You could have, but you didn't

Many people have asked me this question, and my answers are almost always surprisingly consistent: even if you don't work hard, you can still survive in this society. You can always find a job to support your family. But if you have never tried hard, then when your life is coming to an end, you may find that the most painful thing in life is not failure, but that I could have, but I didn't.

I remember that freshman year, because I was enrolled in a major I didn't like very much, and faced with far more temptations than high school, I spent the whole freshman year playing games, picking up girls, and being in various clubs. And at the end of college you're like, oh! It turned out that even if I didn't work hard, I wouldn't fail college as long as I worked my ass off toward the end of the semester. This made me more unscrupulous in college.

However, during the holidays and the reunion of some classmates who are close to each other in high school, I found myself and others in just a short year will produce such a big gap. The gap I want to say is not in material terms, but in one's attitude towards life.

Compared with my friends in high school, some of them did much worse than me in the college entrance examination. In the eyes of ordinary people, their universities were not as good as mine. One of the men who was forced to major in English said he was driven crazy by the characters for a year. There's another boy who goes to A 3A school.

I can say that my university starting point is much better than theirs, but their attitude towards university is completely opposite to mine, and their university life is much more exciting and meaningful than mine.

The boy was forced to learn English in college after taking the computer professional, I like eating a lot of related books, computer professional after freshman has developed several popular web games, last few refresh WeChat little game is a circle of friends is he working out, and now he has been working on his obsession for the game APP, He also formed his own small team studio.

And read the 3 a school boy at first he didn't plan to stay for a long time in the university, the first semester freshman year passed the ielts self-study, after numerous "shameless" to apply for the second semester has finally got a good science and engineering university of Australia offers, a sophomore of school he raced to the abroad to read his freshman year, At that time, I could not believe that he, who was the worst in English in high school, had passed IELTS by himself. But that's what happened.

Look at my freshman year, I blame university professional is not what I like, blamed on university has too much temptation, so muddle along, pick up hot chicks, games, club activities busy around himself, but always busy after he found himself nothing, find yourself is to busy to busy, no goal, also tend to be empty, vulnerable inside.

There are too many similar examples in our life.

Some people complain about their poor pay and long hours in wechat moments, Weibo and QQ zone all day long, so they can't stay there without overtime pay. Complaining about being fired several times in just half a year; Also some people in the Internet cafe overnight play game after a state: alas, did not sleep and ready to look for a job, why only my life so tired ah; Some people give themselves up and fall into a heap. They either complain that they are not born into a good family, or complain about the unfair society, the fierce competition and too many unspoken rules.

But the question is, how many people complain without reflecting on whether they are trying a little harder?

Many people prefer eating melon seeds, looking at the whole set the whole set of series brush with most no nutritional weibo information, spent the whole afternoon in the brush a treasure, and girlfriends around a night shopping street to clean out those so-called luxury the discount, how many boys prefer to night to online game addiction, but do not want to down a little bit of courage and determination to make a change?

Of course, you don't have to work hard, you don't have to try to change, you don't have to try to be a better person, because honestly in today's society it's hard to starve to death, you can always get a job and feed yourself.

But have you ever wondered if this is where your heart really wants you to be?

Do you ever think that you could have made your life more interesting and meaningful, that you could have been able to do more of what you love to do, that you could have left more value to others and to society... But because you didn't try a little harder, you can only become "could have".

Just like when I chose my major, I could have tried to change my major or like my male classmate who was forced to learn English, I could have found a favorite field to study by myself, but I chose to give up on myself. There were so many temptations and so many girls to choose from in college. I could have found one I really liked and started a deep love affair, but I always went through the motions half-heartedly just to pass the time. In college, I had the freedom of study and life. I could have tried to develop some hobbies and read more books, but I spent most of my time playing games, day and night.

Who among us does not have big or small dreams? But if finally in your life is about to reach the finish line, you just find themselves not only with their own dream and the raglan, but also because of his original muddle along, abandon, perfunctory attitude of life to let himself into an extremely low, the nose is life the person, so at this point you may be an Epiphany: It turns out that the most painful thing in life is not failure, but I could have, but I didn't.

And this is probably why people work hard in this life.

Of course, you can still not work hard, but you deserve to taste the fruit.