Everyone has things they like and dislike. When we encounter something we don’t like, we usually have two attitudes.
East Asia tends to the "barrel theory", which means that the height of life is like the water in a barrel. When a certain board in the barrel is short, it often cannot hold much water.
In simple terms, East Asian cultures tend to "correct the weaknesses" of and .
The word we heard most when we were students should be "check for deficiencies and fill in the gaps" . It seems that we can only get higher scores by correcting our own weaknesses. We regard partial subjects and weak subjects as a taboo in exams.
Indeed, under the exam-oriented education system, if we want to get good grades and get into a good university, we must have even scores in each subject.
I think I have been disgusted with mathematics and English since I was a child. These two subjects have been my weaknesses since elementary school.
But it’s not that I didn’t want to study seriously. During a lot of time in middle school and high school, I often used various psychological methods to make myself interested in these two courses.
For example, psychological suggestion method , get up every day and silently say "I like mathematics" and "I love English", and brainwash yourself as soon as you are free.
turned out to be the opposite, and I became more disgusted with these two courses. As soon as I did math problems or picked up an English book, my brain became particularly active. was just a math problem that I didn’t care about in my hands, and the English book was in my eyes.
By the second semester of my second year of high school, I completely gave up studying mathematics, and I also gave up studying English a year ago.
As expected, I could only study at a private undergraduate program.
If it weren’t for the poor scores in other subjects, I might not even be able to get into an undergraduate degree.
Unfortunately, there is no if. I basically like the other subjects.
For example, in history, I once ranked third in the provincial mock exam. The same is true for geography, ranking very high in the province.
Despite this, because the college entrance examination is based on the overall score, high scores in individual subjects are of little significance.
The scores in each subject are not much different. Anyone with mediocre scores in each subject can beat me.
Having said so much, I not only want to vent my dissatisfaction with exam-oriented education, but more importantly, I want to elaborate on my point of view : "Use your strengths and ignore your weaknesses" .
Harvard University Professor Taylor's " Positive Psychology " course mentioned a study: Successful people usually have seven factors, one of which is "focusing on strengths" .
Of course, the definition of "successful people" here is success in the secular sense - that is, having money and social status.
American culture tends to bring into play people's strengths , so we can see that many celebrities in American history usually have some "fatal" shortcomings.
For example, Edison had a serious small belly, which squeezed out Tesla (Tesla later invented high-voltage electricity technology); another example is Taylor, who teaches "Positive Psychology". He claims to have been a negative and anxious person since he was a child, and he has to spend a long time on psychological construction every time he gives a lecture.
But Taylor knows his shortcomings, but he does not reject his negative and anxious thoughts and emotions. Instead, he boldly admits and accepts them. He believes that on the basis of objective facts, strengths and avoid weaknesses can make us live happier and give full play to our talents.
Every time I want to change my shortcomings, I feel very difficult and painful, and very few people can completely change their shortcomings.
I think, why not use your limited life to do what you really like and want to do?
