In fact, everyone improves themselves very slowly, but some people are even slower. There is no magical way to quickly level up in the world. Zhang Wuji practiced the Great Teleportation in a few hours, because he has the aura of the protagonist, and it is also necessary for the plot. We ordinary people absolutely do not have such blessings. 99% of crash courses or tips are user-friendly and worthless. Ability improvement and cognitive upgrading are stable, continuous, and gradual most of the time. At a certain point from quantitative change to qualitative change, you may have an epiphany, followed by a long practice. In most fields, such as Go, painting, writing, programming, ball games, etc., it is basically difficult to reach the level of an expert without more than ten years of continuous learning and practice. Now that we understand this point, then we adhere to the concept of "accidentally achieve success without expectation", and insist on studying and practicing in a certain field for two hours every day. Isn't success just around the corner?
Sorry, the real world doesn't work that way.
In this era full of temptations and fragments of information flying everywhere, there are very few people who can achieve "a day's work". In fact, most people's attention spans are getting shorter. The data shows that if a webpage takes more than 3 seconds to open, users will leave without mercy. The advertising time of Youtube is 5 seconds, which is tolerable. Most of the advertisements on domestic video websites are about one minute. I basically don’t use them. Just buy a membership, who has the patience to wait. Nowadays, various apps are filling up everyone's fragmented time. Our energy is scattered on WeChat Moments, Weibo and Douyin. Most of the time, we use fragmented time to socialize, entertain, read, and even conduct some form of learning.
In-depth reading and study require us to focus and focus. But attention isn't something you can focus on if you want to. You may encounter this situation countless times: when you write an article, you don’t understand a concept, and then check it online. After you find it, you start to concentrate on studying this concept and extend it... Then you feel a little tired and can’t help it. Play a game of Glory of Kings or watch an episode of an American TV series to reward yourself... Finally, you find that three hours have passed, and the original writing you want to complete is still stuck on the first few dozen words... You have completely deviated from it mission track.
There are only a small number of geniuses in the world who can switch between concentration and dissociation very smoothly, learning as they say, and playing as they say. Just like the saying that teachers and parents often said when we were in school, "Have fun when you are playing, and learn when you are learning." This is called talent, and ordinary people cannot learn it. Since most of the mediums for playing and learning are mobile phones and computers, we have further blurred the boundary between learning and playing, and we have drifted away when it's time to focus, and focused when it's time to wander.
Ordinary people can only focus in a temple deep in the mountains and forests, without mobile phone signals, champagne beauties, and without any interference or temptation. Then the Zen master sets a long-term goal so that people can maintain focus. Concentration is forced out most of the time.