Wiser, because I learned.

educating yourself
Mar 17, 2017
10 min read

source: Pinterest.com

Learning never ends

Our great new week is here again. Where are all these weeks and days gone? I don't keep up with this fast road. Im noticing its already march and not much school left. I can't believe required courses are almost done and Im halfway through my studies. I hope I will graduate by next spring with a lot of new things and the memorable moments of the study life. No doubt. The school has opened new doors for me and taught me. It's great to get to take new skills learned from school and use them straightly in work life. Mostly of all I'm more happy about the people i've met at school and found friends who will stay in my life for good. Educating myself has been such a journey. I do it everyday. Trying to learn something new from everyday life makes my life much more challenging and interesting. Why not to be a better person? Smile more? Be polite? Listen others? Such as a life is full of struggles and misunderstandings. And thats what makes the life more meaningful. I paused for a moment, struck by the question. What motivates me to educate myself? Why do I do what I do? I had never considered that before. But having a good education will help me to be able to know truth. To distinguish fact from fiction. I can share knowledge learned and explain things better. I can learn from others. I can move the cause of liberty. I can inspire others to greatness. . I will have the desire to live excellently, the tools, the skills, the knowledge and the guidance I will need. With the help of an excellent education, I can learn to write well and concisely. I can learn to think logically and process my thoughts properly. Learning new things will help me to develop myself every aspect of life. The development strengthens me. I get the power and motivation to continue.

Picture on the top has been edited by Canva application. Heard about it first time long time ago on our teacher Anna Ikonen's presentation about personal branding. She introduced us to the various photo editing programs and I do like this Canva app a lot! I should use that app even before.But at the moment I am studying more about different digital tools and apps because i really want to learn about them for making my blog better. And Canva helps you to make pictures more visual. In fact, I want that picture of me send some good vibes about me as a open-minded person. I also been planning lately my new blog which is on progress right now. Takes bit time to find out my reason for blogging and how to make it really work so others can also see my blog useful. The focus for writing will be related on healthy lifestyle. I want to inspire others to workout and live a healthier life. Now I want to talk little bit about myself. My greatest desire is to be educated and show myself I can work hard for my future. And working hard is important, but there is something that matters even more: believing in yourself. It's not always easy to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. You are, in fact, part of the glorious oneness of the universe. I think everything beautiful in the world is within you. Lets blow our minds and let our souls be free. We should more often stop to over-thinking (thats what I do way too much) what is around us and what holds our minds back, but listen our hearts carefully and follow it truly. From my own experience, I want to say that you should follow your heart, because thats the real passion what comes from inside. Believing in yourself, and you will create miracles. I would say to always follow your dream. And dream big because my whole career, including any of the little things that I've accomplished, I never thought I would be here. So it just proves that once you do things you like, and you put your mind on something, you can do it. Let go all the doubts what holds you. I know its not easy. We live in a very superficial days. Other people's opinions matter because we want to fit in and be accepted. You can’t control how others think or act, but you can control your own thoughts and actions. Learn to accept what you can change and what you can’t. Aspire to love and cherish yourself as a person, and share that love with others. Don’t worry about those who ignore you. Avoid trying to be friends with those who are negative or treat you poorly. Rather than wishing they would be better, try to focus on people who matters you more. I know personally how difficult it is when there are people who doesn't want to get along with me as i am a person, who would like to be friend with everybody. Of course I always avoid negative people. But I do have one really good tip when looking for any kind of extra motivation or inspiration for life. I recommend to go pinterest and write any word which is part of your subject and you will find some great help. For me it works pretty well. Full of such a inspirational quotes. But thats all about my passion in life. Lets have a look about this week.

Monday with TBWA

Company called TBWA had a presentation for us on monday morning. I was happy we didn't have to go to school and got this option to visit a company in Helsinki city. It was something different and much more fun to see how this company works. The first exposure was actually pleasant. Little background music and cool meeting rooms. The facilities were stylish and modern. My first thought was that it would be so cool and enjoyable to work that kind of place. Superb facilities and nice staff gave me that feeling. And the atmosphere gets even better when the show started. Two handsome guys showing up and starting the presentation with great attitude. I was pretty sold. They talk about international marketing and how to do it effectly with even low budget. Their job is to build a strong brand image around the company and promote it in the right channels. Sounds interesting and creative. Companies are so different so the cases must be unique. The work is really customer-oriented. They give ideas for marketing the company and there are always some disagreements. So I would say if you do this kind of work, you have to accept that your ideas are rejected and still be able to come up with even better ideas. Innovative and courageous workers certainly will cope with that very well. Also various digital working methods should be familiar as they make those cool videos. Loved it. Really really professional stuff with high quality. There was one video with Prince Ea. I heard about him first time, but he is quite famous rapper and filmmaker and also human rights activist. He understands life on a whole new level. He has strong and motivational voice and is truly grateful for his life. Sounds a human with big and caring heart. So he was performing a video named EVERYBODY DIES, BUT NOT EVERYBODY LIVES and sure inspires each of viewer just by the name. It was made by Neste (Finnish gas company). It says we all human has some gift we should use in life and not hide it. Do not let doubt take your inner power. The video is so empowering. You should look at it yourself and you know what I mean. Live your life to the fullest, it says. True. Who will do that if you don't? Lets do more than just exist. This is also good for me to think carefully. I know I'm not that happy or free as I could be. But sometimes life requires sacrifice. I have taken a conscious risk or I'm just a human being, who's life must be full of things. Anyway. Im more about thinking the future. Not the distant future. My holiday is soon, just before summer and that time I'm going to couple countries so money on my mind. Busy life style and work are only temporary. But I am that hard worker girl, we all know that. Work plays big part. So what.

TBWA could be one option for leaning more marketing and work in a international team. Im always been interesting about marketing career so I think this could be great change to develop myself as they take students for traineeship. But let see. Im pretty busy with my current work. I will keep that opportunity in mind for later on. I might do an internship at my own work, but I haven't think about it yet. I want to do things that will benefit me in the future, and teach me something new. So my current work won't probably make me any further as I know how things work there. I have time to make my decisions.

Strive for progress and do your thing

Here we go again. Tuesday meeting at Microsoft Flux. Same place than last time. A wonderful place to work quiet and see other students. There was four of us doing SSM project forward. Not much missing. Go team. And work was calling me after that. On wednesday I was enjoying my day off from school duties and work. Well deserved day off just for myself. So me and my mum train together and did some sneak peak shooting for my up coming blog. Sport ladies going crazy with camera. The day was perfect. Sun was shining for us. Nature is a best give we have in Finland. We walked in the woods and we did some body weight workouts. We spent half of the day middle of forest. Having some happy moments together. But mostly of we enjoyed the sunny weather. Spring is here. I can feel it. People start to be more positive and active outside. I have this strong feeling things are going right direction or is it only the changing season making me feel much inspired. Life is good so far. I love every single moment. Days are longer and brighter. So much easier to get up in the morning. Time to put running shoes on so did me and my mum. When we train outside, we always use Sport Tracker to see how much calories we burn or how many kilometers we been walking. You can set a training goal for the week, and it gives you extra motivation for sport. It is a great application for doing any kind of sport. It will tell you all the details you will need to know and for free! I use it mostly for running, but at gym I just focus on my training. Running is more fun and my way to get my shit together. It balances my busy life and also really cheap way to keep up with healthy body and mind. Personally as a student i recommend to find out all the great ways to workout for free. For example school has good facilities for training. Tikkurila and Otaniemi campuses has gym, where you can have all basic equipment. I love that little gym at Tikkurila and I use it quite lot every week. My early morning habits starts from there during the week and i haven't see any others student there so I'm okay with that. Private workout sessions are best. But i want to mention if you are also crazy morning person and looking for training buddy I'm always keen for any kind of sport. Lets get strong together. Below there are some photos from the forest on wednesday workout session.

(c) Maria Kärkkäinen

Passionate with Ilkka Kurkela

Thursday we had presentations at school and got our old teacher back. He is always full of happiness and smiling. I just see him such a positive person with lots of skills and abilities which he shared with us. Ilkka and Anna has actually planned and organized this hole digital module for business students in Laurea Otaniemi Campus. And this course has been one of the the grandest so far. The most interesting and the most instructive. Also, the most frightening, because it is completely in English. The challenges have been great to win and this learning road is still going on. Learning all kind of different content about digital tools has been great. Probably the best thing is this course got me excited to make my personal blog, which is now under construction. Without all the advices and visitors, who came to school to talk I wouldn't be able to even think about setting up a blog. I need a lot of professional knowledge and tools for making my blog look good and easy to find on different channels. That was also one of Ilkkas subject of the day. But he started with digital marketing and growth hacking. Basics about paid media, which is widely used marketing tool to reach customers. Then there is owned media, that means the platform is a company owned and fully controlled: for example, the company's own website, blog, newsletter, or mobile application has its own media channel. Earned media is the one, when customers already knows you and you've got good visibility in the markets. Earned media is the most valuable one. Its word of mouth -communications way, for example, reviews the various products and services in chat rooms and applications, as well as social media updates, links and divisions customers' point of view. It is the truth from the mouth of the client and them experience. So the customer experience does matter a lot. They can either say your company is awesome or full of shit. We need to remember this and pay attention for all customers we gain. How the client feel an think has big impact in the longer term. Customers can share also bad thoughts if the customer promise has been broken or any other issues related to the negative experience. The best way to know what customers think is to ask opinions and thoughts, so activities can be developed. We need to understand the customer deeply; behavior, preferences and expectations. So we get the customers to choose our product and not a competitor.

Then there is growth hacking with mean marketing a content for low cost and with right digital tools it doesn't have any fees. Growth hacking can be highly effective when it is done correctly. And the best growth hacks take advantage of the unique opportunities available in a connected world where digital experiences can spread rapidly. An effective way is to be connected with different website through links, so your website, blog, linkedIn and all other channels can be found easily. This is some of the finest aspects of the internet, and offers the opportunity to be found on social media. For example now when Im publishing my blog, I will make sure all my profiles are there so people can follow me on Snapchat and Instagram as well. Just have to build a strong bridge, so my followers can be more close with me. Ilkka finished he's slides with awesome phrases: Be found and be trusted. Fail fast, learn faster. Thank you Ilkka so much. I will remember him with those quotes, which says me to be active user in social media but also stand behind of any public posts and you will cope well. Learning never ends right.