Life, Meaning and Sports (Elämästä, Merkityksestä ja Urheilusta): PE 18.3.2022 The Self-Reflection Essay for Thinking Tools -course in Aalto University

I’ve been working a lot on my values last couple of years thanks to Tony Robbins, his books, and programs. Values are a good way to guide your life and a way to make needed chances. As a parent of two energetic gorgeous little boys, I have come to consider family values in my top three. My number one value is my personal health and energy which I notice I have mistreated the most. Family values come right after my personal physical well-being. After these two or three, depends on how you count them, comes learning. I can admit the latter here in essay.

I want to mention that freedom might be the biggest “value” value in my life. It is paradoxical that I have been working for Finnish government for over 20 years and I value freedom the most. Working in a hierarchical system, one typically lacks the freedom to work as wanted. Jocko Willink (former Navy Seal) says discipline equals freedom, which I agree but would add that freedom needs responsibility and in Nassim Taleb’s way you must have your skin in the game. Civilizations are constantly evolving as are organizational working cultures. Belgian Frederic Laloux has written an exciting book called Reinventing Organizations where he describes the latest trend as a color TEAL. The working culture where I work and dream about freedom is a long way from self-organizing TEAL-companies like Buurtzorg etc. Maybe Thinking Tools -course courages me to establish my own organization where I can make good things happen and provide place for other intrinsically motivated people to grow and thrive.

Giving to others is one thing I value in life. I want to give my best to the ones I love the most, and positive vibes to other people around me as well. What I don’t like to see are energy vampires and narcists. There is a line which I draw that those kind of persons or warmongers are weed one must pull out of the ground time to time or just let wither.

I identify myself partly with Stoic philosophers which is something new from the books I’ve started to read (Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Irvine). To study philosophy is for having a better life. I want to live a better life and open possibilities to others to discover how they can succeed too. To have a good life with lots of good emotions, you must stay hungry. Stoic realization is that one must learn to desire those things that you already have in your life.

As a teenager my vocation was to play music in a rock and roll band. I only started playing guitar little too late as a 15-year-old to become a musician in a classical sense. Still, I managed to take out my full but small potential just like Jussi Jokinen did in ice hockey. I found a note written of my dreams like, play in Tavastia Club, tour around Finland, be in a band that makes an album, hear my band’s song in the radio, be in a music video etc. To my surprise all these things have happened. Many things are possible if you just write them down. Brian Tracy writes and talks a lot about the meaning of handwriting, since it creates you more neural paths to your brain and that’s why it is more memorable also in your unconscious mind. I don’t know for sure, but I am a big believer of handwriting.

I find exciting to read about great organizational cultures and evolving civilizations. I love contacting with the top performers in their fields. Some of them are even willing to share their time and wisdom with me. It is fascinating that we are all connected in this world. Esa Saarinen invited me through LinkedIn message to take part in his course Philosophy and Systems Thinking which is one example that being open to other people will make a better life. That course got me thinking and pushed me further into this opportunity.

One of the things I don’t like in my life besides bad bosses and lousy organizational cultures is the way our brains are being hooked on electronic devices. I think the original idea for creating all super fancy equipment or gadgets was to make people’s lives better so they could have more time doing the things that really mattered to them. I think most of us have forgotten our original interests and we have fallen off the path into this fog that comes from endless scrolling. I don’t see my life meaningful just sitting in front of the computer and looking at the screen all the time. There must be some other ways to evolve in a future.

Finishing my BBA two years ago I had a “strict” morning routine. I usually woke up at 5 a.m. and did the hardest tasks first. Robin Sharma has a fun story in a book called the 5AM Club which basically says, miracles happen when you wake up early. Besides waking up at five, I started applying the David Allen’s method Getting Things Done. GTD is a kind of like contemplating your to do -list to a little further so that you have your notes saying the next physical task you must do. No more keeping things in mind blocking your creative ideas or post it -notes reminding something strange and fuzzy but clear doable action steps how to proceed.

Thanks to Tony Robbins I keep a success journal, try to remember to feel grateful every day and have a sort of buffer fund just in case something surprising happens. Writing notes is also one tool I use almost daily.

Now I am on a fast track living busy everyday life. What I would love to have more is time to play around with my kids, to study and run some welfare organization. I hope I could teach kids or let them figure out themselves how great, fun, and meaningful it is to learn. Same goes doing things they are interested in and how meaningful it is to give to others. In five years, I would like to be graduated as Master of Philosophy in cognitive sciences, have my own simulation and testing lab to probe peoples observational motor skills and be living according to some Stoic principles. In ten years, I hope I have made the connections to abroad and can travel and work in some other countries as well with similar minded positive partners.

Lauri Järvilehto

https://avp.aalto.fi/learn-thinking-tools-to-supercharge-your-mind/

Esa Saarinen

https://www.aalto.fi/fi/uutiset/esa-saarisen-filosofia-ja-systeemiajattelu-palaa-uudistuneena-osallistujat-kohtaavat

Jussi Jokinen

https://www.is.fi/nhl/art-2000007988708.html

Buurtzorg

https://www.buurtzorg.com/

Links to book recommendations:

Tony Robbins

https://www.amazon.com/Awaken-Giant-Within-Immediate-Emotional-ebook/dp/B001EM101Q/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BS6VYY/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i