0 Small Daily Task

1.6.2021 "A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules." Anthony Trollope I woke up late this morning. I called my girlfriend last night for four hours. I am exciting because we are getting married soon. Life will change for good or for bad. Change is the nature of life. I change second by second without realizing what's happening. Normally I would wake up very early and then write anything. I'm a writer even if no one read my writing for now. It's ok, as long as I write, I am a writer. I should have done this daily routine long ago but I just didn't. Reading Atomic Habit by James Clear made me realize that everything is doable as long as I do it little by little every day. In the past, I would do it randomely based on my mood. Today I know that if it's important, I must do it every single day, little by little. It makes sense. The biggest tree grows little by little. The first step is to decide what to do and then do it every day, little by little, and after the habit is there, work on it as hard as you can. Now I'm working on my youtube channel and writing articles every day. In 5 or 10 years, it will be very different. Most people do not have the patience to see the result. So most of them do not have long term goal that is done daily little by little. I'm an English teacher and have been teaching for more than ten years. I know very well that most students who study English at school, by the time they graduate from high school, their English is still poor and they can't confidently say that "I can speak English". Twelve years studying for nothing. They do not do it daily and consistently. They study as little as possible and they don't take the responsibility of that task. It's not their personal agenda and studying is not important enough for them. It's pseudo study, their failing is not surprising at all, it's predictable. I hope I realized this long ago. But now it's not too late. I started to work on my personal agenda every day, little by little continuously. I want to be a writer, i just need to write every single day. In ten years or maybe twenty years I will be a good writer and happy about it. Ask anyone what is their dream, most of them will have no direct answer. They have not decided yet and so they work for others in an office or company. No matter how much money they get from their company, they will spend them all. They are still unhappy because they sell their life time and labour. Actually to build a habit is not so difficult. Just start from the habit that already established and attach the new habit to it. For example, wake up in the morning then write for a page or for 5 minutes. Anyone can do this. Just do it every single day no matter what. After several months, writing has become one of the established habit, it will be easy to do as easy as brushing teeth before sleep. Do not be a perfectionist, just do it, day in day out. Do not attach too much feeling and emotion to it. Feel free and ease. This is the key to build a new habit. It must start small and daily. The purpose is just to build a solid habit and nothing else, the result is the habit itself.

0 The Problem With My Youtube Channel

31.5.2021 I study Mandarin and I don't often open the lessons on youtube. I know there are so many good channels there but what I do, almost nothing. My mandarin and English improve because I teach them to my students. In theory, it's easy to study anything. In reality, it's very hard to stay focus and discipline. Several months ago, I tried ten days challenge learning hiragana, I failed. And I don't try again, I must try again. Here I find the problem why people don't really study even when they really want to be good at it. The lack of focus and discipline is the main problem. My youtube channel is improving very slowly. It's actually long term game. I must keep playing in order to be good player and be successful. Now I'm getting married I have new challenge. I want to make her happy and the first step is to be rich. Yes, it's one of the most important thing in life, to be successful financially. Long ago I didn't think about this. I spent my money in terrible ways. I wasted most of it. More important than money is time. I waste it all of it in the past. I didn't build steady skill and I didn't plan anything. Now I'm in a situation of worry about it. Now I work only few hours a day. I don't have 9 to 5 job. It's good because then I can think a lot about my condition and try to find the solution. I created a youtube channel and I believe it will generate revenue in 5 to 10 years. Yes, it's a long term game, I must play well and do it dilligently. Just like planting a tree, the best time is 10 years ago, the second best is now. I wonder why I didn't think about this 10 years ago. Now it's not too late. Most people spend their day working in an office or factory. They are too tired to think about anything else. They have steady income and flat life. They are basically selling out their life time, a slave. There are times I envy them, how easy life is with such routine. If you have steady work and income and you don't need to think anymore about how to improve everyday. I used to be like that. That's why I didn't think to improve every day. I stuck in the company for 10 years. I didn't even save money. I bet no one save money in such condition. The income is very close to the life expenses. Now I can imagine if I write everyday for 10 years, if I plan trees for 10 years, If I really save money for 10 years. I didn't do all of them. I spent most of my time on social media, facebook, instagram, youtube, and all kinds of useless activities. I should have long vision and work hard for it. It won't happen again. From now on I am writing every morning, exercise every morning, and read more everyday. I plan to make online teaching videos and will really do that. Life is like playing long term game to be successful. I must know the priorities and stick to them. Time is the most valuable resources and must be spend very carefully.

0 Western vs Eastern Philosophy of Happiness

Western style of happiness is the pursuit of individual happiness. It's not the right thing because human is very social entity according to Eastern philosophy. If you want to be happy, be with others, with friends. Happiness needs friends, wisdom and freedom. I remember how happy I was when I spent time doing activity with friends; climbing mountains, cycling, swimming, travelling together even volunteering. Experiencing new thing is also good for happiness. We need excitement and hate boredom. Western lifestyle is unhealthy. If East emphasizes We-llness, West emphasizes I-llness. Always I, I, I. To be lonely ranger, to be rich and being in the top alone is not a good way to happiness or wellbeing. The result is depression and loneliness. One needs to do as legendary Socrates said, "unexamined life is not worth living". One should examine both Western and Eastern way of life and decides which one is the best for him or her. In Eastern culture, being the part of family member and community is the most important thing. The focus is not "I" but "we". Examine these; 1) Pray together with community in a mosque or church or temple rather than do it alone at home. 2) Be more social with friends and family members. Do not spend too much time alone doing individual activities in the room. While Western mindset is to aim at individual success, self improvement, don't care about others' opinions. Being with others, one needs to sacrifice some freedom and authenticity. Life is never be absolute left or right. It's better to stay in the center. Being in the balance is the savest position to live happier and longer. So far, most individual today adopted the Western way of life. Globalization causes this spreading Western lifestyle through movies and internet. Individual closes the door from community. They seek individual perfection and success and yet feel very lonely. It has positive as well negative consequenses. Being independence and free at one side and lonely, depressed and bitter at other side. To take the balance, one should try to be social, to attend religious rituals. Being very rational, one with Western mindset often see that religion is not convincing scientifically. It's merely performance of unauthentic people. It's ridiculous to join the mass of mediocre. They are wearing of masks and playing the drama of power. Being there is sickening and wasting time. The balance should be there but not consume by the play, just be more social with people, friends and families. It's still useful (at least for the sake of examine life) even if one doesn't share common interest and belief. Western individual enjoy solo activity like reading and watching movies. It can be done together with little sacrifice of freedom. One can only be him/herself when he/she is alone. Western takes these views; be alpha male, take your power, and seek individual perfection, be a legend and not commoner, be a master and not mediocre. People change all the time based on their understanding. I used to fall to the western mindset and believe that personal perfection is everything that matters. I have lived both ways and now can see them more clearly. Being happy together is better than being happy alone. Therefore religion is very healthy and useful for happiness and wellbeing. It doesn't matter whether it's scientifically correct or merely just like art performance. The best way to happiness is being together. Being very individualistic in the past, I don't regret it. It's not all bad as well, only more alienation and lonely no matter what is had and achieved. Western mindset of success is like, close the world and work hard on something, create yourself, sharpen your skill, the world is distraction, become social is mediocre and wasting the valuable time, be genius and exceptional individually, be powerful. This very mindset drove Nietschze crazy. Yes he was exceptional and will be remembered by the world as genius. Eastern philosophy is the opposite. The communism idea (do not mistaken this with communist party or political view). The individual is not so much inportance compare to the whole society. At the end of the day we all want to be happy everyday. Being individualistic and seeking personal excellent is fulfilling but it's incomplete. A person can be happy if he is competence and powerful and yet one should balance this individual power with the bigger power, society. Spinoza said power equals happiness. Society can provide protection, security, comfort and warm to individuals. Both must be taken in balance.

0 Like and Dislike

daily note 15/5/2021 I used to think if I don't like something, I should not do it. Life is short, I should only do what I like, but I was wrong. Actually it should be the opposite, do what I dislike. I dislike hardship, discipline, persistence, effort, toil, risk and difficulty. By doing what I dislike willingly or forcefully, it would be a good habit that benefit me for the long run. A good habit often disguises in difficulty. In short "do what is hard, what others unwilling to do". The real talent of a man will be this, the ability to pick freely what is hard and painful in order to gain the real power over himself. Laziness is a common trait One always compares himself to others. He wants to be better than others, to be the best possible. But one ends up doing nothing as if he was powerless as a lifeless object. It's predictable. Ask someone who is fat, "Is that the condition that you want or plan for your body?" If he is honest, the answer is NO. Ask poor people, "Is that the economic condition that you want?" The answer is also NO. I have no interest in shaming failures here. People often hide and deceive themselves using various falsehood to protect their ego. In my opinion, one should be honest to himself, not hiding behind falsehood and comforting words. If one really wants such condition and others talk about it, he should be pride and happy rather than angry and sad. I favor in empowering oneself through effort and hardship, but I also concern to the unhealthy meritocratic system. A merit based system is where you get what you deserve, not what you want. If you are successful, you deserve it, if fail, it's your own mistake. So those who are successful feel pride and those who fail, they feel worthless and shame. In such system people do not pity poor people, they even blame them for being lazy and weak. People praise rich and successful people for their merits. I believe it is unjust. There are too many factors involve, biology, environment, prenatal and family condition, history, and more. Shaming and blaming fat people as failures and they deserve it is somewhat ignorance. While it seems that the condition is changeable and within self-ability to shape their body shapes, it's not that simple. It applies to everything. Mathematically, nothing in this world is too hard to do. Everything can be broken down into smaller and simpler units, just like a book is a merely combination of sentences. Following the logic, if one can write a sentence, he must be able to write a book. It's plausible mathematically but mathematic is the ideal condition that never exist in real life. Number one is always the same and perfect, never gets sick, old and dies. It's perfect forever. For a man, it's even hard to just throw away his useless stuffs that won't be used anymore in the future. He would waste the most valuable resource; his time. A man is far from perfect. Laziness is common trait. It's not natural but very common. It preserves energy for survival reason in the future in case it will be needed. There is always randomness in life. One can't even manage himself to sleep on time, one doesn't know what time exactly he can sleep for how long and so on. Life is complicated. Yet it doesn't mean that one is completely powerless and should give up and leave it to destiny or luck. One can make a schedule and regulate his routines; what time to sleep and how long. Even if it doesn't hit 100%, it can hit 90% or even more. What seems natural and automatic can be regulated and manipulated bit by bit. It depends on one's understanding. Whether one believes he can or can't do something, he is right. The result is not magic or luck or coincident. It's a systematic end. It has the patterns and can be studied. What is possible for one is possible for all. If you see a cat can climb a tree, any other cat can also climb a tree, but some cats climb higher and faster, it depends on their habit and courage that developed by experience. So do people. They are the same by nature, different by habit.