It’s a brand new year, and with every New Year, people all over the world make resolutions about what they want to accomplish in the next 365 days! However, studies have shown that 83% of people who make such resolutions, in the end, fail to achieve their lofty ambitions, leaving them as old and tired shells of their former selves (ok, I’m joking on that one).
Luckily for everyone, the Law Annual team has put together a list of resolutions (for those amongst us who hasn’t come up/or bothered to make any), and also provided helpful guidelines on how to stick to these resolutions without compromising either your law school or social lives!
(Author’s note, none of these have been clinically tested, and Law Annual does not accept liability for any failure of our tips to adequate help you accomplish your resolutions.)
Ok now that the technicalities are over, let’s delve into it!
RESOLUTION ONE: In 2012, I will lose weight!
SINGAPORE POOLS BETTING ODDS (of success): 5/2
During the preparation period before the exams, when the stress level is at its highest, the pack of Lays BBQ chips looks more and more tempting. After the exams, vacation time is another good period for all of us to look at the tempting plate of Fish and Chips and say ‘Heck, it’s the holidays’ and wolf it down without a second thought.
(Looks good, right)
Now as school starts, do you find that your jeans are a wee bit tighter, or that your shirt seems a bit more ‘slim-fit’? Worry that the demands of law school life will make it impossible to lose that holiday weight?
OUR SOLUTION: One of the good things (for this situation at least) is that BTC is situated on top of a hill, and that walking up and down does generate quite a sweat. However, if you are looking for something more sweat-inducing, here are some ideas:
1) Get off one bus-stop before BTC (at the stop across the road from Botanic Gardens MRT or at Stevens Road) and walk the one bus-stop to BTC! 5-10 minutes of walking everyday does help
2) For those who study in school everyday till late, a 20-min run in the Botanic Gardens when your head is too clogged up with law will do wonders. Plus, it’s been proven that looking at greenery is both good for your eyesight (which after staring for hours into a computer screen, isn’t exactly eyesight enhancing).
3) Find a running buddy near your place to run with you! It gives you more incentive to take time off to run.
4) If you are into football, there is a fantastic group of ‘amateur players’ that tries to organize football games at the lower quad on a semi-regular basis. Find out when they organize stuff!
5) Alternatively, just spend more time in school. With all the ghosts around, you’ll sure to be running around a lot more.
(This might help, but I don’t know whether they sell this in Singapore)
RESOLUTION TWO: I WILL WORK HARDER
ODDS: 4/1
Just as Boxer said after Napoleon launched some new-fangled plan to improve productivity (before being carted off by Napoleon to the knackers, in an analogy that we don’t want to use to depress everyone), everyone wants to work harder to get a better grade in their exams, to jump ahead of someone else in the rat race.
However, as Einstein said, success is 1% brilliance and 99% effort, so we at Law Annual have some basic tips on how to work harder!
1) Deactivate your Facebook account for the following semester. ‘Nuff said.
- WARNING: Disabling your Facebook account might lead to the following side-effects:
i. Inability to focus due to the incessant need to find out who just tagged you in a post/photo
ii. Withdrawal symptoms from not being able to stalk some hot guy/girl
iii. Losing topics of conversation due to being unable to look at photos on your friend’s FB and thus being unable to gossip about them.
iv. Inability to play Tetris Battle
- (Maybe there are just too many side-effects. FB is still more important)
2) Past a huge motivational picture on your wall in your room. Nothing tells you to work harder on a daily basis than waking up to a picture of a huge eagle soaring with ‘DISCIPLINE’ in caps.
3) Sleep using your textbooks as a pillow. Even when you are sleeping, the information from your textbook will diffuse into your brain, ensuring that you aren’t wasting any time sleeping. If you are even more determined, record the days’ lecture into an mp3 file and listen to it. Make sure that none of your hours spent sleeping go to waste.
RESOLUTION THREE: I will learn a new skill in 2012
ODDS: 20/1
This is another common resolution many people have, and the skills can be wide and varied, ranging from playing the guitar, to learning how to roller-blade, or even learning how to fly a Cesena. However, as 2012 goes by, you either have no time, or you suddenly lose interest in whatever you wanted to learn initially in favour of something else. So how do you keep this resolution?
1) Frame your resolution as wide as possible, so to allow for varying interpretations of it. If you resolve to learn a ‘new skill’ in 2012, you have 365 days to change your mind on what kind of skill you want to learn! If you resolve to learn how to ‘fly a plane’, you don’t have that wiggle room.
2) Have a lot of determination. There are many distractions between you and your mastery of that skill, especially your grades.
3) After reading this article, go straight down to the nearest store/school and buy something expensive that is essential to learning this skill. It’ll give you the motivation (i.e I must learn this, it’s too bloody expensive not to) to eke out some time to learn it.
RESOLUTION FOUR: I will be more punctual
ODDS: 100/1
Sick of running up the hill every morning because you looked at your alarm clock in the morning and said ’10 more minutes’? Have you turned up to an appointment 1 hour late, only to see your friends scowling at you as you shrug your shoulders? Spending too much money on cab fares from Newton?
(If you are not convinced by the need to be punctual, let me tell you this fable).
In Ancient China, there was a young, talented man who, while walking along the river, saw an old man sitting on a bridge, his shoe on the riverbank below him. After the youth helped to pick up the shoe and placed it on the old man’s feet, he promised to give him something if he turned up at the same time the next day. However, the youth turned up late, and was rebuked by the old man and told to come back the next day. The youth came back the next day on time, but the old man rebuked him again. Frustrated, the youth returned to the bridge at midnight and waited there till the old man returned to the bridge in the morning. Satisfied, the old man gave the youth a long-lost book on governance, enabling him to help overthrow the tyrant and establish a new peaceful order in China.
(The moral of the story, don’t be late. You might miss something precious)
So how do you be more punctual in 2012?
1) Set your clocks 30 minutes in advance. Statistics show that setting your watches 5 minutes in advance doesn’t really help you be punctual. Be bold, set your watches 30 minutes in advance. If you arrive in school too early because of it, enjoy a coffee and pastry from the Summit. You will also get to know the Summit ladies better as a result. Win-win situation.
2) Alternatively, do what the Chinese youth did. Come to school at 12am and sleep here till the morning lecture. You will definitely not be late any more.
Law Annual wishes everyone a Happy New Year (and a Happy Chinese New Year as well) Hope everyone has a good angpao haul this year!
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Article contributed by: Jon Low (Law 2)