Some people claim to prefer a life free from striving — calm, unhurried, drifting like clouds in a clear sky.
Looking at the world today, that’s nearly impossible unless you’re living off your parents.
Not just in China — even Australia, long celebrated as a place where you can lie flat and coast into a comfortable retirement, has seen ordinary people’s cost of living multiply several times over.
Want to eat well? You’re paying top dollar for organic vegetables or quality beef. Want a quiet house with a yard? That takes career investment and accumulated wealth. Even carving out an hour each day for a walk eats into your rest or work time — there’s a cost to calculate there too.
The scorching summer has passed — half the year is already gone. These past six months have surfaced far too many problems that had been lurking beneath the surface.
Some of what I’ve witnessed firsthand has reminded both you and me just how cold and warm this world can be.
Even if we don’t say it out loud, we all know it in our hearts: that era is gone, and it’s never coming back.
Common examples:
Living far away to save on rent, spending four hours commuting every day. Refusing to pay for professional services — housekeeping, consulting, repairs, assistants — insisting on doing everything yourself, with lower efficiency and poorer results. Fearing the “tuition” of trying new things. When facing the unknown and uncertain, retreating from exploration, avoiding experimentation, unwilling to accept the risk and loss that comes with learning by doing. Time, attention, decision-making capacity, management bandwidth, health, opportunity, energy, relationships, reputation — cost is not only money.
For many years, I have been rather reluctant to take on what I call “simple girls” — women who come seeking analysis of their life pattern (格局) and fortune cycles (气运).
Why?
These so-called simple girls are not wicked or foolish. Most are kind and pure-hearted. But they share one glaring flaw: a severe lack of deep understanding of the real world.
On top of that, they are naturally soft-natured and highly emotional.
If there are a handful of articles in this lifetime capable of completely changing your destiny after you read them quietly to the end — this is absolutely one of them. And what you’ll find here are secrets that your ordinary social circles will never bring you anywhere near.
In the depths of my youth, at my lowest point, I desperately wished there was a noble benefactor (Gui Ren) beside me — someone who would take my hand and illuminate the confusion, show me the road ahead.
Student Question: Hello Master, when an interviewer asks me about my strengths and weaknesses, what are they really trying to assess?
Master Chi’s Response: This type of question isn’t really a good question — it’s more of a filler question. It’s a bit like greeting someone and asking, “Have you eaten yet?” A pleasantry more than a real inquiry.
Answering it well won’t earn you extra points, but answering it poorly will definitely cost you.
Sunday evening — just a casual chat.
Since the middle of this year, some truly “remarkable” things have been happening around me. Several friends who had emigrated to the US, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand a couple of years back all quietly chose to come home, one after another, in recent months.
There’s no need to say anything unnecessary here — everyone makes their own choices, and none of them are wrong.
Every month, set aside one day just for yourself.
No stirring things up, no working, no staying busy, no chasing money — just use that day to empty your mind completely.
Rest and recover. Sleep. Calmly reflect on everything that happened in the past month. Then send a short, caring message to your friends and family.
You’ll be surprised to discover that in that entire month, this one day is the only one where you’re truly living.
Frankly speaking: if you read what I write and seriously put it into practice, getting promoted and earning more is an inevitable result.
But how many people can actually do this? Very few.
Because most people aren’t even willing to try.
Some people’s poverty may genuinely be due to bad fortune (命理). But most people’s poverty is a problem of their own making.
To reach 90 out of 100, you need birth circumstances, natural talent, and luck. To reach 60 out of 100, all you need is diligence and a sound method.
In truth, experiencing a measure of setbacks in life — and enduring some suffering along the way — is not an absolute evil.
These are the workings of an unseen force, using reality itself to remind you: it’s time to make real, concrete changes.
Take a struggling relationship, for example. That’s a signal telling you that you and your partner must adjust how you treat each other — otherwise, this bond will only drag you both further down.