Reference Points

It was the last exam of our second semester. I had reached the exam hall a bit early since I was done with the revision somewhat two hours before the exam. My semester exams were okay okay and I didn't wanted this one to go away in a similar fashion.

While I sat on my bench,I saw the guy who sits ahead of me. There's some unusual thing about this guy which would make you respect him. He wears specs,has mustaches and light beard but doesn't care to trim them. Neatly dressed and quite reserved. His face remained quite expressionless and calm,knocking out the exam fear.

In the first four exams,I had not talked to him much,but this time,I decided to get into a conversation with him. He was from the Electrical Engg department which I understood from the orange strip on his ID card. 

Me: Today's exam is a bit tough.. I guess there will be a lot of diagrams to draw

He: Yeah.. I'm sure there will be some tough numerical as well.

Me: Lets see.. anyways,done with all the chapters

He (In a modest way): Don't know.. Lets see :)

Me: Ahem! Don't try to be so modest.. how much did you score in the first semester?

He: Umm.. 9.37 points. 

It was a sudden shocker for me,he was the college topper and I guess he had scored the highest in the city as well. He didn't ask my pointers and by then the supervisor had entered the hall. 

That evening,I was back to home after a long train journey and from the shelf,I decided to pick up 'The Greatness Guide' by Robin Sharma (P.S: I love reading his books again and again,it rejuvenates my spirit). I reached a particular topic called  'Choosing Reference Points'.

I re-introspected my performance over the year,I mean the last two semesters. I found that I wan't aiming much from the exams,thanks to the tremendous amount of complacency I had gathered during the year. The entire year was spent without much hard work and with low expectations.

I decided to change this habit and start with new and more efficient habits. I asked to myself "If he can,why can't I?" after all god gave me everything that I needed . I decided to set him as a reference point for my exam performance. I decided to set some more reference points as well. For example,there are some guys in my class who are good and regular at completing assignments,I'd refer them for my progress in assignments and continuous checking would help me buck up whenever I get loose and lag behind. Some guys are good at workshop,some are good at managing the class affairs. When I check their performance and I try to learn from them,it does wonders.

"There's something to learn from everyone around us,all we need is a positive attitude"

The best thing about reference points is that you always get a direction and standard. Merely saying that I'll get 9 points this semester becomes a bit vague,at times you don't know how to approach things. Don't ignore the fact that there are some smarter people around you and it's always wise to learn from their work and get it incorporated into you work. 

Mind Power

Mind Power is a highly talked about topic. Everyone wants to know about its secret,since they want their life would change drastically. Several books have been written on it,and infinite blog pots have posted. But probably I never get most of the matter.

However,on a general level,I feel mind power is simply how much powerful our mind is. To measure the strength of muscles,we have different parameters such as the amount of load one can lift up,or the number of push ups one can made,etc. Similarly the power of mind can be determined by the level of imagination.

Improving the life


Once we can imagine the advantages of an improved life,we get motivated to improve it. For example,when we imagine how our life would be if we end up some addiction,then it would be easier to overcome the addiction with a newly motivated mind.

Mind Power and Memorization

Imagination naturally enhances our planning ability,and also memorization. It is easy to remember anything if we can imagine how it happens. For example,if we want to memorize how an AC generator works,we can read and simultaneously construct a generator in your mind,and simultaneously imagine how the constructed generator works. This is equivalent to watching a generator being constructed at a workshop. Once we've imagined it in our mind,it is easy to reproduce and hence memorization is made a lot easy.