image=”50716″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” eltd_css_animation=””][vc_separator type=”transparent” up=”25″ down=”0″][vc_empty_space image_repeat=”no-repeat”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”center” video=”” css_animation=”” box_shadow_on_row=”no”][vc_column]