The first guys to scale Mount Everest (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Imagine for a moment that you’ve set yourself a momentous quest.
Like scaling the highest mountain in the world, trekking across the Antarctic on a dog sled, or venturing into the deepest darkest forest of the Amazon.
Courtesy of Healthland.Time
Have you heard of the “marshmallow test” for kids?
First conducted by American psychologist Walter Mischel in the 1960s, the experiment involved putting four-year olds in a room with a marshmallow on a plate, and testing how long they could endure before popping that sweet morsel into their mouths.
Shackleton’s ship Endurance (source of image)
Imagine being stranded on ice for 19 months in the world’s harshest climate, often without light for months on end.
Imagine being cut off from the outside world without any forms of communication. No smartphones, tablets, laptops, telephones or faxes. Heck, not even a telegraph machine or carrier pigeon!
Against the cataclysmic forces of Nature, few have responded as well as the Japanese (courtesy of Joseph Friedman)
Have you wondered what made the Japanese such a resilient and robust group of people? How do they overcome the challenges of living in one of the most disaster prone areas of the world?
Often, it is in the worst of times that you see the best in people. Nothing is more true than how the Japanese faced the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on the Northeast coast of Japan.
Flames like this YOG one require lots of work to keep going (at Singapore Science Centre)
Perseverance and “stick-to-itiveness” are vital virtues in any personal, social or professional endeavour. Almost anybody who has accomplished anything substantial in any undertaking would share that age-old adage. Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” spelled that well with the “10,000″ hour rule. You must have also heard of how Rome wasn’t built in a day.
However, gritting your teeth and slaving to the grind isn’t the easier thing in the world. There are multiple sources of distraction, both online and offline, that may conspire to rob you of your resilience. After all, we now have multiple MMORPGs, marvellous movies, mile-long malls, and of course lots of makan places to check out.
Don’t eat the marshmallow and get two later! (source)
In an age of utmost convenience, instant replies, and quick fixes, one may be lulled into thinking that whatever’s fast to cook is good to eat. The inconvenient truth, however, is that many of the best things in life do not arrive merely at the snap of one’s fingers.
Rome (Disney or Microsoft) wasn’t built in a day. Similarly, major endeavours take months and years of blood, sweat and tears before arriving at the dizzying heights of success.
Challenges. Problems. Uncertainties. Obstacles. Stress.
These words form the lexicon of modern life, where resources – both financial and natural – are increasing being depleted while the demands of work, school and life put a severe drain on our beings.
