“How does it feel to have balanced life by living ‘lagom’? In Holland it’s hot to try and do everything lagom now, didn’t you know? You find ‘lagom’ books in every bookstore and lots of articles about it in magazines,” said Willems brother when he visited us a few weeks ago. We were at a loss for words. We thought hygge was still THE thing to strive for.
But in the tv program “Allt för Sverige” (about Americans going back to their roots) we heard it again: live lagom is really important to the Swedish. Hygge is already out of date, the concept of living a well and cosy life. We actually liked it. It’s a Danish concept, but easy to integrate into Swedish life: burn a candle, a campfire, play games with friends. But now it seems to be more important to live lagom. Well, this is a Swedish concept, so an interesting thing to dig into. Maybe we already live that way or partly. And if so: do we like the concept?
The word ‘lagom’ is Swedish. It means not too much, not too little: just right, almost perfect, precisely as good/much as it should be. It applies to everything, from coffee, clothing, cars and the weather. According to a popular statement, the word would go back to the meals that were held earlier in the farmers’ society, where everyone on the farm ate from the same pan and drank from the same cup. People tried to let it be sufficient for the whole group, laget om. But this is a myth. (what a pity, otherwise our potato eaters by Vincent van Gogh should have contributed to it).
Anyway, ‘the lagom way’ is finding the balance between work and private life, by living consciously and paying attention to the people around you. I must honestly say we already tried to do so in Holland, but here in Sweden, you see people actually do this.
It’s about staying inside social norms, not going without, but also not displaying wealth, eating too much or being a show-off, being modest and avoiding risks (and failures). Well, being modest but not too modest we can find ourselves in. But if avoiding risks helps you to get a better life, we doubt it. We like the idea of balance in life that creates a happy life. But if doing something in a lagom way means not taking too many risks, not indulging in any way or wanting to stand out from the crowd?
Dare to take risk is actually a big part of our life, it’s how we grow. Without this, we cannot change. We also deliberately want to stand out sometimes, be excellent in what we do with Näsets Marcusgård for example: not possible if we should live just lagom. Sometimes we simply want to be the best.
We just take the lagom way of life ‘lagom’, and just don’t live like that to the extreme. But we do believe there is a lot to learn from this Nordic concept. Come and try it yourself (and mix it with hygge, which is still allowed).