CNBC: I spent 48 hours in Finland — here are 5 life-changing lessons I learned in the world’s happiest country

This past December, my husband, our three boys and I went for a whirlwind two-day trip to Finland. As soon as we arrived, our driver told us with enthusiasm: “Sunrise is at noon, and sunset is around 3.30 p.m.!”

I stared at him in disbelief. Finland is regularly ranked as the happiest country in the world.

“How is everyone so happy when you get almost no daylight for months?” I wondered. “Why aren’t you all super depressed?” I proceeded to ask literally everyone we met there.

As a New Yorker who recently uprooted my family for a European life in sunny Lisbon, where I spend my days coaching entrepreneurs on how to tell better stories, nothing prepared me for this low daylight, high happiness paradox.

Here are a few lessons I learned that weekend that have changed my views on work and life:

1. Less time means better focus

When our driver casually mentioned that “in winter, we need more rest anyway,” it challenged everything I knew about productivity as an entrepreneur coming from New York’s hustle culture.

Despite the dark winter, Finland has a productive economy that is one of the world’s most innovative.

I realised shorter days can mean more focused meetings, more intentional projects and an acceptance that winter energy is different. You can’t do as much in the winter, and that’s OK.

I’m living this right now with my AI storytelling tool side project. Instead of marathon content creation sessions I don’t have the bandwidth for, I carve out just one hour, three mornings a week to create a few high-impact pieces (posts, emails or videos).

The result? Better content. When you only have an hour, you don’t have time to procrastinate or overthink.

2. You can achieve success without chasing likes and followers

When we met Erika, our husky sledding guide who’d just returned from a 10-day, 1,200-kilometre race with her dogs, she told us she was booked solid for the rest of the season.

She has no content or SEO strategy and no real social media presence. But anyone who meets Erika ends up telling everyone they know about her. Her passion for her dogs and genuine stories are more effective than any contrived marketing strategy.

I’m seeing this in my own business, too. My AI tool started as a free bot with no plan other than to help my community tell good stories. It was a passion project. No marketing or growth strategy. But people who tried it became obsessed with it and told their friends, who wanted to pay for access to what we’d made.

Now it’s a full-fledged product and thriving community that practically markets itself. It’s proof to me, along with Erika’s story, that in a world obsessed with metrics, followers and trends, real passion and authentic storytelling can cut through the noise.

3. Mental health isn’t an afterthought

“Self-care” isn’t a meaningless buzzword in Finland. Because they have little of it, the Finns don’t take daylight for granted — and they take preventative measures before it gets bad.

Everyone we met had some sort of intentional practice, like daily outdoor walks (yes, even in the dark in negative 10 degree weather) or sacred sauna rituals.

It’s like they’ve known forever what the rest of us are just figuring out: Taking care of yourself should be woven into the fabric of everyday life.

I’ve restructured my own days after this wake-up call. Instead of diving into work right after school drop-off, I now head straight to the gym and keep my phone tucked away until 10 a.m.

Yes, I start work later. But showing up mentally clear beats showing up early.

4. Support systems beat hustle culture

“In Finland, we make sure everyone is okay,” our driver shared, explaining their comprehensive social systems and telling us about his dad’s cancer medication that runs about $12,000 a month, but costs him only about $30.

About a year and a half into European living, I’m realizing how much of an outlier the U.S. is — and how we’ve normalized a system where taking risks often means risking everything.

While I can’t singlehandedly change laws or healthcare systems, I can choose to build my own business differently. I’ve made it a point to create the supports I wish I’d had: flexible schedules for my fully remote team, a commitment to make health and mental health priority No. 1, and a spoken mantra of “no work is ever more important than your or your families’ well-being.”

I’ve seen firsthand how having a real safety net makes people brave enough to innovate.

5. Sometimes plan B is better than plan A

When our Northern Lights tour was cancelled due to fog, our Airbnb hosts said they’d take us and a few other strangers to their family farm — which had amazing views of the phenomenon — despite the weather. They didn’t want us to miss this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

In work and life, we often get fixated on our original plans. But the Finns showed me that when things go wrong, unscripted moments can deliver the best results.

At the end of the trip, my kids all said their favourite experience was “the Northern Lights!” It reminded me that we always need to leave room to adapt in the moment. Because things might turn out even better than we’d hoped.

I learned this myself last year when my course creation plans hit a wall. That setback led me to pivot and build an AI storytelling tool instead. What looked like a failure at first became an unexpected breakthrough.