Saturday, August 11, 2012
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Ruminations by the Water
Finally, I have returned back to Singapore after a grueling but highly fulfilling 18 months in Australia.
Blogging has become somewhat of a luxury for me... Nowadays I prefer to post short snippets of my thoughts on Facebook.. So much easier.
But this thought is an exceptional one not just because of the length, but the reflection on my personal life.
While swimming today, I encountered a small boy and his teacher, both struggling - one exerting his utmost effort to teach, and the other exerting his utmost effort not to learn.
From a spectator's point of view, it was an utterly hilarious sight:
The teacher was using both hands to suspend the boy in the water, enabling him to perfect his paddling motions. Given the impossible chance of drowning, you would expect the boy to be trying his best to simulate what was thought. - but no.
The little boy was screaming and crying, with a commendable effort to, in fact, DROWN himself in that shallow pool. He kept repeating the same mantra that, "I am unable to do it! I am drowning!" in a volume that would make a RSM cry with shame.
Nonetheless, the instructor kept him afloat, and with commendable effort, guided him to the other end of the pool.
The boy was still insisting that he could not do it, even when his feet was touching the base of the pool.
.. Well, it may seem hilarious if you were actually watching it as a spectator. But on closer reflection, I realize that this is how so many people are like, even as adults....
We are given a safe environment to study, learn and excel, but because of restrictions that we place on ourselves, we believe that we are unable to do it.
We are afraid to fail. I am afraid to fail.
In secondary school, we tell ourselves we cannot fail, that we will die if we fail. The same way that the little boy conditioned himself to believe that if he gulped in a few mouthful of water he would die. Consequently, he forgets that the instructor is right next to him.
At work, we fear our bosses. We believe them to be harbingers of doom and slavery. We cannot talk to them because they have transcended mortality. In the same way, it never occurred to the boy that the instructor was his age once, that he struggled the same way he struggled as he had the same physiology as the little boy before. Consequently, the little boy tells himself that he will never achieve the same status as his teacher, causing him to spiral into a series of self-fulfilling prophecies.
We all have that little boy in us that we need to let go. True, some decisions we make in life can be fateful, but more often then not, we are limited by our own personal perceptions.
How easy it is to say that we cannot do it and give up!
By giving up, we reject the complete experience that life has to provide. And, in this day and age, we have so many instructors and teachers with their hands under our bellies, such that if we do go underwater, it isn't that far before we can feel a hand grab us and pull us up.
Appreciate your teachers, don't disappoint them by limiting your potential.
Blogging has become somewhat of a luxury for me... Nowadays I prefer to post short snippets of my thoughts on Facebook.. So much easier.
But this thought is an exceptional one not just because of the length, but the reflection on my personal life.
While swimming today, I encountered a small boy and his teacher, both struggling - one exerting his utmost effort to teach, and the other exerting his utmost effort not to learn.
From a spectator's point of view, it was an utterly hilarious sight:
The teacher was using both hands to suspend the boy in the water, enabling him to perfect his paddling motions. Given the impossible chance of drowning, you would expect the boy to be trying his best to simulate what was thought. - but no.
The little boy was screaming and crying, with a commendable effort to, in fact, DROWN himself in that shallow pool. He kept repeating the same mantra that, "I am unable to do it! I am drowning!" in a volume that would make a RSM cry with shame.
Nonetheless, the instructor kept him afloat, and with commendable effort, guided him to the other end of the pool.
The boy was still insisting that he could not do it, even when his feet was touching the base of the pool.
.. Well, it may seem hilarious if you were actually watching it as a spectator. But on closer reflection, I realize that this is how so many people are like, even as adults....
We are given a safe environment to study, learn and excel, but because of restrictions that we place on ourselves, we believe that we are unable to do it.
We are afraid to fail. I am afraid to fail.
In secondary school, we tell ourselves we cannot fail, that we will die if we fail. The same way that the little boy conditioned himself to believe that if he gulped in a few mouthful of water he would die. Consequently, he forgets that the instructor is right next to him.
At work, we fear our bosses. We believe them to be harbingers of doom and slavery. We cannot talk to them because they have transcended mortality. In the same way, it never occurred to the boy that the instructor was his age once, that he struggled the same way he struggled as he had the same physiology as the little boy before. Consequently, the little boy tells himself that he will never achieve the same status as his teacher, causing him to spiral into a series of self-fulfilling prophecies.
We all have that little boy in us that we need to let go. True, some decisions we make in life can be fateful, but more often then not, we are limited by our own personal perceptions.
How easy it is to say that we cannot do it and give up!
By giving up, we reject the complete experience that life has to provide. And, in this day and age, we have so many instructors and teachers with their hands under our bellies, such that if we do go underwater, it isn't that far before we can feel a hand grab us and pull us up.
Appreciate your teachers, don't disappoint them by limiting your potential.
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