More me when abroad

It´s been a while since I have been working with my international colleagues and I have to admit I really miss working in different countries with different people and using different languages. To be honest my last work trip abroad was in October and it seems like forever ago to me. Even though I work in an international atmosphere every day I miss that certain feeling that I have when working abroad.

I have been thinking why I´m so keen on internationalization and meeting new people who come from different cultures and countries.  It is obvious that travelling and working abroad enables me to develop new skills, languages, cultural awareness, social skills but among those I have realized I´m more alert when abroad. I have to focus on language and different cultural habits, but that alertness takes me there what I believe is the reason why I truly love international work.

I believe when I´m working in different challenging situations I´m taken out of my comfort zone, some people find it awkward and unpleasant, especially when they have to work with another language than their own. Instead I find it rewarding and I find myself more true to myself and others. This only tells my story where I come from, why I feel this way and can´t be generalized.

I believe when I´m working out of my comfort zone I´m more likely to drawing strength and security inside of myself. I´m using basic trust that has been given to me on my early childhood. Basic trust is built in early interaction with a child and their care giver. It is an implicit trust that is optimal will happen and a person believes whatever happens will ultimately be fine. It is the confidence that reality is ultimately good, and all that exists, are by their very nature trustworthy. Basic trust gives an implicit orientation towards all circumstances and that allows people to relax and see situations as learning opportunities. Basic trust can be developed in trustful and respectful relationships. Yes, I´m thankful for my early childhood, it has had a remarkable meaning in my life. It has given me the orientation to my life. But why am I so keen on working abroad and with different languages?

When a child feels good about themselves, it sets them up for success. When you are able to carry on this feeling in your life it takes you there.

You can´t choose the family you are born into. I was born in very board-minded, accepting and international one. My mom was sent abroad when she was 16, of course her family had international connections and they had the experience that travelling and meeting other people from different cultures brought some interesting extra into their lives. My grandfather had lived abroad a great part of his adult life, before he was ready to settle down and start a family. So, I was sent abroad when I turned 16 and so was my daughter. In that age of 16 you are vulnerable, but eager to experience. This allows you to a straight and forthcoming connection to who you are, how will your basic trust take over and carry you trough out your life. I was able to have that experience that whatever will happen will ultimately be fine. I had an experience that reality was ultimately good, I could trust myself and find different circumstances trustworthy, but you must remember that this belief had been built in me already.  I could relax and see situations as learning opportunities and that way I also learned from life among new culture and language.

Later on, when I graduated from college it was obvious to me to start my career abroad and I did. I wanted to be contacted to that feeling of vulnerability and confidence at the same time. I have a feeling that when you are forced to that vulnerability you are more open to who you are, you are more you. This is the reason  I enjoy working abroad, being more me, learning more about myself. At the same time, being vulnerable and having this straight and forthcoming connection to who you are, it gives you all the information about yourself. Positive and negative. How you handle all this information is based on your reflective ability.

Reflective ability is a quintessential human capacity that is needed to be able to successfully navigate the information flood that you have inside of you, all the feelings, actions and their co-operation or disconnections. It is learnable process and can be developed through out your life.

You should ask thoughtful reflective questions from yourself to reflect on your actions. When you are merciful and compassionate towards yourself, even how odd and outrageous your actions can be, you will help yourself probe deeper to your complexity and this will encourage you to better self-reflection. Just always pause and ask, why I´m acting this way. Simple as that…

Thoughtful questions to yourself will help you move forward with focus and intent. Trough out these inner conversations you will gain confidence and become more skilled at working through tough problems without hurting yourself or people around you. You will start to spread an atmosphere that allows you among other people to grow towards more aware and better people.

In two weeks my longing will be over. I will catch the plane and head towards Köln, Germany, to work, but most of all to be more connected to myself. I know I will have situations that I have no clue how the handle them, but I know I can trust myself. I know that whatever will happen will ultimately be fine.

Text Annele Heikkilä

Photo Lia Heikkilä

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do what you love – love what you do

Who am I to do what I want to do?

Why is that? How wrong I was. I had seen my own mother working as a teacher my whole childhood and I thought that it is not what I wanted. It was because I had a stereotypical picture of a teachers job. I did not think of what I could do as a teacher nor what I wanted to do as a teacher. A lot has happened in the world ever since and a lot has changed in me also during that period of time. What I am happy about today is that I actually am a teacher, coach and a mentor today. But, did I back that time know what I wanted to do or be? No I didn’t know. The help I got from the school or from home didn’t really help me much because I simply didn’t know myself well enough.

I wish I could forward my students today something that I have learned during the journey into myself. I don’t mean anything they can Google or learn from the books but something totally different. What is it then that I could or maybe should teach them? Self-knowledge maybe? Self-knowledge is something that should be taught. Yes I know, it sounds rediculous and maybe even stupid but it is true. Many of us people in the world of today don’t know who we are nor what we want to be or do. We follow our peers, parents, relatives, authorities or we fulfill some kind of obligations (specially youth at schools). Unfortunatelly I say so and I also mean it. It is lost energy, lost potential, lost resources and lost selfhood at worst. So who am I and what do I want are relevant questions.

How do I do that – teach self-knowledge? There are for sure as many ways of doing that as there are teachers. I start with asking my students who are you, what can you do or what are you good at? An awful difficult questions for being so simple ones you might think. Then I continue with what would you like to be better at? But still one of the most important things after knowing what I can do and what I can’t do is though what do I dream about. What would I wish to do the most in my life? Now we are talking about personal skills and abilities. What could I do with my own personal skills and abilities and then if or when I know what I want to do what would I have to learn to be able to fulfill my own dreams? I believe that the motivation for learning something I know that I want to learn and that I need to know is better than just learning something in storage. Even learning something that I am not fully interested in is easier with a motivation for that than without it.

Where would we be and what would we do if we were doing something we really want and love to do? It would be hundred times easier to forgive ourselves a mistake or a failure than it is otherwise. By the way, doing something even if it was a failure is better than doing nothing. By a failure you at least gain with experience but doing nothing weakens everything and not least your self-respect. The treshold grows bigger and bigger to start with anything after a while. Of course we need good experiences and we will get some by doing something. That is why I recommend you to learn to know yourself. To know what you can do and what you want to do, then it is easier to start doing something.

DO WHAT YOU LOVE
LOVE WHAT YOU DO

What do I gain from doing what I love and loving what I do? Better self-confidence which again allows me easier to accept that I can’t or won’t always succeed. I make mistakes but it is not the whole world to fail. I can also learn to be glad about failing. We all do mistakes. I am a valuable person anyway and I am not judged because of my mistakes and even if I was judged it doesn’t matter. I can and will take it and make it further. My good self-esteem allows me my own mistakes because I am doing what I love so I can love what I am doing no matter what happens. I can proudly stand for what I do.

Would world be a more beautiful place to live at when we do what we love and love what we do? In my opinion yes. More positive attitude with an ownership of what you are doing than without it. Decide what it is you want to do and then start working for that and do it. Don’t think of all the reasons for not succeeding but all the possibilities what succeeding will bring you.

I can not always choose what I am doing but mainly I can. I do what I love, what I am good at and I can use my strengths. I am positive to what I am doing and I learn something new every day in my life. I do not succeed with everything that I am doing but I know that it is not even possible to succeed always. I am blessed and thankful that I can do what I love so I can love what I do.

I encourage you to DO WHAT YOU LOVE ❤️ you have more to give and more to get. Be positive – life is not always easy but when you know what you’re doing and you’re doing it, it is easier to LOVE WHAT YOU DO ❤️

Written by Natascha Skog

Photo by Niilo Isotalo on Unsplash

 

 

 

Brief introduction to four knowns and unknowns. What they have to do in teaching.

Known knowns (Things we know that we know them)

• We learn best by doing, we know that.

Why it is hard sometimes to see results even when you teach “learn by doing – way”. There are few reasons. One is that school is not real, in sense that even though you might have job like simulation, something still seems to be missing. I think that this missing thing is students’ motivation. There are no sense of danger making mistakes and losing your job. There is no fear that you are losing a patient. School is school, it’s not real life, most of student’s think. They are used to being in school. Almost all their life. They are not mentally prepared to work in school as much as we would like. Think about your first days at work, you are 100% focused (and maybe more stressed and more nervous). Think about you after one year. Not so focused maybe anymore. Think 10 years. Then think how much you are willing to re-learn or educate yourself more and be focused every day. It isn’t that easy. It takes more mental preparation to be that focused and have high energy.

Teaching by simulation is still the best way. That’s the part where important teaching comes in, that dreaded word teaching. Teaching in sense that you learn your ropes with guidance of teacher and have relatively safe environment to succeed and make mistakes. Teachers guidance is super important in this point to give advice and feedback and prepare students for future. I think we teachers know that and know that we know that.

 

Things we know that we don’t know them

• Why are honeybees dying? We know that they are dying, but we don’t know why.

Let’s say our student works at shop. Shop sells different items there, clothes, candies, coffee etc. When he comes to work first time, what he does not know, but needs to know? Prices of course. What else? How to make coffee, how to use cash register, where shops clothes are coming from, what material they are, and so on. We have to know what our student does not know so he or she can be better at his job. We teachers as our students, must know our unknowns. Let’s think about that simulation again. Can we simulate everything? Off course not. Can we teach or prepare them for everything? Off course not. How we prepare our students to things that can’t be simulated, like real life situations where you might feel anxiety or stress. At least to my knowledge best way is to prepare them mentally and have them practice in job like situation as much as possible, so that they build confidence in their abilities and most likely will stress less at work and be better workers.

 

Unknown unknowns

• World can explode tomorrow (we did have no clue and did not think it as possibility)

Hardest part to write and think about. How to think unknown unknowns? There might be even better ways to learn and teach. Maybe we don’t know yet that our brains can learn faster and more efficiently, but we have no clue about it. Something completely unknown thing. These are things that comes completely from unknown to us. Do we have to teach it? How we teach? Can we teach it, if by definition, we do not know what kind of situations are coming at us? I think if you are mentally strong it’s easier to handle those kind of things, and humans are very good at adapting to different situations. We can prepare our students to be more mentally strong and help them to be strong in hard situations. That’s about it, that we can do.

 

Unknown knowns

• The things that we know but are unaware of knowing.

Most interesting of all maybe. In Slavoj Zizek’s words: “these are things that exist and have been influencing our life and our approach to reality, but we are unaware of knowing them, or we do not realize their value, or worst we refuse to acknowledge knowing them”. Like Freudian unconscious. How aware are we in our teaching methods? We have read and read about good teaching ways, but how much our past life experience affects us? Do we force some kind of ideology in to our pupils? Ideology and customs that were taught to us and we are influenced by them (unknowingly). Like for example how to behave in different social situations, who to listen, who to not, etc. How we even define ideology today? Believe yourself, do what you want, we are all individuals, you can do anything in your life. etc. How much that kind of attitude we pour in to our students? Those attributes sound good in principle, but democracy to Iraq sounded good too.

 

Written by Samppa Toivonen

Why not? Let’s try it!

Most of the time, you can notice that the student who you work whit is going to be ok later of their life. Some of them are maybe trying to find their own way bit diffrently, but it’s all right as we know. In my life I have admired handful of my friends who know what they want in their life. I appreciate that they are willing to do the work what is required to be great in what they do. I did not know what I wanted to be professionally.  So, my way to find a job what I liked happened by accident. It was not planned at all and I was saying to myself

During my childhood I was lucky that my parents encouraged me and they did not criticize me. Of course, there was times of tough love, but it was needed for sure. One of the best things what I managed to get from my parents was the attitude that I’m going to be ok whatever happens.

A few months ago I was looking my Instagram and I noticed one picture from one of the all-time greats in basketball.  He is Ray Allen and during his career as a professional basketball player he had amazing work ethic. Everyday he worked his craft and became one of the best 3-point shooters in NBA’s history. The headline of the picture that he posted was 10 Things that require zero talent.

10 THINGS THAT REQUIRE ZERO TALENT

Nowadays one of my biggest challenges is trying to make the changes in students mindsets. In  short term and in long term it is difficult to make difference in students behavior. But as we all know positive mindset is infectious. Doing things a little bit differently is what keeps me going and gives me the edge who I am as a teacher. Once in the while it’s good to remind ourselves of these 10 talents and lets try, why not?

 

Written by Mikko Hankaniemi

Photo by Brandi Rett on Unsplash

Dress code Confidence -What to wear in the Office

How you are perceived by others depends on your first impression. Dressing up helps you build your confidence. Dressing well is often a creative expression of the individual and it can also be one way to boost your confidence. In Icebath we think people dress up to respect other people.

First of all it is important that you will figure out the dress code in the office. I have noticed that in my new job the dress code is confidence with a hint of relaxed humor and academic backgroud gives the well finnished look. Even when you work in the office where the dress code in strictly business attire it is important that you reflect your individual style. How you dress effects how you perform. People tend to perform better in life when they feel that they deserve to perform better. This is important rule when you work at home. If you work with your joggers that has holes in them and your hair finds it own style among your face looks tired with some drool on your cheek, what will you expect form your performance?

Okey, we have figured out that the company’s dress code is confidence, but how will you reach that? Respecting others is the key to find your confidence. The more you get the other people shine and to do their best the more confident you will be. You don´t need to dress in your most conservative suit, with accessories to match. You can be curios of other people and their skills and competences. You can have an open mind that gives you space to develop yourself and lets you to grow when reflected by other people. People see if you are true with yourself and wheather you are trustworthy or not. You should have a good reflective ability and be keen on evolving in that. Good reflective ability gives you a free pass to better confidence. Collecting information about yourself will help you identify and explore your own practices and underlying beliefs. This will lead to changes and improvements in your own personal growth. People who are confident and selfaware are the people you find it easy to be with. There are no hiding expectations.

What ever the dress code is, if you are able to create an atmosphere where collective aspiration can be set free and people are keen to learn from each other you have nailed it. In every office and workplace the dress code should be based on good mentalizing and reflective ability. There should be good conversations that reveals people capacity to understand themselves and others in terms of intentional mental states, such as feelings, desires, wishes, goals and attitudes. Mentalizing is a quintessential human capacity that is needed to be able to successfully navigate the social world. There should be thoughtful reflective questions that are designed to help teams at the workplaces to reflect on their practice. Using carefully chosen questions will allow people to probe for deeper complexity and encourage them to self reflection. Thoughtful questioning help people to move forward with focus and intent. Trough these kind of conversations people will gain confidence and become more skilled at working through tough problems without hurting each other or themselves. Being able to work in this kind of athmosphere the work community will develop the skills and tools to handle similar issues in the future independently. It allow us to grow towards more aware and a better persons.

No matter how casual the office is, it’s never appropriate to wear primitive defenses in interaction with other people. You always must be responsible of your own reactions among curious why you act the way you do, especially when under a lot of stress or questioned about your choices. Self-observation and self-evaluation are crucial and will lead to better self-awareness and confidence.

Make sure that people always have confident feeling when around you. Minimize sarcastic humor, it can always be miss understood. Keep rude, racist and offensive comments away. Treat people the way you wish they´ll treat you. Be always on time, because being late is a way of using power and disrespecting other people. Bring your smile with you to work, greet your colleagues and be also interested about their personal lives. Be the best version of you.

Save your cologne or perfume for the other occasions, and let your co-workers realize how freshly you want see and think. Let them enjoy how groomed you are and how eager you are to learn and develop yourself with them among the organization. Make excellent impression of you and stick to the dress code.

To boost your confidence spend a few minutes spiffing yourself in the mirrow before you leave home. Reinforces the idea that you deserve success and good treatment in your own mind. When you respect yourself, your respect others. Don’t forget the red lipstick it always makes the day, no matter how strict the dress code is!

 

Written by Annele Heikkilä

Photos edited by Mikko Hankaniemi, Photo White Shirt Michael Frattaoli on Unsplash, LipstickSamuel Zeller on Unsplash

Craft your growth by changing a job – 10 reasons why people should change their jobs

Challenching yourself, personal growth and crafting your growth are meaningfull topics in Ice Bath. Starting a new job is one way to craft your growth. It’s not definately most easiest one, but it can be the most effective one especially if you focus on your professional growth.

Since the topic is actual for myself I gathered 10 reasons why people should change their jobs.

1. Adrenalin. You probably never have been called an adrenaline junkie or adrenaline addict, but you might find yourself very attracted to the adrenalin rush you will get by changing your job. You don’t have to be a free fall jumper, skydiver, or another obvious type of danger-seeker to be hooked on the rush that comes from a little stress; adrenaline junkies come in much more subtle forms, even a Master of health sciences can be one. Just don’t get addicted to the feeling, addiction always harms the future.

2. Colleagues. You will still be attached to your former colleagues, but among them you will get the new ones. I call it networking in big time.

3. They say you should change a job every 7 years. Yes I did go by the book! 7 years and 4 months and I got the urge to learn something new. It is easy to stay in your comfortzone. So easy, too easy.

 

4. You get to challenge yourself. ”If something that you’re doing doesn’t challenge you, then it doesn’t change you.” Unknown

5. You will learn new things about yourself. You have been independent leader of yourself and your work, but Oh boy it feels good that you have to have a mentor who you can follow like a duck. You get the secure feeling when you see your mentor behind their desk in the morning. A mentor doesn’t even have a clue how much they mean to you, but you will enjoy the joy inside of you. You are meaningfull to someone, they give their time to make you feel comfortble. We need that feeling. We need to have moments when we are carried, to be able to carry others when needed.

6. If you are over 40 and a woman you get to know all your fears, especially if you change the city among the work. But well hey, you do want to get familiar with the dark side of yourself!

7. Step out of your comfort zone. Jumping to an ice bath is nothing comparing to a start of a new job. After a day in a new job you might end up having a dream where you find yourself in pyjamas in your former job. It just tells you about your feelings of how bare, exposed and insecure you can be. Luckily it happened in your former job, not the new one!

8. You get to give an expression that you are cleaver and taking all in even though you don’t have no idea what they are saying. You can just look smart and nod. Maybe the only time in your life that it is acceptable.

9. You get to meet interesting people. Is there anything more interesting than meeting new people and to be able to be reflected by them. They see you in different light.

10.  The most important thing is that you are able to grow bigger than even you knew you had the potential for. When people get familiar with you they don’t always see all the knowledge and potential that you have. They see the good things about you and knowledge that is handy for everyone, but they and you might lose the rest that you have in you.

Changing the job is not a solution for everyone to craft their growth. It is important that you find your own way to craft your personal and professional growth. Just follow your dreams and ambitions!

Written Annele Heikkilä

Photos edited by Mikko Hankaniemi

WHO AM I vol.2

What do I gain from knowing myself? Why should I learn to know who I am?

According to my own experience as a teacher for 18,5 years now, I believe I know something about learning. It is easier for me if I admit it that my students won´t remember what I have taught them (what I have said). Does it mean that I am not a good teacher – could be, but I still have my doubts. Will they remember what I have done (no matter how much effort I put on updating my knowledge and making beautiful prezies or powerpoints)? I believe that they will and want to remember good experiences. If I succeed to create a feeling of prosperity and acceptance I have managed with something because they will remember the nice feelings they´ve had. This is something that has to do with me, knowing myself and knowing where I am standing professionally. I do care about what the student´s know and can do. The gap between my generation and the youth of today generation is big and growing. Among many other things this is why teaching right things in a right way is a interesting subject.

The employers are looking for the right person (and maybe suitable personality) and not necessarily the right competences or skills one has or might have. Work life competences are the skills one ought to possess. There we have the challenge to make it through and succeed as teachers in schools of today. We need to start teaching prosess by learning to know the life competences and learning to know who am I. What are those life competences then? To learn the student´s to know themselves. To find out who I am, what do I want, what do I know and what do I still need to learn. I need to have the ability to express myself. I need to have the ownership of my own learning as a student.

How do I do that? I believe that the students capacity to find out who I am is not very good. It is not easy at all for a teenager all of a sudden at the age of 15 or 16 to answer a question about who I am or what are my strenghts, what can I do or what I am good at? Why is it so difficult? Because we are not tought to explain others about such things. This is something that needs to be tought at schools in Finland. We are lacking of self-confidence and encouragement for a stronger self-knowledge. Through stronger self-knowledge like knowing who I am and what do I want we will reach a stronger ownership in learning I believe. Attitude is a key word and solution for many problems, attitude fostering is important to invest at. Learning by doing gives a possibility to grip in that area.

 

We know what we are,
but know not what we may be.

William Shakespeare

Photos Mikko Hankaniemi Photos by Prince David & Luke Tanis on Unsplash

Written by Natascha Skog

Teach them to know WHO YOU ARE

I deliberitely start with coaching though I´ve been a teacher now for 18,5 years. I am a economics, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial methods teacher/lecturer at secondary level Vocational Business School in Finland, Kokkola. As a background information to let you know that I´ve been coaching and instructing aerobics and other gymnastic groups since 1992. I have various kind of experience about coaching versus teaching. All my life I´ve been a coaching teacher and luckily it`s highly recommended today.

What a cliche? Coaching versus teaching. Very much discussed topic in the Finnish educational system lately. Something that Finland is worldwide known for, is the high level education and the whole educational system in general is very much admired. I won´t get into that now but maybe later. But change is constant. In my opinion we people in general need to have the ability to adapt in changing situations. Teachers are under such a hard pressure at the moment because of the huge changes. The whole world, surrounding society, working life, tasks and skills are changing. Life skills and work life competences are highly demanded skills. How to teach them? On the other hand how to learn them if you don´t know who you are, what you can and what you should be better at?

The starting point for any human being to be educated should be to know yourself, who am I?  Who I am, what do I know, what are my strengths and in what skills would I like to develop? What are my own goals in whatever I do. The ownership of my own life skills, learning skills and doings are mine. No one elses but mine!

Coaching will turn into teaching with the methods used. It is a mixture of coaching and teaching. In my opinion the mixture is very challenging but interesting and giving. Coaching is challenging in a different way compared to teaching. It is much more personal way of having a contact with the students. Not through an assignment or a mark but straight to the person in an authentic situation. You yourself as coach need to know your own skills and abilities to be able to coach students in changing situations and environments. Many unexpeted things and questions can appear. Are you redy?

They will forget what you said
They will forget what you did
They will remember how you made them feel
YOU can succeed if YOU know who YOU are and what YOU want

Written by Natascha Skog