// Speaker · Author · Mentor
Tools for a stronger mindset, no excuses.
At fourteen I gave up, halfway through a hundred-kilometre march. Ten years later I was the youngest member ever to join the Special Forces.
In between there was a method.
And you can learn it.
// The impact
Not the macho story of an ex-special forces man letting his ego do the talking. Quite the opposite. That modesty, combined with real depth, is what makes it so powerful.
I was lucky enough to work with Cedric directly. Long after that meeting, his thinking and his methods still change daily life.
I have worked on personal development for years, but I never really had anything to fall back on when doubt crept in. This book fills exactly that role.
With the right tools, discipline takes over at the moments when motivation lets you down.
Ideal for people with chaos in their head. It helped me understand the things life throws at you and give them a place.
The conversations helped me get crystal clear on what I want and how I can grow, professionally and personally. After every session I felt stronger, sharper and more motivated.
// The work
Hard-earned.
From twenty years of practice.
Read the bestseller.
Buy the bookExperience it live.
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Find out moreDo it yourself.
Join the waiting list// The story
Twenty years in the Special Forces.
First the man who goes through the door first, later team leader.
That is where I learned how you stay standing when everything is at stake.
And then it all fell away.
My body was finished after twenty years. I had to stop, and suddenly I no longer knew who I was without the uniform.
It took a hard confrontation, with myself and with the people closest to me, to realize that everything I had learned was still there. I just had to learn to apply it again. To my own life.
And that is exactly what you can make your own.
What worked there also works when you are stuck or want to grow: in your work, your family or your own head.
After more than twenty years in the shadows I took off my balaclava. I stepped out with what I had learned, to make people stronger. And with BACKBONE I do that for organizations: performing and working together under pressure, uncertainty and change.
The choice is yours.
Cedric De Vlieger is an international keynote speaker, author and the founder of BACKBONE Performance. He was a team leader at the Special Forces of the Belgian police (DSU) and wrote the bestseller Kracht is een Keuze.
Today he helps people build a stronger mindset with talks, mentorship and his book. With BACKBONE he helps organizations perform under pressure, uncertainty and change.
// The method
What stays is a way of working.
This is the core. The book and the programme work it out in full.
No denial, no complaining: just look at the facts in front of you.
Most people know exactly what they do not want. The art is naming what you do want.
Also when you do not feel like it. Especially then.
Missing one day is an incident. Missing three days is a new habit.
// The book
Kracht is een Keuze. Stories from twenty years in the Special Forces, each one translated to your daily life, with a structure that stays with you.
Order your signed copy#1 in Non-fiction · People & Health · Self-care & Psychology
// Live
A few times a year I bring the story to a stage: a talk, a Q&A, a signing and time to talk afterwards.
Editions 1 and 2 were both sold out.
// Mentorship
Reflection · Discipline · Responsibility
Someone who holds you to your word, so you actually make your goals real.
When you are stuck, or simply want to keep growing. For entrepreneurs, leaders and anyone who means it.
We start with an introductory conversation. After that we both decide whether it continues.
// Podcasts
Long conversations without a script, about what twenty years in the Special Forces does to a person.
Coming soon: the Kracht is een Keuze programme. Everything in the book, step by step, at your own pace.
The book gives you the method. This programme helps you install it.
Launching in autumn 2026. Want to be the first to know when it lands, with priority access?
The principles that kept me standing in the Special Forces, I translate to teams and leaders who have to work together under pressure and uncertainty.
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Keynotes, team programmes and leadership work.
