To have fewer concerns allows for greater focus and better prioritized thinking. Side-note: My thoughts on choices…The eye-opening analogy of aging rats.

IAmNasirene_Reflecting On My Choices. To have fewer concerns allows for greater focus and better prioritized thinking - then again, there's the age-ing rats analogy.

As an adult now, I know that one could have just changed schools, and had what was needed at hand. This ties back to my previous post on Personal Project Plans: Achieve your goals. A great flexible template and study example . To have fewer concerns allows for greater focus and better prioritized thinking.

In the Public Government School, the benefit of this school was the collective attitudes of the students. We were competitive, we all wanted to do well. It might have enhanced the competition with the self, because we prioritised our results. However, it did mean that you became accustomed to being on edge, to pushing yourself to what could be described as unreasonable lengths in order to achieve what others do simply because their circumstances have geared them for easy success. This was a Co-Ed School. School fees: R500 a year.

I had actually been at another school with all the niceties; an All-Girl School, the pool with swimming classes, additional mathematics as an extra subject, computer science as an extra subject – and a totally chilled, easygoing attitude – very restful, a wonderfully peaceful existence. School fees: R10000 a year. I did well enough. I made it into the extra maths class, and the computer science class, without even knowing it was a limited offering. Didn’t feel like effort, I’m not sure if that even matters.

Whether something feels difficult or not, seems to only be a reflection on where your starting point is. It’s like a workout. If you have never done a pushup in your life, yeah – the first one’s going to be hard, so get into the habit early on enough.

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To have fewer concerns allows for greater focus and better prioritized thinking –

Fewer problems might have allowed a greater amount of focus. It might have allowed for other thoughts to be entertained, such as “What do you want to do after school?” or more importantly, “What do you want your life to be like?”. And considering I did get into those classes with no effort, I probably would have still done well at the All-Girl school.

I compete with myself. So my results at either school would have been good, because I have expectations of myself. A calmer approach would have perhaps allowed more time to think along other key aspects. Although, in the grander scheme of things, a bit of difficulty is actually not always an issue. In this world, better to be resilient than soft. To be able to problem-solve and make a plan is a skill at any age. To be able to do what others won’t is also what differentiates you.

The analogy of aging rats –

I always think of the experiment with the ageing rats; where one is given the perfect diet and grows fat, lazy and grey. The other is given an amount just shy of daily needs, and stays sharp, pert, and fit. I know which rat I prefer being.

Others have different opinions. Fee free to air yours.

That said, I think certain corporations pounce on those who know how to work harder than the rest, harder than what seems humanely possibly, and screw the concept of burn-out. This is the risk of being “hard-working”. The attitude of hard work is one that is taken advantage of over and over.

Boundaries are the answer.