Why your brain might not be working as well as you'd like it to.

I've had a couple conversations with students in which they tell me about the stress that they have. They're having stress because they aren't getting the score that they want on a test and then it has all sorts of ramifications. I'll listen to students describing their admittedly less than desirable circumstances, how if they don't get a certain score by a certain date they wont be able to go to the best school and then they won't have a decent shot at a decent job and then they'll never make any money and no one will want to marry them and they'll die poor and alone. How they can't take more time to get a better score because if they have any break on their record from school to work it will reflect badly and companies won't hire them and so they still wont make any money and still nobody will want to marry them and they'll still die poor and alone. So this is a bit of an over exaggeration, but it's kind of what I feel like I'm hearing.


Japanese people have a really strong work hard and suck it up culture. Do whatever your boss tells you, don't complain. Keep studying. Don't fail. It's gotten Japan really far. I mean really, Japan is a really great very developed country. But I feel really sad when I think about all the hours that business people spend at their office, all the hours that poor young students spend at cram school. Students have told me that Japanese spouses aren't friends, they never see each other. I have a Japanese friend who works a very crazy busy Japanese job and he tells me that any new hire that starts with any kind of girlfriend will inevitably lose her within the first year. Here it would be possible for me to delve deeper into the sad results of working too hard in Japan, but so as to not offend, I'll leave it to your own capable mind. We have a phrase in English, "Work to live. Don't live to work." Before I came to Japan I thought that AMERICANS, with 40 hour work weeks, were living to work. I think when we live to work it's impossible to be happy. I mean the phrase basically means sacrificing your life to work. Not living. Please try to figure out why you work so hard, why you study so hard. What is your deepest motivation? I recently had a conversation with someone from which I would surmise that this person boils it all down to the desire for happiness. That's probably a pretty good answer. So if you're studying to get something that will ultimately bring you happiness, but you're sacrificing happiness to do so, do you think this is a wise thing? And don't you think that there are many other things in your life RIGHT NOW that can bring you happiness? Whatever your ULTIMATE DEEPEST goal is in all of your labors, I'd be willing to bet just about anything that it can be found right now in your life from somewhere or something just not advertised by society.


Ok, and so to transition back to studies and test taking. I think this has got to be at least somewhat common sense, so I might not be informing you of anything so much as I'm reminding you, or highlighting to you, but you do realize that you can't learn as well when you're really stressed and/or unhappy.


We all know that Americans love their drugs. Do you know that a lot of antidepressant medication is marketed as being able to overcome the loss in ability to concentrate and learn caused from depression or stressful events?


In any area of life it's really important to keep perspective. Prioritize. If you sacrifice things that make you happy to study more, not only are you becoming less happy, but you're really losing the ability to learn and so are therefore giving up happiness AND education. Shooting yourself in the foot so to speak.


So I want to say don't let studying and reaching future goals compromise your happiness and sanity. If you get to the point where your happiness and sanity are compromised, then other things you do will have severely limited results. But you would be compromising your happiness and sanity to get stronger results, so it's just a really sad situation.


So if you feel really frustrated or stressed or unhappy, take a break for a little. Do something you like. Go to the beach. Watch a movie. Spend time with a friend. Spend time with your FAMILY. SAY NO TO OVERTIME. Not all day everyday, but have balance. Figure out what makes you happy and make sure you're getting enough of it. Your brain will reward you for it.


▼▽▼▼【講師】Amberly先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【How to get around subjectivity】2009.05.20 (Wed)