I started highlighting sentences from the very first chapter. Before I knew it, I forgot my original goal of learning the mindset of working and became completely immersed in the sentences and content. Every time I opened the book, I received realistic motivation and a firm mindset with diligence. And I realized there’s no shortcut. Today, too, I must quietly and steadily invest time into whatever I do.
"That sense of freedom, I think, came from two things. First, it was the confidence that I knew this topic well. I felt assured that I was speaking about something I knew well (of course, ideally, this should always be the case with every lecture, but embarrassingly, that wasn’t always true). This belief ultimately became a belief in myself, and that in itself was a purely joyful feeling. Come to think of it, before I get much older, I hope there will be more things that allow me to have such a solid belief in myself. And for that, there’s no special secret—just quietly and steadily investing time, whether it's writing, cooking, running, painting, or anything else. The effects of putting in the time are first known to yourself before anyone else."
"It might sound strange, but the second reason I felt free that day was the sense of distance I had from the lecture topic. True freedom comes when you are no longer identifying yourself with the subject. If I had consciously or unconsciously believed that speaking about the topic was the same as speaking about myself, I would not have been so free. It’s never easy to talk calmly about something that feels too close to you. We are clumsy when it comes to separating ourselves from a situation. As a result, we tend to either overly glorify or overly belittle what’s close to us. Therefore, in order to view our work in a larger frame and understand its many layers and meanings, what we need is distance — seeing the work itself, not seeing ourselves through the work. The more we free ourselves from the "self," the more we grow into adults. It is the freedom granted by maintaining a healthy distance."
"Learning how to learn —The true focus of our intelligence should be on taking just one steady step forward. Growth is not something you can achieve instantly; it is only possible by going through countless small steps. To use an analogy:
Imagine a janitor who is alone, tasked with cleaning a completely chaotic Jamsil Stadium without even knowing how much time he has to finish. You might think, "I'll never finish this," or "Who made such a mess?" or "If only I had one more person to help..." All these distracting thoughts must be left outside the stadium before starting. If you are not going to just sit on a chair and wait hopelessly until it's over, you simply have to clean as fast and thoroughly as you can. Focus on each stroke of the broom, and if you must think, think about how you can sweep a little better.
It may seem powerless, but in fact, it grants incredible liberation: It’s not about getting better results, or securing a better future, but about faithfully experiencing the process of a future already set in motion by doing what you must today."
"If you keep going, if you keep at it, you eventually reach a certain realm. Even if you don’t see immediate results, the time you persistently invest never just disappears."
"The self is inherently fragmented. The goal is not to find the "true me" but rather to find the different roles on different stages that help you feel you are becoming a better person."
"Now that time has passed, if someone asked me what kind of mindset I want when working, in just one sentence, I would say: a mindset of training. Training is about consistently building sincerity and finding joy within that process, and that joy becomes the strength to push through uncertainty. Consistency is actually a fiercely dynamic state. Ultimately, it depends on yourself—it’s a lonely task and one that demands renewing your motivation over and over again."
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