Anu Harkki Challenges Somero

Many years ago I worked as a radio presenter in Helsinki. In this job I had the opportunity to meet famous people. It was interesting of course, but often I found that the image I had previously was nothing like the person I met in real life, and it was disappointing. Last night I am happy to say that the opposite happened.


I attended the talk given by Anu Harkki (for those reading from abroad, Anu is a television presenter here in Finland) in Somero and she was absolutley lovely. She was totally down-to-earth, excited about life, encouraging to others and showed not the slightest bit of arrogance about anything. She came across as the sort of person we would all like to have as our friend.

Anyway, Anu was in Somero to talk about how we can improve our lives and realise our dreams.  Of course with a topic like this I could not resist going.

The thing is, how many of us are caught up in a life that we don't really like anymore? How is it that so many people live a life that they feel stuck and unhappy in, and why are we so afraid to try and change it? Anu used to have a high position in a company, earned good money and was respected in her work. At the same time though she felt as though she was always rushing around doing things for other people and never had enough time for herself or her family.  This wasn't the life she felt she should be living, so she was frustrated as a result. Doesn't that sound familiar?

In her talk, Anu pointed to the five "I"s in Finnish. Itse, Intuitio, Innovaatio, Ilo and Inspiraatio. In English this are Yourself, Intuition, Innovation, Happiness and Inspiration. She went through each of these in turn and gave us some questions to think about. Her talk was all about maximising your happiness and enjoying life while we are still here to enjoy it. Some changes can be radical ones, such as the day she decided to give up her job and do something totally different, but others can be small ones, like eating fresh strawberries with your porridge for breakfast.

As she talked she also made a "dream board" out of an old picture frame which she covered with text from an old book. I thought it was quite appropriate for this blog that the book she used was a Finnish- English dictionary! I plan to make my own this week.

Anyway, I told her about the Somero English Club and our regular challenges, and she gave us our first celebrity challenge! It is simple but effective.

This week, each of us has to reserve some special time to do something (anything at all) just because it is something that we enjoy. Not for any other reason.  So there we are, as Anu pointed out yesterday, if we feel good ourselves then we will radiate that to other people. Positivity is infectious, so let's try and find some this week!

For those people who have not been to the English Club before, we are meeting tonight (18.30 for the first group and 19.30 for the more advanced at Kiiruun Tila in the centre of town), and the club will run every Tuesday except Vappu until the end of May. You are all welcome to join us. But wherever you are in the world, and whether you can make it to the club or not this evening, take Anu's challenge this week and do something this week just to make you feel good. I look forward to hearing your stories!