The Way To Overcome Depression & True Story On Effort

Most people in life will one way in another suffer some form of depression along their way in life. Some may not even realized that they are even suffering from the effects of depression. Depression will cause negative effect to both mental and physical health.

Below are some good sketch about what depression is all about and how to overcome it.

In my opinion, after some thought, one of the major source of depression is caused by our extreme yearning for something that we don't possess at the moment. When it becomes the sole focus and attention of your mind, you will slowly fall into depression because you make yourself thing that you are not worthy, not capable, etc of achieving the dreams and yearnings that you always hope for.

You make the yearning the center being of your life meaning that if you don't get it then you have no worth in this world (you use it to validate your existence and identity). This is the final stage of worst case of depression as the more you dwell on it , the deeper you will sink into it. It is a negative feedback loop that plunges you inward into deeper anguish and despair. You will start to introvert yourself and separate yourself from those that can help you , by not discussing your anguish, problems with other people especially those that love you the most aka family.

1) I personally think the easiest way to get out of depression or even quickly bypass it is always be grateful and thankful for all the things you have; instead of dwelling too much on things that you DON'T have.

To get out of depression, you must do the opposite thing that trigger into depression.

GRATEFUL-Ness..

2) Celebrate the little achievement & little victories in life.

I think it is the Asian culture (or at least Chinese culture like myself) , that tend to selldown our own accomplishments in life. For example, someone might congratulated you for winning a competition or doing a good job in your work, I used to reply : "It is nothing special, it is just a small task etc or a competition" or " I just got lucky". In other words, you don't really take credit your achievement that is actually due to your hard work and training. This could make you think that your achievement is too small in the back of your mind.

I noticed the Westerners will always reply "Thank you" for your compliments because they tend to acknowledge their achievement as part of their culture. From young, their parents always say positive reinforcement for anything that they do. Whereas in the chinese culture, I am sure that many parents still make comparison of their own kid vs other people's kid infront of them. And some parents even have a "boasting session" of their kid's academic achievement infront of other parents which in turn could have negative effect on other kids's self worth and self esteem.

This is something I dislike as a kid even though I was pretty decent good student.

Secondly, most of us should been taught with the mentality that you should not highlight your achievements too much in case people will think that you are boastful etc. My take: You will need to take credit on achievements nor matter how small it is that is due to your own effort.

3) Setting life goal

Even I was young, i think setting life goals are stupid because you cannot really predict what will happen in life when you grow up. And you are not yet expose to the world's life opportunities. It is a big world out there but when you are young and sheltered by your family's protection, you don't realized it.

But life goal is very important, so that you have a PASSION to strive & HOPE to achieve that goal nor matter how ridiculously impossible at that time when you wrote your life goal down.

Even if you fail , at least you try. Not trying any effort, the chance of success is ABSOLUTELY zero.

This is my advice to young graduates: You must put some effort and try instead of waiting to be spoon-fed.

EFFORT will TRIUMPH Natural Talent over the long run!! (Think of Naruto (the hardworker) vs Sasuke (the natural genius))

True Life Story

E.g, I have a classmate whom was a very naughty & big kid , and used to end up within the range of top 10 Bottom of the class during primary and early secondary school. (that what i can recalled) And we thought he will end up as a gangster, bouncer or something like that when we graduate high school due to his rough edge and size. He has no academic inclination at all;

But one day while in Form3, due to some reasons, he decided to get serious by aiming to get number 1 in the class!. No kidding right!. From bottom 10 to No.1; seems impossible right?!. And the No.1 kid, is the 'unbeatable' kid that always number 1 for a few Forms.

That naughty kid studied like crazy, we are even damn surprised on this sudden transformation. He pushed himself very hard and we also got to see his weird and funny antics to push himself to the limit. Everyday I bet he told himself, that he wants to beat the No.1 kid academically.

At first, we all thought it was a fluke or hot spur, but when he managed to get himself into Top 10, (~Form4) then we know he is damn serious about it. At one point, when we were in Form5, he is a serious challenger for the No.1 'throne' as he got No.2 in class.

More than a decade has passed, and deep down I really admire his audacious goal, hardwork,grit and aspiration to get No.1 in class even though he used to be a bully of sort.. lol. ( I never really tell him that due to this fact..haha)

Wow! Right. Now he is a practising doctor!

Keep on trying!!. I particularly touch by this movie below. 101 Proposal. He fails for the 99th time, yet he still tries hard.