Kenny Wang

"You could leave life right now, let that determine what you do and say and think"  - Marcus Aurelius Memento mori - remembering you have to die, is a concept that permeates stoic philosophy and one that I've recently put a bit of thought into recently, having come across it in Mark Manson's book "Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck" and "Stillness is the Key" by Ryan Holiday.  Originally, this post was going to be me gathering quotes, insights and examples from books I’ve read to make a coherent case for why in light of the reminder that you are going to die you should be yourself, not waste time, be fearless, empathic and be present. But halfway through this I realised I would have way more fun writing about a night where I had a trippy experience going down a mental rabbit hole and journaled down my own thoughts and imaginations on what it would feel like to not exist (aka being dead). I told a friend about it and they found it entertaining so I thi...

I picked up my first book (that wasn't for school) in Year 11  I think it was 'Relentless' by Tim Grover, after that I realised how much power comes from reading. You are stealing the experiences of everyone successful who came before you, it is literally taking the condensed version of the most valuable parts of someone's entire life experience and letting that be a guide for whatever area of life you want to improve in. We all take the advice of looking twice before crossing the road without having to test it out for ourselves so why not read instead of lying down in the middle of road in every other aspect of your life? Anyways, there is literally no greater investment I've made in my life than reading, it has helped grow and shape my mindset, my productivity, my emotional maturity, my health and learning to make better decisions (and also a source of entertainment and peace) There are couple that I'd put in the 'Kenny's Hall of Fame of books', yo...

I first came across this concept while diving into the world of Jocko Willink who has written a book titled ‘Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual’ . I find it to be quite a powerful concept that is prevalent in almost all aspects of my life. The concept is seemingly counterintuitive at first as discipline seems like the very antithesis of what most people would consider freedom. But it is only through discipline and giving your weaker emotions the middle finger on a daily basis, that truly gratifying and meaningful forms of freedom is achieved. To live an independent lifestyle, to detach your overall happiness from the grips of capricious emotions, to find great enjoyment in hobbies, to be free from mediocrity. All these freedoms require some form of discipline in order to earn.   Costs of freedom now   The opposite is also true, the more freedom we grant ourselves in the moment the more we are stripping away some form of freedom from ourselves in the future. Spe...

  Journaling is one of those things that I hear about everywhere, but I’ve never really had the discipline to instil as a daily habit. I’ve dabbled many times but usually only when I’m knees deep in stress or a rut and writing out my thoughts and reflecting has never failed to pull me out. So, journaling has always been my “in case of emergency button” to give me a kickstart in breaking a bad habit or building a positive one. Recently, I’ve also tried to adopt it almost daily and found it super useful as a tool for self-reflection and optimising productivity as well as generating creative ideas. I believe there is power in the process of writing and externalising your thoughts, to me it is almost like giving myself advice and a conversation with myself. Most of the time when we seek advice, we are just confirming beliefs we already hold that either haven’t been put into words yet or that we are not ready to act upon. Therefore, often times looking inwards and laying out your own ...

I’ve had this goal in mind ever since early 2019, I knew that tracking my diet and regulating my eating schedule was important but I would always say to myself “I don’t have time” or “I’m too busy”, I deluded myself into thinking that it was too hard and not worth the time. Excuses, costly ones too. In retrospection, not only does tracking my diet only take about an extra 20 minutes every day to do, it is an investment that would elevate literally every major aspect of my life I value most: school, fitness and sleep.   Why I started doing this I’ve always been interested in nutrition and fitness, I’d listen to podcasts or watch a couple of videos regularly on dieting but have never mustered the discipline to meaningfully apply any of the knowledge until now. I’ve had a decent-ish diet, I’m not really big on junk food, I never drink soft drinks and I stay away from most sugary snacks, so this isn’t a zero-to-hero story. But I’ve always known I could do better. I’ve put in a ...

  My Reflections on VCE   Being at home gave me a lot of time to think and reflect lately, I’ve always been a reflective person and this is my way of learning from my own experiences as well as a form of thank you to all the people who have lent me advice, help and inspiration during my journey in VCE. As I can not directly repay them for their time and energy, I hope instead to pass on the favour and extend my experiences, advices and reflections from my VCE journey, to those who need it. NOTE, this is not content or subject specific advice but rather a collection of the most valuable insights and tools from my experience that has helped me achieve at a high level.   Context : I graduated in 2019 from JMSS with an ATAR of 99.20 and is currently a first year Biomedical Science student at Monash. I studied Methods, English, Physics, Chemistry, Specialist Maths and Chinese SLA.   The mindset My goal was simple: to achieve the highest ATAR I could withou...