Sisu, The Missing Ingredient (Part 1)

This post is the first of a two part series on the “missing ingredients” needed for successful Daygame. Read as much theory, learn as many techniques as you like and grow your SMV and you’ll still need these things to succeed.

The first is a concept I’ve come across while starting to learn Finnish: sisu.

Sisu could be roughly described as having true grit, but it’s more than that. It’s an inner well of resolve that you draw upon in exceptional circumstances to achieve seemingly impossible tasks. When someone draws on sisu they push their limits. It also inspires people to take on those challenges in the first place. Challenges that others would shy away from. It gives them a grim determination to succeed.

To be good at Daygame you need to have virtues such as resilience, resistance to rejection, the ability to pick yourself back up and carry on, perseverance, high motivation, and so on. I think sisu perfectly encapsulates those virtues. Those who succeed in Daygame tend to have bucketloads of sisu.

And it isn’t just for beginners. You’ll need sisu to progress at every level. Things become comfortable and soon it’s time to move on. To reach your full potential, at every stage, you need to make that choice between comfort and stress. Whether you’re happy to be an employee taking a salary or become an entrepreneur and forge your own way in a scary world. At some point you have to have had enough with merely being good at something and now you want to be great.

You need sisu for your first set. You need sisu for your 1000th set. You need sisu to push out that 15th rep when last week you just managed 14. You need sisu to break away from the monotonous 25 days holiday a year but steady pay cheque.

It’s an approach to life which says “I know if I just keep on going I’ll succeed. Each failure teaches me something and nothing can stop me.”

You’re going to need sisu whenever you want to change something in your life. It’s the thing that lets you chip away at a problem and drown out the naysayers. People don’t like change. They don’t like other people changing either. Better that everything stays in the safe world of the known.

Here are some quotes I took on the subject from a highly reputable source (Wikipedia):

Sisu is extraordinary determination in the face of extreme adversity, and courage that is presented typically in situations where success is unlikely. It expresses itself in taking action against the odds, and displaying courage and resoluteness in the face of adversity; in other words, deciding on a course of action, and then adhering to it even if repeated failures ensue. It is in some ways similar to equanimity, though ‘’sisu’’ entails an element of grim stress management.

[The] concept also entails “stress management”, and passion for a long-term goal.

In the study, sisu is described as a psychological key competence which enables extraordinary action to overcome a mentally or physically challenging situation. Sisu also contributes to what has been named the action mindset; a consistent, courageous approach toward challenges which at first seem to exceed our capacities.

Yours unfaithfully,

Thomas Crown

If you want to improve your Daygame skills then hire me for coaching (Skype and infield available), buy my book and follow me on Twitter @thomascrownpua for daily updates