49. dag – En tur til Oslo og hjem igjen

Endelig hjemme! Har vært på en spennende tur til Oslo og lært en del nye ting om markedskommunikasjon. I løpet av turen har jeg også fått anledning til å lese videre favorittboken om dagen, så da var både inspirasjon og litt batterilading unnagjort.

Reisen begynte i går morges og flyturen gikk smurt, uten noen forsinkelser. Fikk også opplevd den nye tjenesten fra Norwegian, nemlig gratis wifi om bord på flyene. Skjønt at pc-er og andre maskiner må være skrudd ved take-off og landing. Har også oppdaget at jeg foretrekker å få sikkerhetsinformasjon via video i motsetning til live presentasjon. Føler at beskjeden kommer tydeligere fram og det blir mer ro på reisen ettersom videoen halverer tiden på presentasjonen. Supert!

Kom fram til Oslo S uten problemer, men å komme til Storo på egenhånd var noe annet… Heldigvis, så kom jeg frem til destinasjonen takket være T-banen før kl.10 . Ut på dagen har det vært praktisk trening på et online verktøy som har masse muligheter. Deretter hadde vi en hyggelig lunsj på Egon, vel det var brunsj for meg egentlig… Rundt halv to tiden har vi begynt med et salgskurs og der følte jeg meg hjemme!

Ettersom dagen begynte med en flytur så har jeg måttet stå opp tidlig og dermed kjente energinivået sige utover dagen. Dermed da det var på tide å komme til hotellet var jeg mer enn klar og villig til å stikke ut av døren. På Oslo S så hadde jeg en kveldsmat med en venninne som har nå startet et nytt kapittel i sitt liv i hovedbyen. Hun så bra ut og det var godt å se henne igjen. Ettersom jeg ikke var kjent i området spurte jeg om hun kunne følge meg til hotellet. Det visste seg at vi var begge nybegynnere på Oslos gater, men gjett om jeg var glad da vi gikk sammen… Da vi kom fram til hotellet var vi begge lettet og jeg var gira i å gire ned. Så jeg tok farvel med venninnen min, sjekket inn og gikk opp til mitt rom. Noe som jeg fant var i den ytterste hjørnet så jeg fikk ro og fred. Endelig, kunne jeg slappe av. Herlig.

Det eneste tanke som har svirret på hodet mitt hele gårsdagen var at det var valentinsdagen og jeg var ute på tur i Oslo uten forloveden min… Ja, forresten vi er forlovet! Så nå, i dag, nå som jeg er kommet hjem, jeg skal kose meg hjemme med min kjære. Farvel dårlig samvititighet. Hallo ekte kjærlighet!

 

God natt folkens!

400days – New Lifestyle

After planning the work for 2012 in December 29, 2011, I’ve started to act on some of the things that I listed on it. As mentioned on my earlier posts, I started working out – almost long before I wrote the physical plan itself. Still I discovered that there was a special thing about December 29,  2011 -  that is from this day til the last day on January 2013  it will be exactly 400 days in between. (The idea was to develop the plan in December 2011, work the plan in 2012 and test  the result in January 2013.) It was a surprise and it was not my intention to get exactly 400 days in between the dates. However, I thought that since that’s the case I might use the coincidence for something. Like for a name to my year plan…

Let’s start the countdown!

The constant battle between My Present & Future Self

It’s 2012 and just like everyone else I’ve made a handful of New Years’ Resolution. To prepare myself for this year I planned the work and now it’s mainly up to me to work it out. However lately I feel that I am in a constant battle with myself.

On developing the year plan, I’ve used all the tools & tricks that I’ve gathered throughout these past 2-3 years on time management, personal management and self-awareness. I’ve noted down my habits  and willingness to act. The weekly plan up to week 17 has been filled and I have already a good overview on my activities for the next 3 months. My goals have qualitative and quantitative measurements. They’re realistic, not to optimistic but not overly pathetic & pessimistic either.

My priorities are in order. I set education as my first priority, career as second, health as third and relationships as fourth. I plan to complete my bachelor degree in economics and 1 semester of a year course in arts.  At work I’d set to learn as much as possible about cosmetics, perfumes and alcohol. At my business I’d set to help 5-12 people in developing their own business. About my health I’ve set my goal on doing exercises 2-3 times a week and lose about 5-10 kg during the year. Lastly but not the least, I intend to visit my parents in Egersund 2x a month.

I’ve always been an ambitious person and its been more than once or twice that I’ve set myself to fail due to my inability to balance my expectations to my abilities and willingness to act. This year, my main goal, is to improve my relationship with myself. To prove to myself that I can set goals, act upon them and reap the fruits of my labor. My main challenge however is self-discipline, or to be precise, my lack a good one. Being impulsive, curious and sporadic has set its tracks on my habits. Therefore I decided to work on the basics with hope that I’ll succeed and meet at least 50-70% of my goals for this year.

January 1, 2012 at 4:00am til 11:00am I was at work. Since December I’ve been polishing the plan, proof checking it and started already on working on the habits of going to gym and eating a balanced diet. There are however very many temptations and distractions along the way. Thus I need to work on the commitment along with the self-discipline. 2012 will definitely be an interesting year.

I was in love – yet I got my heart broken

There was a time when I was younger, more naive and less precautious person. Back when life seemed so much more predictable, controllable and somewhat easy to plan and figure out. The confidence and courage that I felt back then was so strong I practically felt invisible. It was then that I got involved with a group of people from different parts of the world to perform an extraordinary task. But ack, I was not ready. Although, none of us may have never been ready. Yet, we did what we could and what we did, we loved. We sought, we fought, we conquered, we succeeded and yes, we failed too.

I failed. It wasn’t the first time that I came up short to something but it was definitely one of the most painful. The activities, the goals that I’ve set, were one of the most ambitious BHAGs I’ve ever had. Thus when the axe fell down, and my short comings were found, the pain was harsher than any pain I’ve ever felt. Thereafter, I’ve found myself in a state of sadness, then denial, shock, shame, anger, pity, confusion and at last contemplation.

Life moved on but it was never the same. Time passed by quickly and I found myself doing normal things like going to school, then work and most of the times, I’d even hang out with some friends. Still, there was something missing. I felt this gaping black hole, that was draining my energy, what little I had of motivation. The fight was on, or so I thought. I had nothing. Or did I?

So I drifted for some time. Let things go. Life continued on. Days passed. Weeks. Then months. One day I stopped thinking, started writing more of the thoughts down on pieces of paper. Some days, I could just sit there, think, wait and slowly come to an understanding of the recent events. Perhaps there were too many thing happening at such a short period of time, and perhaps I was too slow to figure it out? Too slow to adapt. I reminisced about the good times and squandered about the bad times. At the end of the day I’ll find myself coming into terms with how the things occurred.

Then suddenly the daily life became exciting again. The colors became more vibrant and the birds chirping sounded less annoying. I found myself doing something like what I did before but something more suitable to my style. I realized back then, when I was younger, more naive and less precautious person, the emotions I felt were a kind of love but more of a crush than an everlasting one. So I reached this point of reflection and found my self wondering – was it real then, the things that I did, the emotions that I felt, the relationships that I built? Then I questioned myself – does it really matter? It happened, I lived through it and loved every bit of it while it was going on. At some point, I was sold out short, but I got the experience of a lifetime and more insight about the world.

The ramblings could go on and on and on. It could be never ending. Is this how it’s like to fall out of love? I loved what I did and got to do it for some time. Then I was advised to retire and found myself heartbroken. It was heart-wrenching because I was still in love. Luckily time healed the wound and I got over it after some time. Still the time that I spent when I was walking in a daze, with rosy glasses on and a heart like a lion would be on my heart for the rest of life. Those memories and lessons are something I hold high regard. I wouldn’t give it for anything in the world. That love was sweet. Then it became bittersweet and not soon after a dot to be connected with other loves. *sigh*

Spring 2009 – Leadership in AIESEC

After being a member for 4 months I decided to make a leap and applied for a leadership position as the local committee president of AIESEC UiS ear. There was an election. I held a speech infront of the current members where I had to present my leadership style and why I was the right one to lead AIESEC UiS. It was nervewracking. My attempt to write a speech ended up with a number of notes and scrabbles on a piece of paper, involving my dream of holding a company event on campus, and making AIESEC UiS an official Local Committee of AIESEC Norway. My mind was a mess, my voice nearly cracked up during my speech, and to top it all of my cheeks turned red, not rosy mind you, but beet red because of all the nerves. I never knew that standing out for yourself and your amibitions could be such an emotional roller coaster. To my concolation price I did win. However right after it finally sunk in that I am officially a local committee president, I wondered what I got myself into. Then my second thought was: I will do it! At the very least my year will be interesting.

 

So there I was, fresh and green, wanting to achieve something out of the ordinary. Making AIESEC UiS official was indeed a challenge. The Local Committee had a few number of members. One can count the active members in one hand. It was depressing, however it was also understandable that students had other activities to prioritize aside from being active in a volunteer student organization. However there was an AIESEC member and according to his words: “AIESEC is a volunteer organization. You can get in if you want however while your inside you have to work.” It is put rather blunt however it serves its purpose. AIESEC gives an opportunity to students to learn more about themselves and to work for their targets, may it be in life or work. However it is also true that if you don’t work you won’t get results. No pain, No gain, so to say. Not that work in AIESEC hurts, on the contrary actually. So I worked hard. Whenever there was an opportunity for me to do the things that I love to do, like designing posters, making booklets, doing something with my hands, arose, I jumped to the task and got to work immediately. As a result I gathered a lot of information about the things that I want to learn more about.

 

I also went to another international conference in Italy, WenaLDS, early in 2009. This time this conference delegates were all current and aspiring leaders in AIESEC. We were to learn about leadership and management, personal development and personal leadership. Also during this conference I learned about my core, what moves me, my values, my tools and my aspirations in life. It was not something new to me, to look to my inner self, and find answers. However the approach that we had during this conference was more powerful as I had the opportunity to work within a team and especially connect to someone and recieve feedback. The drill was familiar (sessions, excercises & parties) and it was nothing unusual so I got more or less quickly adjusted to how things were supposed to work. Off course there was the typical misunderstandings, as Italians had some challenges with both the logistics and English. In the end everything turned out quite fine. Although I have to admit that there have been challenges for me during the conference as well. Our team leader was a professional, organized and strict fellow. He gave me an impression at first of being very opinionated, however he turned out to be a very cool and inspiring person. Also there was a person that I had a very difficult time of understanding, not because of the nationality, but mostly because of the personality and attitude. The guy behaved nearly overbearingly arrogant and intolerant, throughout almost the entire conference.In the end everything turned out quite fine. All in all, it was a good conference.

 

 

After WenaLDS, there was a national conference in Oslo, UNITE. Here the new leaders of AIESEC Norway were presented. We were 3 people from Stavanger. At that point our local member list was dwindling. I had to learn how to attract and recruit students to become AIESEC members. Which was easier said than done. To make things more challenging I also needed to be able to maintain these members. It was a tough moment. Considering the lack of members and also dwindling motivation… However time still passed. Not too long after UNITE we had a summer local seminar in Stavanger to prepare for recruitment in august 2009. Afterwards there was the ScaLDS conference in Copenhagen, where the scandinavian AIESECers gathered to plan and support each other for the further growth and development of AIESEC Scandinavia. It was here that I got introduced to the book of “7 habits of highly efficient people”, which turned out to be a very interesting read. Also I learned about time management, 4 quadrant of priorities, reward and recognition, etc. Again I got to gather a lot of information.

 

 

Come August 2009, we were basically 2-4 people doing the recruitment, thankfully we had a CEED (AIESEC assistant from LC abroad). The recruitment was hard basically because we were struggling with the communication and promotion of AIESEC to the students. We managed to get a cooperation with a local restaurant but the cooperation turned to be shortlived. The materials were difficult to gather and the interviews had to be cut as we did not have enough people to do them with. Despite all the troubles the recruitment turned out well and we got several new members. Among them were some very talented and very motivated members, which was a huge relief and source of motivation to get pumped up once again. This time when EXCEL was arranged in Bergen once again, most of our local committee participated and we recieved 2 awards, one individual which was for me called, Olympian Champion, and a team awards: Local Committee Spirit Award. Our team this year turned out to be full of talented quality members, with a good combination of passion and direction.

Starting w/ career development

1st Step: Get a higher Education

My path to getting a higher education was a challenge at first due to some physical restraint (bad eyesight). Between some tumbles and falls I switched from engineering studies to Economics.

 

Today I am happy to say that I honestly enjoy my studies. Not only I found a study that I enjoy doing, it has introduced me some interesting careers and projects throughout my years on campus at UiS.

UiS Ambassador: November 2009 – April 2010

I applied for the job at the end of November if I remember it correct. The advertisement was posted on a bulletin board at campus and it seemed interesting to travel around Norway. There was also the opportunity to put the skills that I have learned from AIESEC into use, including the challenge of doing something with marketing. So I went to an interview, which turned out to be an almost 30 minute interview. The conversation was comfortable, the questions more or less expected however the interviewers were nice people, which was for me an important factor

Not too long after the interview I found out that I got the job. Then together with the other ambassadors we went to a job training and even a photoshoot (This picture is one of the results. The photographer made me look good. Thank you!)

This January I will be holding presentations in some highschools around Norway. Hopefully I will succeed in attracting some new students to study here in Stavanger.

I enjoy being a  student at the University of Stavanger (UiS). Firstly because the facilities at campus are a good combination of comfort and modern/contemporary design. Secondly the people are friendly and there are plenty of opportunities for students like, sports, student organizations and other recreations. Also the university has a good cooperation with the local industry, which show on the annual showcase of companies during an event held by the civil engineer students. Also the local industry supports UiS by providing instruments used in the local industry, which is quite important for those that study engineering, seeing as Stavanger is the Oil & Energy Capital of Norway. The SIS (Studentsamskipnaden i Stavanger) also supports the growth and improvement of the student environment by providing financial support given that there is good documentation off course.

The Stavanger city is quite vibrant, if I may say. I find it just about the right size. It is international, yet it has this romantic feel of a city near the coast. The architecture is a combination of both old and new, which highlightens more the value and presence of the young and growing student culture. Stavanger was also a European cultural capital in 2008, resulting in a growing interest for more culture onwards. There are several tourist attractions unique to this region as well, like for example, the Domkirke, the Old City, Kjeragbolten, Lysefjorden and Prekestolen, just to mention a few. I have personally hiked Prekestolen and I have to say that considering the amount ot time I invested in climbing the slippery stairs and the mass of people I passed along the way, the view at the top was definitely worth it. It was almost as if the gods of the sky knew that we reached the top, because upon our arrival the sky cleared and the sun come out. Then on our way down off course it poured again

I recommend to study in UiS for those who want to have a comfortable tempo of their student life. The sessions at the university are given by some of the reknowned people within their respectable fields, and the pace of studying is quite comfortable. If you have a good discipline of studying, you can enjoy your time here. The city allows you good access to all the facilities available, from shopping centre, to entertainment venues, and all in good reasonable time and value. The city is aiming for a good development, both within culture and the energy industry, however it also gives plenty of space for those who wants to find their place in life.

3rd Step: Several part time jobs…