Cognitive Upgrade

I don't remember when I came to the idea to write articles in English, and not until now do I make up my mind to write the first one.

Lately I’ve read some articles wrote by Bofan Wu. He started a new special column on Get it, named Cognitive Methodology. The reason I booked the column is that the first question in the introduction attracted me deeply---“What’s the difference between striving and struggle”. After read this I was deep into thinking.

What is striving? What is struggle? What I kept doing is striving or struggle? I can’t tell. Actually I can’t distinguish them precisely. Maybe it is the different feeling when I am trying my best to do something. When I strive to do something I feel full of energy and pleasure, and when I struggle to do something I feel full of anxiety and pressure. Maybe it is the different effort I spent time to make to learn something or deal with something. When I strive to do something I want to make a breakthrough, do something new, and when I struggle to do something I just do it without thinking but with bad emotions.

Cognition

Professor Wu’s answer is : Struggle is the resultless effort you make with a goal but without a method. Yes, method, that is the key.

But where is the method? I handle different matters in work and life every day , sometimes I can manage them without consideration and even go though my day without any kind of mental stimulation. Now, I know, whatever I do, I just follow the same principles, which are planted deeply in my mind. If I don’t upgrade my brain and improve my cognition, my principles will not change. If my principles don’t change, I won’t make any real progress.

To be frank, I admit I kind of struggle almost every day, I feel anxious now and then, I know I need to make some change, but I don't know the method and just attempt to distract my attention from what I am anxious about. From now on , I will focus more on the cognition---what I used to believe is that......and nobody told me that......With this method, I strive to be a man with deep insight into what I am and what I want to be. In the next year, I will learn with Professor Wu every day. And I would like to recommend this column to you.

As a popular saying goes, "Struggle is to survive, while striving is to live better." I hope everyone can strive to live a better life.