Mr Simen began his speech speaking about a documentary he saw which featured Koreans seeking tonic medicine as a way of improving their health. For thousands of years, Koreans have had an unbroken lineage of traditional medicine, known as Hanbang. Although heavily influenced by the traditional medicine of China, the Korean tonic medicne tradition has never really been broke.
The suppression of Korean traditional medicine during the Japanese occupation of Korean (1910 to 1945) did have some negative impact. But Hambang was not stopped but came back very strongly with government support after the Korean War.
Mr Simen then used a parable about a daughter-in-law preparing, pounding, concocting and brewing Hanbang for her father-in-law, asking her father how it tasted.
"Hmmmmm.....Goood", said her father-in-law, "although he thought there was still room from improvement but appreciated her effort". What would make the daughter-in-law an expert in hambang? Effort...and with time, this would be effortless.
Mr Simen explained dictionary definitions of effort and effortless:
effort = 1. The use of physical or mental energy to do something; exertion.
2. A difficult exertion of the strength or will: It was an effort to get up.
3. A usually earnest attempt: Make an effort to arrive promptly.
4. Something done or produced through exertion; an achievement
effortless = Calling for, requiring, or showing little or no effort. (But there is effort, it's just that he/she has become an expert in it through hard effort)
Mr Simen told the boys that mental and physical powers were necessary to break old habits and make each day useful and meaningful. Discipline and focus and putting in effort (mental and physical powers) would make Montfortians true gentleman. With time, the exercise in disciplie and focus would be effortless.
Students who do not put in effort would find such practices a chore. They need to be prodded, coerced, forced, disciplined. This generates tension and unhappiness, the antithesis to the quest for 'effortlessness'. Such students do not demonstrate effort and gentlemanliness.
He encouraged all Montfortians to strive for 'effortlessness' through effort.
If you find this a little deep. Don't worry, here are some quotes from prominent men about 'effort' to help you:
1. Aesop Fables: Little by little does the trick.
Men who do things without being told draw the most wages.
2. Dale Carnegie (US writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills. He wrote 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' first published in 1936)
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
William James (pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who developed the notion of emotion. The theory holds that emotion is the mind's perception of physiological conditions that result from some stimulus. In James' oft-cited example; it is not that we see a bear, fear it, and run. We see a bear and run, consequently we fear the bear)
Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.
Jim Ryan: American politician who served two four-year terms as Illinois Attorney General
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
Harry Emerson Fosdick: Clergyman. Fosdick became a central figure in the conflict between fundamentalist and liberal forces within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s.
No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined.
No comments:
Post a Comment