4 Learnings To Unlearn To Make 2016 Your Best Year Yet

Jacky Yap

December 28, 2015

So 2015 has almost gone by in a flash. Chances are you’d want to start the new year with a big bang. Here’s our take on getting more out of life in 2016, without even trying too hard.

But first, we would need to unlearn some age-old habits. Here are some of them:

1. Results are everything.

Results are not everything

As we spend the first two decades of our lives in Singapore’s education systems which condition us to be results focus, we tend to follow through and fail to realize that life is so much more than the PSLE or GPA we get. We are conditioned to believe that we have to get high scores – if we do, we succeed and we will have a good career. If we don’t, we fail.
When the PSLE results were released this year, Mr Derrick Lee, 22, shared his story on Facebook on how he scored 174 for his PSLE 10 years ago and despite that, he counts himself as successful.
“Looking back, I’m glad I made a wise choice of enrolling in ITE. My point is, your PSLE results don’t determine your future, you determine your future. What do you want to do? Who do you want to be? Don’t let a minor setback get in the way of your dreams. If I did well for PSLE, I wouldn’t be who I am today. I would probably be a government scholar by now”.

As the new year approach, realize that life is so much more than just studying, and understand that the best things in life always comes from the process of failing and trying, and not in the end result.
Expand your horizon, explore new ways of doing things, step out of your comfort zone, because a ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

2. Be ordinary in life

Aim to be creative in life

How many of us would have expected Singapore to be named a UNESCO creative city of design? Most probably not, and Singapore herself would never have planned for that to happen as well.
In life, it is important for us to aim to be as creative as possible, because creativity gets recognized.
We should continue to find things that inspires us and continue discovering ways to become more creative
While most of us might have different sources of inspiration, if you are looking for some, you can visit a new café every week or aim do something new every month.

3. We still have all the time for our friends and family

Time waits for no man.

As we grow up, one of the things that we need to realize is that friends come and go, and that friendships cannot be forced.
There are two types of friends in our lives – the first type is the ones that will always be there as if nothing has changed even though both of you have not spoken for long. If you have this group of friends, learn to cherish them, and spend more time with them.
The second type of friends is the ones that when you are away for a long time, when you meet, it feels like everything’s changed. If you have this kind of friends, understand that it is not your fault or theirs; it’s just that life happens to all of us and we move on.
The same goes for your parents and siblings, as time strip away our lives from us, it is therefore important to spend more quality time with our family and do the things that matter with them. Instead of scrolling through your Facebook feeds during your commute, send that message (or voice message) to your family, because it will definitely make their day.
For those of us who do not stay with our parents, especially if you are staying aboard, know this: if you meet your parents three times a year for the next 25 years, you will only be seeing them another 75 times only. That, is scary.

4. There’s always time to travel later

There is no time like now.

You are the youngest today than you will ever be. One of the common mistakes that we have is thinking that we will have all the time in the world to travel when we settled down with our career.
The truth is, there will never be the perfect time to travel – the time is now.
As we grow older, there will be more responsibility – HDB housing payments, family commitments, providing for our parents et cetera – all of these would soon be legitimate reasons to stay put in Singapore.
So before that happens – take time to travel around the world – because the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.
Travelling opens up your horizon, and makes you more interesting intellectually and socially, because the real voyage of discovery provides you not just photos for your Facebook or Instagram feed, but it gives you fresh new perspective.