Why do we know so many principles, yet still struggle to live a good life? Many years ago, I knew that focus was more important than time or money. But after consuming countless motivational quotes, that curse-like saying began to come true: knowing so many principles, yet still struggling to live a good life. The most painful thing for me in the past few years has been: Knowing something is extremely important to me, and genuinely wanting to do it. But just unable to do it, or only working on it intermittently for a few days, then starting from scratch again. What does this pain feel like? It's like standing on this side of a bridge, clearly seeing gold mines on the other side, but my legs feel like they're made of lead. I know I should take that step, but I just can't. For me, this feeling is far more painful than losing money. Many times, human suffering doesn't come from not knowing what you don't know, but from: seeing it clearly, yet being unable to reach it. When you have a clear goal, know what's most important, and know how to do it, but reality prevents you from achieving it, the greater the gap, the greater the pain. This actually has little to do with how much money you have in your pocket. So now, whenever I see someone talking about life philosophies, cognitive upgrades, or selling anxiety, I instinctively resist. This kind of thing, if you think about it a little, you'll realize: It makes you feel like you've learned something in the moment, giving you the illusion that you're making progress. But it's essentially an illusion, even a kind of slow-acting drug. I used to suffer greatly from it, naively believing that as long as I understood the principles, life would naturally improve. Looking back now, that was probably the biggest mistake I made regarding human behavior mechanisms. It's precisely because this pain is so intense that it forces me to figure out one thing: What exactly determines a person's attention? Why is it that some things, even though I know are important and genuinely want to do them, I just can't do them? Since business has its rules, then human attention and behavior must also have their own rules. Later, I gradually discovered that what truly determines what I do every day isn't what I verbally say I want, but instinct, that is, the subconscious. To put it bluntly, it's an automatic script I've unconsciously trained myself over the years. This explains why you shouldn't look at what someone says, but at what they do—the real choices are made by their subconscious, that's their true self. I really like a quote from Yang Zhenning: "The process of learning is the process of turning truth into your own intuition." Principles that haven't become instinctive are essentially not learned at all. And every thought we have, every small action we take, either reinforces old instincts or grows a new script. So after going around in circles, I've finally realized one thing: Principles aren't useless, but if they don't enter your subconscious, they offer almost no help in life except for adding another layer of anxiety and internal conflict.