Edit: The layout/formatting is horrible. I'm sorry. :(

Fun Fact! Metacognition is how my brain works!

This post might sound a bit mean, but it's not deliberate!

> add one more item to the list of important elements of metacognition: awareness of one’s own motivation to study and learn.

All of the items on the list are about awareness.

> Understanding what one already knows about a topic

Awareness of ones knowledge

> Figuring out what one wants to know about a topic

Awareness of the holes in ones knowledge

> Realizing what one has learned in the course of a lesson

Awareness of the new input

> Monitoring one’s understanding during the course of an activity

Awareness of the knowledge itself.

> Choosing which learning strategies to employ and when Evaluating whether a particular learning strategy was successful in a given circumstance

Awareness of your improvements.

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It's all about awareness. Awareness (as a function of the brain enabling its user to encompass everything of the currently given context, all at once) is the fundamental requirement, because otherwise the "metacognition" isn't actually "meta". At all.

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Anyhow, that last one should actually be mentioned with a footnote in the article. Ironically it would be a usefull motivator.

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At some point one does not require evaluation anymore. At some point it all becomes so ingrained that everything happens automatically, because you've gained so much experience in learning and self-improvement, that there is no need for active evaluation of best ways.

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At some point it just works. Just like everything else one learns. Learning is super simple once you "get it".

This whole article is how my brain works. lol

Anyhow! I digress! I haven't slept much! :D

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You're not wrong stating that one needs to be aware of his motivation. An ever improving degree of self awareness is, in general, beneficial. I write "in general", because specifically it can be a giant pain in the ass, especially when it gets excessive, but I digress yet again!

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Because you mention motivation, I want to point out something important:

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People are too dependent on motivation. It is actually a problem. Motivation is not a requirement, at all. Motivation is a dependence on an external factor. Unbeknownst to the vast majority of people, one should not rely on motivation! At all!

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Yet, of course, when peoples whole existence is centered around external factors driving their behaviour (ads, clickbait, fearmongering news, reward-addiction-based games, etcetc), that's pretty much all they ever get to know, with actually serious consequences for their individual personal development and society as a whole.

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I mean ... understand this: People's behaviour depends on something triggering an emotional cascade, motivation, driving people forward. It's like running on instincts:

The feeling of sexual desire increases to a point at which one "decides" to dress up, go out and get laid.

I don't need to explain that.

The "decision", of course, never was one. The "decision" is an illusion based on a lack of self awareness. Simply "feeling the desire" is not "self awareness".

The only possible, potentially involved decision, would be the one disagreeing with the motivation, meaning not dressing up, not going out and not getting laid.

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The process of getting laid, when one desires to do so is very sophisticated Automaticity, where the lack of self awareness makes people believe that they want to get laid, therefore also want to dress up and go out.

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Remember how, above, I wrote "specifically"? The above happens once you grow awareness to a point where you have to learn to accept that resisting your genetic programming (your natural behaviour) is actually a really bad idea.

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Being dependent on external factors is a really bad idea. We all know what happens when we're either oversaturated, or lacking such factors.

So what should it be, then?

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Willpower and Discipline.

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No dependence on external factors. At all. It all comes from within, driven by your own will. The only actual problem with this, is that the whole system we live in nowadays is actively preventing people from having any willpower at all. At all.

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And now someone is going to mention that "discipline" is a product of "willpower" and that mentioning it is kind of redundant, yet ...

... you can't have discipline without willpower, but you can have willpower without the discipline required to not fuck up your life.