Legendary Blog

Sometime during my junior year of college, one of my psychology professors began the class with a pop quiz.  It was only five questions, none of which were relatively hard until I got to the last one.  It read: “What is the name of the secretary in the psychology department?”

My first reaction was this was some psychology study or quirky joke.  I mean, I could picture the secretary.  I could even hear her voice in my head.  She was tall, had short dirty blonde hair and was in her 50’s.  But I had no idea what her name was.

I finally gave up and left the last question blank.

When everyone had finished, one eager student sitting in the middle row immediately rose his hand asking if that quiz was going to count towards our grade.

Holding the papers in his hand, tapping them firmly on the desk so all the pages would be in unison, the professor smiled and said, “absolutely”.

“Every person you meet is significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello.”

Is it better to be naturally gifted or naturally diligent?

The age old tale says hard work pays off, but why?

Well, hard work usually comes with long hours, multiple attempts(which means multiple failures), high learning curves, frustration, consistent action, and unknown outcomes.

Those who are known for their innate intelligence have high success rates, verbal praise, and an image to maintain.

But, being praised for the latter of the two can create a mindset that mistakes are signs of weakness and not as building blocks of knowledge.

Physicist Niels Bohr defines an expert as a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.  Unless you experience the unpleasant symptoms of being wrong, you will never revise your models or approach to those situations.

It was Wednesday.  A day surrounded by its weekday comrades.  I was grudging through my workday agenda.  Each of my body movements carried with it a listless effort, a byproduct of the ambiguity Wednesday brings.  Nothing to really get excited about, nothing to look forward to.

Instead of figuring out how to complete my work, I was conjuring up ways I could procrastinate and not feel bad about it.  In a final effort to battle this torpid state, I looked to a simple and extremely common fix.  Music.  I plugged in my headphones, scrolled down to Vagabond by Wolfmother (highly recommend) and pressed play.  Tiny invisible sound waves traveled up the long, white headphone cord, through the ear buds, vibrating against my eardrum, and passing along to my nerve fibers. Immediately I felt its effect.  Listlessness had turned into motivation.  With a simple change in environment, I was able to create a mental drive.