The Ultimate Pinnacle of success

I do believe I have achieved it

After army, i already attained what the top 5% of the population had.

As I have repeated to my close friends and family, my first dean's list was luck.

My 2nd dean's list was pure discipline and willpower; that was when I realised I had the combination of intellect and discipline to finish as the top 5% of the population.

It wasn't enough, not for my lofty aspirations anyhow.

It wasn't sustainable over a lifetime, or at least a decade.

But today I have achieved what the top 0.1% of the population had.

Intellect, discipline are but two of the essential weapons.

The final component is self-awareness.

I have worked nonstop ever since I returned from the States in preparation for the all important final year of my education. An education filled with twists and turns since I was 12, and went downhill all the way, until I found true focus in the last 3 years, where it has all been uphill since then.

Before the briefing for the Final Year Project, a briefing to introduce us to what was required in the Final Year, I stunned my Professor and my friends with a first draft of my Final Year Report, armed with the technical expertise of the past 3 months and a memory of the previous year's briefing, which I sat in with one of my friends who was graduating early.

I have worked ridiculously hard since I returned, determined to capitalize on the new skills I learnt in the States. 

It is about that time now. 

I made the decision today to take one entire day off, without doing a single thing. I watched a movie, played basketball, updated my america journal and blogged.

I can tell the feeling is different from burnout. It is completely opposite.

I have experienced burnout before, when I was performing the feat of back to back dean's lists. It was a horrible feeling. The feeling of not wanting to do anything at all.

I think I was close, if i continued at this pace I might have hit it in a few weeks and be inactive for about a month. But I had achieved self-awareness.

I forcibly (i use this word, but it felt like bliss) switched off all my programs. My work desktop at Astar and the supercomputer had crashed, so that was that. I have two laptops, one for work and one for others. I switched the work laptop off. I took an entire day off, even though I was raring to continue.

It felt great and I am now ready for more.

Now I am sustainable.