What the past year has taught me

Looking back, there are things that have changed. The pandemic has challenged all of us in many ways.

Over a year ago I started working from home. No travelling to work, or very much not anywhere. It wasn´t that hard first, I guess. When one week followed the other it became a bit harder. 

Any lessons learned?

• Routines are very important to keep going and get anything done. To keep on doing the same things in the morning. Waking up nearly the same time every morning. In our family it means before 6 am on weekdays.
• Setting small goals every day.
  I need to do this. Even if it's only 2 or 3 things. This helps me get things done. 
  Otherwise they would pile up very quickly and make me stressed.
  The little things take you forward step by step, towards bigger things.
• Finding the right time every day to do certain things, take breaks and to stay focused when needed.
• Learning something new all the time is important to keep me going. The past year has taught me to try new things and find information, to keep trying and searching.
• Leading myself better.
• Finding happiness in simple things. 
• Reminding myself to stay hopeful.
• To not stress. I had to keep on telling me this for example when my dad was in hospital, and due to Covid there was no chance to visit him. There are certainly things we can´t control, and just do the things we can.

It's easy to make lists. The very much harder thing is to keep on doing something you have planned. It takes a lot of self-discipline.

It sounds so easy to make a list and follow it.

Well, it might be some days. 

What have you learned in the past year?

Have a great week!

"Happiness is where we find it, but very rarely where we seek it." - J. Petit Senn

 

Summer is here

Now it's June. Summer is here. 

A bit different than expected. Still very summery and very green. If there would be no Covid-19, our family would right now be possibly in France, driving a convertible red car towards Finland. Sounds nice, right?

Now we are instead at home, building a terrace, digging in the garden. planting flowers and the kids are swimming in the swimming pool. Well, the terrace we had in our plans before. I don't remember if we had planned to buy a pool.

Things get a completely different perspective when something unexpected happens.

Here is an old post from last year.

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Repost from 11.11.2019 (Happiness is a strange word)

Everyone else (or at least a few friends) seem to be on on the beach in Spain enjoying the sun. While you are carrying groceries in November rain after an endless day at work. How is someone on holiday again? While you are not?

I guess we all care about wrong things sometimes. Worry about something we can't change, and avoid doing things we should do. Why can it be so hard to concentrate on the important things? Why isn't it possible to be happy all the time? What is a good life?

These are a few questions I was thinking about while reading Mark Manson's book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck."

Reading the book really made me think about many things. Nothing really new, still things you don't think about every day.

We shouldn't care about wrong things.
A good life is more than watching what someone else is doing and dreaming about success.

Real life is not on Instagram. Real life is something, that challenges you. It's not only highlights.

While doing the right decisions, you don't always feel good. We bought an old house over ten years ago and started renovating it. There was a lot of work to do and we were running out of money many times. Still we carried on renovating, doing the things that we could. It's much easier to pay someone else to do the work instead of doing it yourself. Still it's much more rewarding to do it yourself and see the result.

Results come from hard work.

Also it's not possible to always feel good.

Why should we even try, when it's not possible?

Happiness is letting go of what you think your life is supposed to look like and celebrating it for everything that it is. - Mandy Hale

 

Happiness is a strange word

Everyone else (or at least a few friends) seem to be on on the beach in Spain enjoying the sun. While you are carrying groceries in November rain after an endless day at work. How is someone on holiday again? While you are not?

I guess we all care about wrong things sometimes. Worry about something we can't change, and avoid doing things we should do. Why can it be so hard to concentrate on the important things? Why isn't it possible to be happy all the time? What is a good life?

These are a few questions I was thinking about while reading Mark Manson's book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck."

Reading the book really made me think about many things. Nothing really new, still things you don't think about every day.

We shouldn't care about wrong things.
A good life is more than watching what someone else is doing and dreaming about success.

Real life is not on Instagram. Real life is something, that challenges you. It's not only highlights.

While doing the right decisions, you don't always feel good. We bought an old house over ten years ago and started renovating it. There was a lot of work to do and we were running out of money many times. Still we carried on renovating, doing the things that we could. It's much easier to pay someone else to do the work instead of doing it yourself. Still it's much more rewarding to do it yourself and see the result.

Results come from hard work.

Also it's not possible to always feel good.

Why should we even try, when it's not possible?

Happiness is letting go of what you think your life is supposed to look like and celebrating it for everything that it is. - Mandy Hale