Wisdom & Intelligence
A lot of times we talk about how smart people are. IQ... stuff like that.
It's not only intelligence that gets us thru life.
It's a mix of both intelligence and wisdom.
It's like... people can get thru Uni. That's intelligence.
Knowing the answers to questions. That's intelligence.
But wisdom, is knowing to ask the right questions.
The intelligent person may fix an issue.
The wise person would ask, why do you need to fix that issue. Where is the real problem?
No point fixing an issue to the wrong solution.
This is highly related to critical thinking. The ability to look a bit further and dig a bit deeper into any topic.
How many people we know who get thru tertiary education, to end up lost in life?
There are folks who don't study well, but still able to get far in life.
It's not about one or the other.
It's having a good mix of both.
Common Sense
Highly related to IQ and wisdom but yet I feel requires a header for itself.
You want to get to Tampines, you must take EW line on the MRT.
If you take NS line, you'll never get there.
But yet so often we see people who keep doing the wrong thing hoping to get results that don't correlate.
Then they complain and blame everything else, except themselves for being on the wrong path.
To get to your goal/destination/whatever... you need to know where you are, and where you want to go. Then chart your path there.
It's important knowing where you are as well. Cos without knowing what's lacking, what the gap is, then it's not possible to chart the path.
And sometimes, there's folks who have illogical thinking... Absolutely no common sense.
They just have no idea that taking the NS line will not bring them to Tampines.
They do things which they believe will get them to their goal. Except it is the wrong thing, but they don't know that it's wrong.
As unbelievable as it sounds, these people exist. They want something. They try to get it. They do all kinds of weird things to try to get it. As an outsider, one may wonder, what they are trying to do, cos it doesn't make sense cos you know the stuff this person does won't lead to their goal. But yet this person doesn't know, doesn't recognize that they are doing things which doesn't get them closer to their goal.
Hard Work & Perseverance
Once again. It's not one or the other.
It's having a good mix of both.
Life is a marathon. There's a good number of decades.
No point burn out too early.
Work 5 years after graduation, burn out, stressed, depressed, etc... no point.
But staying in a lum nua job, no career prospects... well... someone's gotta do the job. If that makes you happy that's fine. But if want to earn more, then one has to find better jobs, harder jobs, etc...
It's like you're a mage class, but low on MP.
Cast one powerful spell then no more MP and cannot cast anymore spells.
Or you're a mage class with high MP but only learn low level spells.
Can cast a lot of spells but the damage is low.
It's a balance. Need to have good enough MP and strong enough spells.
Discipline & Focus
I also think this is highly related to perseverance.
And yet, I feel it's somewhat different.
To make yourself do things that isn't natural, that you don't really want to do and to keep doing it.
Like the discipline to eat less, cut sugar, exercise.
Spend less, save more. Discipline to sleep early, or study/read for an hour everyday, and to keep doing it.
And not get distracted by other things. That requires focus.
I never realized that focus is actually quite rare. After chatting with more people around me, I realize people get distracted a lot. They do something then their mind wanders. Or they try to do something, then something else crops up and they do something else, but then after that they don't quickly return to the first thing they were doing. They forget what they were doing and they just do other random activity.
May get worse for future generations, cos of all the short vids which are so popular these days.
It may raise a generation of folks who can't hold attention for more than a couple of minutes.
Earn & Save & Invest
Come on... it's all 3 right?
Let's not kid ourselves.
U strike lottery, don't save and invest, there's nothing left.
If you can't earn much, how to save?
If you can't save, how to invest?
As much as I get a lot of stuff free, I also recognize that there's an accumulation phase and an investing phase.
It's a balance of them all. Of course those who earn more MAY have an easier time saving.
MAY, cos if they earn more, but have an expensive lifestyle, they may save more, but their savings are meagre in proportion to their spending.
Someone who earns $100k, and saves $10k, vs someone who earns $10k and saves $5k...
The higher earner would have a hard time trying to save for retirement if his lifestyle is expensive.
And as easy it is to say these 3 words, earn, save, invest...
They are an accumulation of the traits which I mentioned above.
Intelligence, wisdom, common sense, hard work, perseverance, discipline, focus.
There are probably other traits which are important which I haven't listed.
And the thing is, it's not just one or the other, we need a good balance of them all to navigate through life.
It's like looking for the best wonton mee. There is none. There are a bunch of wonton mees that are better than others.
So there's no best trait or skill or most important skill to get you through life. There are a bunch of skills and characteristics which are generally important and the whole bunch of them will help get you through life.
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