[Clarity Skills]

Author: arttuvann

  • When you choose this, what are you actually choosing to do?

  • Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single decision: the direction in which to take the first step.

    Tuhannen mailin matka alkaa, kun päätät minne ensiksi suuntaat.

  • What if you knew the answer?

    What would you do next?

  • “You can’t go forward, or be helped by treatment, until you accept its  impossibility [of the wish], suck it up, and turn your bullshit wish into a goal that can actually be achieved.”

    ~ Michael I. Bennett, M.D. and Sarah Bennett: F*ck Feelings. One shrink’s practical advice for managing all life’s impossible problems. Simon & Schuster 2015.

  • How will this year become your best year?

    What will you start and stop doing?

    What do you plan to do more, and what less?

    What good things will you keep on doing.

    Why so?

  • Know yourself – i.e. your strengths and weaknesses

    Knowing yourself is easier said than done. However it’s the basis for any kind of improvement in personal life as well in organizational life contexts like business and teamwork.

    Good thing is, these days we have practical tools like SWOT analysis that we can easily use to learn more of ourselves.

    Here is a table for doing a personal SWOT analysis (takes about 30-45 mins). The questions are intended to challenge you. I suggest you time your work on this so you spend a good amount of time in each section.

    You can print the resulting table and review and redo it after 6 months to see how you have developed since.

    Date:
    Strengths (Internal, Positive, In the Now)Weaknesses (Internal, Negative, In the Now)
    What are my strong skills and knowledge?

    What are my personal values and natural talents?

    Am I resilient and not afraid to fail forward?    		What do I currently struggle with?

    What are my bad habits?

    Do I avoid taking risks?

    What negative thoughts and beliefs hold me back currently?

    Opportunities (External, Positive, Future-oriented)Threats (External, Negative, Future-oriented)
    What opportunities do I have in my current situation?

    What external factors could assist me in reaching my goals (this week/month/year)?

    What skills could I learn?

    What trends do I find interesting?    		What obstacles or challenges could I face (this week/month/year)?

    Are there some negative influences in my life currently?

    Have I listed and written out the lessons learned from my past experiences?

    You can include different life areas in the table or make separate ones. Themes can be e.g.: relationship, friendships, physical and mental health and work.

    The important part here is honesty to yourself and sufficient repetition and review of the SWOT analysis, not so much the one time act of analyzing – and then never visiting the resulting files.

    Knowing yourself takes hard work but it pays off as a good life. Happy analysis!

    Updated: 2025-01-01

  • Aamun suunnittelusta

    Nykyhetkessä on helppo uppoutua hereilläolon ensi sekunneista lähtien alustojen fiideihin ja keskusteluihin, ilman että missään kohdassa aktiivisesti suunnittelet, jäsennät tai reflektoit omaa päivääsi ja sen aikaisia ajattelu-, tunne- ja toimintamallejasi.

    Kuitenkin koska päivät muodostavat arkielämän, päivän suunnittelun, rytmittämisen ja jäsentämisen taito on elämäntaidon pienin jakamaton ydin.

    Tällaista suunnittelua on helppo laiminlyödä etenkin ruuhkaisissa elämänjaksoissa – vaikka lieneekin niin, että juuri kiireen keskellä on hyvän elämän kannalta tärkeintä muistuttaa mieleen oman arjen itselle tärkeät asiat ja arvot.

    Alla on yksinkertainen markdown-pohja, jonka voit mukauttaa tarpeeseen sopivaksi tietoisen arjen apuriksi. Käyttämällä snippetejä tukevaa muistiinpanosovellusta (esim. Markor Android-laitteille) voit helposti tehdä uuden päivän merkinnän uuteen tiedostoonsa tämän valmiin pohjan päälle.

    [//]: # (Nimi: aamun-suunnitelma-pohja.md)
    [//]: # (Kuvaus: Voit tämän pohjan avulla laatia konkreettisen suunnitelman päivääsi tai muuhun haluamaasi ajanjaksoon. Minuuttikestot ovat ohjeellisia.)

    ## `E dd.MM.yyyy`

    ### Aamun kysymykset klo `HH:mm`

    * [3 min] Tänään on tärkeää, että...

        1.  
        2.  
        3.  

    * [2 min] Nämä ovat tärkeitä, koska...


    * [2 min] Ylläpidän fyysistä ja henkistä terveyttäni näin:


    * [1 min] Aion opiskella näitä:


    * [1 min] Voin lisätä arvoa jonkun elämään tänään näin:


    * [1 min] Millaisia muita tilaisuuksia tänään kenties avautuu, jolloin voin auttaa muita?


    * Tehtävää:

        * [ ] 

    ----

  • On Taking Action

    One of the most demanding tasks is to 1) gather relevant pieces of information in the current moment, 2) create a plan that will likely have a positive and desired effect, and then 3) acting on it with coherence, congruence and consistency.

    On basic level, this is practically how we as humans function, but the keys to the metaphorical city gates are in the adjectives and systems getting more complex with time.

    • What is relevant knowledge to gather in the now?
    • What is the effect that is desired?
    • How do I act with coherence, congruence and consistence?

    A good place to start is to review the tools used, particularly language, since how we use it can limit or open up our view of the situation, our goals and behavior.

  • On Resilience

    Resilience is a word that everyone loves, but that is – by definition – hard to do. Resilience develops only by doing tasks that are physically and mentally demanding. It is something that needs constant challenge and pushing it, otherwise we grow less resilient over time.

    Because I like the table format due to how it can simplify complex reality, here is one view into resilience:

    AspectWeakens resilience (- -)Maintains resilience (+-0)Strengthens resilience (++)
    social interactionavoid challenging topics in a conversation

    stay quiet
    		actively participate in challenging conversations

    answer when asked    		bring up challenging topics in a conversation

    take your turn when necessary
    physical exerciseavoid challenging physical exercisefollow a pre-set exercise programdo ad-hoc training (supersets, drop sets)

    early morning training

    frequent cold exposure
    mental exerciseswipe, scroll and binge watch for hoursread a bookread a book from challenging genre or author

    watch documentary on a challenging topic

  • On Challenging Yourself

    In the modern world of the 2020’s, it is very easy to be immediately satisfied. Thanks to online streaming, gaming and stores, we can (un)happily avoid most human contact and tell ourselves that we have healthy friendships, they just all happen to be pseudonyms, and that we enjoy culture when we binge Netflix for the fifth hour today.

    Here’s a practical challenge, a quest of sorts: take a moment to list what makes you curious. What world do you want to enter?

    Then find a book about that. Read it till the end unless it is utterly boring and badly written. If you decide to quit, figure out the specific reason, and also decide the next step you’ll take.

    Little by little, page by page your resilient identity and attitude will grow. It will spread to other areas of life.

    How will you challenge yourself today?

    What is the next step you take?