Assignment #6

I take problems and obstacles as chances to grow myself, although its sometimes frustrating. We learned from chapter 3 that having an optimistic outlook is important, but I sometimes get panic when things turns out in the wrong way. Since I do not write out or image every possible outcomes and believe strongly in things turning successfully, I get surprised when it doesn't work out well. For example, when I loose keys, I always get in panic and cannot be optimistic. I think being steady and calm even when facing bigger problems is important.

Assignment #5

Ordinary people tend to be risk averse.
Thus,it is difficult to connect things learned from Shackleton's expedition to our daily life. (I'm sure that most of us would not share the same experience of his to sail the most dangerous sea in the world.) However, I believe that every people has potential to experience risks to a greater or a lesser extent. For me, I had never experienced risks as harsh as Shackleton's, but there is one story that I could perhaps share with you relating to this chapter.
When I was in 2nd grade, I went to a trip to New York with my family. Back at that time, I had never learned English before, and so for didn't understand any of the words people were talking. We stayed at a nice hotel in the city, and I got tired playing with my little brother and fall a sleep a little earlier than the usual time. It was almost midnight when I woke up, hearing some shouts at outside. I then found out that my parents were out, and remembered to not to open doors if it's strangers. However, I FELT that something at the hotel was wrong, and I decided to wake my little brother up and opened the door. There, I saw many people running out of their rooms for fire evacuation. I totally didn't understand the situation but I followed the flow of people taking my brother by the hand. When we reached at the lobby, I found my parents crying and asking the staff to go back to their room to pick us up. They told me that they were out for going downstairs to eat dinner, and when they heard the fire alarm rang, they tried to go back immediately, but they weren't allowed for safety reasons.
Thus, it was Risk-taking decision to make, since I had potential that some strangers would kidnap us when I opened the door. Risks might going to happen in the future as well, but I felt it especially important to at least have courage to make decisions, even if I do not understand the circumstances totally.

Assignment #4

Answers to the question 5 in Chapter 6.

I was really impressed by how Shackleton acted on serving an extra hot milk on his account under such a harsh condition. To be honest, I would not expect anyone to act the same as what he did if I were in his situation. In fact, I consider it to be pretty natural for a man to behave 'selfish' to save his own life fist even if he sees the other members suffering.
However, there are some experiences I have done on self sacrificing (with circumstances not as harsh as the one in the expedition log though). Recently, team members in Department of Designing and Advertisement in ICU Festival Committee has been working hard on making a pamphlet. I asked them if there's anything I could do, and helped them translate some pages into English. It took me couple of hours to have them done all, and I had to cut my sleeping time (which is precious, since I have other stuffs to do). I do not take this as an action equivalent to "serving tea and milk", but this was the latest commitment I had made upon my team members.

Assignment #3

Responds to question 1 in Chapter 4 'Stamina'

When I step back and come to think of my own physical health, I cannot say that I'm taking a lot of care on myself. Rather, I tell others to get rest when seeing them working hard. This does not mean that I deliberately choose to self sacrifice myself in order to have other team members take some rest. In fact, I could allocate tasks to everyone equally when having a group project. However, when dealing with my own task which I do not share with anybody else, I often stay awake over night (or keep my vigil) and try to finish up all the works. I cannot stand myself having a lot of tasks at a time, so I try to finish them as fast as I could do in relatively a short time.

I totally agree with what the author describes that leaders do not necessary have innate strength in physical conditions (like how Shackleton was). I personally regard myself as a person with strength and good stamina, but if there's anything I could improve on maintaining my health, I should be working on little by little to finish my works (not doing it in short time) and get enough rest each day.

In short, like Ken has advised me in last class, I should get more sleep...