Bricks

Summary – For more impact, change your abstract thoughts to materialistic ones
Have you ever had that feeling like you already know all the answers to life. You are getting tired actually of it. You know that to get good grade, you need to study smart, or for you to save some money, you need motivation and discipline etc.

We seem to know everything there is to know on how to succeed in life, but somehow we are not able to achieve what we want. Why do you think this happen. I have a theory that may explain this mystery.

The Problem
The problem with a lot of words when we are thinking is that they are most of the time very abstract. Some examples are like the word discipline, motivation, negativity, willpower, success etc.

Take a look at this example – “I need to have strong willpower to be motivated to study”. Try repeating this sentence in your mind. Do you feel the urge to be motivated? or does you willpower strengthen? I don’t know about you but it’s not really working to me. Why? Because I can never actually see those abstract words.

The Solution
This is what I’m suggesting. Try to use real image to get that impact.

If for example you want to improve your discipline to prevent you from spending your saving money. An old method to that is by saying this in our mind – “I need to be very strict and forbid myself from using the saving money.” This is very abstract. Try to avoid this type of statement when thinking.

You should say things like “That $300 actually belong to an old man who will eat nothing for a month if I use the money. How can I take from an old man..”. Can you feel the guilt that comes with the words?

When we speak out our thought using real things / scenario, we will be able to associate the feeling to our thought. Hence more impact.

That old man is actually our futureself, who will have to depend on that money for living. But don’t tell yourself that 🙂

Other examples to help further clarify is a person who is always having trouble to finish his daily job. He has learnt all the powerful tools of productivity to motivate him to finish his job, but somehow he still doesn’t have the will for it.

What he should do is maybe to count how many task he actually has on his table. If there are 20 task unfinished, he should go out and get 20 bricks (yes, bricks) and pile it up in front of his table. Every morning, he should recount his task and change the number of bricks accordingly.

When he can see (very visually) how the bricks is increasingly becoming a mess, he will automatically have the motivation to finish the job. I know I will try my best to clear the bricks off my office.

– I wonder –
If you try that piling bricks technique, do you think you will have the motivation to finish your work?

————- Personal Note ————
Welcome to all readers from Lifehack. Hopefully you will find the blog useful. Feel free to browse the many topics presented here. You have unlimited access to them 🙂

Just a quick introduction, Lesson In Life is basically a collection of tips and lesson I learnt and develop through out my life. More information about the blog and myself in the About Page.

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Photo Credit – Rayphua

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