Cultural indifference is my ignorance

I used to think that life can be easier and happier without so many hard-to-remember cultural details, but I was wrong. Regional culture is an important source of wisdom and happiness, I was just to young to understand.

I used to live and study in many places, if I were more aware of the cultural details, I would not have been indifferent about the famous places, custom and personality of people from those places I lived in, and I would have thought and done things more wisely.

It's a pity that not until recently did I try getting accustomed to all the culture background I should have been enjoying. The reason behind this, I think, is that I had a false belief that once I "give in" to a specific cultural background, I'll lose my own uniqueness.

What a ridiculous logic!

I'm going to be open-minded

I used to have a very bad habit - try to figure out everything within my own knowledge structure, through my own experience, by my own reasoning. It is always helpful in investigating or studying new things, but out of that very limited scope, it have been a major hindrance in my life and efficiency-killing thinking pattern.

The reason for the existence of that habit, is uncertainty about the future and the result. But there are hidden patterns behind the uncertainty, when the pattern is recognized correctly, even uncertainty can help me achieve the set objective. On the opposite, even if every action taken is proved certain without question, the opportunity will be taken by someone else who is more skillful at dealing with uncertainty.

So, I must not be close-minded in the future, I have to be open-minded. Because only by experiencing life with uncertainties can I gradually be able to face the real challenges and finally deal with them.

Perfectionism is seldom reliable

I have an interest of perfecting things. Whenever I notice there're defects - even some trivial, neglectable appearance imperfection - in something I'm using or making, I will try my best to fix it. It's like a compulsory habit.

And I must admit that, at least in some way, this habit is helpful, especially for learning and studying activities. But it also prevent me from focusing on more important things, like time limitation or original purpose of the work. Sometimes it even becomes an excuse, an excuse for doing trivial "secure" tasks rather than moving on bravely to a new level of competence, which usually prevent me from entering a new arena of life.

That's why I said "perfectionism can be helpful, but seldom reliable". Actually, I think as long as I want to perfect myself, there're no real excuse for securing myself. Fear of new, unexpected experience, rather than imperfection, is the real reason behind "this type of perfectionism".