Self-fulfilling Prophecy

More often than not we have a predetermined mindset when we face a barrier or challenge. Thoughts like, “no this is impossible to achieve,” or “this is beyond the reach of someone like me,” easily sets in before we even attempt to tackle the challenge itself. Most experienced people that have achieved success in life would probably agree with me, that when you fail to achieve on the many occasions in your life, the mindset is the culprit of your failure, and this is what I am going to talk about today. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Many of you might have come across the term before. It is fine too if you have not, you learn a new term today and that is nothing bad. Generally, the self-fulfilling prophecy is the cause and effect from positive feedback between your belief and behaviour. Putting it in simpler terms, there is a direct, positive correlation between your belief and behaviour which in turn influences your rate of success. Having the mindset that you will not perform well in the upcoming paper from the start of preparing for it for example, leads to achieving grades below what truly reflects your ability, as you expected to begin with. That is exactly the problem there.

Personally I came across this theory first in my Economics class back in high school and it makes a lot of sense in the scenario described of course. The people expect inflation and decide to consume more in the present time period, jacking up demand in the market for goods so much that it exceeds the productive capacity and supply growth rate over the years, causing inflation to really occur. For many, you might understand completely the logic behind this phenomenon too but have you constantly applied it to your daily life too, even to the smallest issues and conflicts?

It could be things as trivial as learning to cycle or something more important in life such as applying for a job post. When you cycle with the fear and thought that you will fall if you lift up and put both legs on the peddle, indeed you are more likely to fall as your fear causes your body to be unstable in handling the balance on the bike when all you had to do was actually hold on with confidence, peddle on for speed when you have both legs on and you will be able to achieve balance. From then on with practise you will learn how to cycle pretty quickly. Similarly, during a job interview this fear can cripple your speech and response to the interviewers, which in turn really make the interview a bad one for you.

Therefore, always keep in mind to stay mentally strong, have a positive mindset when you encounter difficulties. However, do not mistaken the purpose of this and end up being overconfident or being impractical at achieving what is really impossible to, at your present state at least. Maybe it is possible in the future, and it is never too late to start working on it and prepare early for a  better chance of success.

Character Development: Resilience, Patience, Effort.

You could have been an achiever during your term in an organisation, institution, or even an ideal person in your social circle in most occasions. However, when you commit that one mistake that stands out during the time frame, they will remember it. They will always bring it up the next time something similar is about to happen, or when another mistake, regardless of severity, is made. They will change their opinion of you for that one mistake more than one good deed that you have done.

Putting it in quantitative terms, out of a 100  things that you do for example, within a specific time frame, you make that one significant mistake. You probably will not be recognised for more than half of what you did well, but you will certainly receive comments from everyone around you for that one error. In a professional environment, there's no doubt that there will be lots of criticisms.

Sometimes these criticisms are helpful. Everyone makes wrong judgments or takes wrong actions on matters at some point in their life, and constructive criticisms from people who care about you are often what helps us learn and correct ourselves so that we do not, hopefully, repeat them again in the not-so-distant future at the very least. Naturally no one is expected to be able to correct themselves after the first try but the motive is all the same. These criticisms might not be pleasant to our ears but they are collective aiming towards one goal; to make us a better person than before.

Yet many of the times these criticisms that we receive are not constructive ones. In fact many of the times we will find ourselves swarmed with spiteful comments, showing malevolent ill will. And this cycle of blame and reprimanding will not cease in life, because no one is perfect. We can get infinitely close to achieving perfection however, in my opinion, that's as far as we can possibly get. No matter how hard you try, you will end up being less than ideal in others perspective one way or another, and you will be faulted for that by whoever it is.

Does that mean we get discouraged and give up trying so hard to do well? Because we did the maths and it doesn't make sense since they are unbalanced or unjust to us?

No. I am in support of the notion that we constantly work towards perfection as our goal despite knowing that we might never attain it. It is a healthy mindset to have so that we keep improving ourselves and walk through our life as a long journey of learning for character development. Ultimately, we become a better person for our well-being, and not for impressing the people around us. Rather than being the best in the world, we should all aspire to be the best that we can be, and the potential should have no boundaries.

Certainly, it gets tiring and depressing when you know you have done well in numerous occasions but very rarely did you receive commendations or recognition for your effort, yet every single wrong path you take you get reprimanded tenfold, but stay strong. No one ever said life is easy. Character developments goes a long way and it does take time to develop good habits and mindsets and integrate them into your daily life as a person.

Therefore, have resilience, and rise above the hate and despise that you might receive for making a mistake. I'm sure at the end of everything you will find that the resolve to keep trying to improve and not give up will be rewarding. The fruit of labour could come rather soon with a bit of patience, while some might take much longer, but they will do you good in time to come, and it is never too early to start having such an attitude in life so that you won't have it as tough later on. After all, old habits do die hard.

"Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character" - Hercaclitus

Inflation and Investments

There are 2 parts to me in the full comprehension of this truth. The first part was when I was much younger and heard my relatives saying, ''What is the point of putting all the money in the bank. You should invest them,' during their chats when they meet up. At the start, it was me regarding what my relatives say as nonsense, since to me, investments bear risk of losing lots of money should a bad investment be made, therefore I would prefer to keep it all in the bank and at least earn some interest. Then came the explanation about this phenomenon called inflation in the economy, where the general price level in the economy rises, making general cost of living higher and since the money you keep in the bank does not increase at a rate higher than inflation does to the cost of living, you lose money over time unless you save more, and that's come to be known as maintaining the real value of bank savings to me now after having studied Economics for a few years.

The second part is more practical. It is about seeing figures in your everyday life. Yes, you start to notice to how much cheaper goods in the supermarket in the neighbourhood used to cost a few years ago or perhaps more recently from a year ago. If you do join the workforce during your term breaks or summer holidays in the few years of higher education, the change in travelling expenses become noticeable as well since most of us will take public transport on a daily basis. When you start doing your own budgeting with your earnings from the summer jobs or internships and your daily and planned expenses in those years, naturally you would feel the impact of inflation, and that is the second part of truly knowing inflation, and why there is a role for investment in life or other sources of boosting your annual income. 

However, a line should be clearly drawn on how far investment should go. I strongly believe that investment is important as a strategy against inflating prices in the modern world but it should be conducted healthily. By that, I will focus on the attitude I believe one should have with their investments.

In my own personal opinion, investment should always be taken as an additional source of income, and not the only source of wealth. As I have mentioned, investment bears risk, and it is never fully predictable, therefore you would never be entirely sure that an investment will be a good one and brings you additional income, whether it's a large amount or trivial gains. While it is true that there are many people out there that have managed to succeed and consistently made big bucks out of investment alone, I personally do not encourage that anyone be tempted by how easy it SEEMS that money is earned by the successful group of people and follow suit, especially when the mentality and financial status differs. 

Investments should also be made with the investor fully aware of the risk they are taking and truly understanding and accepting that whatever the amount they invest, they could be lost if it turns out bad. To me, investments are almost like gambling. Investors are basically making a bet with their money. Each type of investment, be it bonds, stocks, securities, being a different type of game you have decided to play your bet on, each type with its own market structure and required knowledge much like the rules of each game. The only difference would be it possibly being more well planned and carefully considered with more data for analysis economically to make 'smart investments'. These numbers come in many forms and they are all financial statistics that assist in measuring risk against potential returns from the financial instruments investors have chosen to invest in, such as the Sharpe Ratio, Jensen's alpha, Treynor's measure, and a long list of many other indicators to evaluate the feasibility of an investment. And because the study of these financial data and evaluation is so complex, there are professionals that work for clients that require service in assisting them make smart investments to the best of their abilities. That's how much more statistical investments are. 

Many might be inspired to be an investor after learning about the many successes out there, but do not forget about the even greater amount of losses that's been made by those who failed to consider carefully before investing and whose aftermath goes untold. I am not saying that one should avoid investing at all cost nor am I writing this to scare anyone, but do remember to do it well within one's financial capabilities and with the right mindset. For example, investing only with disposable income available after meeting your daily needs and everything else instead of involving cash flows for those purposes in your investment so that you will not have cash flow problems and end up making bad sales of the financial assets you've bought to meet your priorities, incurring losses.

Investments that turns out bad could become less severe or even become better over time, but the setback is that the cash you have invested in them will be held down while you wait patiently for market value to raise, and that is why investing spare cash might be a better idea. However, even that is not guaranteed, so I would like to reemphasise that if one chooses to invest, then one should do so after knowing and being sure that you are willing to and are able to bear the risk.

What is right may not be right, and what is wrong may not be wrong either. It is about being flexible.

As we grow, we face situations where we decide whether something is to be considered as 'correct' or 'incorrect'. Many of the times people defined them beforehand by rules of some sort, and they span across a wide variety ranging from laws and regulations to social etiquette and moral values. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely agree that the aforementioned are definitely reasonable guidelines in defining what is right and wrong however, I believe that no one should stick to those guidelines so much as to let them be the only thing that separates right from wrong. In another word, I mean to say that every single decision should be thought through with flexibility on a case-by-case basis.

Coming to this point, I'm sure many have started to, if not, from this point on, have flashbacks of times where you followed the rules or common 'social laws' but do not feel that you've come out righteous or more genuinely, feeling good from doing something 'correct'. Indeed I too have encountered many situations like that despite having only lived for a short period of time (I wouldn't consider myself as someone of experience, I am merely speaking from all that I have faced throughout my life up to the present). It could be as trivial as things like helping a friend keep secret for an occasional breach of rules in classroom such as smuggling snacks into class, or something on a much more serious note in a working environment. At some point in time, we run into situations that we have to decide for ourselves what is the right thing to do and why would they be the right decision.

One of the more notable complex topic that I find really debatable is the subject on euthanasia. For those that are unfamiliar with this term, it is the act of ending one's own life intentionally and voluntarily, with the purpose of relieving suffering, often of old age or in some cases, of incurable diseases. Scientifically it's argued that it is unacceptable regardless of it being the will of the patient himself or herself however, socially it's been argued more often than not that it should be left up to the patient as the life belongs to him or her ultimately, and that it is a good deed to help a suffering patient relieve of the suffering that will haunt him or her til the eventual end of his or her life anyway. This is exactly the kind of situation where flexibility really comes into play. Naturally it would be deemed wrong for example, when a huge portion of the population decide on euthanasia because of sufferings that they claim unbearable and would rather die than live with it when they are actually trivial or perhaps still resolvable conditions. Permitting euthanasia in those instances would be saying that committing suicide for almost any reason that seem mediocre is a socially acceptable act. However if the patient truly does not have a cure and is suffering a lot everyday with no hope for improvement in condition, perhaps euthanasia could be deemed acceptable to shorten the suffering that the patient will face till his or her time comes where the body is unable to take it any further. Then again who is to decide what kind of sufferings are to be considered as something that should have euthanasia approved, and on what basis should we be measuring that or what could be used as a benchmark for deciding on that matter. It is all debatable even to the present date in my opinion, although it is already prohibited in some countries such as Finland and Australia, while others have set certain benchmarks on their own to decide on whether it is right and therefore legal to conduct euthanasia.

With the topic mentioned above strictly as reference sample and no direct correlation to my personal opinion, I believe it is better to decide on right and wrong based on the case itself instead of following a strict rule to decide on that regardless of the circumstances. By that, I mean that I do not have any agree or disagree to the specific topic above as to whether it is indeed right for certain countries to completely prohibit the act as it is as I've mentioned, a complicated topic however in a more general aspect in life I would encourage that we take into account the dynamics of the situation we face into account instead of merely following rules when it comes to determining the right course of action.