Sisu is a Finnish, essentially untranslatable, term for a uniquely intense, action-oriented form of resilience, grit, and endurance. It represents an internal, latent, and stoic determination to persevere through extreme adversity and overcome seemingly impossible obstacles when all hope seems lost, often acting as a key component of Finnish national character.
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When I first arrived in Finland, "Sisu" was a term I ,often heard, as my clients and friends would introduce me to various aspects of Finnish culture, with all of them pretty much underpinned by Sisu. However, over the last decade or more, it is like sisu has dropped off the national awareness, barely mentioned, rarely talked about, and seldom seen. "Grit" isn't quite what sisu is either, but for what we need here today, it will suffice.
Grit was mentioned a few times in the comment section of an article I recently wrote about the background work it takes to be successful, with most saying that grit and perseverance don't seem to be overly present in today's society. I agree of course, because I think that we have become quite softened over several decades through the lack of war, changes in technology, and a shift in the way we manage ourselves socially. The lack of war is obviously a good thing, but the changes in technology that has reduced the need for physical hardship and the changes in social culture that has created an environment of psychological safety, means we haven't been exposed to as much hardship and disappointment, nor have we had to practice and test our emotional resilience. As a result, we are less resilient, and more reactive emotionally, creating victims rather than survivors. People who give up, rather than push through.
I think that ten or more years ago, it wasn't overly noticeable at how much our collective grit had degraded, because the world was quite different, with a lot more global stability. However, since then, the conditions have become far more volatile with armed conflicts and war, enormous geo-political disruption, insane Covid responses, massive financial shifts - causing huge societal conflict, all filtered through media designed to maximise outrage and polarisation for profit.
And grit was found to be lacking.
When things are good, people don't tend to notice even their own degradation. It is like the person who isn't stressed because the conditions aren't stressful, being unprepared for when they do become stressful - and then blaming the conditions. We don't tend to prepare for the negative potentials of the future well, which means that when they do come to a head, we find ourselves floundering. And I think that we have let grit get so low collectively, that now we are floundering at scale. And while many people feel they will be okay, we are all spread along a normal distribution, which means the outer edges are going to be the first to break. But as they break, it is like a person falling over a cliff, tied to the next person, and then the next. The more that go over, the more that will, and the faster the momentum builds.
Over nine years ago, I was talking about sisu here no the blockchain, mentioning many of the issues that we are seeing, and looking at some of the issue in a more technical way. This was well before Covid, and what I based it on was well before so many of the changes we have seen in the world since. It was obvious that our grit was reducing, because we have been taking out challenge for many decades, softening the blows of life, allowing ourselves to give up, to make excuses, to stay safe in our comfort zones from childhood. This predates all my reservations about Gen-Z, because I have been paying attention to it before they were born. It was obviously going to lead us to where we are today.
Victims of circumstances.
The cultural goal used to be an active agent of change to improve our lives. It was a process of getting better ourselves, building technical and social skills, and managing our emotional state so we are not only our best, but able to help others. Instead of this though, we have moved into a world of me, me, me, where our own sense of "safety" is paramount, even if our senses are fooled into a false sense of security. We are never safe because there is no such thing as 100% certainty, but if we have fooled ourselves into believing that comfort equals security, we are going to find more ways to be comfortable, even as our actual security declines.
The more we avoid adversity, the weaker we become.
Obvious. It is like only eating bland, unspiced food, because of the discomfort caused my new flavours. It is not only restrictive and reduces the potential for new experience, but also reduces our body's ability to cope in a range of circumstances and situations. So many people will blame their stress or depression on the situation, without recognising that there are plenty of people in the same situation or worse, coping just fine. We don't put two and two together and ask why they are able to cope, while we can't, and instead just focus on how we feel and believe that it is not us, it is the conditions.
How we feel is a very poor indicator.
Yet we have been conditioned to make our feelings paramount and to be hyper-vigilant, and hyper-reactive to anything that we feel as negative. And everything new is uncomfortable, no matter what it is. A new food, a new job, a new relationship, a new experience of any kind makes us uncomfortable, because of uncertainty. But rather than getting excited by the unknown, we have become fearful, which means we have become less capable to find new solutions to the problems we face and instead rely on familiar ways, that have already proven incapable of providing adequately.
Looking at the article from nine years ago, I questioned my own experiences and whether they were as difficult as I had thought them at the time. Nine years later, I have faced even more adversity, but am still here, still pushing, still trying. Yet, I don't believe I have enough grit. I feel I have become softened like everyone else. To finish this off though, I will steal a paragraph from the other article, because it summarises what I think is a positive way forward for society, for individuals, and for us all to build a better experience for humanity.
In my opinion, adversity does not need to come through a struggle against the negative, it can come through a journey for the positive. It doesn't have to be brought on by misfortune, distress or calamity. At least not in the way we generally define it. Sisu and its benefits could come through deliberate choices to push ourselves into adversity by tackling what we believe to be impossible for us, but worthy of our energy investments. The breaking of familiar structures and concepts and venturing into new fields, yet to be formed technologies and methods that are still only dreams. To learn about and collaborate with people, cultures and nations that are unfamiliar, uncomfortable to build stronger relationships and better solutions. To invest in the unknown, investigate the unexplored and attempt to do what has never been done. The undiscovered always lives in adversity until found and the path to a better world is impeded by those unwilling to look. Of course, negative events will still appear along these paths also but, rather than trying to avoid them, we can aim for something far greater and they will help us achieve it.
We can be better, by doing better. It is never comfortable, because it always requires change and there is no guarantee it will work, be noticed, or deliver a positive return. There is value nonetheless.
We just need grit up.
Taraz
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