Many times I had been an opponent of changing the status quo as well, using the excuse of tradition as my justification. Standing against something came easy to me because I was afraid of change.

Standing for something is much more difficult, as the fight to strike down Proposition 8 proves. But after seeing the supporters of equal marriage rights moved to tears and embracing each other to celebrate a small victory in a long uphill battle, I too became a believer that dreams are worth fighting for, no matter what you are up against.

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While breaking into Martin’s house, Mikael heard Martin’s car pulling up to the driveway. Immediately, he begins to sneak out of the house. Mikael went unnoticed, until he tripped and fell while going down a hill, which prompted Martin to come out. Pretending to be unaware of the fact that Mikeal is onto him, Martin invites Mikael to come into the house for a drink. Mikael obliges and takes him up on the offer. Once they settled inside, Martin suddenly pulls out a gun and captures Mikael.
 
Martin then mused:
 
“Why don’t people trust their instincts? You knew something was wrong, but you came back into the house. Did I force you, did I drag you? No. All I had to do was offer you a drink. It’s hard to believe that the fear of offending someone is stronger than the fear of pain. But you know what? It is.”
 

If that energy is so powerful, is there a way to use it to our advantage? What if you could channel the typically negative effects of peer pressure to become more productive?

That’s what the Partner System is about. It is a system designed to motivate you to accomplish routine tasks through the fear of letting someone down. 

Partner System In Workouts

Last summer, I told myself that I am going to get in shape through P90X, which is an intense 90 days workout routine. I did it together with some friends, and since we didn’t see each other everyday, one of us created a Facebook group where we had to “check in” by posting on the wall after we finished our workout.

One day, I found myself in a dilemma. I had gotten home from a long day of work, and was in no particular mood to do my workout. Usually, my mind will give me a get out of jail free pass and let me off the hook. However, when I logged on Facebook and saw that many of my buddies on the list had posted their daily check-in, I started sweating.

The weight of my laziness started settling. Surely no one would ask if I didn’t post, right? I mean it’s just one day; no one is going to notice. Maybe I should just lie? Dang it, I should just get my ass up and get it done.

I was close, but wasn’t able to follow through. I admitted defeat, leaving the cursor blinking on my screen.

The shame of not having done the workout and not being able to post for the day spurred me to do all the workouts from there on out. In the end, I was able to complete 45 days out of the 90, more than I had ever hoped to accomplish if I went through the program myself.

It was an inspiring thought that opened my doors to many other possibilities.

Partner System In Early Birds

I usually have a hard time waking up early, but that bad habit wasn’t going to cut it when I enrolled in a difficult class that started at 9am in the morning. Fortunately, an idea came to my mind where I implemented the Partner System to help me accomplish my goal.

I asked one of my friends to do this routine with me where we would take turns giving each other a wake up call. On Monday, I would have to wake up at 7am and give him his morning call. On Tuesday, he woke me up by persistently calling my phone.

This technique of accountability works extremely well. By myself, there would be days where I would just press snooze too many times and feel no remorse. Doing so this time, however, meant that I would let down my friend. No matter how difficult each morning was, I had to pull through.

As a result, we made it to almost every single class.

Partner System Everywhere

Although the pain of disappointing someone is great, the reward for doing a routine together is even greater. It was fun having breakfast together, and it made it a lot easier to know that there was someone else suffering through the routine with me. The Partner System has become a powerful tool in my life because like many others, I am able to accomplish much more with someone else.

Here are some suggestions of activities and routine you can do together with your buddies:

-Studying Together

Whether it’s the SAT or for an upcoming test. I found that if you guys alternate playing the “bad cop” and force each other to work for say 30-40 minutes at a time, you guys will get so many things done. No big groups though, those tend to turn out chaotic and unproductive.

-Cooking and Cleaning

If you’re in college, you know that no matter what, the dishes pile up, and there would often be no warm dinner when you home from school. Use the Partner System where you alternatively cook and wash dishes after. Your roommate can make dinner on Monday while you take care of the dishes after. Then switch off. Your apartment will become spotless. The best part is you get to enjoy a home-cooked dinner every other day.

-Getting Work Done

Have a tough assignment coming up for work? Let one of your co-workers or friends know, and have them remind you periodically through a call or in person to keep going. Anyone who has run a marathon or a race knows how important having encouragement along the way is. If they have an important assignment too, you guys can both encourage each other. Try this, and you’ll see that the assigment doesn’t seem to be that intimidating anymore.

Doing routine tasks doesn’t have to be difficult; involve a friend and you’ll see that it gets done in no time, all the time.

If you have any other suggestions on how to use the Partner System, leave them down in the comments below!

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us (we promise we won’t send you any spam, we hate it too) if you want to keep getting awesome content!

-Herry

While celebrating Chinese New Year the other day with my family, I was playing with my cousins, who had just entered grade school. Suddenly one of them babbled, “No, I’m going to become a Pokemon master when I grow up!”

Although I laughed, I realized that I had similar ambitions when I was his age. I had a lot of fantastic ones- such as climbing Mt. Everest, working as a scientist, and becoming a karate master.

As I grew older, I had to give up my first aspirations and settle for more realistic ones. And that in itself was a huge error. As kids, we envisioned goals that made us happy-whether or not they were realistic or accepted by others. That mentality shouldn’t have to change.

Dreams of the Present

With each passing year, we will have additional responsibilities and thus less time to actualize our deepest desires. Knowing that, we can make the choice to settle, or to take advantage of every opportunity and walk the path most suited to us.

For me, it’s taking a round trip of the world and writing a best-selling book about it. When I’m 30, I won’t be able to travel when I have a family and a job. It’s an ambitious and risky goal, but it is the path that I am most passionate about.

Many of our world’s visionaries and legends took a leap of faith to genuinely follow their passion. Take Mark Zuckerberg for example. He took a huge risk by dropping out of Harvard to develop his startup company. As a result, he made a product that is used by nearly a billion people and is considered to be one of the most influential people of our time.

Sure, you can say my example isn’t fair because Mark had a lot of talent and promise, but so do you. The difference is that he took that risk to explore what made him happy. He had the same 24 hours that you and I have per day. He just used more of those hours to accomplish his goal.

Another important difference is that Zuckerberg’s goal was not average. He dared to dream and was rewarded for doing so. Tim Ferriss, one of my role models who took that leap to happiness, said that,

“Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are inspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw the towel. If the potential payoff is mediocre or average, so is your effort. The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There is just less competition for bigger goals.”

Dreams of the Future

If you dare to go down the path of doing something that makes you happy, you must be prepared to work diligently.

If you want to become an athlete, know that in the 2008 Winter Olympics, Lebron James woke up early for team practice and was shocked to find that his teammate Kobe Bryant had already been up for an hour doing squats. No matter how hard you work, somebody else is always working harder.

If you want to become an artist, know that Michelangelo only needed four years to complete his masterpiece on the Sistine Chapel because he worked tirelessly at it. In the words of Calvin Coolidge, “Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

If you want to be a dancer, know that Michael Jackson went against the will of his parents and succeeded by following his dreams. He never stopped to consider if his dreams were realistic or not.

Regardless of who you want to be, know that it is not too late. Reach for fantastic goals that will make you truly happy. Focus your time and work harder than anyone else at them and soon you’ll find that you can be whoever you want to be.

-Herry

How was Mr. Alcosser able get so many students to follow his lead? Simply, he gave his absolute best every day as a teacher and his students learned to do so also by example. Everything that we did in class was infused with Mr. Alcosser’s creative intelligence and hard work. For every hour I felt that I put into my homework, I knew Mr. Alcosser had put two into making our class even better. For the most part, those two hours went into all the little things.
 

Every day, he’d show 5 minutes of a movie in the beginning of class just to entertain and focus his students. Every week, he’d send the entire class an email thanking everyone for their work and wishing them a good weekend. And about every month, he would stop teaching math and have one or two of his previous students visit for the period to give his current students a glimpse into what college would be like for them.
 

Every year, Mr. Alcosser holds a Diamond Bar alumni event where he invites all alumni in his classes to be a part of a panel that spends the entire morning answering questions about college from his current students. His alumni event attracts about 50 college students from all the top schools, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, and Cal-Tech among many others. I was part of this panel event this year and felt truly welcomed by Mr. Alcosser. It felt like four years had never passed.
 

Mr. Alcosser taught me, through example, the value of pure dedication and commitment to a higher purpose. He chose to devote his time, money, and talents into the next generation and will be forever be remembered not only by accolades and awards but also with heartfelt gratitude from his students. Today, he is still teaching at Diamond Bar High and I have no doubt that his current students share my sentiments. Thank you Mr. Alcosser for all the love and support you have you given me. I promise you that I’ll pay all of it forward to each and every student that I meet.
 

Sincerely yours,

Anthony

If you can’t kick the habit like me, here are some good tricks that I used to get me through Stanford. Try them, and you will find that the long nights and all-nighters don’t seem as bad anymore.

Drop-Naps

Pulling an all-nigther is a difficult task, and you will very likely want to take a short nap to recharge. However, taking a 15 minute nap is nearly impossible, as you will often wake up several hours later. On top of that, you usually feel even less motivated and refreshed after. One time, I ended up napping until the next morning and woke up to devastating realization of a missed deadline.

Then, I discovered the drop-nap. It’s a powerful method that only allows you to nap for the shortest time possible, but is designed to give you several hours of energy.

What you do is find a comfortable chair nearby that you can recline in. Then, find an object that when dropped will surely wake you up (a red solo cup filled with water is usually good). Then hold on to it with one hand and take a nap. As soon as you fall asleep, your hand will relax and drop the object. In the case of a solo cup, the water will spill on the floor and reach your feet, and the wetness will definitely jolt you awake.

The amazing thing about the drop nap is that as soon as you wake up, you get a tremendous boost of energy that will last for a while. If you have ever fallen asleep for a few second while driving, you will know this feeling.

Playing Mini-Games

Some students like to use the 50-10 study method to get through the night, where you study for 50 minutes without distractions, and then take a 10 minute break. Most of the time, this method fails because you usually will find yourself extending your break to 30 minutes or longer.

The source of this problem is that break time is often filled with passive activity like facebooking or browsing. You don’t engage your brain in that type of activity, and subsequently lull it to a relaxed state. It then becomes much harder to go back to work and cause you to go over your limit.

In order for this method to work, you must actively stimulate your brain during your 10 minutes of break. Ironically, playing games becomes the perfect study break.

I then opted to play the highly addicting Tetris during my downtime. I’d play for about 5 games, and then go back to work without problems because my mind would continue to be engaged even while I’m taking a break. Playing games forces your brain to stay alert, as it needs to make quick decisions and strategize. Plus, that satisfaction when you get back to back tetris will make your all-nighter a little more fun as well.

Other games that work well include Angry Birds, or Words with Friends. Have a good break!

Social Interaction

If you are not much of a gamer, this alternative might be attractive. Go have a conversation with a friend in person or on the phone. Plan what you’re going to do with them this weekend, or catch up about what’s been going on in your life. Conversing with your friend for a few minutes will give you enough boost to keep you going for the next hour. Make sure you cut the conversation after 10 minutes though and go back to working immediately.

There will be more to come, but until then, good luck on your assignments and study sessions!

-Herry

Herry and Anthony