Bouncing and sticking, at the same time
Bouncing and sticking, at the same time
#74 - revision to start the week, relaxing to end the week
Hi there,
I hope you’ve had an enjoyable Easter weekend, brightened by sunshine in the UK as spring is upon us.
I’ve been on our first family holiday for the year (of hopefully a couple more!) to the historic city of Bath; lots of limestone architecture, plenty of nature and many good pictures of course.
Highlight of the week ⭐ : watching ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’; after a long day in the city, we went to an 8 pm show of this brand-new animation film. A solid picture at Odeon with a very good mixture of comedy, action, adventure and drama and then rounding off the day with some pizza was proper holiday mode.
We didn’t know when our day out in Bath would really begin, or if we’d spend the whole afternoon circling the city in search of an elusive treasure - a parking spot.
On the way from our hotel not too far from the city centre, Dad remarked on our notable promptness in getting going. Alas, any headstart we’d had was dashed by an inability to find a legal place to leave our car. Roaming between car parks with no more room, streets restricted to our dreaded enemy for the day, “permit holders”, got the car navigation working hard and my driver mum frustrated.
It got me thinking (as one must find meaning and insight from parking troubles) about the importance of bouncing back as quickly as possible from failures and moving to the next challenge, the next task, and the next opportunity to succeed.
The classic example is when you’ve got multiple exams in one day. I had this in my GCSEs, with English Language, German and Economics all falling on the same day. The main advice is to not let how the previous exam went to get to your psyche in gearing up for the next one. Easier said than done.
Remembering that life isn’t all ups and no downs i.e. “we win some and lose some” gives you the freedom to lose and be OK with it. Sometimes it’s part of the process to achieve great things - just ask Thomas Edison.
Maybe it’s also important to get over successes quickly, to keep the ego in check and avoid complacency. Treating both as equally emotion-worthy types of outcomes can help in softening the blow of failures, which we should be embracing anyway with our growth mindsets.
“Nothing is as good or as bad as it seems” - Scott Galloway
Before considering the other side of the coin, I need to acknowledge that productive reflection is still valuable, in assessing what, how and why success and failure manifested the way they did. As we’ve explored before, reflection can be the birthplace of incredible discoveries and unlocking the keys to your success.
What we’ve described above is resilience, being persistent to keep going in the face of adversity and challenge. In a way, you could describe that as sticking with it despite being ‘rejected’ multiple times. ‘Stickability’ is how one YouTuber who I watched for my GCSEs put it - choosing to keep at it when the going gets tough, in the hope of better days lying ahead.
Both bouncing back and sticking at the same time - if you’re a ball reading this, you may be spinning with confusion. Sorry.
Let’s end today’s attempt to clutch at straws for something useful to read with a heartwarming quote from a famous 100-year-old, summarising why it’s worth being nimble from event to event.
I’ve always believed things will get better. The sun will shine again, the birds will sing and we’ll all have a lovely day tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a good day. Captain Sir Tom Moore
Book of the week 📖
Back to a book my dad suggests I read in my rota - a dense A University Education by David Willetts. I’m being selective, reading the parts I want. Reading about how universities work and their social benefit is actually a new and interesting perspective I hadn’t considered, being purely a prospective student.
Podcast of the week🎙️
Oxford Sparks Big Questions: How has life expectancy changed after the pandemic?
Loved the statistics in this and shows how pandemics can have bigger effects than World Wars
Article of the week 📰
The cities built to be reusable
An in-depth look into deconstruction instead of demolishing buildings, a bit like Lego
Quote of the week 💬
The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams. Oprah Winfrey
A quarter of the year is gone, let’s make Q2 better than the first one.
Adi