Sometimes, we feel that life is very tired, and we have worked hard, but we just can't get the reward.
Sometimes, in confusion and predicament, humiliation and frustration follow, and the more you struggle, the less you can see hope, so gloomy that people lose the motivation to move forward.
Sometimes, when victory is in sight, fate makes a gentle and clever joke, and all efforts are in vain.
Even if you can't see the light for a while, even if thorns are everywhere, even if fate plays tricks on you, please believe that there is no road in life in vain, and every step counts.
0 1
Practice makes perfect, and the road comes out step by step.
When Zeng Guofan was a teenager, he was ambitious and determined to be holy. Most people set great ambitions when they were young, but it is difficult to keep up with their actions.
After Zeng Guofan made up his mind, he began to set rules for himself. From the day when Daoguang made up his mind to turn over a new leaf on the first day of October 22, he worked as a "day shift" every day.
The so-called day shift is actually checking your diary.
Zeng Guofan used the standards of saints to demand himself, always supervised his every move, and then recorded it in neat regular script every day to see what did not meet the standards of saints, and then reflected and corrected it.
And since October 2nd, Zeng Guofan set himself a basic study schedule:
Write a diary in regular script every day, read ten pages of history every day, and tell one article in each diary after dinner. This is the lower limit of the courses that must be completed. In addition, he reads Yi and practices composition every day.
Until the first day of February in the eleventh year of Tongzhi, four days before his death, he still reflected on himself in his diary like this:
Diary introspection, he persisted all his life. When it's really "decades like a day"
It is this stupid kung fu honed over and over again that makes Zeng Guofan more and more persistent.
And learning this matter, Zeng Guofan also insisted on it all his life.
Even though I am busy with my official duties, I still insist on reading and writing. Even in the army, "I have to read a few pages every day, fill in a few diaries and learn a word ... I will take it for granted all my life."
Daily reflection makes him closer to the standard of a saint, and daily study makes him over 50 years old. His thinking hasn't solidified yet, and he is still making progress.
In his later years, Zeng Guofan summed up his own life experience and said that a person's life is like a process of fruit ripening. Don't worry and don't slack off.
People's efforts and the cultivation of the day after tomorrow will make a tree grow taller quietly, and will also make a person mature slowly: "Without help, the flat land will grow taller in thousands of feet."
There is no futile effort in the world, let alone accidental success.
Don't encourage others, don't rush for success, you just have to do it bit by bit, step by step, and success will follow.
02
Things change with the heart, and the environment is created by the heart, which is a setback and a driving force.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom intensified in the late Qing Dynasty. Zeng Guofan was ordered to counter the rebellion, but the army was embarrassed. Zeng Guofan decided to start a new stove, but in order not to arouse the suspicion of the Qing court, he ordered the green camp army stationed in Changsha to train with the newly recruited Xiang Yong.
In this way, conflicts will inevitably occur.
Green camp never trained seriously, but Zeng Guofan ordered them to practice hard with Xiang.
Xiang soldiers, all rural people, are naturally not afraid of hardship.
Those green camp soldiers are different. They are pampered all the year round and cannot afford Zeng Guofan's training.
In order to resist Zeng Guofan, they took aim at Xiang Yong. Fighting often breaks out between green camp and Xiang Yong.
On this day, in order to punish green camp, Zeng Guofan arrested several green camp people who took the lead in fighting.
Other green camp people, incited by the prefect Bao Qibao, were emotional and besieged Zeng Guofan at night.
Zeng Guofan was so scared that he quickly hid in the residence of Governor Luo that he survived.
This can be said to be a great shame for Zeng Guofan's life. He said that he had "broken his teeth and swallowed blood", but he was not discouraged. He decided to lead Xiang Yong to leave Changsha for Hengzhou.
It was this blow that gave birth to Zeng Guofan's idea of training independently.
The world-famous Xiang Army started from this "shame of Changsha".
At that time, Zeng Guofan had no money or power. Without the humiliation of Changsha, Zeng Guofan could hardly overcome many difficulties and build the Xiang army from scratch.
Without this Xiang army, there would be no countless contributions made by Zeng Guofan later.
Happiness and misfortune depend on each other, and every bump in life is a setback and a driving force.
Things change at will, and the environment is created by the heart. There is no desperate situation in the world, only people who are desperate.
Some people indulge in pain and sink again and again, while others catch up and leap forward.
Some people lick their wounds and give up on themselves, while others regard every wound as their own medal.
03
If it doesn't work out, please believe that there are other arrangements.
Zeng Guofan struggled for many years. Under great pressure, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom experienced civil strife in Tianjing and declined rapidly. At this time, Zeng Guofan's father died, and Zeng Guofan also had an unpleasant relationship with Jiangxi officialdom. Seeing that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was no longer a climate, the emperor pushed Zeng Guofan home for three years and deprived him of his military power.
This is a blow that almost knocked Zeng Guofan unconscious.
He never imagined that years of hard work would be such a result.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has declined and pacification is just around the corner. How could he be willing to hand over this great achievement?
He suffers from insomnia, paralysis and is ill in bed.
In his letter to Guo Kuntao, he also said:
"Too much publicity, too many appeals, unfinished business and private affairs, and many negative words from the living and the dead.
It's because when you are moved by emotions, you don't feel self-restraint, and your painstaking efforts accumulate over time, and you can't keep your liver alive. In the end, you lose your fitness, which makes you feel at a loss. "
He began to reflect on himself, began to learn the knowledge of Huang Lao, and began to understand a truth: being good as water, mutually assured destruction, is not the first in the world.
Mentality also slowly calmed down, trying to correct the previous temper. Fate didn't disappoint him after all.
When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom declined and revived, the emperor was forced to use Zeng Guofan again, and Zeng Guofan got a second chance to go out of the mountain.
Zeng Guofan, who once again came out of the mountain, has smoothed his edges and corners. He no longer embarrassed his colleagues and emperors everywhere. Instead, the relationship between all parties was well balanced, and some compromises were made without giving up the principle, and finally the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was successfully pacified.
All stories always have an answer. What is important is whether you can hold your temper and your heart steady before the final answer comes.
There is no need to rush to ask life to give you all the answers. Sometimes, you have to be patient and so on.
Even if you shout at the empty valley, you have to wait a while before you can hear the long echo.
The reward may not appear immediately after paying, as long as you are willing to wait, all the rewards will always come when you least expect them.
Musician Jonathan Lee said:
Smart people always try their best to find shortcuts. If they don't want to work hard step by step, the foundation will crumble, just like a building, which will collapse in an earthquake.
A really smart person never takes chances, is not afraid of hardships and never complains about fate.
They have been patiently building their own tall buildings bit by bit, brick by brick.
There is no road in life in vain, and every step counts.
Don't worry about tomorrow, try to live in the present, arrange your life in every time period, live up to the years and keep going.
Through the cold winter, into the spring, walking, flowers will bloom.