New Year's Resolution

This year seems more likely to face difficult challenges that a worldly big financial slump brought last year.

This year I will be 28. Time runs so fast. I didn't complete yet what I had decided to do last year.

This year I will complete, at least, one of what I want to do.

My new year's resolution is for my road to economics PhD and to become an economist who can talk about economics by his own words.

(1) Listen to different opinions

I am poor at listening to people with whom I don't agree. It's a great loss. Because I don't try to know what I haven't known yet. I try to listen to and understand others.

(2) Read, write, listen to and speak as much English as possible in my everyday life

I am living in Japan and here there's not much English: nobody speaks English generally and in the book store we never see English written books being sold. It's somewhat difficult to keep using English.

When I went to Potsdam, Germany, I realized that people in Germany faced almost the same situation as those in Japan: in Berlin there's almost no English around us and many people speak German not English.

Some Japanese told me that Germans would speak more English than Japanese but I don't think so.

(3) Help others

Sounds easy to do so but actually it's very difficult to. What's my mission? To help myself become happier and richer? Probably not. Of course, I should be able to make much money to repay the student loan, but to make money is not a final mission.

Help people as they help me. In this world people help each other whereas they kill each other.

(4) Speak by my own words, not by others' words

Unfortunately some economists do not speak by their own words: they just copy famous economists or their textbooks. It's not a good intellectual manner to follow. I don't think they are economists. Certainly it's difficult to speak by my own words. However, I have to do so because I cannot be a good economist otherwise.

(5) Be honest and tolerant

Speak just what I think and listen to what others think. This is somewhat similar to (1) though. Don't get angry because others don't come to follow me. Be kind even though others are upset.

(6) Act quickly and think slowly

Don't hesitate to do what bothers me. If I was asked to do something terrible, I would try to do so as soon as possible, not for others but for myself. And think carefully not to misunderstand the situation in which I am.

(7) Think not only of myself but also of the world in which I live

If I have some difficult problem to deal with, don't think it difficult and don't feel that I am unlucky. From the worldly point of view, it might be so small that I can miss. Moreover, it should become trivial as time goes by. Time will solve it and just wait for luck to come. Am I so optimistic?