a tiny crab
Recently I've been swamped with exams, activities, responsibilities, challenges that all require the most precious currency in everyone's life, time and energy. With the lack of that currency, I have not been able to write for the past two days since my last update, so I decided to get back into logging my vault entry today.
While casually searching around the web, I had the chance to come by a beautifully written letter Richard Feynman wrote to his student Koichi.
Some parts that I loved from the letter:
The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to.
No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.
You say you are a nameless man. You are not to your wife and to your child. You will not long remain so to your immediate colleagues if you can answer their simple questions when they come into your office.
A strong message from the letter is to never disregard any work that you might think that has no significance. If we are able to make a change, then it is considered worthwhile. This can also be applied to our personal lives and not just academic ones.
In life, we would have a tendency to scoff at small problems put them aside or disregard them entirely, but that would only make the problems incubate and grow. Tiny accomplishments pave the way for a fulfilling day.
One way that I've found that have helped me immensely in taking down small victories in my everyday life is having helpful habits. A great quote from John Dryden sums up this idea really well.
We first make our habits, and then our habits make us
- John Dryden
When we are motivated, taking down tasks are easy but whenever we are burnt out or unmotivated. It is the true test of discipline where our habits can help us push the extra mile.
There have been many days when I just wanted to do something else rather than what I initially set out to do. Without the helpful habits, I would have relapsed to when I was in College just gaming day and night, consuming entertainment and just let time slip away day by day. Therefore, habits are extremely important. It is like an assistant to discipline, it helps you to adjust the sails and set your course while your discipline steers the ship towards your end goal. One book I've had in backlog for quite some time as well is atomic habits which I'm hoping I'll be able to delved into once the dust settles these few weeks.
Today's entry can be seen as one small victory for the day for me.