SpiNips

Wow that's amazing progress! Your 30 minutes-a-day have really paid up. A great example of the Slight Edge in action. Congrats for you Bonus Check Joe! :^)

Hello! Wow! There are so many new journals popping up. I'll make some time to read them after the exams are over. Today was a pretty good day. Physics went quite well and now I'm preparing for swedish. The best thing today was stumbling upon a friend I made a couple summers ago. It was really fun seeing him and chatting for a while. Today I came across the idea of Philosophical meditation, I found it in somebody's journal I think. It was interesting and widened my perspective about meditation. I haven't really put thought into the ways of meditating, but I've got a sense that Eastern and Western meditation compliment each other quite well. Today I'm grateful for: Going to the gym, It was a good decision, meeting friends and exercisingAccepting the failures I've made since they are completely normal and won't make me a worse personSocializing with new people todayMandarins they cheer up my meals and taste greatHaving plenty of time tomorrow!

Hello! I'm feeling good today. Worked hard on physics and I'm feeling that I understand the most critical entities. Sometimes I feel like physics is far from useful, but I believe that the feeling arises from the fact that I have to complete the courses in a bit of an awkward order. I decided that I will complete all courses I set out to do this year and then do the decision whether to enter the matriculation exams. That way I'll do the decision the most objectively. Been studying for the whole day, so now I'll try to take my mind out of the subject and focus on relaxing for a while before going to bed. The best thing that happened today was a refreshing walk in the forest I took. It was quiet and snowy. It's relaxing to walk with snow crunching below your feet. Today I'm grateful for: Having studied steadily during the whole period, no last day's panicListening to christmas songs like Hark! The herald angels singMustard with smoked meat and bread, a really good comboFinding plenty of interesting books to readPopplet, a great tool for making mind maps!

Hello! It's getting late, so I'll make it quick. Today was a great day. Completed my habits and spent time with my friends. I feel like it's going to take a lot of practice to improve my social skills and relationship skills, but I'll continue learning and experimenting day by day. The best thing today was going out with a friend I hadn't seen in a month. Today I'm grateful for: Baked potatoes, They are delicious!Metal, It's great to listen at timesDoing what I set out to do today, the improvement will followKebab, how come I haven't mentioned it yet?iPads, They actually work really well with studyingAmaranth by Nightwish

Yeah, I second Cam! I also want to know what are your thoughts on the Slight Edge so far.

Hello! Today was great, especially socially. I had a fresh start due to going to gym in the morning. I got to know a new guy from the gym, we had a pleasant chat. After gym I felt quite tired, those squats are really starting to take their toll. I probably should slow down the weight increase so I won't be totally dead the few following hours. I spent the evening together with my friends eating pizza and playing darts which was awesome. The best thing that happened today was definitely the delicious pizza and great company. My habits are pretty much in check. I feel like I'm moving in the right direction. By the way I'm currently reading Tucker Max and Geoff Miller's book concerning mating, so far so good. I have not tried it yet, but I might if I find a good class with proper timing. Thanks for the suggestion! Martial arts are always interesting. Today I'm grateful for: Apples, I love the taste of the red/yellow onesKaraoke, We sang together today, It was greatAssam+Earl Grey mix, It boosts my morningsWalking, It's funny how it can change the atmosphere, for example I usually have good conversations with people when we are walking.My friend's family's hospitality, It's awesome that they gave us the delicious pizza they made

Hello! Today has been a wonderful day! I managed to make satisfying work reviewing the "Tuntematon Sotilas". The presentation was a blast as well. It feels like I'm slowly improving with my presentation skills, since there have been quite a many performances around lately. I studied my subject well and had a light notes to help me through the course of the presentation. I missed my training once again for a reason that I could not have had an effect on, so I just decided to go meet a couple of my friends I hadn't seen in a long time. Afterwards I did some reflection about the last few weeks. I'm feeling satisfied since I was able to establish a few good ideas for a new core plan for daily schedule. Everything played out well in the end. The best thing that happened today was the Presentation. I was able to relax and focus on explaining the phenomena I was interested in. I feel like I've drawn some motivation to improve myself as a speaker from watching awesome TED talks. Overall I've got good insight on my daily routine and I feel pumped up to try the new schedule out! Today I'm grateful for: Feedback, It's a good way to learnHaving time to sleep the hours I lost last nightEating fish today, It contains healthy Omega 3 fatty acids!The quote "Slow down to go fast", It's really applicable to western cultures tendency to look for big leaps instead of small stepsCiv V, even though it is the king of the "Just one more turn" games I was actually able to learn a ton of history from it. For instance I remember talking to a Thai girl and having an interesting conversation with her with the knowledge I I had learned from Siam through the game.

Mindset seems like an interesting book! I will add it to my to-read list. Also I'm sometimes struggling with the same situation, in whether and how to help a person that I could maybe help, but I'm not sure if it's appropriate or wanted.

Hello! I'm going to have to make it quick once again! I'm in the middle of the Exam week, so there is plenty to do. Today has been a descent day. I've busy with all kinds of projects. I'm noticing, that I'm starting to slip from some of my habits, and that's no good. I will maintain at least the most important ones (happiness, eating, sleep, reading and exercise). The best thing that happened today was watching some entertaining Finnish MEP applicants. Today I'm grateful for: Google docs, easy to plan presentations with your friendsDamson plum jam pies, They are deliciousBroccoli, It's so easy to prepareNew, warm and fine looking jacketMeditation, I'm sure that it's one of the things keeping me sane in the middle of all this ado

Hello! I'm in a bit of a rush, so I'll make it quick. The books I ordered have arrived, I can get back to reading. Yay! Today has been overall an adequate day. Having to prioritize my presentation I've had to tune some other subjects down a little, but making good progress anyways. The best thing that happened today was cooking wok that turned out to be great, also reading Tucker and Miller's book was entertaining since they've flavored it up with awesome humour. Today I'm grateful for: Sweet chili sauce, It works great as a spiceFinishing a classic finnish book the "Tuntematon Sotilas" (The Unknown Soldier). It gave great perspective about the war against RussiaDoing things with proper time, planning, working and checking the creation in no rush makes me feel like I've given my best and often leaves me feeling more satisfied with my workHearing about the Paleo-diet. I think its creators have a valid pointGetting plenty of sleep tonight as well!

Hello! Today was another good day! Basically feeling productive and managing to get things done once again. My Stronglift weights are slowly getting nearer to my threshold. So far I've been really satisfied with the program. There has been some hard events happening in my social circle, I will give my family and friends the support I can. The best thing today was joking and chatting to my friends. Going to a cafe was cool too! My to read list continues growing. I'm really interested in books about psychology currently. For example positive and evolutionary biology are so interesting! The Selfish Gene is a book I must read among plenty of others. Do you guys know in which book the idea about you being the average of 5 persons you spend most time with was introduced (in addition to the Slight Edge)? My priority/goal is to focus on my sleep schedule now, since it's more critical for me than I thought. I'm off to doze! Travis - I find reading other's journals really valuable, for example from reading your Journal i've picked up listening to the matinggrounds podcasts, from Tom's journal I've found Stronglift and good composers, and from Joe's journal I've found useful happy habits. And a lot more awesome information and book suggestions from other journals as well! Hope that you have a good day! Today I'm grateful for: Internet, There is so much Great information around, websites about how to improve your life, book recommendations, mentors, I'm grateful to live in this age. (You just need to remember to be critical so you won't buy into all ridiculous shizzlewizzle around the internet, there are sites that will fuck you up as well .)Cocoa, it has and endorphin boosting abilities and it tastes AwesomeHow big of an impact your physical behavior has on your mental mood. I can definitely agree with Cartesian dualism, mind and body being different monads but affecting each other consistently.Creating your own mini-library, just thinking about having a small shelf of good books around makes me happyThe way Jesuits viewed the world, they were not stagnant like many other monks, they studied and trained for decades, explored the world and did not force their beliefs on other cultures like other cultures/organizations have tended to do. If I lived in the 15th century I would no doubt join the Jesuits!

Hello! Today has been Awesome! Just an ideal day! After a weekend of sleeping, eating and relaxing I feel like I'm ready to face all the challenges again! Today I've got every single one of my habits done. We dined together with my family and I went out to hang with my friend in the evening. A great day. The best thing about today was spending time with my friend. We share the same kind of interests, so it's awesome hanging out with him. I still need to manage my schedule but it takes time to figure out what works for me. As I mentioned earlier it might be beneficial to at least visit a psychiatrist about a thing that I noticed I might be unconsciously be affected by. Nothing serious but something I'd like to get clarity of. Today I also finished Gorilla Mindset. In my opinion there was useful information in the book, but there was also some not so rational sections. I guess it's best to take the information I find useful. Tucker Max' podcast has been enjoyable to listen to. He is very of his own kind, I like that. And he gives good advice as well. I can relate to Geoff quite well so that is cool too. Still got my weekly check to do so I'll be off to that! Have a good week guys! Today I'm grateful for: Pomegranates, I should try to make ice cream out of itOur go-to pizzeria, Always the top qualityLayla by Eric Clapton, that song is just Gold!Oral hygiene, Bad breath is never enjoyableFinding appropriately priced leather shoes

Edvard Grieg is Great!

Hello! Today has been way better of a day! I was active and got things done. I also planned my upcoming birthday party with my friend. In the evening we had Fondue which was Delicious. The best moment today was meeting a shopkeeper's adorable daughter and her young puppy. The were so made for each other. I have done all the habits I set out to do today expect for one, but that's pretty well altogether. Even though I'm feeling way better now I still could consider just checking a thing, that I feel like caused the bad mood, out with a therapist. Today I'm grateful for: Getting our plan forward with my friendMeat fondue, completely new experience for me. It was great!Holidays in 2 weeksFinding a cool new shirt todayHaving independence day tomorrow!

Hello! Today has been a good day in a way! I've kept up with my habits with gym, studying and reading. I don't really know why but for some reason I'm feeling pretty shitty. I can't determine where it's coming from. I don't know whether it's just the way some things are unbalanced at my life at the moment. Could it have something to do with shame? Anyways, might be an indicator of something, might just be a funk, I'll find out. The best moment today was meeting my cousins whom I haven't seen in a long time. Today I'm grateful for: Chinese food! It's deliciousGinger tea, It tasted greatGoing to have a pre-Christmas party tomorrowStudying with awesome peoplehaving plenty of activities to do, staying home doing nothing was way harder for me

Hello! Today was a great day! I was energetic since I got enough sleep. I managed to complete my daily habits and that's a really good sign. Somehow I still feel like I'm not paying enough attention to everything, but that might just be a feeling. Even though today was a better day and I am satisfied with it I've still got to keep in mind that I have to adjust the routine. Maybe I should spend some time figuring it out every day. Listening to the matinggrounds.com podcast has been a delight. I'm still a beginner and just starting to figure this out, but improvement will climb up the ladder one step at a time, day-by-day. The best moment today was going to independence concert with my friends, It was awesome. Also it was awesome to get some feedback from the talk I gave last weekend. Tom - It was great growing up watching Moomins! Thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my journal! Today I'm grateful for: Sweet potatoesGetting to sleep more tomorrow as well due to an eventDark chocolate, It tastes so goodMeditating when alert/not tired, It's a ton easier to focusOur teacher for giving us good information for a presentation about religious history

Hey, Now that I remember I need to ask you a question about meditation. Have you been doing the visualization exercises? and What do you think about visualization so far? I'm asking since I made a retreat to the Headspace Pro series which don't have Visualization as part of them

Hello! Today has been a good day! I have made progress towards clearing my thoughts with my schedule. It is sometimes hard to value my activities, but adjusting them is something I'll just have to do. The best thing today was planning our presentation about Jesuits and just general babbling with my friends. Today I'm grateful for: Graphic calculators, mathematics without them would be much slowerGetting more sleep tonight due to having more time in the morningMoomin characters and books, they are sympathetic and great to read when learning swedishHaving a good barber. It's easy to interact with himSweden's interesting history, if they had had it little easier in the 15th century, a powerful nordic state could exist nowadays (though having an own culture, language and government in Finland is not bad either. )

The Book sounds really cool, I think I might add it to my to-read list. Please let us know what you think about it

Hello! As some of you might've noticed I've been quite busy lately. I've come to the conclusion that I'll need to do something about my schedule. At the moment my daily goals are nearly impossible to reach and I end up not doing all of them. I can't strive for everything at the same time, I need to seriously prioritize my activities. Most of the times slow and steady wins the race. Today was good day altogether. The debate went well and we enjoyed it. The best thing that happened to me was joking with my friends. I tried to get all my activities done but time ran out once again either I take time from my sleep or my activities. If I take it from sleep though I will just end up creating a vicious circle. If I don't sleep enough my body will naturally cause a drop in my mood and performance. So now my focus will be on marking my priorities down and scheduling my day so that it will be in sync with them. It might be beneficial just for good measure to take a morning gym day out. I know that I'll have to be ready to do unpleasant things and leave out activities I'd like to do, but it is the only way to not end up burning myself out. Todays post was scrambling through a bit of a hard and annoying subject. It is absolutely necessary to go through this though. Cam - That's true, there is a lot of good information in the book, for instance I find the diet Cernovich recommends excellent! :^) Today I'm grateful for: Smoked reindeer pasta, mmh Delicious!Having and listening to interesting debates todayA great deodorant, It's a lifesaverBoney M, bringing me back good memoriesBoard games, a great way to spend time with friends

Hello! Today has consisted of intense preparation for the debate. The subject is interesting and there is plenty of trustworthy information around. You probably know the feeling when you have worked on or studied some subject for many hours and you feel like your brain is all over the place trying to archive the information. Other than that I've managed to get my priorities done today which is good. Some habits have had to yield for today, but I will come back to them tomorrow when I have no as high priority projects as the debate. The best thing that happened today was joking and working with my friends to come up with good arguments. Meditation has also been a life-saver when it comes to dealing with stressful situations. I'm proceeding on reading the Gorilla Mindset. After the Slight Edge I feel like some of the information in the book is not necessary but the book has great points on some aspects, so I'll finish it while I'm waiting for Way of the Superior Man and Tucker Max's book. Today I'm grateful for: User's rights legislation that prevents misuse of some terms and agreementsBrussels sprouts, They taste good and have healthy nutrientsIt's awesome to wind down by playing musicDecember starts tomorrowBeing in good terms with my family

Hello! This weekend has been awesome! The camp was great, we had loads of food and good time. Once again I notice myself being really busy. Have to make sure I wont slip from my habits! I'm wondering how I managed to play games with this amount of work waiting to be done around. We are having a debate about whether Websites collecting information and using it is a good or a bad thing. I'm arguing that it is a good thing. If you guys come up with sneaky arguments feel free to post them. We have a solid base for our arguments if we manage to border the debate correctly. Pretty tired after a weekend of not sleeping too much. I'm going to take a good rest and see if I'll have more time for GameQuitters tomorrow. The best thing that happened today was planning the debate with my friends. We had loads of fun together Florian - Thanks! I'm listening to Jarrett currently. He has good confident touch to the piano Alex - Thanks man! I read them in a reverse order. Both of them had a really good message and go well together. I feel like the consistency part of the Slight Edge decisions goes well with Duhigg's knowledge about forming habits Today I'm grateful for: Spending a weekend with good peopleDebating about a question that is interestingHow cool it is to learn how humans have evolved, If you think about the way we act is still solidly tied to the way our ancestors evolved to actSoon it's time for Christmas, winding down from the at times hectic rhythm of lifeBooks, at the camp a thought popped into my head, if you keep reading good books, no matter what, in time you will develop perspective and learn to understand the world at least a little better.

Hello! Today was an eventful day. So much happening around today. Generally today consisted of a presentation, training, studying and finding out I have to submit an essay in swedish tonight. Yeah altogether it has been a productive day. I will once again catch up with your journals once I have spare time. The best thing that happened today was feeling confident with the presentation, and writing the swedish essay since it turned out to be cool. The essay's subject was about whether you are your own man (like responsible for your own happiness. Never seen that phrase before.) and it turned out to be something I'm proud of. In the book frontier on the other hand I was able to finish the Slight Edge. Olson ended his book with style and an appropriate amount of clichés. The Slight Edge was the best read I've had. It was a 5/5 book for me. Today I'm grateful for: Bach and Rameau, writing with classical music is a blast, makes you feel so civilized Mind maps, worthy companions when facing an essayFinding a solution to a problem I struggled with earlier onA BJJ-instructor for teaching basic moves, they end up being the best ones for beginners like meListening to mini TED-talks prepared by other students in a course of rhetorics and argumentation

Hello! The trip to Turku was awesome. Had really good time with my friends. The medieval culture in Finland was more interesting than I thought. You can only wonder what kind of shock seeing Turku's cathedral's massive tower that was over 100 meter high and giant arches caused in finnish pilgrims from little villages. The best moment of the day was dining with my friends and going to the gym in the morning. Some of you might've heard of the quite well-known phenomenon NoFap. I'm still not sure about my stance regarding that movement. There are both positive and negative ideals within the movement. I think I might discuss it in the forum section devoted to it, since I feel that in general it's better for us to stay mainly focused on quitting gaming on these major channels. Today I'm grateful for: 150 days, 5 months game free!Chinese food and bamboo shootsLearning how King Eric sieged his brother Johan's castle in Turku with 10,000 men. There were approximately 300,000 people in Finland at that timeCreating a to-do list for summer with my friend, It includes for example a road trip, cycling and maybe even going abroad if we find cheap enough flightsBeing able to spend the day with awesome people

Hello! Today I was living in the past. My thoughts were not in the current moment and I was frustrated and not present in the moment. I came home and fell asleep and after the nap life seemed a lot more manageable and I was able to shake off the bad mood. The rest of the day went well. :^) I learned that it's hard/(not possible?) to focus on the past and the present moment, so Dwelling on the past won't get me any further. The best moment of the day was taking a short walk after my nap. The air was cold and fresh and I was able to walk in peace. Today I'm grateful for: Timing of the day worked out well.Being able to listen to podcasts on the busTomorrows trip to the city of Turku and getting to know our cultural historyCastles, One of my dreams would be to build a castle made out of stone somewhere in middle EuropeBird fluff filled blankets and jackets, light and warm