Sometimes you re-read the things you’ve written in the past and you find some gems you don’t believe were actually penned by you. Here’s one about motivation and learning:
[...] nothing can be a better substitute for passion as a source of motivation for learning any single subject. – Kevin in Economics Essay Guide, 2010
It is found in the afterwords of my Economics Essay Guide which is freely available for A Levels students (especially those doing the Singapore syllabus) hoping to have a more structured way of approaching Economics essays.
Well, the examinations are finally here. Actually not ‘finally’. I haven’t exactly been looking forward to it and the speed at which it has come really surprised me. I got a bit worried about my lack of experience with LSE examinations and decided to read the examinations procedure just to ‘pacify myself’. And LSE really has a strong marketing and branding team whose influence infiltrate even the least public documents of the school:
Please note that examinations are intentionally difficult, and feel more so under the pressure of timed conditions. The cachet of LSE degrees, in the eyes of other universities and employers, is at least in part based on the School’s rigorous academic standards. You should not therefore be surprised when your examinations feel more difficult than the previous years’ papers from which you have been revising. Examinations may contain questions that surprise you and that are unlike past examination questions. This is intentional: the examiners want to test that you have understood the material well enough to cope with new types of problems. Though challenging and difficult, the examination will also be fair. – Examination Procedures for Candidates 2011
I do hope the whole affair is quickly done and over with though. And that, is the life of an LSE student. It’s just that I am a little atypical.
The recent General Elections back in Singapore got me watching Channel News Asia over the net and I realised I sort of miss being back in Singapore and with all that stuff happening. And exams are here, which makes it more logical to miss home. I’ve already decided on the things I want to eat when I’m back in Singapore in July. This list will probably grow but for now, it includes: Tau Kwa Bey, Stir-fry 4-Seasons Bean, Fried Tiny Asparagus with mushrooms, Pork Congee with Yu Sheng, Chicken Rice (from any hawker center anywhere will do), something from IKEA restaurant, Cai Fan (better if I could get it from Yong Chye) and many more I have not yet thought of.
Meanwhile, Improv Everywhere is a really interesting concept and my favourite is still the ‘I love lunch’ musical.
I don’t dabble much with ancient languages. But I was recently drawn to a couple of Latin phrases, one of which I’ve decided to set as a personal motto to add on to my creed. The first phrase is:
Natura non facit saltus
It translates to ‘Nature does not take leaps’ and appears to be the axiom of infinitesimal calculus and a basic principle of many physical laws as well as some classical economic theory (Alfred Marshall’s in particular). My application of it to life is the idea that things in our lives do not change overnight. Good or bad things don’t just happen suddenly – they are usually building up in the background only to give you the impact at the end. And that being said, any sort of success or achievement is not a single big undertaking but a collection of tiny decisions made from time to time. It is the discipline to brush our teeth every day and night that blesses us with oral hygiene and the lack of trouble with dentists. Likewise, it is consistent revision and studying that keeps us on track and help us do well in exams eventually.
Big changes always start with small steps. So if there’s something in your life you wish to change, think from the tiniest decisions you are making every single day. In particular, I owe my super low resting pulse rate of 39 beats per minute to the 4.5km run I’ve been doing practically everyday as well as the long marathon training I made myself do back in the army. And it was when I was looking up ‘ASICS’, the brand of my running shoes, that I discovered the latin phrase ‘anima sano in corpore sano’. I never knew ‘ASICS’ was an acronym for this phrase, which meant ‘A healthy soul in a healthy body’. It was a beautiful phrase. But I went a step further and realised it is an adaptation of yet another latin phrase, ‘mens sano in corpore sano’. It struck me as an extremely powerful personal development, self-improvement motto though MSICS obviously don’t appear to be a nice nor pronounceable acronym.
And so here comes the update on some motivational cornerstones for my personal development:
Vib’s Motto Mens sano in corpore sano – A sound mind in a healthy body or the ASICS advertising version ‘Sound mind, Sound body’.
And not forgetting my creed, which has been modified slightly; this version has been titled as ‘A Little Man’s Creed’ (as inspired by the title of the poem ‘The Little Chap Who Follows Me‘) by me, and I’ve been printing it and giving out to people as gifts.
Vib’s Creed
Goodness is the enemy of greatness. Never be satisfied with just being good.
Never be overwhelmed by gloom and doom. Distant from those who are.
Be motivated by the virtues of work and life and not deterred by the fear of punishment.
Courage is not having no fears. Courage is having fears but doing it anyways.
Be lazy but work hard to slack later. Work harder so as to slack even more.
Take breaks. Break from learning by working and break from working by learning.
Show contempt for procrastinators, slackers and poorly motivated individuals.
Fear the status quo. Embrace change.
And as John Wooden said, ‘Never cease to be the best you can be’. Remember, natura non facit saltus and so it is this ceaseless-ness in practising those ideas that brings out mens sano in corpore sano.
