Culture Shock - A Mini Survival Kit Prezi

Hanging there!

Changing location from one country to another is not necessary to experience culture shock. One can go through one just by joining a new group of people, starting a new hobby or making a career move.

I created a compact survival kit inspired by the desire to share some experiences and insights. These ideas have kept me from drowning in the midst of the worst culture shock dive.

Take a look at my suggestions (Prezi - Survial Kit for Culture Shock). If you feel the urge, share your own tips on the comments field.

Are You Living Truly Your Life?

Focusing on positive matters and steering away from negative experiences is a choice. The same applies to finding your calling. Both require a certain amount of energy, will power and consciously invested time.

A couple of years ago I bumped into a list of questions designed to clarify your vision in life. Take a look at the list below with an open mind. Check, if your life is reflecting what your truly are and where you want be heading.

Ready to take off.

1. What are my desires from the day one?
2. How about my motivators?
3. What keeps me going when going gets tough?
4. What makes me refuse to quit?
5. What do I do that does not seem like work?
6. What brings positive response & support of my doings?
7. What do I do when doors open?
8. What feedback I get of those positive things?
9. What make me feel good about myself?
10. What makes me creative?
11. What am I willing to sacrifice to accomplish it?
12. Is my work worth for some greater purpose?
13. What would I do without being paid for?
14. What resistance would I tolerate?

For many reasons we shy away from answering these questions. In my previous blog I challenged you to take small, repetitive steps to learn new tricks. Now I ask you to sit down and do some homework with where you are heading to. Perhaps the above list can help you out.

Some food for thought this time:

                                  'Choices are the hinges of destiny.' -Edwin Markham

I believe this refocusing work is an on-going process. It cannot happen, if you never even start the ball rolling. I admit that it has taken me a number of years living in many countries to get going with this. I cannot boast of any great success, but I promise to do a bit better job this time. To create a real snowball effect of vision realignment with you all.

Why not to be brave enough to full fill your own dream?

Dig in to the Most Mundane Work with a Smile

No matter how high the risk,
it is still worth the adventure.

Soon a month of small efforts suggested in my previous blog is over. Has it been fun? Worth the effort? Or have you given up by now? I would say it has not been easy, but certainly it has been a continuation of a life-long-adventure.

Success does come very slowly and waiting those numerous repetitions to sum up to something worthwhile calls for patience. The Finnish autumn weather with days of sunshine and photographic moments has been inspiring environment for any kind of practice. Being it mental or physical.

Talking seriously the advice of focusing on just one single thing at the time has proven to be good. Added with taking consciously time to get the amount of rest and work in balance, has made the practice possible. Not that I can boast of great success, but one month is a very short time. Isn't it? A toss of humor, flexibility and perseverance with healthy amount of boundaries with fellow human-beings are those extra ingredients on the life recipe I try to apply. Even when it all feels mundane and hard work, throwing in some smile makes the work lighter.

When things really get tough, I try to dig into my memory storage of supportive people or occasions. In the same place reside some thoughts, which have travelled with me while globe hoping. One of them was caught in a camp weekend during my teenage years:

      'You lazy fool, look at an ant.
       Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.'  Proverb 6:6 (Bible, MSG) 

What do you think? Worth learning something?

I admit that I have a long way to go. My smile may be just a grin at times and my approach has a lot of room for improvement. Accepting the unexpected hiccups and enjoying the more than welcomed happy moments, makes life properly spiced and exciting.

Till next time when we are wiser or at least more experienced!

Life - a Sum of Small Efforts

Only by slowing down,
you can catch scenes like this.

Honesty is what is needed now!

So here I go: My genuine plan to update this blog encountered some real life obstacles: a busy schedule with exciting clients, small hiccups with my dwelling place and extended hours driving from one location to another. The long-waited summer holiday in July brought along some time to catch one's breath.

Life is not just a bundle of challenges, but full of learning opportunities. Holidays offered some time to reflect those learnings. Every spare minute squeezed from work for family, friends and reading has proven to recharge my batteries. It has also become more obvious that there are people who need a lot of time to learn this valuable learning. Rushing it by good hints and advices get you nowhere. Unless you count frustration 'somewhere'.

Learning can be tedious work even if just learning from your own mistakes so close home. The smallest start demands a lot of effort. Scaling down the often larger-than-life expectations will make the start a bit easier. Who has said that you have to get all done at once? Tuning your timing with your new starts will ensure better outcomes and more satisfaction with life. It may sound obvious, but I challenge you: choose one thing you wish to learn and really start with it. You will see what I try to highlight!

I leave you with the words of Robert Collier:

      'Success is the sum of small efforts,
       repeated day in and out.'

Next time we will see what achievements our efforts have summed up to. 

Finally completed... the Communicatix web site

The Take Off
Helsinki - Finland
March 2013

It is about the time for the Easter break.

Read, eat and relax.

A Q1/2013 analysis would reveal energizing results in the form of

• many new friends
• amazing travel experiences including a football match in London
• rewarding business opportunities
• and much more.

Finalizing the website project of Communicatix just before the break, gives an opportunity to take a well-earned breather and relax. Astonishing how creating a simple site can turn into weeks or even months worth of work. Did I learn anything? Well…  teamwork rocks and KISS.

As the spring is slowly but surely tiptoeing to the Northern Hemisphere,
I wish you great Easter time with the Maori proverb:

         'Turn your face to the sun

          and the shadows fall behind you.'

Fine-tuning continues - on the website as it does in life in general! Thanks for those making the first quarter so successful! Let’s keep up with the team effort and go-for-it attitude!

(Coffee) Time to Continue

Thanks for all the requests to blog more with you!
It took four months to brew the idea and here we go!

Serious Business -
The Coffee Break

Talking about brewing. There is definitely one things that keeps Finns going: COFFEE. We are not talking about Gloria Jeans or Starbucks type of thing, but the real, home made, filtered coffee or the pre-coffee-maker-age-coffee boiled in a proper coffee kettle.

After all, it is not about the taste! It is all about its social function of being together and eating proper Finnish Cinnamon Bread -korvapuusti- with it. Btw, my apologies for all Swedes, who claim Cinnamon Bread Swedish. My mom makes the best and -therefore- it must be Finnish!

Old habits die hard as the photo on the right shows.  As a stubbornly devoted coffee drinker, I claim that 'coffee-centrizity' is in the core of Finnish-ness. It serves as a energy booster, source of creativity and bonding excuse in both private and public sphere. One of the many stepping stones for communication across cultures.

 Do you agree? Let's brew together some discussion around and with coffee!

Here some tips for those interested:
My favorite Finnish places to stock up is Kaffecentral and number one location to enjoy coffee and great brekkie is Cafe Lasipalatsi.  Both in Helsinki.

Till next time and topic!