My Academic Journey

On Thursday, I was heading back to the central rail station, when I got an SMS from home. "You have a letter from the Niilo Helanter Foundation. Should I open it?". I quickly reply: "Opeeeeen it!". I wait for three seconds max, and phoned back to him. I was feeling excited and anxious at the same time. "Please say if it's positive or negative right away!" I begged. But why would they bother sending a 'no thanks' per mail.. Slowly, Jan started to read the letter. I wanted to scream of joy, but we don't do that in Finland. I had to be satisfied with crying out of happiness (quietly of course). The thing is, a grant makes you truly free. With a grant, you can go anywhere - if you like. I felt so free! Couple of weeks back, I learned something new about myself. Planning big and far motivate me the most. I know that some of the plans sound too ambitious but small plans make me procrastinate.  Some people roll their eyes at my goals. Th...

Benjamin Hardy wrote an article justifying a lifelong plan  (" If You’re Too Busy For These 5 Things: Your Life Is More Off-Course Than You Think "). My first impression was that this sounds like what a control freak would do. The I read on, there are some cool advises and the article even inspired one person to form a blog about presented ideas (in Finnish though). Yet, I agree with  Benjamin P. Hardy  on that you should have a some kind of a plan. Hardy emphases that you should know your why by quoting Michael Jr: Know Your Why . It is also a nice video. But the point that he made in the video was: when singer knew how he wanted him to sing, he sang so beautifully that the audience stood up. It was not his own "why" (e.g. purpose of singing) but this video is used to emphases why over what. Today, I found amazing TED talk about purpose. After listening to this, I felt relieved. "Purpose" is simply a feeling . Terri Trespicio tells a hint for financi...

4 Things You Shouldn’t Be Apologizing For  by Melissa Nixon is a great to skim. The advises are very applicable to Finns. At least the number 1 is pretty obvious: don't apologize for being you. However, this is partly the same as number 3, "being driven". I am one of those people who dream big - and sometimes that big turns into reality. It is sad how some people (probably unconsciously) make you more "reality oriented". When I was around 12 years old and competing in athletics I told my self: "someone needs to be the last one, it is always someone". When I was older and competing in swimming, I used to think that I am good only in breaststroke. During the first year in high school, I finally chose science over sports. My competition results hadn't improved for a year and I had discovered that school felt easier every year. At university, I started to dream really big. I reached the two biggest: studied abroad (twice) and got into PhD program. Th...

This text has some just found TED talks. I don't usually listen to TED but when I do, I search for inspiring speaks and cool tips. As you can see, my week end was full of new motivation towards different sources:     Reggie Rivers underlines that we should focus on things that we can affect instead of the outcome itself. His speech helps to get perspective and to see what you really can do. I liked his examples.  Scott Geller speaks about want vs obligatory; success seeker vs failure avoidance; and how to feel and make feel empowered. The check of empowered: 1) can you do it? 2) will it work? 3) is it worth it? 3 yes = competent  --> self motivated. But that's not all. He also proved that we can all learn from each other that is also an important assumption in my research. Geller tells how he taught his drum teacher how to teach drum rolls by explaining his learning. This is actually a spillover effect, the cu...