It's funny how just a small change of one mindset can lead to a better life, even just a few little steps better. Since I was a kid, I've always been a person who has a lot of dreams and goals even silly ones like being good at skating, playing the piano, swimming, public speaking, drawing, dancing and lots of other random stuff. Wanted to be an all-rounder like. I have tried all of them but when I found out that I have no talent or I was no good at it from the first try, I've given up and moved on to other things. I wanted to be good at what I do right away, but I hated going through the process of learning it. Hence, the frustration made me give up on it and never pick it up again unless I really wanted to do it.
The same goes for when I'm studying. I want to learn the materials right away without the pain of trying to understand or memorise them. Since high school, I've always picked up things during classes, so I didn't have to study as hard afterwards. So when I failed to do that in my uni years, I thought I have become really stupid and beat myself hard for it, leading to me failing a lot of classes and giving up altogether. I refuse to go through the hard process of studying, staying up late, spending 10 minutes each day to review my lecture notes, and reading textbooks. Recently, I've discovered a concept that made me think a lot about the way I do things in my life,
being realistic.
Being realistic that things take time. Being realistic that a goal is a progress, not magic at a snap of a finger or a wave of a wand. Being realistic that we can never be perfect, but we can always move towards being it, and that point of perfection will move further and further away as we move, because perfection does not exist. Being realistic that everybody makes mistakes, and it is essential for us to learn that to move towards the betterment. I mean, this is not rocket science, but it is a concept that I didn't take to heart before. And by learning this, I'm starting to let go of control and let things come naturally. I've become more at ease knowing that I don't have to be perfect on the first try, which is illogical by the way. I've become less upset of the things that don't fit my (unrealistically high) standards, and more able to accept my mistakes and forgive them.
And this realisation made me able to smile more.
