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Zhou Ling - Cognitive Awakening - Unlocking the Driving Force for Self-Change

Habits are hard to change?​

Reason: Because humans habitually behave driven by the subconscious, and the cost of subconscious action is lower, tending to seek ease and avoid difficulty, and seek instant gratification.

Methods for change:

  • Find a way you can persist in (lower requirements), which is more important than strictly following standardized time and methods;

  • Regardless of what you do or how well you do it currently, as long as you keep practicing at the edge of your comfort zone, your comfort zone will constantly expand, the stretch zone will also constantly extend, and the original difficulty zone will slowly become the stretch zone, or even the comfort zone.

How to overcome anxiety?​

  • Restrain desires, don't let yourself do many things at the same time;
  • Face reality, see your true ability level clearly;
  • Put first things first, find ways to only do the most important things;
  • Accept the environment, do what you can within limitations;
  • Face the core, push yourself hard to break through it.

Reading methods?​

  1. Don't seek to remember all the knowledge in the book. As long as one or two viewpoints prompt you to make real changes, it is enough. Its gain and significance are much greater than reading many books but only staying at the level of knowing.

  2. The so-called "Circuit Breaker Reading Method" means that when reading, once you see inspiring content, trigger the circuit breaker point, stop reading immediately, and continue to think.

How to gain patience?​

Patience is not the result of perseverance, but the result of having long-term vision. This also answers sideways why we need lifelong learning. Because the more laws we know, the better we can locate our stage and position, estimate future results, and then enhance our patience for continuous action.

  • First, upon facing nature, put down psychological burdens and calmly accept yourself.
  • Second, upon facing temptation, learn to delay gratification and turn confrontation into communication.
  • Finally, upon facing difficulties, actively change perspective and give meaning to actions.

How to choose?​

First use sensibility to help yourself choose, then use rationality to help yourself think.

How to improve metacognition?​

  1. Draw knowledge from books
  2. Draw lessons from things done in the past, reflect
  3. Have a global view, constantly clarify goals, constantly supervise yourself
  4. Meditation, practice how to improve your attention

Meditation is the activity of just sitting somewhere quietly, relaxing the body, and focusing attention completely on breathing and feelings.

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