Is it too late to start now? -Awakening begins with knowing the brain.

There was an old woman who always had 10 brothers and sisters. After she got married, she had 10 children. She was born in poverty and was not rich after marriage. She has worked hard for her family and children for half her life, and she also likes embroidery.

At the age of 76, she had to give up embroidery because of arthritis, and then began to paint. At the age of 80, she held a solo exhibition in new york. At the age of 90, her works sold well in Europe and America. /kloc-at the age of 0/00, she enlightened the Japanese youth Junichi Watanabe.

Yes, this old woman is Grandma Moses.

There is a doctor who graduated from medical school, but he likes literature since childhood and is determined to be a writer! Under the pressure of family, he chose to be a doctor. Although I am in my thirties, I still haven't forgotten my dreams, so I am very entangled. Do you want to quit your job and do what you want? The doctor struggled fiercely, but could not make up his mind, so he wrote a letter.

Soon after, he received a reply, "Do what you like, and God will happily open the door to success for you, even if you are 80 years old now."

It is this reply that makes a great writer! This doctor is Junichi Watanabe.

Whether in Grandma Moses or Junichi Watanabe, they tell us with practical actions that life is never too late!

How to start? Of course, I know myself.

0 1. Do we really know ourselves?

In this era of no shortage of opportunities, there are people who want to make progress, but they can't avoid detours; Want to exercise again and again, but always can't resist lazy people; People who want to work hard but always fall into inefficiency ...

What is holding us back?

It's the brain!

As we all know, our brain is a contradiction. On the one hand, encourage us to make progress, on the other hand, encourage us to be lazy; While reminding us to get out of the comfort zone, advise us to stay in the comfort zone and enjoy it; While telling us to be patient, we are anxious to see the result. ...

Why is this happening? Because our brains are threesome! They are primitive instinctive brain, ancient emotional brain and juvenile rational brain. These three brains exist at the same time, affecting our thinking and behavior, and making us feel incompetent and miserable.

About 360 million years ago, reptiles began to step onto the stage of life. In order to adapt to the environment, they evolved the primitive reflection module, which is the instinctive brain.

About 200 million years ago, mammals began to appear. Unlike reptiles, mammals are warm-blooded animals. An instinctive brain is not enough for mammals to avoid danger and survive, so an emotional brain has evolved. Use the blessing of emotions to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages in the environment and grow sturdily.

2.5 million years ago, humans emerged from mammals, and a "neocortex" appeared in the forehead area of the brain. About 70,000 to 250,000 years ago, the "neocortex" really evolved into an unparalleled brain region. Humans began to have language, develop science and technology, create art and build civilization. This incomparable old district is called rational brain by people.

Just like the time when these three brains appeared, their strength is also different. The instinctive brain is like a great-grandfather in a family, the emotional brain is the grandfather in the family, and the rational brain is the great-grandson in the family.

Although Sun Tzu is far-sighted, knows how to delay satisfaction and can stand in the long-term future, he is helpless, and he always can't twist his arms but his thighs. After all, great-grandfathers and grandfathers are more powerful, both in age and proportion than great-grandchildren. So my great-grandfather and grandfather are the masters of the country.

Great-grandfathers and grandfathers came from hard times. They are all under the oppression of survival, and everything they do is to survive. Even if you have a little free time, you should eat, drink and be merry. In order not to consume too much, they reject all high-energy behaviors just to save energy. In other words, high-consumption behaviors such as thinking and sports are life-threatening behaviors and will be rejected; Entertainment is popular because of its low consumption.

Therefore, the short-sightedness and quick success led by great-grandfathers have become the default nature in the human brain. This nature can also be said to be easy to take refuge in and eager for success.

Because of this nature, we can know clearly, but we can't always do so; I really wanted it, but I never got it.

There is an interesting saying about human beings, which is called "self-released animals". Because our rational brains lack independent opinions. Many times we think we are thinking, but in fact we just give a rational explanation to our actions and desires.

Therefore, our growth is to make the rational brain strong as soon as possible and overcome nature. The brain, like muscles, follows the principle of using it and discarding it. As long as you insist on practicing in a scientific way, you can make your brain stronger quickly.

Practice should also pay attention to skills, otherwise so many people will not feel so painful when they grow up.

As the great-grandson of the family, the rational brain can't expel the ancestors, nor can it fight against them. What he can do is to learn knowledge, improve cognition and skillfully use strategies to drive his ancestors to work happily.

What happens if you can't drive?

02. Do we really understand why we are anxious?

Anxiety is because there is a big gap between desire and reality.

In our brain confrontation, the rational brain is always at a disadvantage. Jonathan heit, a famous American psychologist, vividly compared our sensibility and rationality to elephants and people riding elephants, showing the power of instinctive brain and emotional brain.

This also leads us to always choose what we want now in the tug-of-war between what we want now and what we want later.

As a result, we are lost in the difficulties of choice, and always feel that we all want to learn, and we are easily defeated by difficulties after every action.

For example, I signed up for many classes and wanted to form a habit with 2 1 day. But it usually lasts less than a week.

It's actually quite normal. Because of the default nature of the brain, the seeds of longing for success and refuge have been planted. Let us always want to do a lot of things at the same time and see the effect without spending too much effort.

Just like martial arts novels, most of the protagonists come from ordinary backgrounds, and then they are framed and fall off a cliff in distress. From then on, they learned a high-powered martial art and played invincible hands all over the world! Or meet a superior person, who happened to save a life, asking for nothing in return, but passing on the internal force of the whole body, and playing invincible hands all over the world from now on!

How cool the novel is, how cruel the reality is.

What we can do is to accept anxiety and let it provide us with the motivation to grow; Face anxiety directly and solve it, so that we can be more calm.

It is not easy to do these two things, and you need to improve your ability and patience.

We'll talk about ability improvement later.

03. Is impatience shameful?

Patience is one of the most precious qualities of human beings, which directly refers to our nature of longing for success and seeking asylum.

Patience is a rare quality in life. People who like fishing and catch fish are undoubtedly extremely patient in our eyes. At the same time, these people are also old people or social elites.

Therefore, we often hear such words: "Young people, be patient." "Be patient, don't be impatient!"

The explanation of the word patience in Baidu entry is: I'm not impatient or bored. The common cognition in people's minds is to endure boredom, pain and grit your teeth. Patience depends on willpower! If you can't, it's just a lack of willpower.

This is not the case. Willpower consumes a lot, which is to be rejected in the judgment of the triple brain. In other words, our nature is not patience, but impatience.

Because giving up is easy to do, it doesn't need to consume energy, but it persists.

The elites in society are those who can better overcome their nature, have better patience and have stronger ability to delay gratification.

Therefore, patience is controlled by a rational brain. It needs exercise to grow, and it will not degenerate if it is used continuously.

To improve patience, we must understand two laws. One is the compound interest curve and the other is the platform learning curve.

There is a cartoon about the gold digger. He spent a lot of time digging a deep pit. The mine was dug deep, but no gems were found. The gold digger thought there was no gem at all, so he turned and left. What the gold digger doesn't know is that if he digs another shovel, he can dig up many precious stones.

In this cartoon, everything the gold digger does belongs to the efforts before the critical point in the compound interest curve. If the gold digger keeps digging, the shovel will reach the critical point, and every shovel after that will be a lot of gems.

This is the law of compound interest curve. There is almost no growth in the early stage, and once it reaches the critical point, it will grow linearly.

Many times, we ordinary people have no patience because we are insiders, don't know enough and can't see the overall situation. Just like a gold digger, even if he takes another step and reaches the critical point, he will choose to give up because he is not clear.

In learning this matter, it is not all the growth of the compound interest curve, but also the wave growth of the platform.

For example, when learning English, the first contact makes obvious progress. But after studying for a while, you will find that there seems to be no change, or even a retrogression. In fact, this is the continuous consolidation of the brain. The platform period for learning a skill is about 6 months.

We can think it over. After leaving school, will there be continuous study for half a year? If you give up halfway, don't blame the master for not teaching you real skills. We didn't make it, and we became gold diggers!

Knowing these two laws and knowing delayed gratification, I believe it will be easier for us to persist in the future!

abstract

The power struggle of the triple brain is the root of our incompetence and pain. Because the rational brain is weak and the desire is greater than reality, we feel anxious. The best way to eliminate anxiety is to improve your ability and be patient. The key to patience lies in understanding the laws of things.

If you don't want to continue to be a "sleeping person", don't want to be in a daze or for a day, then wake up with me!

When you wake up, it's never too late to start!