I have a group of friends who, every year around May, begin planning our second-half travel itineraries with me.
For more than a decade, it’s been this same group — and together we’ve traveled to nearly every celebrated destination in the world. The three-valley snowfields of the Alps, private island villas in the Maldives, Kenya’s Maasai Mara — and countless other strange and wondrous places that seem lifted from another world entirely. We’ve been to them all.
But this year, without anyone having to say a word, nobody is volunteering to plan those trips anymore — the kind that routinely cost six figures.
The only travel that even came up was a passing mention, back when the city of Zibo (a small city in Shandong that went viral for its unpretentious street BBQ culture) was having its moment — a casual idea to head over during peak summer and experience that down-to-earth, grassroots energy.
I bring this up for a simple reason.
I just want to say: if you feel like things aren’t going your way right now, there’s no need to feel alone.
Because everyone around you is in exactly the same boat.
Flat. Unremarkable. Nothing worth writing home about.
These friends of mine are generally people who don’t worry much about money. There were times when the mood struck and a few of us would charter a private jet on a whim — before 2019, that wasn’t even considered unusual.
Now, every single one of them has downgraded their spending.
I don’t think the broader environment deserves much of the blame. Because if you have sufficient financial literacy and economic awareness, you’ll understand that what lies behind all of this ultimately comes down to one word: cycles.
Some say that various forces have produced this cycle.
Others say the cycle itself has shaped those forces.
Both are right. Neither is entirely right.
But the cycle, however long it takes, always arrives. No force or wisdom can stop it from coming.
Since it’s here — let it come.
Rather than exhausting yourself trying to prove something against it, move with the rhythm of the cycle. Find a comfortable position within it.
For younger and middle-aged people especially: don’t let the feeling of having missed a few critical windows push you into reckless, desperate maneuvers — gambling your career and wealth on one last desperate bet.
When the forest enters winter, even the most precise rifle cannot find its prey.
Beyond wasting precious ammunition, the only thing that kind of shot brings you is the brief, hollow self-deception of well, at least I tried.
Right now, what you need to preserve is your vital energy (Chi) and your core assets.
If my meaning still isn’t landing, let me add one more line: in an era that demands patience, burning ambition is no longer a virtue — it becomes your fatal flaw.
Whether you can truly absorb that and carry it with you is entirely up to you.
Of course, having patience is absolutely not the same as lying flat and giving up.
What we should do is enrich our downtime with high-quality reading and exercise.
With a “taste it lightly, then step back” approach, explore side interests you genuinely enjoy. Spend small, inconsequential sums to get a feel for the rhythms of the big table.
Don’t rush. Don’t be restless. And don’t let a lack of visible success make you feel like a hopeless fool.
Look around — the furnaces that were blazing so furiously before: which one of them isn’t now simmering on low heat?
To keep that flame alive and not let it go out — that itself is something to be grateful for.
So let’s make the shift: from strivers to people who know how to live.
Drifting clouds and wild cranes. A warm lamp, a good book. A life like that of an immortal.
What’s wrong with that?