You are what you think

Post 4 Attitude is everything

Your attitude reflects your way of thinking and you are what you think. Positive thinking brings about much achievement in life because attitude is everything. Why do people think differently? Their exposure and past experiences in life and how they have been nurtured to react to them affect their thinking. Generally speaking, students from good social-economic background have better chances of furthering their tertiary education at universities and colleges. From young they have been imperceptibly influenced by what they constantly see and hear from successful professionals. To them much of the learning in life is caught, not taught.

Students from the lower strata of society are handicapped financially and have less opportunity to be exposed to such situation for inspiration. They may also have to help out their parents by working part-time, at the expense of spending more time studying. However, they too can be high achievers if they possess a positive attitude towards life because attitude can initiate changes.

Attitude can be nurtured and acquired. For example, if learning the English language has been a happy experience, you will then associate that subject with happiness and success thereby making learning it an enjoyable one. This will spur you on to walk the extra mile in mastering the language.

However, if you do not like to learn the English language, you will have to remove the causes of your dislike. You may not like to speak in English for fear of being ridiculed by your friends; you may not like spelling because it is difficult; or you simply cannot differentiate between past and present tenses. In order to remove the obstacles, you can seek the help of your teacher in the learning of phonetic symbols for English. This is important in guiding you on the link between sound and spelling. You can also read widely to improve your grammar and knowledge. Listen to news and make use of the state-of-the-art digital learning aids like DVDs to improve your language skills. Practice makes perfect. Have a positive attitude in the learning of other school subjects too and you will realise that much can be achieved.

The education of mind, body, and aesthetic sense are the basis for a harmonious education. Your life has need of harmony and rhythm. Bookworms miss out on the joy offered by music, art and outdoor activities like running, jumping, mountain-climbing, swimming, and playing games. There are scholars who are musicians, singers, sportsmen, footballers, basketball players, tennis players, badminton players, swimmers, or artists. It is their attitude in life which enables them to stand tall among their peers and enjoy life. You too can be like one of them. A glass of water can be half-full or half-empty depending on how you look at it. If you are optimistic and positive in your attitude, you will look at the brighter side of life.

There is a Chinese fable, The Frog in the Well, which tells of a frog who lived at the bottom of a well. He thought the well was the world until a sea turtle told him about the vast ocean. The turtle described the immensity of the sea to the frog: there were floods nine years out of ten, yet the sea water never swelled much; there were droughts seven years out of eight, yet the sea never grew much less. No floods were great enough nor droughts severe enough to affect the sea. Life in the sea was really marvellous!

The frog could only stare at the turtle, dazed and in amazement. He must have widened his outlook in life and changed his way of thinking after listening to the turtle.

Your attitude will change when you widen your horizons in life.


28 July 2009

Success and Distinction

Post 3 Success and distinction are strangers to the slothful


Success is progressive and continuous. You keep on making new successes on different aspects of life as years go by. Through experience and guidance, you become a person of good character and of wisdom. Distinction is the quality of being excellent. You need time and diligence to see a distinct improvement in your studies. Success and distinction are twins. Success will be accompanied by distinction; and distinction cannot stand alone without success.

The slothful is one who is lazy and fails in life because of his attitude. Thus, when you study hard, play hard in the field, and possess a positive attitude, success and distinction will be yours. When I was a primary school boy in the 1950s, tuition was alien to me. My classmates and I enjoyed our outdoor activities after school hours. We roared with laughter picking wild fruits, swimming in rivers, catching spiders, flying kites, and playing tops. We studied hard and lived a school life which was full of fun and playtime. By the way, when was your last hearty laugh?

Teenagers today are busy in an endless paper chase, late-night homework, extra tuition classes, and some immersing themselves in unproductive activities. There is not much time left for games, sports, music and other co-curricular activities. Remember the proverb, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”? Some writers have added a second part to it, “All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.” Therefore give equal importance to both your studies and play. .

When a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Failure is the mother of success. Every failure is a gain to you because there is no success without failures. Thomas Edison failed his way to success before he finally succeeded in inventing the light bulb. The success was worth all his efforts.

As students, you have to cross the hurdles of many examinations. Examinations exist for thousands of years because they are still the best way to assess abilities of students, both written and practical. When you sit for your examinations, you are being tested on whether you can cope with the pressure in the exam hall and still perform well tenaciously. In a working environment, you are expected to be able to stand the pressure of meeting deadlines and multi-tasking. Throughout your career, you will also have to stand out distinctly when you sit for competitive examinations for promotion.

There is a saying; an army is maintained for a thousand days to be used for an hour. This calls for preparation, discipline and training. It will be advisable for you to crystallise your thinking and come out with specific goals which you want to achieve. Work out your time-table, execute your plan and meet deadlines. You can have different plans for different goals. When you discipline yourself in time-management and possess a dogged determination to do well, you will taste the fruits of success and distinction.

21 July 2009

To be enlightened or to be benighted

Post 2 Listen to both sides and you will be enlightened,
Heed only one side and you will be benighted.


When you are enlightened on a matter, you show true and deep understanding of it. The reverse is true. When you are benighted, you are completely without knowledge.

When there is a misunderstanding between two friends, you must listen to both sides to have a clearer picture of why there is a discord between them. However, when you heed only one side, you will be accused of being bias. You will be benighted because you have not heard the other side of the story for you to make value judgment. Therefore, people with benighted minds will draw their foregone conclusion without finding out the true facts of a matter. A benighted person who thought that the world was flat, for example, might need someone to enlighten him!

Are you popular among your classmates? Do you think twice before you act? Will your friends turn to you for help when they are in trouble? If your answers are in the positive, then you tend to be a leader and not a follower. You are a good listener. You are looked up to by your classmates because you are able to discern good from bad, and truth from falsehood. You are affable because you are easy to talk to and have a pleasant disposition. When you make friends instead of enemies among your peers, you will find every day of your school or college life interesting and exciting.

I shall introduce a proverb to you, if you have yet to hear of it: Three cobblers with their wits combined, equal Zhuge Liang the mastermind.

A cobbler is a shoemaker or repairer. Zhuge Liang was the well-known mastermind of war in ancient China. Generally, a cobbler may not be as wise as a mastermind. Nevertheless, the wisdom of three cobblers combined is as powerful as one mastermind because the wisdom of the masses exceeds that of the wisest individual. Therefore when you lend your ears to your friends, you get a helicopter view of a matter without prejudice. You will be more inclined to see things from a more impartial angle. Hence, be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. Always listen to both sides.

Just to digress, there is a Japanese fairy tale on two frogs, Osaka Frog and Kyoto Frog, which I should like to share with you.

Once upon a time in Japan there lived two frogs. One lived in Osaka, a city by the sea; and the other lived in a clear little stream which went through the town of Kyoto. Kyoto Frog wanted to visit Osaka, and Osaka Frog dreamt of seeing Kyoto. One morning they happened to meet each other at the top of a mountain. They both expressed their wish to see and visit their dream places.

Suddenly, Kyoto Frog had an idea and said, "We are tiny as compared to the tall grass. What we need to do is just to stand on our hind legs and then we can see the places we are going to." They then decided to stand up on their hind legs, and hold onto each other. Osaka Frog jumped up and put his front feet on his friend’s shoulders. The frogs stood high up on their toes, with Kyoto Frog facing towards Osaka, and Osaka Frog facing towards Kyoto. When they stood up their large eyes lay in the back of their heads. Both the frogs did not realise that this would only enable them to look backward and not forward. Osaka Frog commented that Kyoto looked exactly like Osaka; and Kyoto Frog said that Osaka was no different from Kyoto.

They were wrong in their judgment of how Kyoto and Osaka actually looked like. Though they might have been facing the places to which they wanted to go, their eyes beheld the places from which they had come. If someone had enlightened them, they would not have been benighted. If only the frogs had been told to turn around, they would have seen a different picture. This would have allowed Osaka Frog to truly see Kyoto and Kyoto Frog to unmistakably view the city of Osaka.

When you listen to both sides, you see things from two different angles and will be more objective in forming your opinion.

14 July 2009

A compilation of life experiences

A compilation of life experiences- specially written for teenagers

Acting is not difficult, what is difficult is to act naturally; speaking is not difficult, what is difficult is to speak like an expert; writing is not difficult, what is difficult is to write with real knowledge and deep insight; making friends is not difficult, what is difficult is to make a bosom friend; giving advice to teenagers is not difficult, what is difficult is to make them believe in you. The writing of this book is justified if it can convince the young readers of the magic of believing.

In order to convince teenagers of what we say, we need to have empathy with teenagers to gain their confidence in us. The awkward position of a thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen-year-old who are in between childhood and adulthood needs to be understood. They can be guided to know that there are more solutions than problems in life. Indeed teenagers are problem solvers to many senior citizens who have difficulty adjusting their lives in the digital world.

When I was about to buy my new mobile phone, the teenager at the counter asked me whether there were young people staying with me at home. When I answered in the negative, he recommended me to buy one with the least functions because I would not be able to handle the state-of-the-art model without the help of teenagers at home. That was his perception on senior citizens’ intelligence on the usage of mobile phones, and for that matter computers could also be included. Hence, the young and the old can learn from each other’s strong points to offset each other’s weaknesses. The juniors are of the future while the seniors talk about history.

An old Chinese saying has it that a person who has travelled ninety out of a hundred miles is considered to have travelled only half the way even though he has completed ninety per cent of the total journey. He falls short of success for lack of a final effort. Hence, teenagers are encouraged to walk an extra mile in their studies and co-curricular activities to be an all-rounder and to enrich their lives. They will be taught through the history of the elders on how to complete the remaining ten miles to make it a perfect score.

Indigo blue is extracted from the indigo plant but is bluer than the plant it comes from. Ice comes from water and is colder than water. They all signify that pupils can surpass their masters. Teenagers are unpolished gems. They need time, experience, encouragement, and guidance in life to become polished diamonds and rubies in contributing their talents in nation building. This book is therefore specially written for teenagers, not from the perspective of giving lectures but that of love and good intentions. The distinguishing mark in all our discussion is a heart-to-heart talk on several pertinent questions, between the author and the readers in their teens, albeit on a one way traffic.

The height of the sky is not known until a high mountain is scaled;
The thickness of the earth is not known until a deep stream is dived;
The talent of teenagers is not known until their potential is unlocked.

Uncle Ho
7 July 2009

Note: Weekly posting