Project#2: Winners Keep Going...
In July 2003, I was offered a scholarship to study in Nanyang Technological University or NTU. My first day in NTU was memorable indeed. I was delighted and was looking forward to an exciting lifestyle in the coming semester.
The excitement of being exposed to a completely new environment has immersed me in great joy. I became addicted to all the facilities and activities that NTU offered. However, my life as a student did not halt because of that. With 9 modules that I took, came along tonnes of tutorials, assignments, and reports.
After a while, I have gotten pretty sick of them due to the heavy burden they are weighing on my tiny shoulders. Without realizing it, I began to shun my tutorials. As time went by, the situation got worse. I started to put off my assignments and reports until the very last minute. “There is still another day, I can work on it tomorrow”, I lured myself into a false sense of security.
Term-break was approaching, which meant more laboratory reports would be due. I started to panic. So many things to finish yet so little time! Fortunately, through a few sleepless nights of hard work, I managed to complete all the assignments and reports in time, but just barely. However, having rushed through all of them, I could not expect to receive excellent marks that I used to get. (sigh)
Am I relieved that at least it was over? No way. Just when I thought I have fought back the army, I was reminded that they are merely the vanguard. I was stupefied. My first examination was merely a month away and I have not started my preparation! Seeing no point in regretting my past actions, I just did my best to catch up with the tutorials and attempted past year examination questions.
The exam came and went by. Finally, the results were announced and as predicted, my grades were below my capability and potential. Only a few As, but mostly Bs and Cs…what a discouraging image on my transcript!
Fellow toastmasters…
I was really disappointed with my results, and also myself. After some self-reflections, I have realised that this had happened due to my habit of procrastination. I pondered a lot about what I could do to make up for my mistakes.
Firstly, I noticed that I lacked time management skill. I had so many things to do, so many plans in my mind that it was impossible to complete them in 24hrs. What’s gone wrong? Humm… It must be the way I misallocated my time... Having read some books on how some people manage their time; I tried to mimic them by using a simple to-do list to note down all things that I need to do. After that, I prioritise tasks based on their deadline and importance. This method really helped! Looking at the achievement table where I record all what I have done to evaluate my performance, I can see the significance changes in me…
Newton’s first law of motion is my second bane, Inertia. I had everything sorted out in my mind. But it was easier said than done to bring myself into actions. As the saying goes, ‘the spirit is willing, but the body is weak’. Laziness plays a part here too. So now I started to arrange all my activities on a daily schedule and coerce myself to keep to it. It was so hard at first, but the key is discipline. (1 sec pause) As sweetener, I rewarded myself if I was successful in keeping to the schedule and punished myself if it’s vice versa
Thirdly, a lack of clear goals in my life is another major stumbling block. It allowed me to create excuses for what I have done, or what I have failed to do. That is why before doing anything, I always try to question myself, ‘What is my aim? What do I want to attain?’… Instead of merely living day to day, I should chart out my goals in life so that I know where I am heading. So I constructed my own life map for the next 5 yrs on a piece of paper, listing down major milestones and targets. There lie my dreams and expectations of what my life would be in the short term. Dream envisioning is daring to imagine the desired future. The stronger it is and the more detailed its outcome is, the more compelling the dream becomes as a road map for action.
Lastly, the lack of tenacity of the mind and the fear of failure is precisely the final piece of jigsaw. Lack of perseverance made me feel like quitting when the going gets tough. Bouncing back after a failure was something I found so difficult to accomplish. I was afraid to start anew, and moreover was afraid to fail (1 sec pause). A good friend told me that most of well-known scientists failed many times before making their great inventions. She reminded me that interim failure is temporary and is just part of the learning process of achievement. Keeping this in mind makes getting started again a lot easier. And so, winners keep going…
Fellow toastmasters…
The trick to overcome procrastination is to look deep into yourself, your dreams and your goals …to bring yourself to chart them out ... to travel in that direction … and to enjoy the journey along the way, even though you may find the going tough...; just keep focus on that always, and you will find your procrastination fading away…
