Mindset

Previously, I wrote a post about how cluttered my life is.. It was a period where everything that I do wasn't going well and I felt quite negative about the things around me so I decided to find out what's going on.

Although I'm pretty packed with things (e.g. Taekwondo, school, projects outside of my course, music, etc) I didn't want to give any of it up. So I decided that I better get my priorities right (an advice by one of my sec sch teachers that I didn't pay much attention to back then). I decided that school mattered most to me and since I was very busy with exams and presentations, other things outside of school shouldn't matter so much.

So I left it at that and went for my taekwondo class. Unprepared, I was made to lead class and I reminded myself that whether I screw up or not, it doesn't matter... But of course, I will do my best. And surprisingly, I did an awesome job. I didn't screw up! I was natural and relaxed the entire time! I was really amazed because usually when I am made to lead class, I immediately break into cold sweat and I will have a heart attack.

I guess it's the "As long as its my best, I'm happy." mindset that helped me. And it shouldn't surprise me that much because in psychology, I learnt that higher arousal = lower performance. This means that the more stress you give yourself, the lower your rate of success. Noticed that I used 'give yourself' when referring to stress. The amount of stress you feel can usually be controlled! And that's where the power of mindset comes in.

I think the main reason why I've been screwing up on everything that matters to me is because of my mindset. I feel that it matters a lot, so I give myself high stress which sadly produces bad results.

I guess there are people that work well under high stress, and maybe I do too last time, but now it's time for a change. I need to be more relaxed.

The beauty about life is that it's ever changing... One day I will come back here and write about how being relaxed has caused me to overlook things.

Life is all about balance and we must learn how to keep balance. Just like tuning a guitar string, if you tune it too tightly, it will snap and there would be no music... Tune it too loose and it will unwind and there would be no music... Tune it just right and it will play the notes you want and there will be music!

You can use the same analogy on cooking, parenting, colours, temperature, etc. because life is all about balance. And we can keep balance in our lives with the right mindset.