Program Pengajian Lepasan STPM/Setaraf
Sesi Akademik 2010/2011
Sesi Akademik 2010/2011
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Thursday, June 17, 2010
my third phase of life begin here
Semakan Keputusan Permohonan Kemasukan ke IPTA
Program Pengajian Lepasan STPM/Setaraf
Sesi Akademik 2010/2011
Sesi Akademik 2010/2011
Program Pengajian Lepasan STPM/Setaraf
Sesi Akademik 2010/2011
Sesi Akademik 2010/2011
what education means to a handicapped
Those who forget history are condemn to repeat it.This is what exactly George Santayana,a historian,said.But what this is all about?
Let's make history or we become history.This is common saying we heard everyday.The history is like when we draw a paint on a canvas.If we draw beautifully then it will become so beautiful and otherwise.Let's take a look at European history.Historically,agreement achieved by Francesco Petrach and Niccolo Machiavelli.They shaped the Europe by their simple thoughts.It's Feudalism.That's how the social system works.
Feudalism is a political and military system during the Middle Ages between the feudal aristocracy (a lord), and his vassals. In its most classic sense, feudalism refers to the Medieval European political system composed of a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warriornobility, revolving around the three key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs. Although derived from the Latin word feodum (fief), then in use, the termfeudalism and the system it describes were not conceived of as a formal political system by the people living in the Medieval Period.
There is no broadly accepted modern definition of feudalism. The term, which was coined in the early modern period (17th century), was originally used in a political context, but other definitions of feudalism exist. Since at least the 1960s,[1] many medieval historians have included a broader social aspect, adding the peasantry bonds of manorialism, sometimes referred to as a "feudal society". Still others since the 1970s have re-examined the evidence and concluded that feudalism is an unworkable term and should be removed entirely from scholarly and educational discussion, or at least used only with severe qualification and warning.
Let's make history or we become history.This is common saying we heard everyday.The history is like when we draw a paint on a canvas.If we draw beautifully then it will become so beautiful and otherwise.Let's take a look at European history.Historically,agreement achieved by Francesco Petrach and Niccolo Machiavelli.They shaped the Europe by their simple thoughts.It's Feudalism.That's how the social system works.
Feudalism is a political and military system during the Middle Ages between the feudal aristocracy (a lord), and his vassals. In its most classic sense, feudalism refers to the Medieval European political system composed of a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warriornobility, revolving around the three key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs. Although derived from the Latin word feodum (fief), then in use, the termfeudalism and the system it describes were not conceived of as a formal political system by the people living in the Medieval Period.
There is no broadly accepted modern definition of feudalism. The term, which was coined in the early modern period (17th century), was originally used in a political context, but other definitions of feudalism exist. Since at least the 1960s,[1] many medieval historians have included a broader social aspect, adding the peasantry bonds of manorialism, sometimes referred to as a "feudal society". Still others since the 1970s have re-examined the evidence and concluded that feudalism is an unworkable term and should be removed entirely from scholarly and educational discussion, or at least used only with severe qualification and warning.Everything starts from there until what we can see today.The world now face with growing instability violence.The crime rates increase as time passing by.That's why the education system is very important.It's main purpose is to educate people to behave and not do the bad things.Usually those who are convicted for crimes are people who came from poor educational background.Many of them came from poor family in village area.
They actually didn't have enough knowledge to face the evil world today.So the children must have a proper education so that the bright future belong to them.If not we then who will make a change.If not now,then when we'll gonna make a change.So,what the hell you're waiting for? the world need us.Find your voice and inspire others.
music and politics..where do they intercept?
I love music.Music is my love.I love music so much as i love my girlfriend(I wish I would have one).Sometimes i think that i can't live without music.It's the oxygen than give me life.I'm addicted badly to music.I love the music from English bands.Indie,Rock,Electronic made the beat went loud.When the bands from U.S an U.K making a music,they didn't care much of their vocal are but their music made people crazy.They always experimenting with new melodies and can stand on their own way.They're truly indie band.My favorite bands are System Of A Down ,Muse and Coldplay.There's so much more good bands but this three are the most outstanding band ever.
The most greatest band ever is System Of A Down.I really like their ideology,the messages through their songs that they want to spread across the globe.SOAD has highly achieve a great success by influenced millions people around the world.They have a very huge fans in America and Europe.They idea is simple.Peace no war.And to make our a better place to live in.
They expressed their feeling and thought towards U.S Government through their crazy hilarious song.The top-Billboard hit songs like B.Y.O.B and Chop Suey have won many prestige award such Grammys.Bush's administration over Iraq is their main focus.They labeled Bush as a hypocritic human that lived in hypnotic computer age.Drugs is his global policies but now he made U.S as the global police.For several years Iraq has been destroyed by his own greedy fuckin' propaganda.
Now we just hope that the new presidential candidates,Barack Obama with his new foreign policies will a make a sudden impact on the globe.This several months,we could see that U.S economy institution has completely crashed down to earth.The credit trouble made many working class suffers unemployed.The meltdown seen as global threat because U.S played a big role leading world economy.Although in Europe there are naby good financial institution that can subtitutes U.S but Uncle Sam has been a major priority over the world.
Last two weeks.the U.S government has sign the economy plan that costing them 700 billion dolars to save the country.That's very huge aount of money.Perhaps the money can be used for a better reason by improving the quality life of poor country around the world.Thousands hungry children died every year because of starvation.Somalias and Rwandas for example were begging for compassion from the globe to help them.If Bush put the 700 billions dollars in UNICEF account,that will be huge impact to the human life,us.
All the thigs that we have to do nowis to put all of our effort to save the world.And this only can be achieve by education.It play a big role for humanity.Everything that we learn in school is what education means.The humanity should be emphasized in early education such primary school.Everyone should be know that.Only by that way our world can be better.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Smart people outsmart each other
When I was young,I admired the great scientist Albert Einstein so much.He was so genius and people said that he's the one of the most genius people live in twentieth century.Being a scientist has vary responsibility to bring a better future to humankind.When I first Einstein's portrait t,I tell myself that I want to be like him someday.His General Theory Of Relativity and his famous equation E=mc2 have mesmerized me completely.His theory rules the physics world for decades.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.That's what he keep saying until death.I at first dont quite understand what he said but after thinking for a while,I realized that he was absolutely right.We have to imagine of something new,something is completely out of our knowledge to get great ideas.
Some people say that Einstein is not smart as we thought.But why? Some research have been taken and the found that his theory about the relativity is accidentally found.The truth is he just thinking against the Newton's Law of Gravitational and began to question about time and space.From there he found the idea of relativity.
What I tried to say is Einstein is very smart cause he can create those ideas through his creativity.Can you?
Time is very valuable.It moves continuously through space and never turn back.The idea of pastime,present and future is depend on each other.We can't go back to past to change something like Hiro Nakamura in Heroes and go to the future.My point is if we back to past and chance something(even just take a breath for a sec) it's will absolutely effects our present time there will be no future.Everything will be vanished .
Meanwhile if we go to the future how we do it.I really dont like the idea of back to the future because when we live on present time,the placed where you sit now,the future is still dont exists.We shaped our future through our mind.We plan it then it will be.That's it's very crucial for us to plan for our future.
The idea of back to the future is just crazy idea of mad scientists.It's just a science fiction.It's just movie.Let's get to the reality where we can speak of anything we want.Everything that we see today is yesterday's thought.Knowledge and imagination is very important as it keep us to the future.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.That's what he keep saying until death.I at first dont quite understand what he said but after thinking for a while,I realized that he was absolutely right.We have to imagine of something new,something is completely out of our knowledge to get great ideas.
Some people say that Einstein is not smart as we thought.But why? Some research have been taken and the found that his theory about the relativity is accidentally found.The truth is he just thinking against the Newton's Law of Gravitational and began to question about time and space.From there he found the idea of relativity.
What I tried to say is Einstein is very smart cause he can create those ideas through his creativity.Can you?
Time is very valuable.It moves continuously through space and never turn back.The idea of pastime,present and future is depend on each other.We can't go back to past to change something like Hiro Nakamura in Heroes and go to the future.My point is if we back to past and chance something(even just take a breath for a sec) it's will absolutely effects our present time there will be no future.Everything will be vanished .
Meanwhile if we go to the future how we do it.I really dont like the idea of back to the future because when we live on present time,the placed where you sit now,the future is still dont exists.We shaped our future through our mind.We plan it then it will be.That's it's very crucial for us to plan for our future.
The idea of back to the future is just crazy idea of mad scientists.It's just a science fiction.It's just movie.Let's get to the reality where we can speak of anything we want.Everything that we see today is yesterday's thought.Knowledge and imagination is very important as it keep us to the future.
Cogito Ergo Sum
Rene Descartes
Let me give you a brief biography of One the famous mathematician and philosopher in history.And yet,he still one of my inspirational men.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher,mathematician and natural scientist who invented analytical geometry and was the first philosopher to describe the Universe as he saw it in terms of mind and matter.
He worked out laws of motion.Descartes rejected the idea the everything we observe is false or a dream by saying that,because we have thoughts,we exists.
His latin motto,"cogito ergo sum"( I think therefore I am) is very famous.It means that because we have thoughts,we exist.Descartes approach to science was to question everything. He worked out things for himself from he beginning.Born at La Haye,in France,Descartes was brought up as a Jesuit,traveled widely and fought in several wars.From 1628 to 1649 he lived in the Netherlands.he died on a visit to Sweden in 1650.
Dream Will Possess Your Life
There's also a story...
Monday,Oct 20,12.30am.
>>>Last Friday I had a dream.It's something really beautiful and I just can't forget it.I felt like it can trigger my nerve to do some extraordinarily.Some people say that every big men is a dreamers.The really believe in their dream.Either the dream that is full of vision or it's just another daydream.I dont know but my dream it's hard to believe my dream.Nobody will believe that 17 years iold schoolboy like me can think these things out.but i believed that i can and someday people will believe me of what i'm trying to say all this time.
I realized that there's some interesting ideas about my dream.It's about the coincidence between effort and hope that never die.
In my dream,I couldn't believe that someone who can push my adrenaline high is just came to me without questioning.On that time I just imagine that how lucky I am.It's happened in my classroom when i was form two.I can still remember that everyone is keep dealing with their own business and all of sudden my friend told me that the girl cam here to meet me.My heart was pounding heavily fast and it was crazing pumping through my veins.I just don't know what to do instead to runaway.But this time i barely brave and try to be confident with myself.Perhaps Bill Bernbach has doing a great job by inspiring me with his words.He once said that the man who will be in business tomorrow is the men who always believe that the world has always belong to the brave.
Then,I didn't realized that how fast she gonna approach me and the next thing I knew was she was beside me.We're so close.The best thing I could on that time is just keep staring on her.I can really feel that she's by my side now and it's was so comfortable.She asked me to tell everything that I wanna tell her.Just let it out.And by that time i told her everything,about my feelings toward her and what it makes me suffer to wait all this time for this little precious moment.
As I finished talking,I can see that her cute beautiful smile on her face.I ask why she smiling and she said that nothing.But I guess it through her glossy eyes.It means that she's happy with me and I felt like driving myself off the wall on that moment.
We talked everything about us on that night.I wish that the moment would last forever.Then she took me to the place at the back of the class and she took several pictures and showed it to me.I didnt remember what the picture is look alike but it's very meaningful to me.A picture can give us thousands words but for me I just have one word only.It's "love".
Monday,Oct 20,12.30am.
>>>Last Friday I had a dream.It's something really beautiful and I just can't forget it.I felt like it can trigger my nerve to do some extraordinarily.Some people say that every big men is a dreamers.The really believe in their dream.Either the dream that is full of vision or it's just another daydream.I dont know but my dream it's hard to believe my dream.Nobody will believe that 17 years iold schoolboy like me can think these things out.but i believed that i can and someday people will believe me of what i'm trying to say all this time.
I realized that there's some interesting ideas about my dream.It's about the coincidence between effort and hope that never die.
In my dream,I couldn't believe that someone who can push my adrenaline high is just came to me without questioning.On that time I just imagine that how lucky I am.It's happened in my classroom when i was form two.I can still remember that everyone is keep dealing with their own business and all of sudden my friend told me that the girl cam here to meet me.My heart was pounding heavily fast and it was crazing pumping through my veins.I just don't know what to do instead to runaway.But this time i barely brave and try to be confident with myself.Perhaps Bill Bernbach has doing a great job by inspiring me with his words.He once said that the man who will be in business tomorrow is the men who always believe that the world has always belong to the brave.
Then,I didn't realized that how fast she gonna approach me and the next thing I knew was she was beside me.We're so close.The best thing I could on that time is just keep staring on her.I can really feel that she's by my side now and it's was so comfortable.She asked me to tell everything that I wanna tell her.Just let it out.And by that time i told her everything,about my feelings toward her and what it makes me suffer to wait all this time for this little precious moment.As I finished talking,I can see that her cute beautiful smile on her face.I ask why she smiling and she said that nothing.But I guess it through her glossy eyes.It means that she's happy with me and I felt like driving myself off the wall on that moment.
We talked everything about us on that night.I wish that the moment would last forever.Then she took me to the place at the back of the class and she took several pictures and showed it to me.I didnt remember what the picture is look alike but it's very meaningful to me.A picture can give us thousands words but for me I just have one word only.It's "love".
Counting time is like exaggerate the truth
Sunday,11.28 pm.
>>>It's 22 days to go for SPM.From this moment I hope that something good or miracles will happen to me.I need strength and blessings in everything i do until the last minute of SPM.I do it for myself and my future that absolutely waiting for me.Today i learned something good from my stupid mistakes.It's my maths performance.
Sometimes i'm just too over confident when dealing with maths.This is my bad habits since primary school.I still remeber that my teacher always saying that i am a person who just too believes that my work is almost perfect i was a perfectly wrong indeed.I must take everything into account when making decision.
Cikgu Mazinah was right, i was just too young to make a good decision.There's alot i have to understand first before making a statement of truth.I have to struggle first then i'll have freedom of speech and opportunity to discover the greatness of the world around us.
I certainly believed in the logical things around me.The things such as science and maths never lies.It's upon evidence and logical thinking to make a deduction or theory.Maths and science is rational thinking.We absolutely can apply those things in our everyday life to make a better future to live in.Such thing as maths,we can use it in engineering,integrated systems,make a beautiful design,predict the weather,making decision and even solving the crimes.
The Sunday Morning On October 19, 2008,Where The Red Diary Was Written
During the days at SMSTMFP,the days before I take SPM exams,I made a rough decision of to write a diary or maybe a like to call it a journal.So the story begin here....
Sun,12.53 am.
>>> This is the first i write this thing.I guest i'm pretty bored and maybe quite desperate now to write a some diaries.This journal i would like to call it as my self-reflection or mirror,to see how's i look everyday.Actually,i've been inspired by someone,a girl to write this shit.Yesterday I found that girl's diary so i read and i start to realised something,it's like a giant has awake to show himself on me.Something that at first will gonna change my life forever(but it's common stupid saying though..hhaa).I found the diary accidentally,or perhaps actually i'd searched for it..huhu.
>>>Every obstacles,every problem,every misery that she has to face everyday made her stronger than before and that time I was so impressed.She's some kinda who believes that nothing impossible that we can achieve everything that we want.It's all start with our dream and we have to work on it till end to make it comes true.Finding the way of suggestion whether it's good or bad it's not a big deal.It's actually depend on us of which one we pick it.Simple English,it's not about the truth,it's all about picking side.So, why we believe all those things in our life? Ask yourself and it shall give you a good answer.
Sun,12.53 am.
>>> This is the first i write this thing.I guest i'm pretty bored and maybe quite desperate now to write a some diaries.This journal i would like to call it as my self-reflection or mirror,to see how's i look everyday.Actually,i've been inspired by someone,a girl to write this shit.Yesterday I found that girl's diary so i read and i start to realised something,it's like a giant has awake to show himself on me.Something that at first will gonna change my life forever(but it's common stupid saying though..hhaa).I found the diary accidentally,or perhaps actually i'd searched for it..huhu.
>>>Every obstacles,every problem,every misery that she has to face everyday made her stronger than before and that time I was so impressed.She's some kinda who believes that nothing impossible that we can achieve everything that we want.It's all start with our dream and we have to work on it till end to make it comes true.Finding the way of suggestion whether it's good or bad it's not a big deal.It's actually depend on us of which one we pick it.Simple English,it's not about the truth,it's all about picking side.So, why we believe all those things in our life? Ask yourself and it shall give you a good answer.
Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human life.
It's time to write about my story during schooldays.Basically this is a piece of unforgettable memories of mine.I attended SMS Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra ,Pengkalan Chepa,Kelantan on Jan 2004 and finished my studies on Dec 2008.When i look back on those days back i felt that many things happened on me during my entire schooldays simply taught me how to characterize myself and how to differs between a pen and a pencil.
People said make friends with thousands people but make enemy one.But my own version is make friends with thousands people but trust few.There are certain reasons why i say this.I'll let you think first n then have a few strikes below this post.Back then I made many friends but I only trust 3 of them which is my best friends until now.Syazwan Shafie aka Cha(I knew how he get this name..haha),Zakwan Zahari aka Pokka and Saddam Yusoff aka Sade.These 3 person are really my I-wish-I-die-when-I'm-doing-something-good-with them friends.I shared almost everything with them and twas really pathetic when us keep apart.
Sade will gonna fly to Russia in the end of June and Pokka will fly to somewhere years later.There's only will be Cha who will spend good time with me upon my u-studies at KL.Cha was a a very strong dude.His late mum left him on April this year.I knew it's gonna be so hard for him but everytime he talk and meet me he always pretend that nothing happened but i knew that he tried to hide it from me.Poor him.Cha if you're reading this i just wanna tell u that i just proud of u're being my friend and I want keep it last.
I just wanna share about my story during fivers years cause years back then i couldn't any remeber that either i forgot or i want to forget those cause it's not interesting at all.It's gonna be a pretty good reason why i should write those from year one until five.uhh it's a very very long hectic story to tell ya.So,to make ti simple as posiible,I just share with you guys what I'm living during form five at SMSTMFP.To be continued.
People said make friends with thousands people but make enemy one.But my own version is make friends with thousands people but trust few.There are certain reasons why i say this.I'll let you think first n then have a few strikes below this post.Back then I made many friends but I only trust 3 of them which is my best friends until now.Syazwan Shafie aka Cha(I knew how he get this name..haha),Zakwan Zahari aka Pokka and Saddam Yusoff aka Sade.These 3 person are really my I-wish-I-die-when-I'm-doing-something-good-with them friends.I shared almost everything with them and twas really pathetic when us keep apart.
Sade will gonna fly to Russia in the end of June and Pokka will fly to somewhere years later.There's only will be Cha who will spend good time with me upon my u-studies at KL.Cha was a a very strong dude.His late mum left him on April this year.I knew it's gonna be so hard for him but everytime he talk and meet me he always pretend that nothing happened but i knew that he tried to hide it from me.Poor him.Cha if you're reading this i just wanna tell u that i just proud of u're being my friend and I want keep it last.
I just wanna share about my story during fivers years cause years back then i couldn't any remeber that either i forgot or i want to forget those cause it's not interesting at all.It's gonna be a pretty good reason why i should write those from year one until five.uhh it's a very very long hectic story to tell ya.So,to make ti simple as posiible,I just share with you guys what I'm living during form five at SMSTMFP.To be continued.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Blogging is alive again!
Blogging has come came to my interest this year.I felt so excited to writing in this my cool blog.With new looks and some cool widgets plus ads by nuffnang(credit to yana jaapari),I think there's no other reason to stop from make some posts now.
Actually the main purpose why i'm blogging is i want to improve my english(as u can see most of the stuffs here are written in english).By blogging i feel that i can express myself and write it down.I want to write about my story,my toughts,my point of view n else.I like to give critics on something but i dont like politics much.It really annoys me but sometimes i want to be a great politician a try to lead some better propagandas.Politics now is really sucks.The politician dont do anything good except pointing fingers on each others for the mess the made.I dont know why they really having bad intentions to the country.Their country,their home,their children but they keep destroying it for some selfish reasons.Ok,think it's enough now for politics.f for them.
This Is How I See The World is actually about my thoughts,my own perception to things and about myself.When you read this,actually you're reading me.You don't need to have special power like superheroes or like Matt Parkman in Heroes to read my mind. Read this,and you'll understand me(although there's some things you can never understand about me but at least you'll understand a few things).My focus on this blog is about to share and to give people about my own perception and share some inspirational stories and maybe some funny jokes sometimes.If you find my blog is so offensive then i dont know what to do.It's up to you whether you want to read or not.Continue to read because there's so much interesting things you can see soon.
Best regards from me.Syahir Sari
Overcoming Procrastination Instantly Using Self Talk
The Voices In Our Heads
We’re talking to ourselves all the time inside our minds. Even when you’re not paying attention, these relentless mental debates deeply influence our feelings and, ultimately, our behavior.
The good news is that just becoming aware of such mental dialogues — noticing patterns and turning them into productive statements — is usually all you need to overcome many unwelcome feelings and behaviors.
Let’s see how this can help us when it comes to procrastination.
The Procrastinator’s Motto
Consider the following thought, which for sure has crossed our minds many times in the past:
“I have to finish this long, important project. It should already be done by now and I need to plow through it.”
Now, tell me you don’t have this thought sometimes. For me, no other passage embodies our procrastinator’s mind so well: as we’ll see, this small, seemingly innocent thought contains almost every mental block that encourages procrastination. That’s why I like to call it the Procrastinator’s Motto.
We all use the Procrastinator’s Motto (or variations of it) every once in a while. If you’re a chronic procrastinator, chances are you repeat it to yourself very frequently — daily, perhaps.
But what’s so wrong about the Procrastinator’s Motto? In what ways do these words encourage procrastination so much — and what can we do about it?
From Procrastinator to Producer: A Step-by-Step Self Talk Guide
To understand what’s wrong with the Procrastinator’s Motto, let’s break it down in parts:
“(1) I have to (2) finish this (3) long, (4) important project. (5) It should already be done by now and (6) I need to plow through it.”
Now let’s consider each of these six parts in turn, replacing each of them with an empowering alternative. In doing that, we’ll turn the original motto on its head and create a productive call to action: a “Producer’s Motto”, if you like.
1. I Have To → I Choose To
‘I have to’ is every procrastinator’s favorite expression. It’s also the most disempowering.
Every time you say to yourself that you have to do something, you imply that you don’t have any choice. This choice of words implies that you feel forced or coerced to do the task — that you don’t really want to do it. That perception, of course, elicits a strong feeling of victimhood and resistance towards doing the task.
The solution to this problem is to replace ‘I have to’ with the immensely more empowering alternative ‘I choose to’.
Everything you do is ultimately a choice (yes, even completing tax forms). Using language that expresses choice reminds you of that and brings the feeling of power back.
For an in-depth exploration about the ‘I have to’ expression, check this early articlededicated entirely to this matter.
2. Finish → Start
When you focus on finishing something, you direct your attention to a vague, highly idealized future. Visualizing a finished project is motivating for many people, but from the point of view of who’s having a hard time starting a task, visualizing a hard-to-grasp future can be overwhelming — even depressing at times.
The solution in this case, then, is not to focus on finishing, but on starting.
Forget for a minute about the finish line, just concentrate on taking the first step. Bring your focus from the future to what can be done right now. We all know that if you start something a large enough number of times, you’ll eventually finish any task.
Starting — all by itself — is usually sufficient to build enough momentum to keep the ball rolling from then on. This is what Mark Forster calls the “I’ll just get the file out” technique, and it definitely works.
3. Long Project → Short Task
Constantly reminding yourself how long and challenging the upcoming undertaking is only adds to the feeling of being overwhelmed, and thus of procrastination.
Any undertaking, no matter how daunting, can be broken down into small steps. The trick is to, on each step along the way, focus solely on the very next smallest, doable chunk of work. Ignore the big picture for a while and just tackle that next short task.
Make it in a way you can easily visualize the outcome coming about very soon. Don’t write a book; write a page. If it still looks intimidating, you may try committing to a time box instead.
Of course, keep the big picture in mind, but use it for motivation and direction as needed, and not to frighten yourself before action.
4. Important Project → Imperfect Step
“This project has to impress everyone; I really can’t blow this opportunity.”
Placing such high hopes on a project only adds to anxiety and fear of failure. Perfectionism arises and only fuels procrastination even more.
The way to overcome this mental block is to simply give yourself permission to be human. Allow yourself to be imperfect just in this next small task.
Focus on giving an imperfect step; remember that you can always refine your work later. Better yet, make it in a way that you can’t possibly fail.
If you’re a serial perfectionist, go one step further and commit yourself to make a sloppy job on purpose, at least at first.
5. It Should Already Be Done by Now → I’ll Feel Terrific
The expression ‘should‘ is usually associated with blame and guilt. When you say youshould be doing something (instead of what you’re actually doing), you focus on comparing an ideal reality with your current, “bad” reality. You focus not on what is, but on what could have been. Misused ‘shoulds‘ can elicit a strong message of failure, depression and regret.
The solution is to focus not on how bad you feel now, but on how good you’ll feel after you take action. Yes, directed action — even the tiniest of it — towards a goal is the best motivator I know of. The trick is to bring that expected feeling of accomplishment into the present — and know that the real joy of it is only a small task away.
6. Need to Plow Through → Have Plenty of Time for Play
“I’ve got to work all weekend”. “I am trapped in this laborious project”.
Long periods of isolation can bring an enormous feeling of resentment. This feeling generates a strong sense of deprivation and resistance towards the task.
The way to overcome this mental block is to not allow long stretches of work to creep in your activities. Schedule frequent breaks. Plan small rewards along the way. Have something to look forward to — not far away at the end of a long stretch — but in the very near feature. When rewards are small, frequent — and deserved — they work wonders.
Truly commit to leisure time. In fact, go ahead and make it mandatory. This “reverse-psychology” can by itself bring you to a whole different mindset, both more productive and enjoyable.
How Far Have We Come?
Time to check what we’ve accomplished with all the word substitutions. We started with:
“I have to finish this long, important project. It should already be done by now and I need to plow through it.”
And ended up with:
“I choose to start this task with a small, imperfect step. I’ll feel terrific and have plenty of time for play!”
Quite a change, eh?
Every time you catch yourself repeating the Procrastinator’s Motto or any of its parts to yourself, stop and rephrase it. Then check how you feel.
While it may seem just a matter of word choices at first, when you try this simple way to reframe your thoughts, you’ll see how instantly it changes your attitude towards working on your tasks. Moreover, if you turn it into a habit, you’ll be slowly reprogramming your thoughts, leading to a positive, permanent change in your mindset.
Monday, June 14, 2010
What it takes to be great
Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work
(Fortune Magazine) -- What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway (Charts) Chairman Warren Buffett the world's premier investor? We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was "wired at birth to allocate capital." It's a one-in-a-million thing. You've got it - or you don't.
Well, folks, it's not so simple. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist. (Sorry, Warren.) You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful.
Buffett, for instance, is famed for his discipline and the hours he spends studying financial statements of potential investment targets. The good news is that your lack of a natural gift is irrelevant - talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great.
Scientific experts are producing remarkably consistent findings across a wide array of fields. Understand that talent doesn't mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits. It's an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well. British-based researchers Michael J. Howe, Jane W. Davidson and John A. Sluboda conclude in an extensive study, "The evidence we have surveyed ... does not support the [notion that] excelling is a consequence of possessing innate gifts."
To see how the researchers could reach such a conclusion, consider the problem they were trying to solve. In virtually every field of endeavor, most people learn quickly at first, then more slowly and then stop developing completely. Yet a few do improve for years and even decades, and go on to greatness.
The irresistible question - the "fundamental challenge" for researchers in this field, says the most prominent of them, professor K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University - is, Why? How are certain people able to go on improving? The answers begin with consistent observations about great performers in many fields.
Scientists worldwide have conducted scores of studies since the 1993 publication of a landmark paper by Ericsson and two colleagues, many focusing on sports, music and chess, in which performance is relatively easy to measure and plot over time. But plenty of additional studies have also examined other fields, including business.
No substitute for hard work
The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. It's nice to believe that if you find the field where you're naturally gifted, you'll be great from day one, but it doesn't happen. There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.Reinforcing that no-free-lunch finding is vast evidence that even the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established researchers call it the ten-year rule.
What about Bobby Fischer, who became a chess grandmaster at 16? Turns out the rule holds: He'd had nine years of intensive study. And as John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University observe, "The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average." In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 20 or 30 years' experience before hitting their zenith.
So greatness isn't handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work. Yet that isn't enough, since many people work hard for decades without approaching greatness or even getting significantly better. What's missing?
Practice makes perfect
The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.
Consistency is crucial. As Ericsson notes, "Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends."
Evidence crosses a remarkable range of fields. In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000. It's the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.
The skeptics
Not all researchers are totally onboard with the myth-of-talent hypothesis, though their objections go to its edges rather than its center. For one thing, there are the intangibles. Two athletes might work equally hard, but what explains the ability of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to perform at a higher level in the last two minutes of a game?Researchers also note, for example, child prodigies who could speak, read or play music at an unusually early age. But on investigation those cases generally include highly involved parents. And many prodigies do not go on to greatness in their early field, while great performers include many who showed no special early aptitude.
Certainly some important traits are partly inherited, such as physical size and particular measures of intelligence, but those influence what a person doesn't do more than what he does; a five-footer will never be an NFL lineman, and a seven-footer will never be an Olympic gymnast. Even those restrictions are less severe than you'd expect: Ericsson notes, "Some international chess masters have IQs in the 90s." The more research that's done, the more solid the deliberate-practice model becomes.
Real-world examples
All this scholarly research is simply evidence for what great performers have been showing us for years. To take a handful of examples: Winston Churchill, one of the 20th century's greatest orators, practiced his speeches compulsively. Vladimir Horowitz supposedly said, "If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don't practice for three days, the world knows it." He was certainly a demon practicer, but the same quote has been attributed to world-class musicians like Ignace Paderewski and Luciano Pavarotti.Many great athletes are legendary for the brutal discipline of their practice routines. In basketball, Michael Jordan practiced intensely beyond the already punishing team practices. (Had Jordan possessed some mammoth natural gift specifically for basketball, it seems unlikely he'd have been cut from his high school team.)
In football, all-time-great receiver Jerry Rice - passed up by 15 teams because they considered him too slow - practiced so hard that other players would get sick trying to keep up.
Tiger Woods is a textbook example of what the research shows. Because his father introduced him to golf at an extremely early age - 18 months - and encouraged him to practice intensively, Woods had racked up at least 15 years of practice by the time he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, at age 18. Also in line with the findings, he has never stopped trying to improve, devoting many hours a day to conditioning and practice, even remaking his swing twice because that's what it took to get even better.
The business side
The evidence, scientific as well as anecdotal, seems overwhelmingly in favor of deliberate practice as the source of great performance. Just one problem: How do you practice business? Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable. Presenting, negotiating, delivering evaluations, deciphering financial statements - you can practice them all.Still, they aren't the essence of great managerial performance. That requires making judgments and decisions with imperfect information in an uncertain environment, interacting with people, seeking information - can you practice those things too? You can, though not in the way you would practice a Chopin etude.
Instead, it's all about how you do what you're already doing - you create the practice in your work, which requires a few critical changes. The first is going at any task with a new goal: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it.
Report writing involves finding information, analyzing it and presenting it - each an improvable skill. Chairing a board meeting requires understanding the company's strategy in the deepest way, forming a coherent view of coming market changes and setting a tone for the discussion. Anything that anyone does at work, from the most basic task to the most exalted, is an improvable skill.
Adopting a new mindset
Armed with that mindset, people go at a job in a new way. Research shows they process information more deeply and retain it longer. They want more information on what they're doing and seek other perspectives. They adopt a longer-term point of view. In the activity itself, the mindset persists. You aren't just doing the job, you're explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense.Again, research shows that this difference in mental approach is vital. For example, when amateur singers take a singing lesson, they experience it as fun, a release of tension. But for professional singers, it's the opposite: They increase their concentration and focus on improving their performance during the lesson. Same activity, different mindset.
Feedback is crucial, and getting it should be no problem in business. Yet most people don't seek it; they just wait for it, half hoping it won't come. Without it, as Goldman Sachs leadership-development chief Steve Kerr says, "it's as if you're bowling through a curtain that comes down to knee level. If you don't know how successful you are, two things happen: One, you don't get any better, and two, you stop caring." In some companies, like General Electric, frequent feedback is part of the culture. If you aren't lucky enough to get that, seek it out.
Be the ball
Through the whole process, one of your goals is to build what the researchers call "mental models of your business" - pictures of how the elements fit together and influence one another. The more you work on it, the larger your mental models will become and the better your performance will grow.Andy Grove could keep a model of a whole world-changing technology industry in his head and adapt Intel (Charts) as needed. Bill Gates, Microsoft's (Charts) founder, had the same knack: He could see at the dawn of the PC that his goal of a computer on every desk was realistic and would create an unimaginably large market. John D. Rockefeller, too, saw ahead when the world-changing new industry was oil. Napoleon was perhaps the greatest ever. He could not only hold all the elements of a vast battle in his mind but, more important, could also respond quickly when they shifted in unexpected ways.
That's a lot to focus on for the benefits of deliberate practice - and worthless without one more requirement: Do it regularly, not sporadically.
Why?
For most people, work is hard enough without pushing even harder. Those extra steps are so difficult and painful they almost never get done. That's the way it must be. If great performance were easy, it wouldn't be rare. Which leads to possibly the deepest question about greatness. While experts understand an enormous amount about the behavior that produces great performance, they understand very little about where that behavior comes from.The authors of one study conclude, "We still do not know which factors encourage individuals to engage in deliberate practice." Or as University of Michigan business school professor Noel Tichy puts it after 30 years of working with managers, "Some people are much more motivated than others, and that's the existential question I cannot answer - why."
The critical reality is that we are not hostage to some naturally granted level of talent. We can make ourselves what we will. Strangely, that idea is not popular. People hate abandoning the notion that they would coast to fame and riches if they found their talent. But that view is tragically constraining, because when they hit life's inevitable bumps in the road, they conclude that they just aren't gifted and give up.
Maybe we can't expect most people to achieve greatness. It's just too demanding. But the striking, liberating news is that greatness isn't reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone.
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