My Mantra

It takes seven minutes to drive from my home to my office. During that time, I like to remind myself of how I can approach the day. I’ve gathered some quotes and written a few sentences as personal reminders. I recorded myself reading them and play the recording each day during my drive. It helps me stay focused on what’s important instead of getting caught up in distractions. You can listen to my recording by clicking on the blue button below.

• Anicca, Sankara, Aware, Equanimity, Act out of love.¹ – The Discourse Summaries by S.N. Goenka
• You are carrying in your mind the insane burden of a hundred things that you will or may have to do in the future instead of focusing your attention on the one thing that you can do now. — The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
• Lack of time is lack of priority.
• Ask myself, Can I surpass myself from yesterday? Can I surpass someone facing similar problems now. I am a competitive person, this line of thinking would help me stay motivated to choose the way I feel proud of myself.
• This run, even if it brings on heatstroke, will give me peace of mind tonight in that all-important ten minutes before I fall asleep. I now live for that ten minutes. I’m all about that ten minutes. I’ve been cheered by thousands, booed by thousands, but nothing feels as bad as the booing inside your own head during those ten minutes before you fall asleep. — Open by Andre Agassi
• The entire internet is in a sense pornographic, a deliverer of a constant excitement that we have no innate capacity to resist, a seducer that leads us down paths that for the most part do nothing to answer our real needs. — How to think more about sex by Alain de Botton
• From this moment I am prepared to control whatever personality awakes in me each day. I will master my moods through positive action and when I master my moods I will control my destiny. — The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino
• Start the day with office door half open so that I know I need to focus instead of mindlessly do something that I feel embarrassed/regret about. An alternative is to make Internet and open office door hand-in-hand; I’ll open the office door before I access Internet. I’ll disconnect before I close my office door.
• Schedule activities that I feel excited: Marathon, basketball, movies.
• Unplug the Ethernet and schedule blocks to use Internet during the day: before l leaving my office for home.
• Remember about the story of two monks:² forgiveness and letting go.
• Focus on now so that I don’t have to regret in the future.
• When I have to digress, do something that I always want to do: read discrete choice. Read python book.
• I will get research lean by investing daily time into research. I will become better at doing research by doing more research. I will get better at saying no to temptations by saying no to temptations.
• Visualize how a 10-year older Cheng would guide current me. When we are not watched or listened, we feel less motivated.
• MAP: motivation, Ability, Prompt. Setup my environment (Prompt), mentally and physically, to improve my productivity. – Fogg Behavior Model
• I can spend less time on youtube by fixing the time that I will use the Internet per day. The prompt of using youtube is very strong.
• Allow myself to rest instead of waiting for my body and mind to protest and procrastinate.
• When there is urge to digress, take a deep breath for 5 minutes and get back to the goals of now.
• Start small, I did not go to YouTube/Porn to watch 5 hours, I just want to take a small peek. The same motivational trick works for research/work as well.
• See YouTube, Porn, wechat, facebook, twitter as red lights to stop because they are my escape routine. I can replace them with healthy coping strategies: take a nap, meditate, take a walk. Reading other things might be a distraction as well.
• Be mindful about the tricks that my mind plays with me: my work is meaningless, let’s escape to porn/youtube/singing/racing etc. This is Resistance in the form of denial.
• Let go of the idea of being perfect. I need to start small and show up in working on my problems. Done is better than perfect.
• The reason why I want to digress is because I am tired, however, watching YouTube would only make it worse.
• I can try put phone aside (in the car) for better concentration during work in office
• Harmful behaviors like using porn cause pleasure chemicals to release in unnatural ways and at unhealthy levels. ³
• It’s very similar to alcohol and tobacco addiction where we feel disgusted at the beginning. But we gradually get used to it and feeling need to use it.
• Addiction like porn are escape excuses for discomfort in life.
• Porn would hijack my reward system in the brain, which diminish my ability to enjoy regular things in life.
• The Latin root for “addiction” is dictator
• From simply taking images/videos/words in through the eyes, the media acts as the porn drug’s distributor.
• As porn becomes the solution to dealing with discomforts of life, it can actually become the cause of stress rather than a relief from it.
• Celebrate my own progress and imagine more about the rewarding life without porn
• In some sense, addiction is just one version of laziness/Resistance. I do need to fight all versions of laziness/Resistance together.
• Simply avoiding porn won’t cut it since the light source (passion of doing some meaningful things) is the solution to remove the darkness of porn completely.