There's a phrase in English called "No sweat," or "Don't sweat it," which means don't worry too much about something and just let it happen, don't stress about it. MJ sweats a lot, figuratively (but also literally because when she worries her hands get sweaty and "clammy"), and it's perpetual......a job interview that is 2 weeks away will make her unable to sleep well or make her constantly worried all throughtout the day. What a difficult way to live!
I have similar worries, but I've learned to tried to let go a bit and go exercie or o omething fun for awhile and forget. I don't use alcohol as a way to forget, but engaging in some activity with 100% concentration usually does the trick, like dodgeball used to do before the pandemic. (Also a surefire way to forget small details about dodgeball like a shirt). Have a bad stock market day? Stop logging into cnbc.com or my Etrade account for the rest of the day and just focus on work, as the market is usually only open during business hours anyway. (I violate my own rule when the market goes deep in the red, like exactly one year ago in the depths of the pandemic when the Dow lost 3000 points in a single day!!!! and the Nasdaq lost 12% in a single session). Yea, those would be kinda times to focus on the market and make sure the end of the world is not nigh.
I do think it is important to take time out of the day just to think and reflect, ponder one's place in the world, but you should be thinking about the right things, not just aimlessly worrying oneself into a puddle of tears and anxiety, creating even more regret about the worrying itself. Our mental capacities only have so much capacity and room to fit in so many things per day, so might as well fit in as much useful knowledge or positive thoughts as possible.
As March Madness rolls around and the NCAA tournament begins, as well as fantasy baseball drafting season, I've come to realize how much emphasis I put on rankings and how the rankings affected my outlook on things, and gradually I've begun to feel rankings are overrated. I loved rankings because they were a way to sort a long list of items numerically, to give some order to a sequence and objectively say, this team is better than another, or this school is better than the other. I was pretty obsessive about law school rankings when I applied for law school, because, well, that's one of the only objective ways of measuring a school's value compared with other schools and help determine whether I should go there or not. I also knew that other people are also looking at the US News rankings, so it becomes a generally accepted standard. What I didn't factor in was that the rankings weren't tailored specifically for me and didn't put weight on the specific factors I valued more, like employment rate, ability to get hired in a big city like Los Angeles, how many people at big law firms were alumni of that specific law school, how the hiring partners at those ideal big law firms viewed people from those schools. The rankings also CHANGE, they're dynamic, so if you're forward-looking you should try to predict how those rankings may evolve over time and get the best value based on that change. (It's kind of like fantasy baseball, if Mike Trout is rated No. 1 now but Kyle Tucker is ranked No. 10 now, I should prefer Mike Trout, but if I think in this next year Kyle Tucker will move to No. 5 based on his performance and Mike Trout will move to No. 4, I should probably pick Tucker based on that upward trend and the fact I can get less for him now but get more value out of it than pay top dollar for the universally liked Trout. Hope that made sense). Rankings are usually also based on PAST performance, where statistics and numbers can be crunched to form a value. They do not necessarily predict the future.
In general, I just think that rankings should just be used as a tool, not the definitive verdict on how one should view 2 different choices. Importantly, you should make your own rankings, not just use someone else's own who has a totally different perspective on the subject matter. So when you're filling out your March Madness bracket this year (first time in 2 years we've been able to do it, a joyous feelng!) Don't just pencil in the higher seed mindlessly without checking the actual resume of the team next to the seed! Go Illinois Illini! I-L-L! I-N-I!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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