I sincerely recommend that every reader — health permitting — find an opportunity to participate in an amateur half-marathon.
Not for victory. Not for rankings. But for the experience.
Because a marathon is truly, deeply similar to life.
At the start, you think you’re running against your opponents. You feel anxious when someone overtakes you, and proud when you leave someone behind.
But gradually, you’ll discover that the ripples caused in your heart by everyone else’s every little move are entirely meaningless.
After all, when you think about it carefully — what does anyone else’s pace or speed have to do with you?
You just need to beat yourself. Isn’t that enough?
The marathon of life works exactly the same way.
Someone else lives in a better house than you. Someone else has more money than you. Someone else has broader social resources than you. So what?
You never know what price others have paid, nor what risks they have borne. You may think you’ve put in ten years of grinding study — but what you can’t see are three generations of someone else’s blood and sweat. Everything in this world, in the end, has its reason.
So — don’t envy. Don’t be jealous. Don’t be impatient. Don’t covet.
Never let someone running faster than you make you feel like a failure. And never, because you feel like a failure, choose to take shortcuts or run dangerous paths.
Remember: in the marathon of life, only a few things truly matter:
● Keep your body healthy. Always protect your sleep. Never eat too much sugar or greasy food. Always set aside a little time each day for exercise.
● Maintain a relentless habit of reading and long-term learning. Admit that you’re a fool in many areas. Keep absorbing and updating what’s inside you.
● Maintain genuine connections with good mentors and true friends. Always refine your social circle — keep the good, remove the rest. You don’t need so many tangled, complicated relationships. Keep it simple.
● In an era that is moving forward, move with it. In a world that is stagnant, don’t push ahead — follow the current, never fight against it.
● My own deepest conviction: the greatest wealth in life accumulates slowly and steadily — it is not won in a single bold gamble. So your career should carry this same attitude: steady and upward, never rushed, never slow.