Chapter 16 -Last Assignment!-

For the chapter 16 assignment, I want to focus on two topics: on is on "Practice the Art of Thriving" and another is on "Learn to Love the Plateau". These two are the ones that inspired me the most in terms of what should I aim for and how I should behave in order to achieve the goals.

1. Practice the Art of Thriving
Reading this, I really sympathized with the author that maintaining a balance between 5 factors (work, relationships, renewal, physical health, and purpose) is extremely important in order to achieve happiness throughout the life time. Right now I am very satisfied with the environment and the life itself, but I thought there are more I can do to make it even better. For these 5 factors, I want to think about which ones I am good at and which ones I need to work more on, so I can work harder on the ones that I can improve more.

For work: since I am not really "working" now, I would consider this as my studies and the club activities. I think on this criteria, I am doing fairly well--I enjoy studying most of the time, especially for the topics which I am really interested in.. Also, I am ever more enthusiastic about doing debate, as I have started to go to practice more often than before. I realized that my biggest weakness in terms of debating was my lack of knowledge toward the fields of law, politics, economy and international relations--as I have not really learned about these topics before. Although it is very difficult to acquire all the knowledge at once, I am aiming to acquire knowledge in the long term by reading Newsweek Magazines and international newspapers.

For relationship: I think I am also doing fairly well in terms of maintaining good relationships. For me, my family is the source of support and comfort, as I can feel that they will always be there for me when I have difficulties in life. Also, even though there are times when members conflict one another, I really enjoy going to the debating practice, as I truly feel that I am the member of the debating society club. So far, I am really satisfied with the relationships I have, and I hope to continue this in the future.

Physical Health: In terms of maintaining health, I think I have been able to keep myself healthy by eating healthy food, doing daily exercise and sleeping at least 7 hours every night.

Renewal: Singing, dancing, composing music and debating are all forms of relaxations which helps me forget about the bad events and release the stress.

Sense of Purpose:  I feel that this may be the criteria that I need to work on the most. Although there are many things I enjoy doing every day, it is really hard for me to clearly state what my goals are, as I cannot really decide what I should be doing in the future. I think I am still in the progress to find out what I truly want to accomplish, and I hope I can find something that is really meaningful to me so I can live my life with more passion and more effort.

2. Learn to love the Plateau

This was another quote which inspired me and made me think. I thought it was very true that people often rush to achieve their goals, and when fail to do so in a short amount of time, they often become frustrated and even give up. For me, my goal  is to become the number one debater in ICU University, and to win the number one position in debating competition. However, the situation is not so easy--recently, I have just lost in the debating competition, which really put me down and made me really down. I doubted whether it was because I simply did not have talent like the Bucho-san, or just I was not making as much effort as I should have. Reading this section, I was comforted by the words that somethings just do not happen overnight, and that we have to keep continuing patiently even though it may feel like a long time. I thought this was very true in terms many things--whether it be leadership skills or debating.