Skip to main content

How to Win in Any Competition


Part 1: Motivation
To begin with, you need to be mentally prepared by having the correct mindset and attitude. Based on my previous experiences, intrinsic motivation is more powerful than extrinsic motivation. If you are doing something because your main purpose is to put a club on the activities list or to impress admissions officers, you may need to find another activity to pursue. Good luck trying to do that because it is going to be quite painful and difficult to keep going. The reason why intrinsic motivation is a lot more effective than extrinsic motivation is because intrinsic motivation focuses more on self-growth and development instead of putting your eye on the treasure all the time. Also, if you are intrinsically motivated, you wouldn't feel terribly disappointed if you didn't win because you still gained skills from the experience. If you live by the 3 words, "Just keep playing," you will not only enjoy the journey a lot more but take off a lot of pressure to excel. Think of it as a video game in the sense that it is ok to fail many times before a competition.

Part 2: Consistency
I would say that if it wasn't for this, I wouldn't even win in any of my competitions. If you are a musician, you have probably heard this already, but it is better to play 7 hours of piano for 1 week instead of playing 7 hours of piano in 1 weekend. By spacing it out, I am able to learn at a suitable pace instead of cramming everything in. The key isn't sudden improvement, but improvement every day. Think about being 1% better every day. Thinking exponentially, that means that you will improve a lot within half a year (that is if you improve 1% a day). Although 1% may sound very insignificant, in the long run it accumulates a lot. That goes the same for a science competition like Science Olympiad. For Fermi Questions, I did 1 practice test a week, allowing me to not feel worried during regionals.

Part 3: The Game Plan
I think part 1 and 2 is advice that most of you have heard of from various people. It is part 3 that is quite challenging. For me, the game plan would be writing the procedure on how to accomplish or achieve something on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Before I start something, I would write down the steps I should take in order to accomplish something. If I am not sure, I try to use the resources offered online such as forums, YouTube, or simply asking people around me. Another part of the game plan is considering how will you make less mistakes in the long run. For instance, when I practiced piano, I wanted to improve while spending less time. To do this, I considered recording the teacher's voice so I could replay the entire lesson at home. I also evaluated myself by asking myself why I made the same mistakes (technique, emotion) and how could I change it.
Some people may think that it is a waste of time to spend around 1 hour planning it out when you can start right away but it is actually very helpful to plan it all out.

Part 4: Competition Mindset
Sometimes, your competition result isn't necessarily based on how much time you spent on it. Sometimes, it is also an evaluation of how mentally prepared you are. The most helpful things I have done is practicing meditation because I am able to note how I am feeling or what I am thinking about. Also, I write down positive notes to myself that are encouraging. Most importantly, I accept the possibility of failure by telling myself that even if I fail, it is fine. There will always be other opportunities in the future. As I said before in part 1, "just keep playing" will help a lot during the competition. Although there may be a lot of pressure during the competition, acknowledging the playful aspect to it makes it a lot less stressful. For instance, during my piano competition, I saw it as an opportunity to showcase my appreciation of music to the judges. Instead of focusing on the award, "just keep playing" made me able to enjoy the experience of being immersed while playing piano.

For those that are approaching a competition, good luck to you all!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Accepted BU RISE Essays

BU RISE is a 6-week research program at Boston University. In 2019, the acceptance rate was around 16% so it is a selective program. There are two tracks- internship and practicum. The internship is the one I applied to because I wanted to work in a lab. Unfortunately, BU RISE in 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19. If you are applying to BU RISE, these essays may be a source of inspiration.  1.Why you selected your field of interest and what you would like to research (300 words)  First choice: medical laboratory research (biochemistry) Second choice: chemistry  Ever since 2018, I participated in a Science Olympiad event called Protein Modeling that sparked my interest in proteins. When I learned about the anti-CRISPR protein, it alarmed me that the protein stopped CRISPR from working. Wondering how this could happen, I used Jmol to build and visualize the protein model. Over time, I no longer viewed proteins as messy globs. Instead, I appreciated that the protein’s disti...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Frustrations of Wet Lab

     I am sitting at my desk in the lab, still mad and frustrated that I can’t even pipette properly. My cell counter results are dismal. I don’t know why I am getting such poor percentages for cell viability – I should be getting at least 90%, not 47%. I followed what my supervisor did an hour ago: perform a serial dilution four times, pipette trypan blue into each of the four wells, then pipette a bit of sample into the cell counter plate.       Fortunately, my supervisor came into the cell room to check on me and helped me with pipetting for the cell counter step. He got 89%, close to the ideal threshold. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he said. I could sense that his voice was tinged with frustration, which I understood. I was also mad for not having an answer. What exactly was wrong with my pipetting technique? Did I pipette too quickly, or did I not press the plunger correctly?       The whole cell counter incident frustrates ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why I Blog

 For the past two years, I have been blogging every so often, but I never asked myself why I blogged. The main reason I blog is to store and organize my thoughts that I keep hearing in my brain. These thoughts range from past memories to feelings of disappointment or anger. By writing my thoughts, I gain some clarity. Also, blogging serves as a form of self-reflection that I need to do on a regular basis or else my brain still acts fuzzy.  Although I write a lot of posts that aren't positive, I have a pretty good life. The reason that I tend to write a lot of negative things about myself on the blog is that if I don't write about bad things, then they keep bothering me. Worse, I may not learn from my mistakes or lessons. Still, I will try to balance out the negative content with some positive content because I want this blog to be useful for others. I don't want a blog where I all I do is criticize myself for failing to live up to my expectations. Instead, I want this websi...
Post a Comment
Read more