How to actually get things done

Do you have a time when you have to complete a homework for tomorrow, but you feel completely hesitate to do it? You want to watch films rather than doing the things you should do? Do you have time when you talk to yourself you should go to gym after work, but then you feel tire, and then you choose to go home watching TV rather than go to the gym? Many people, buy gym ticket for a year, but we can count the time they go to the gym by our fingers. Many people have a strong motivation at the time they buy gym ticket, but after several days, their motivation goes lower and lower, and then they stop going to the gym.

There's a research, in which the researcher split participants into 3 groups. Group 1 is asked to track times they go to the gym over the next 2 weeks. Group 2 is also asked to track their exercise, but in addition they were given a motivation message along with pamphlets why exercise is beneficial. Group 3 is asked to write down when, where and how they exercise. And the result is group 1 38% of people continue to exercise, group 2 35%, and group 3 is 91%. The method that group 3 does is Implementation Intention. When we write down specific plan, we tend to go with that plan. 

Even better, with coping plans. Coping plans are specific ways to do your plans when you are facing obstacles. It follows the pattern: "If i face X obstacle, I will do Y". For example, if your plan is go to the gym at 5 PM, but at that day, your boss asks you to work overtime till 6 PM. You can make a coping plan, if I have to work overtime till 6 PM, I will go to the gym at 6 and haft PM and if I have to work till 7PM, I will go to the gym tomorrow.

When you specify actions, you more likely tend to stick with your plan. And people have coping plans have things done even more than people have only Implementation Intention.

And we also have a tip to do thing when we feel hesitation. For example, you have to read 20 pages of a document and summarize it for your tomorrow meeting, but after work, you feel exhausted. So your plan can be, if i exhaust, i will only read 1 page or even read a half of a page. And normally, when you read 1 page, you tend to continue read another page because at this time you are already on a track of working. You just feel hesitation at the first time, but when you actually do it, your hesitation is clear away, and you keep doing till the end.

Source: (33) How To Actually Get Things Done (implementation intentions) - YouTube

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How to build self-confidence

 Let get an example about a time when you play football. The ball is passed to you, if you are confidence, you can move around the ball freely, passing the ball or take it pass to other player. If you aren't confidence, you will feel fumble with the ball, your brain is nervous and don't know how to deal with the ball. Other team player scream: "Pass it to me, quick!". You feel more embarrassed, and then fail to handle the ball.

So how do we solve this situation? The key is Repetition, Repetition, Repetition. Find yourself practice with the ball, shoot it, pass it, play with it for many times, spend hours each day to play with it until you feel comfortable with the ball. When you feel comfortable, you will be confidence because you know you do it a thousand times before, so no reason that can make you fail with it this time.

 Similar with speak to a crowd. If it's a first time you speak to 100 people, how do you feel. Nervous, embarrassed, your voice is not normal...right? But imagine that speaking in front of many people is a normal task that you do it daily, how do you feel when speaking one more time? Nothing, right, since it is a normal task. So to build self-confidence at a thing, you should practice it many times till it become a normal thing for you.

Also, there are some other ways to build confidence instantly. Those ways are only used when you don't have time to practice, you have to do thing right the time.

1. Count down and do it: Start counting from 3, 2, 1 and start to do it right away. Try it and it will make you more confidence.

2. Give yourself 20 seconds of courage

3. Take a seat at the table

4. Before doing a task, remember when you succeed, when you are confidence doing a thing before, revise it exactly how you feel, how you thought at that moment. It will make you more confidence.

5. Celebrate constantly: celebrate what you have done even it's a small thing but make you feel good. Do it constantly then it will make you more confidence.

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How to stop procrastinating and build self-discipline

 Have you ever feel lazy, feel very uncomfortable when doing a thing? Something like writing an article, do a math? You sit down at the desk, stare at the laptop screen and do nothing?

It all because of your thought prevent you to do things. The key is "let try to do it in 5 minutes". When you procrastinate something, remember try to do it in 5 minutes. I guarantee that after 5 minutes you want to continue to do things. Because you just hesitate to do the first step, but when you actually roll up your sleeves and start to work, after 5 minutes you suddenly feel like you want to continue to do it. A Million miles start with a step.

Another thing cause procrastination is distraction. Have you ever in a situation when you sit on your desk, open your laptop and ready writing your report but then your phone suddenly has a notification, you grab the phone and check that notification. A friend of you post a picture showing that he is on a beautiful beach drinking coconut fruit, "oh, I don't have a vacation long time ago, I wish I can go to that beach". And then you start searching for fly ticket, hotel and plan for your vacation... And you completely forget your report. After one or several hours, you're back to your report. At this time, it's late, and also you are nearly run out of energy, you feel tired, and you feel that you cannot continue working. And you turn off your laptop and go to sleep. Is this case familiar with you? So to handle this situation, we should remove all the distraction things out of our hand when we start doing something. Set mobile to flight mode and keep it out of our hand. Unplug your TV, lock your door.

The third, make a to-do list for a day, so that you can focus on things that matter for that day. When you have a to-do list, you will be able to focus on that list, instead of wandering around without knowing to do anything.

Try to exercise every day. When we exercise, our body release positive hormone, that make us feel positive and energy. When we feel more energy, more positive, we tend to do thing faster and more willing.

And finally, remember to reinforce your internal. "Everything outside is already existed inside".

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Why Finland and Danmark is happier than the US

 Finland and Denmark is recognized as happiness country in the world for many years continuously. The income for each people in Finland and Denmark is approximate 25k $. It's equal to one half of the US (about 45k $). It clearly shows that US people are richer than Finland and Denmark people, so why those country are happier than US?

The key here is work-life balance and social condition. 

In those countries, people are free for education, healthcare and if you don't have a job, each month you will receive about 2k $ from government. It's enough for your daily need. So people are more free to choose what they want to do. If they do a job, and they realize that they don't want that job, they can easily quit the job and find the new one without worrying about money since the government is already there to give them money.

At Finland, the fee for hospital when delivering a child is so cheap, a family room within few days cost about 300$. In additional, when a child pops out, they received a box in which include all the things that the child need for the first 3 months. And a woman will be off 9 months and her husband have 3 weeks leave to take care of their new child.

In Finland, people don't talk about one's income since for them, it's not polite, it's brag.

In Finland, people should pay for tax more than the US, but they're willing to do it because they know their tax is served for social security. They trust their government.

In those countries, people feel safe. They can let the baby parked in a stroller outside a coffee shop while they run errands.

So I can make a brief on why Finland and Denmark is happier than the US:

- They feel safe in their society

- Their daily basic is guaranteed

- Their child education is guaranteed

- Their health is guaranteed

- They can do whatever they want, if they don't like their current job, they can quit the job without worrying about money.

What do you think? Do you like to live in Finland or Denmark? Are you happy at your country? Please give your comment on the post and we can discuss about it.

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How to use the law of attraction

 The Law of Attraction is simple, "you attract what you really want."

If you really want a new car, you'll have it. If you really want a new house, you'll get it...

Maybe you don't notice, but look around you, look around your best friend, they have something like you, right? Their income, their like, their character...

How to use The Law of Attraction? It's simple by 3 steps:

1. Ask

2. Believe

3. Receive

The first step, Ask:

If you go to a restaurant, you have to order something, so that the restaurant can serve you. If you don't order, how do the restaurant know what you want to have.

Similar to that, if you want something, you have to order with the universe what you want, so the universe can make it for you. But the vital point here is you have to clear what you want. If you want a pizza with beef topping, you have to describe with servers, otherwise they may bring you a pizza with egg topping.

So if you want a new car, you have to clear in your mind about that car, what is its brand? What is its color? How many seats does it have? You can visualize when you hold its steer, push its gas pedal, feel the feeling when you drive it, even you can go to an auto showroom and drive it.

The second step, Beleive:

After clear what you really want, you have to believe that you will have it. When you believe it, you send a signal to the universe, that signal like an order to the universe and the universe will respond it. 

You have to believe it intensity. Your belief is unwavering.

The third step, Receive:

At this step, you have to feel good. Imagine when you have a new car, how do you feel? Happy? If you don't feel good, you send a signal to the universe that you don't want that new car, unconsciously.

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5 steps to speak a new language

 A few days ago , i read an e-book named "5 steps to speak a new language" of the author Phạm Quang Hưng, and i see it is a great e-book for those who are struggling with learning a new language. Let talk about specific language of English.

There are some main ideas here:

1. Core vocabulary

2. Core structure and phrases...

3. Text mapping

4. Sound mapping

The first one, "Core vocabulary": 

The data of 2023 show that, English have about 170,000 to 230,000 words. Imagine if we learn 10 new words each day, we need 17,000 to 23,000 days to learn all the words. It approximates 46.58 - 63.01 years. You may cry, "Oh, my god! It takes me whole life to be able to speak English".

Just calm down! We don't have to take the whole life to be able to speak English.

Do you know Pareto principle? Do you know the 80/20 principle? Something like 20% of population own 80% of wealth, or 20% of employee make 80% of result. The number is not exactly, but the idea is that just a little percent of a thing make the most result. Research show that 2000 - 3000 words make 95% of content.

There are words that appear frequently than other, and 2000-3000 appear more often and make 95% of content. 95% is enough for us to understand the whole idea, right? So we just need to focus on 2000 - 3000 common words, and then we can speak English fluently.

The second one, "Core structure and phrases":

Each language always has core structure and phrases. We have so many topics in life, for example: bank, sport, business, IT... and each topic has its own specific word. And we can be able to learn all the words in each topic to speak fluently. All topics are using common structure and phrases, and we just need to focus on that and each time we have to speak a new topic we just need to learn some words of that topic.

So the advice is, focus on a topic that you are interested in and master it. Sine the topic that you like will make your learning process more interested and quicker. And then when you master that topic, you absolutely master the core structure and phrases. And when you master that core zone, it's easy for you when moving to other topic.

The third one, "Text mapping":

The common mistake that a learner got when learning English is they tend to translate words to their mother tongue to understand the sentence. That is a big mistake. Imagine the process: When they hear a sentence, they collect words then translate the sentence to their mother tongue in their head, and then answer that sentence in their mother tongue then translate it back to English and talk to the facing people. It takes a lot of time, right? And sometimes, they can't find a corresponding word to translate, they try to figue out but can't, that make they can't speak and make them down.

So we have to build a text mapping, so we can understand immediately what that people say. For example, let read this sentence: "The man is walking on the street". Read the text, don't translate it, just imagine in your head the picture or a clip about a man is walking on the street. So every time when you read that sentence, you can understand immediately its meaning.

The fourth one, "Sound mapping":

Have you ever faced the situation when you're watching a movie or a clip, you hear something, but you can't figure out what it says, but when you're looking at the transcript, you see that is the word familial with you? 

That's because you are lacking of sound mapping for that word. You see it, but never heard the word before. It's you don't have sound data for that word in your head. So you have to build sound data.

This is a way to build it:

When you hear a sentence, pause it and try to imitate its sound to make your brain recognize the sound, just need to imitate 1 time. If you don't know the word, look at the transcript to see the word. Don't try to search for pronunciation of that word, just hear it and imitate it. When you imitate the sound, your brain makes a mapping between the sound and the text unconsciously.

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