Insight

  Book Title: The Power of Moments

Book chapter: Stretch for insight

Author: Chip Heath& Dan Heath   Reviewed by: Jason Cheng Qi Quan

What is insight? Insight is the sense of understanding yourself well. It is the moment to know who you are and what you want.  Insight can be discovered along the life journey. It takes time and requires patience.  

Do you know your strength? Do you know your interest? How can make money with your interest? At first, our mind has initial thought. You can do some survey and analysis and made a life decision. If you made a life decision and do it ,you may fail but you will learn something. It strengthens your insight. You understand ourselves better.  If you don't try, you never know who you are. This theory is simple but difficult to do it. We must have the courage to take the risk, try something and get an answer along the journey. If we stay at the same point without moving forward and overthinking, it wastes our mind energy and gets depressed easily. Our mind is suffering because a lot of ideas circulating in our minds and unable to made it happen. It procrastinates our decision making and we always hesitate.  Therefore, action leads to insight.

    I always overthink about risk. For example, I am worried I will lose money and sacrifice a lot of time. I doubt myself and didn't make it happen.  It amplifies the task difficulties and causes me stuck.  Now I learn how to make a decision and willing to step up the first step. Find a platform that you can try and minimize the risk as much as possible. Join the volunteering event to test your idea. It can help you know your capability and also benefits others.  For example, I am interested to become a trainer. So I join a non-profit organization. It is Toastmaster! It is the platform that helps me to sharpen my presentation skill and public speaking skill. I appreciate the feedback from club members and they help me to grow. In the toastmaster journey, I notice that I am interested to share my knowledge with people!  This theory is Barbell Approach. It means small action can lead to tremendous results. 

        You need to expose yourself to new situations in life. If you don't take off your life vest, you don't know you can swim or not. For example, you are thinking to startup your own business. You may encounter new situations in the journey. You are exposed yourself to risk. There is a lot of uncertainty. Uncertainty leads to opportunities. You can calibrate your insight along the new journey. 

        Moreover, there is one person who can strengthen your insight. It is your mentor. A mentor is like our personal bodyguard. It saves us from danger and guides us in the correct direction. It motivates us when we are depressed. It saves our energy and time. We must always appreciate mentors because they are our hope. Mentor pushes us to boundaries and we must stretch ourselves. We grow together with mentor. 

        Sometimes people encourage us to take the  risk and we will succeed! However, the risk does not always pay off. The  return may not reach our expectations. However, the most valuable thing that you get is your insight. You know what you truly value in life and understand yourself better throughout the journey!