Last semester I deemed as my "get shit done" semester.
Which is why this semester was very purposefully designed to be the "get inspired" semester, a cheesy way of saying that I want to focus on my personal growth. Because it's crazy how little inspiration and productivity overlap. At MIT, it's easy to get so consumed by the firehose of psets, clubs, friends, and UROPs that you can barely catch your breath to ask yourself "What am I here for?"
But with the sudden influx offree flexible time here at Cambridge, its been a welcome change to casually read or take up new hobbies or to just think. Because that's exactly what is lacking at MIT: time to reflect. There's so many opportunities for growth that are simply missed because there's no time to stop and consider the point of anything or think about what is gained. If you look at it from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, MIT leaves you stuck at esteem and searching for a sense of achievement, and it's difficult to reach your highest potential when you have no time or energy to invest in it. When your mind is so jumbled with everything else, self-growth is no longer a priority.
But one change I've made since coming to Cambridge is making that time for self growth, and that involves writing daily. By writing, I'm forced to reflect on what I do and do things deliberately instead of approaching everything as a checklist of tasks. It helps me to go beyond doing a thing into doing the right thing. I allot my time more wisely to the things I care about, I get more time to think in thoughts rather than in schedules, and I feel more relaxed than usual. And I found out that there are so many unconsidered dimensions of thoughts that don't crystallize until I get them down on paper. In this way thoughts are kind of like icebergs: on the surface, each thought only shows a small percent of itself, but once you purposefully try to uncover its meaning, you realize there's so much more to discover. So if anything, writing has helped me become more aware of who I am, what I think, and what matters to me. And that sounds like a pretty good first step towards getting inspired.
But with the sudden influx of
But one change I've made since coming to Cambridge is making that time for self growth, and that involves writing daily. By writing, I'm forced to reflect on what I do and do things deliberately instead of approaching everything as a checklist of tasks. It helps me to go beyond doing a thing into doing the right thing. I allot my time more wisely to the things I care about, I get more time to think in thoughts rather than in schedules, and I feel more relaxed than usual. And I found out that there are so many unconsidered dimensions of thoughts that don't crystallize until I get them down on paper. In this way thoughts are kind of like icebergs: on the surface, each thought only shows a small percent of itself, but once you purposefully try to uncover its meaning, you realize there's so much more to discover. So if anything, writing has helped me become more aware of who I am, what I think, and what matters to me. And that sounds like a pretty good first step towards getting inspired.
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