Elina Kadaja has learned to know the laws of the universe
Elina Kadaja has learned to know the laws of the universe
Elina Kadaja is a seemingly ordinary Saaremaa girl whose life choices have been anything but traditional. Ambition, boundless courage and techniques learned from self-help books have led her to her goals and helped her push her own boundaries.
“When I was a little girl, it became clear to me pretty quickly that if I do what I’m told and achieve outstanding results, I’m a good kid,” Elina writes on her blog Relax into Life.
Her mother Riina works in a bank and her father Raivo is an entrepreneurial trainer, while her sister has been living in Germany for nine years and works in the beauty industry alongside her little boy. “The younger sister with five children is making history in our family and is a very exemplary high school student academically and with her sporting achievements in volleyball. Knowing her, it’s hard to know exactly whose sister she is. Definitely an old and very wise soul,” says Elina, who also has two baby sisters from her father’s new marriage.
At Kuressaare Gymnasium, in addition to her general education subjects, Elina learned to overcome performance anxiety, organised theatre performances and meetings, was a leader of the political youth and a member of the student council, and always had her sights set high for herself. At the end of school, he decided to ignore his teachers’ advice to dive into the theatre and applied to Estonian Business School instead, with the wisdom of success from books and the desire to get off the slave wheel himself. In his new school, he was just as relentlessly active. Sales and marketing training sessions continued and, head first, jumping into the water – such as a trip to Alabama in the United States to cycle around selling books door-to-door. It was a bitter experience, Elina says – it was tough on the spirit, but it also taught her some necessary lessons.
Rebellious thoughts took over, forcing Elina to abandon her traditional way of life in order to explore the world and her own limits. The focus was on Denmark and Copenhagen Business School.
“I went to live in Denmark with great excitement in the hope of becoming a student in a very practical system of study, and I chose Copenhagen Business School because of the suitability of the subjects. There, I could choose subjects to my liking, but also work in a restaurant to pay the tuition fees,” recalls Elina. As she had to move out of her original home and look for a new one, Elina lived for a while in the dormitory of an Estonian student she knew. “One lovely girl, Anastasia, even helped me unlock a bike that had been sitting in the basement for years, so I could pedal 40 minutes to work in the morning and back to school later. The regime made a difference – I lost 15 kilos,” she says.
In a situation that would make some of the mentally weaker return to their homeland, Elina was not shaken, and with the help of a workhorse’s attitude and reading books, she pulled herself out of her miserable situation. “I listened to Tony Robbins’ audiobooks and YouTube recordings and Brian Tracy’s books in every spare moment and on my bike,” reveals Elina, revealing the formula she used to survive the trying times and make the tough situations work for her. Brian Tracy’s and Tony Robbins’ lively teachings and motivational lectures instilled in Elina the ambition to reach the city of everyone’s dreams – Los Angeles.
Next stop – Iraq
With a goal in mind, the dream came true, although the reception in the city of dreams was not exactly warm. “The first thing they did was steal my bare bones,” he admits. Once again, Elina had no choice but to dive into her inner source of strength and find the courage to keep her head still. “It all worked out. I found a job and had a great life, but I didn’t get a residence visa because of the late paperwork,” says Elina. So I had to drive back home to try again.
Little bureaucratic hurdles and stumbling blocks did not make Elina give up. While in Estonia, he visualised his life ahead, while at the same time looking for a US company willing to offer him a job and apply for a visa.
As luck would have it, the proposed project turned out to be in Iraq, which became Elina’s next destination. All the wisdom stored up in books came in handy. “During my two years in Iraq, I was able to make the most of the library I had injected into my head. Since the boss claimed I was one of the smartest people he had ever met, I had to be responsible for quite a lot of things – recruiting staff, negotiating in China, arranging supplies and logistics between several countries. Being a quick learner, I started to feel quite at home in this world. Iraq is a rets, though, and I hadn’t really thought about going to a construction consultancy to run things,” he says.
Iraq was an intense experience for one of the island’s maidens, and the stresses and strains left their mark on her health, from which Elina was once again helped by books. “Things are much clearer to me now than before. I see the laws of the universe at work every day, and it’s sometimes the best joke how the things you want will signal themselves,” he says.
Despite countless travels and living abroad, Elina’s soul is still attached to Saaremaa and she is happy to market her home town to the rest of the world. “I am always very proud to say that I am from Saaremaa. I describe it as one of the tiny islands in a tiny country of a million people, and mention that we have preserved our own language and customs. I then show an aerial photo of Kuressaare Castle and say that my home town is a tiny, beautiful and safe fairytale town by the sea.”
Elina doesn’t fail to mention how nice it is to cycle in Saaremaa, with everything close by, or how much foreigners love to relax in the local spas.
He also says he loves the local people, who are calm and cheerful by nature. “I like Saaremaa because it’s the only place in the world where I have my roots. For me, this means that when I go to Kuressaare gymnasium, for example, I see a part of myself there, a part of the story of the creation of today’s Elina. There is no place in the world that has shaped me more than Saaremaa. It is a very special feeling to come from such a mystical place.”
Seeking a way in
Books and the motivating words of inspiring people and visualisation techniques have helped Elina discover the power of thought, attitude and purpose. Of course, people tend not to have much time for reading, but that’s not a barrier – Elina says that many self-help books can also be listened to on audio.
On the basis of these, she will make a concept note to pin down the most important ideas and keywords on her goal board. At one point, he pulled the wisdom of the trainers out of a drawer and created a guided meditation to help set goals and program the subconscious mind to follow them when starting the day in the morning.
He put together the current dream board based on a successful lifestyle scheme, including, for example, the round-the-world trip he was about to embark on. “I plan to meet a lot of teachers who will inspire me to get better and better at my job, for the sake of inner growth and learning experiences. Also, the current poster has the tagline “new columnist”, which is also coming true. Yoga is also represented – I’m now off to Ecuador for tantra yoga shamanism teacher training, to Guatemala for Christmas to practice and further study. From there, intuition takes over,” says Elina, who has packed her suitcase again.
She adds that her big goal is to create a holistic healing programme so that each participant can feel successful in the way that makes them happiest.
Although there are an infinite number of books, techniques and authors, Elina highlights a few that stand out from the rest. For example, the legendary Dale Carnegie and his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, as well as Peep Vainu’s “The Most Important Question”. The list also includes Eckhart Tolle’s Here and Now: The Power of Presence, OSHO’s The Mystic Rose and Og Mandino, Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations with God, and Stephen R. Covey’s 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Person.
The books he has read over the years have taught him a lot about achieving goals, success and unleashing his inner power. “I think many people who have read self-help books will agree that, in the grand scheme of things, they all tell a similar story,” Elina notes.
Keywords are usually time planning, formulating goals and making a plan to achieve them, discipline, affirmations, visualisation and subconscious programming. “Thanks to this knowledge, I’ve made many dreams come true, and that’s how, for example, “Laws of Life. A Successful Lifestyle Handbook,” Elina says of the handbook she has put together.
No focus on fears
Elina notes that although her parents have been worried about her actions and movements, she is grateful to them. “They have provided me with the space where I have been able to fly out like a rocket and land safely afterwards. I think they used to be more worried about me going like this again, and let me try to get on at home before I took a risk abroad. Now I’m on my fifth such take-off and we don’t talk about worries any more. I never like to focus on fears. I am aware of the dangers and take my safety very seriously,” Elina stresses.
“For every parent, part of happiness is knowing that their child is safe and full. My mum usually asks me what I’ve eaten and where are you. Then I send her pictures of the food I’ve eaten and the country I’m in. I find that everyone’s interpretation of happiness is different, and I show through my choices that you can be happy without knowing what tomorrow will bring. Every challenge abroad has given me so many more choices and broadened my horizons that no imaginary fear can hold me back.”
ELINA KADAJA Born 3. June 1992 in Kuressaare
HARIDUS
– Kuressaare Gümnaasium – Estonian Business School, entrepreneurship and business management
– Copenhagen Business School, marketing, risk management, major events management and psychology courses
TÖÖ
– Sold books in the USA, worked as a waitress in a restaurant chain, sales agent in a photo agency. He has also worked as an administrative manager in Iraq and as an instructor of OSHO meditative therapies at the OSHO International Meditation Centre in Pune, India.
