How did you end up where you are?


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A friend asked me this question recently. At first it felt like the standard career history question I’ve answered many times. The difference was that I felt safe enough to tell the whole truth. Having talked through the story it felt wrong to keep it hidden.

The entry point is a something I’ve told many times: In 2012 I was in coaching training by Neuroleadership Finland and for the first time in my life I realized that I need to change. This coincided with my 30th birthday which is roughly the age when the human brain is fully mature. So, I was also biologically in a good place to start thinking. The training helped me transform from an arrogant expert to a coach.

The Story Untold

Around the same time I was in a situation where I strongly believed that I knew how things should be done. I faced an equally stubborn person who disagreed with me on some key points. This whirlwind of wills fuelled many positive changes, but also hurt many people. I’m sorry.

Over the course of about a year the tension rose until we were at a point where I found myself in a full blown limbic flight response hiding in a phone booth at the office. My anxiety had gotten to a level where I was physically unable to go to my seat. This was the second time I realised I may need to do something differently. The sad part is that I didn’t realize this from all the fights we had, the blame was always on someone else.

Thinking back to this I’m unable to pinpoint the event even with an accuracy of a month. It’s very likely it actually happened multiple times. I had been under chronic stress for months which impaired my cognitive function and severely compromised my ability to form long term memories. I’m unable to form an exact timeline of the events that followed but I have a feeling it took a while before I actually did anything.

Regardless of the timeline three key things happened.

  1. A friend who had gone through some difficult times himself recommended three books for me Why Don’t Zebra’s Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky, Mindful Way Through Depression by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal and Jon Kabat-Zinn and as a deeper dive Heal Thy Self by Saki Santorelli
  2. I started seeing a psychologist
  3. I was put on sick leave

Shattered but still whole

I was able to return to work after a few months. The situation itself was never really resolved. It dissolved due to other changes in the organisation.

The 8 week program in Mindful Way Through Depression was where my more or less regular mindfulness practice began. The body scan is still one of my go-to practices.

Saki’s book is what gave me the words to describe my own state: “Shattered but still whole”. Thank you.

One major thing I changed about my behaviour was that I stopped ‘shoulding’ myself. This is a practice I continue today. I’ve written about this in more detail earlier in my blog.

The biggest benefit of talking with the psychologist was realising that the anger and anxiety that I had carried for years was not fully my own. It was my extreme empathy that had made me the unknowing champion of the repressed. I was channeling the collective emotions of people around me. Regular mindfulness practice and being more aware of the sources of my feelings enabled me to function and even help others in an environment that would’ve otherwise overwhelmed me.

To Infinity and Beyond

The Mindfulness Summit in 2015 was the next major step on this journey. I’m eternally grateful to Melli for making it a reality. Thank you. Listening to so many teachers and practitioners broadened my horizons, deepened my own practice and gave me new people to follow.

During the summit while listening to Kirsten Race I realised that I had been carrying a deep anger with me for decades and it has played a major part in my career. And based on my experience, anger is not a good career counsellor.

Listening to Jon Kabat-Zinn during the summit, I had a profound experience I can best describe as feeling connected with the universe. I’ve never been religious, but I’m starting to understand people who are. It’s a lot easier to explain such experiences as something divine rather than as something built in the nature of being.

Long Live Impermanence!

Experiencing connection with the universe didn’t magically transform me but it left me open to explore more. Sounds True happened to have a 75% sale on Thich Nhat Hanh’s Living Without Stress and Fear soon after the summit.

This was my first contact with Buddhism outside the common stereotypes and brief mentions in school books. What surprised me the most was how well many of the teachings from over 2000 years ago align with modern science (seeds -> habits, no ego -> relational self & no permanent self, sensing, thinking and feeling separate processes, community as a source of mental strength, feedback loops between body and mind).

Listening to Thich Nhat Hanh has brought about a unspecific deepening of everything and overall serenity for me. Whatever happens is whatever happens, we are responsible for making good things more likely to happen. He has also reinforced my belief in human potential which is a key tool for me as a coach, facilitator and a father.

Same But Different

If me from a decade ago would read this, he would be very confused. We are definitely not the same but not completely different either.

Things that he would appreciate are:

  • I’m able to do things with a presence of mind beyond what I thought possible.
  • I’m able to put into words when I feel something is not quite right without it escalating to a fight (well… less often than before at least).
  • I’m physically in a much better shape thanks to realising that exercise is more for my brain than my body.

Things that would surprise him:

  • How far I’ve drifted from software engineering. In retrospect there’s a clear story arc towards helping people in my career, but he had no idea what was coming.
  • My initial reaction to friends stories about challenges in their organisations is a compassionate smile instead of seething sarcasm or righteous fury.
  • I make a conscious effort to see people as what they could be instead of judging them based on what they do.
  • I calm down in minutes when I get angry, instead of boiling for hours or days. This is by far the most beneficial transformation I’ve experienced.

Going Forward

I’m publishing this story mostly from a personal need for being true to myself and practicing what I preach: transparency, being human and continuous improvement. Hope this also helps someone else find peace.

Whatever happens next is what happens next, I know I’m ready to make the best of it.

Originally published 20170228 at https://medium.com/@jussiholtta/how-did-you-end-up-where-you-are-57dfbff9ed70

Edit: 3 Years later

Things that happened after all this:

  1. Writing this down was a huge relief, every interaction with people since then has been easier
  2. I had a life changing insight: “I want to grow a generation capable of peace”. I wasn’t actively looking for anything like this, the thought just crystallized one day when I was going to the kitchen to get something to eat.
  3. I was on a mindfulness retreat where Saki was one of the teachers in April 2017. I’m not sure if I can ever find the words to describe the experience.
  4. Learning emerged as a central theme in my thoughts about being human: https://interbeing.fi/learning-learning/
  5. I decided to start my own company to help people be people. And to fund my long term goal.

The Coronavirus situation gave me the opportunity to stop and refocus. I realized that what I was working on 5 years ago on myself is now a lot more relevant for even more people. And what I wrote before still applies. Whatever happens next is what happens next, I know I’m ready to make the best of it.


The distilled knowledge and wisdom from this journey is also available as a workbook that helps you improve your internal conditions for learning through deliberate practice. You can get the Learn 24/7 Workbook on Amazon globally. The book is very intentionally available as a physical book only to give you an opportunity to step away from the screens in your life and focus on yourself.

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