Wednesday, April 15, 2015

As strong as the obstacles we're facing

When I was in army, I got a silver for IPPT, so I thought I'm very strong. Until I tried to do a pull up 15 years later and realised I couldn't even do one. And so I trained hard for the past few months and now I managed to do 6 perfect form pull ups, then I know that I am strong.


Until I tried to do a dumb-bell lift for 10 kg, and realised that I couldn't do it properly and effortlessly. And so I trained every other day, lifting progressively heavier and heavier weights from 8 kg until I can do 10 kg effortlessly without feeling my muscles screaming. Then, I know that I am strong.


Until I tried to do 3 sets of 10 push ups yesterday, and realised that I couldn't lift myself off my bed this morning. My whole arm is like lead. And so I know what I will be doing in the next couple of months to get stronger.




You'll be surprised how similar other aspects of your life is with regards to what I've described earlier. In life, it's important to be progressively defeated by bigger and bigger challenges. Being good in one thing doesn't mean that you'll be good in another. There's domain specific knowledge that's not really transferable to another domain, so it's important to stay humble and keep improving.

4 comments :

Sillyinvestor said...

Hi LP,

The hidden words are like the

Egg, potato and coffee in hot water.

Egg went hard, potato soft and coffee make the hot water into a beverage, changing not just himself but also the environment.

When I think about this story, my thoughts are:

Be it egg, potato or coffee, there all have their uses.

It's better to be just food, instead of thinking what u want to be.

Even potato should have its day

la papillion said...

Hi SI,

Wow, I've never heard of this analogy before and it all makes sense :) Thanks so much for sharing it with me here!

I'm thinking whether a potato can change into an egg or an egg into coffee or it is something like a personality trait? hmm...

Sillyinvestor said...

As a educator, I would believe a potato can be a egg, because as a educator, I believed humans are more like water than animals.

Not only they are the shaped by the experinces, with extreme conditions, they can be solid or gas too.

la papillion said...

Hi SI,

Indeed, if there's a belief that all kids are fixed at birth, then what's the point of teaching?!

That being said, I think there's a teacher out there who can touch each of us. I don't think I'm powerful enough to help everyone.

Self awareness, hahaa