Ronin Series Part 4: How I Stopped Aiming for Perfection to Keep Studying as a Ronin

To start with the conclusion, the biggest reason I was able to continue my life as a ronin was that I stopped aiming for perfection.
If I had realized this sooner, I wouldn't have had to push myself so hard.

When you become a ronin, the feeling that 'I cannot fail this year' becomes very strong.
Because of that, the standards you set for your studies and for yourself keep getting higher and higher.

The more I aimed for perfection, the more I became unable to move.

For a while after becoming a ronin, I thought:
'I have to do X hours today.'
'I have to finish this reference book perfectly.'
That's how I was thinking.

But in reality,
there are days when you can't concentrate, and days when you can't keep up with the material.
Then, just because my plan fell apart a little,

'That's it for today.'
'There's no point if I'm not doing it properly.'

I started thinking like that, and I ended up quitting my studies more and more often.

Looking back now, I think it wasn't that I hated studying, but that it was painful to face myself when I couldn't be perfect.
Changing to 'I'll keep going even at 60%' made things easier.

At some point, I changed my way of thinking.

'It doesn't have to be perfect today.'

'It's okay if I just sit at my desk, even if it's only 60%.'
Just deciding that made me feel much more at ease.

• Days when I can only get through a few pages of a workbook

• Days when nothing I try to memorize sticks
• Days when I can't maintain focus
Even on those days, I started to evaluate myself only on the fact that I 'didn't quit.'

Then, strangely enough,

the resistance I felt toward studying itself gradually decreased.
For a ronin, what's important is not 'quality' but 'not stopping.'

Of course, efficiency and quality are important.

But I think the scariest thing for a ronin is for the studying itself to stop.
Aim for perfection
→ Cannot do it

→ Self-loathing
→ Avoid studying
Once you fall into this cycle, it is really hard to get back on track.
In that case,

'It didn't go well today, but I did a little bit.'

It was much more realistic to stack up days like that.
Stopping perfectionism does not mean cutting corners.
I don't want you to misunderstand here:

stopping perfectionism is not the same as cutting corners.

Rather,
it is a necessary adjustment to keep going.

If you try to do everything perfectly, you will inevitably hit a wall somewhere.
Life as a ronin is not a sprint; it is something you progress through over a long period of time.

To those who are still anxious (an easy option)
For those who are still thinking, 'I'm anxious about whether this is okay,'

please try deciding just this one thing.

'Today, I will do just one thing that I am allowed to quit halfway through.'
If you start with the premise that you don't have to finish it perfectly,

you might find that you can actually keep going.

Summary
What a ronin needs is

a form that allows them to continue, rather than perfection.

• It's okay to have days when you can't do it
• It's okay to have 60% days
• It's okay to praise yourself for not quitting
When I stopped aiming for perfection,
studying finally stopped being my 'enemy.'

It's okay if things don't go well today.
The fact that you are continuing as a ronin is already valuable enough.