The best way for adults to live: enter the narrow door, walk a long way, and see the glimmer of light

Zeng Guofan once said: "Only the most clumsy in the world can overcome the most ingenious in the world."

There are thousands of smart people in this world, but the ones who have the last laugh are often those who seem to be clumsy.

A "smart" person who wants to take a broad path and seek shortcuts in everything will inevitably get lost in opportunism.

"Clumsy" people, keep their feet on the ground and keep their feet on the ground. Although they are slow, they always move towards the goal slowly.

The choice at the fork in life not only tests our cognition, but also determines the different direction of life for each person.

Only in middle age do people realize that the best way to live as an adult is to enter a narrow door, walk a long way, and see the glimmer of light.

enter the narrow gate

Internet writer Chang Fengyin once shared his own experience.

When he graduated with a major in communication, many students in the class chose to work in local newspapers.

But he felt that there was little growth in the local newspaper, so he went to a small magazine and started as a small editor.

At that time, many classmates laughed at him for being stupid, saying that the local newspapers were well paid, and that they had the aura of the local radio station, so even if they wrote casually, they would not worry about sales.

At first, he was also a little out of balance.

Because small magazines operate in a market-oriented manner, once the sales drop, they will be responsible, and the pressure will be great.

To this end, he had to work hard to improve his writing and keep an eye on user feedback and social current affairs.

However, with the development of new media three years later, most of the students who were guarding the "iron rice bowl" were forced to change careers or go downhill.

He, who has been "begging for trouble" for a long time, was hired by an Internet company to be the editor-in-chief and partner with the ability and experience accumulated in the past three years, and his salary has been greatly increased.

Human nature is greedy for comfort and enjoyment.

There are so many temptations in life that we will fall into the trap of comfort if we are not careful, and slowly become boiled frogs in warm water.

But to be successful, you have to push yourself to do difficult but more rewarding things.

In the 1990s, Netflix was just a small DVD rental company in the United States. At that time, the market competition was fierce, and Netflix was always at risk of being eliminated.

At a critical moment, someone proposed the strategy of "closing brick-and-mortar stores and switching to online leasing", but it was opposed by many high-level executives.

The reason is simple: there are no reference objects in the industry, and there are too many uncertainties.

But the company's co-founder Mark Randolph reassured everyone with just one sentence:

"Because these things are hard, once we get it out of the way, it creates an advantage that none of our competitors can match."

Sure enough, after a series of trials and adjustments, Netflix finally became the industry leader with this pioneering online service model.

Be a person and do things, don't choose the way that is too good to go.

Life is like walking, although the downhill road is easy to walk, but if you walk, you may fall to the bottom of the valley.

Only by taking the initiative to step into the narrow door and climb up, can we build our own core competition barriers in the face of many difficulties and stand out in the wave of the times.

go a long way

Writer Malcolm Gladwell points out in Outliers:

"10,000 hours of practice is necessary for anyone to go from ordinary to world-class master."

However, in real life, there are many "smart people" who do not want to be stupid and just want to cut corners in everything.

As a result, the more greedy you are for shortcuts, the easier it is to fall into a desperate situation.

A while ago, the incident of "fraudulent graduation design of a 211 college student in Xi'an" rushed to the hot search.

In order to graduate easily, senior students Lu and Lei found someone online to do their graduation project for a fee.

As a result, because the code in the work was written by others, when the instructor asked them to modify some of the code, they both had no clue.

In desperation, they could only contact the seller again, but unexpectedly the two sides had a dispute over the cost.

In a rage, the seller revealed that they had hired someone to do the graduation design on their behalf.

In the end, two college students postponed their graduation and were disqualified from postgraduate studies.

As the saying goes, haste will make it impossible, and small profits will make great things impossible.

The more you want to achieve success quickly, the more you have to rely on "stupid kung fu" to lay a solid foundation.

Xiao A, a self-media expert with 4 million fans, has shared stories about himself and his friends.

Many years ago, he and a high school classmate started to make public accounts almost at the same time.

In order to achieve quick results, his classmates signed up for a number of crash training courses as soon as they came up, thinking that they could easily break the game after mastering some routines.

As a result, a lot of money was spent, but the number of fans did not grow.

Xiao A doesn't believe in the so-called quick way. He firmly believes that only hard work day after day can bring success.

In order to improve the beauty of words, he insists on reading prose and poetry every day; in order to train expression logic, he analyzes many classic books; in order to write a character well, he often consults tens of thousands of words of information...

Although in the beginning, his followers also grew slowly.

But as time goes by, the articles he writes with heart are seen and forwarded by more and more people, and more and more people follow him.

In this way, after 3 years of perseverance, the number of fans of Xiao A has exceeded 1 million.

The top masters are long-termists.

In this fast-paced era, everyone wants to step on the trend, succeed quickly, and get rich overnight.

However, without the slow "thick accumulation" in the early stage, how can there be the final "thin hair".

Blindly pursuing fast will only make people make the mistake of "pulling the seedlings and helping them grow" in their impatience.

Only if you are willing to work hard and go a long way can you walk steadily and far in the long road of life.

see shimmer

The author Zweig once said: "The greatest happiness of a person is to discover one's mission in this life in the middle of life, in the creative prime of life."

A set of experiments at Harvard University in 1970 confirmed this statement from the results.

That year, the school conducted a survey of graduates about life goals, and the results showed:

3% have clear and long-term goals; 10% have clear but relatively short-term goals; 60% have vague goals; and 27% have no goals.

Twenty-five years later, when the school returned to visit these students, it was found that most of the 3% who had clear and long-term goals became elites from all walks of life.

And 27% of people who have no goals, most of them are still hovering at the bottom of society.

In many cases, what determines the ultimate height of our life is not where we start, but where we set our goals.

When a person finds the goal, concentrates on moving forward, and works silently, the other side of his longing will naturally approach step by step.

Haruki Murakami is one of the few prolific writers in Japan.

From the 29-year-old's first book "Let's Listen to the Wind Chimes" to "Abandoned Cat" in 2021, he alone has published more than 40 literary works, of which 14 are novels.

All of this stems from his strong sense of purpose and execution.

He stipulates that he spends at least 5-6 hours a day on writing, and he must write 10 pages before he stops writing.

And every time he starts to write, he will not interrupt himself for anything, no matter how sleepy he is, he will not fall asleep, and no matter how bored he is, he will not swipe social networks.

It's been like this for over 40 years.

If life is an ocean, our destiny is the boat in it.

Only those with clear goals can see the glimmer of the end, they are always at the helm and move forward steadily; those without clear goals will be like headless flies, drifting with the tide and living their lives forever.

In life, success has never been achieved overnight.

Behind all the brilliance, there is no inseparable from gritted teeth and perseverance.

Starlight doesn't ask passers-by, time pays off.

When you walk towards the goal and walk a long, long way in the dark night, when you look up, you will see the stars all over the sky shining for you.

Lu Yao wrote this sentence in "Life":

"Although the road of life is long, the critical points are often only a few steps away."

But it is these crucial few steps that make a huge difference between people.

When we have a clear goal, it is up to us to decide whether to choose the door to take the dangerous road, or to go through the narrow door and take the broad road.

But you must know that the suffering of life is actually conserved.

The more you choose to run away, the more it will double up on your repayment at some point in the future.

Instead of choosing comfort at the best age and suffering more pain in the second half of your life, it is better to take the courage to step into the narrow door and walk the long way.

When you survive the endless darkness, there will be a shimmer of dawn ahead.