(1)
One of my students told me about her recent situation a few days ago. Want me to give her some advice.
After this summer vacation, she will be a junior. She has many plans and goals to work towards. This includes passing the CET-6 exam in English. But the problem is that more than half of the holiday has passed, and the task of memorizing 20 words every day has not been completed at all. Now it is still stuck at "C" of the alphabet.
She feels very sleepy. She feels that she has clear goals and is full of energy. She also works hard to plan and manage time. Why is she so self-destructive and unable to do everything she must do every day? Why is the lazy self always better than the self-disciplined self?
I think this should be a confusion that everyone faces, because fighting laziness is something that everyone must do now.
If you take a look at the past and present lives of laziness, you may be able to find a breakthrough against laziness.
(2)
In his book "The Road Less Traveled", M. Scott Pike first pointed out that self-discipline is the only way to mental growth. Fighting against laziness and "entropy" is a required course for acquiring the character of self-discipline.
What is "entropy"?
The process of biological evolution is the greatest miracle.
According to the second law of thermodynamics, energy naturally flows from a regular state to an irregular state; from a highly differentiated state to a lowly differentiated state, the universe is in a process of gradual decomposition.
Usually, we describe this process as "water flows downwards".
If you want to reverse this process, you must use water pumps, sluices, buckets to lift water, etc. to return it to its original state and make the water flow from low to high, that is to say, make the water flow from low to high. The power to reverse this process must come from elsewhere.
In order to maintain the energy in one place unchanged, energy must be accumulated from other places as a supplement.
Similarly, according to the second law of thermodynamics, after billions of years, the universe will completely decompose, its height will drop to its lowest point, and it will become a dead state without any shape or structure, and no longer differentiate. This state of being unorganized and no longer differentiated is called "entropy".
Energy naturally flows from high places to low places, and eventually enters a state of entropy, which is called "the power of entropy".
We now know that the process of evolution and the forces of entropy are in conflict with each other.
Maintaining the lazy state of lying in the comfort zone is the power of "entropy" at work.
If you understand "entropy", you will understand the root of laziness.
Just as the evolution of species is a miracle, the evolution of the psychological level also requires constant confrontation with the power of "entropy", because if we comply with the effect of "entropy", people will tend to lie down and eat etc. Death, brain stasis.
Look at the current development of technology, such as cars, online shopping, and increasingly convenient takeaways. People can easily solve the problems of eating and dressing at home without leaving the house. In fact, they are complying with the power of "entropy".
Complying with the power of "entropy" brings laziness.
Laziness is also one of man’s original sins. It makes people avoid responsibilities, lack imagination, lose creativity, and lose inner joy.
If people want to perfect themselves, they always need to confront themselves and the power of "entropy" in themselves.
The growth of the soul and the maturity of the mind require continuous efforts and must be an arduous process. It must confront the forces of nature and resist the natural tendency to follow rules.
We are used to staying the same, we are keen to use the maps and old methods we are used to;
We are used to taking the smooth road and are afraid of the thorns on the road.
However, just like biological evolution, our minds still want to overcome the power of entropy, learn self-discipline, and continue to grow.
People will respect those who are "self-disciplined" and emulate them. Because these people used courage and wisdom to fight against the power of "entropy" in their self-attributes, and shined the brilliance of humanity.
(3) To overcome "laziness" and combat "entropy", we not only need to deeply explore its root causes, but also need to clearly see the harm caused by laziness.
Laziness is very good at deceiving. It makes you think that it is comfort, rest and blessing; but in fact, what it gives you is boredom, fatigue and depression;
It deprives you of hope for the future, cuts off the connection between you and others, and makes you increasingly narrow-minded and doubtful about life.
It makes people shrink back, hesitate, slacken, and be lazy, and cannot complete the work as scheduled or achieve the expected goals.
It plunges people into the abyss of "learned helplessness". Dreams, hopes, and the future all slowly fall into the abyss together.
It will consume people's passion and energy, and ultimately lead to repeated self-deception and self-rejection day after day.
Romain Rolland has this passage in his work "Jean-Christophe":
"Most people die in their twenties and thirties because of the After this age, they are just shadows of themselves, and they spend the rest of their lives imitating themselves, repeating day after day, more mechanically and more pretentiously, what they did, thought, and loved in their lifetime. Hate."
Laziness makes people panic when the mid-life crisis comes, and lament that their ambitions have not been fulfilled when they get old.
Comfort paralyzes people's nerves.
Laziness has stranded the ambition of the flames.
There are fourteen warnings about laziness in the Book of Proverbs. The great King Solomon used these words to warn future generations:
"You lazy man, watch the movements of ants, and you will gain wisdom. Ants have no captains, no officers, no kings, and even in the summer Prepare food and gather food at harvest. How long will you sleep, O lazy man? When will you wake up? If you sleep for a while, if you lie down with your arms folded for a while, your greed will be like this. The robber comes quickly, and your want comes like an armorer" (Proverbs 6:6-11)
(4)
Join the American Alcoholics Anonymous Association. The first step is to admit, "I can't do anything about alcohol." Because confrontation will consume more power.
Similarly, only by seeing clearly the past and present of laziness and admitting that this is a human weakness can we avoid despair and self-loathing in repeated failed confrontations.
Only then can we focus on finding ways to combat laziness and train self-discipline.
Human beings are prone to laziness and original sin. Therefore, the quality of self-discipline needs to be acquired and practiced deliberately.
Benjamin Franklin, American politician and physicist. He is also a publisher, printer, journalist, writer, and philanthropist; he is also an outstanding diplomat and inventor.
Benjamin Franklin conducted many experiments on electricity, invented the lightning rod, and was the first to propose the law of conservation of charge.
French economist Turgot commented on Franklin: "He obtained thunder and lightning from the sky and civil rights from the tyrant."
When Franklin was in his 20s, he It is proposed to use thirteen virtues to improve one's personality and achieve perfection in how one behaves and treats others.
Diligence is one of the qualities he strives to cultivate.
He prepared some notebooks for himself, specifically tabulating these thirteen virtues. Then complete a moral practice every once in a while.
As the founder of the punch card industry, Franklin defeated himself step by step through such deliberate training, acquired these virtues, and became an extremely self-disciplined, extremely diligent, extremely inspirational and extremely successful person. .
All success is not achieved by accident. The same goes for fighting laziness.
It is also necessary to fight laziness at the "skill" level.
All management methods such as time management, energy management, goal management, and meaning management need to be learned, practiced, and used comprehensively.
To defeat laziness, you need to find experience in failed confrontations one after another, and you need to hone self-discipline in little victories.
Only by being able to overcome laziness can it be possible to qualitatively improve the value of one's life.
Remember:
Every day without dancing is a failure of life.