What do Passion and Purpose mean to you?

Passion means something that you are good at and that you love, while purpose is something that you can have stability from by being what the world needs and being able to monetize it. 

 

What are you interested in? What could you pursue in the long term?

I am deeply interested in arts and I can pursue an arts career, although I don’t know how stable that will be since traditional culture dictates that it is frowned upon in asian society. But my parents are on board with it and find it amusing that I am so happy when it comes to art that they’re more than willing to support me in this journey. I shouldn’t compare myself to others in that sense. 

 

When was the last time you had an opportunity to choose your own attitude? 

“Attitude” means how you react to certain things in the environment. In stoicism, we are taught that we should choose which activities we should give our attention to. Voluntary discomfort helps in choosing which activities we enjoy enough to put in the hard work in order to be better at whereas the dichotomy of control aids in remembering that we can always choose not to react or give in to temptation even if it’s staring us in the face. 

 

Try the Pomodoro Technique and write about your experience.

I used to do the pomodoro technique quite often so I know it works well with me. I often opt for a 50-min working time with a 10-min break though. 

 

What does Wakei Seijaku mean to you? 

I recently went to a matcha workshop where they held a seminar that explained this concept. Since it is the amalgamation of the four concepts: harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility, this should be applied not only to every aspect of life. Each object belongs in a set where the set has harmony between its constituents. Respect for one another is vital and the purity of each individual should be achieved through proper cleansing. This is all to achieve tranquility as the end goal of Wakei Seijaku. 

 

How can you become resilient and/or antifragile?

I’ve heard of antifragility before but never thought I could achieve it until I realized that it is with discipline and will power that I could gain such wisdom. As I understand it, will power depletes over certain decisions over the day. To combat this, it is good to schedule and be more intentional with what I want to do with my time. In the end, the saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is the key factor of antifragility. Another saying that is close to this is “you could either run from the past or learn from it”. A growth mindset will also help in becoming more antifragile, as that teaches us that failure is a blessing since we learn more than if we succeed.