I accidentally saw Zeng Guofan’s family letter this morning, which had been abandoned for a long time!

It has been a long time since I calmed down and read a book. Most of my time was occupied by trivial matters in life, and most of my energy was lost between the stock market and K-line.

Half of the summer vacation has passed. Looking at Zeng Guofan's life, he began to resolve on the first day of October when he was 32 years old. People respect and respect respected masters and sages. Although I only lived until the age of 61, I spent the next nearly 30 years quitting smoking, starting from writing a diary every day, reading ten pages of history books, and persisting in recording a chat over tea, step by step, self-innovation and progress. .

This period of time is always mediocre. While waiting for opportunities, I do not grasp the moment well and make enough preparations to meet it. I do not have enough reserves in mind and ability, even if it really happens. It is impossible to seize the opportunity when it comes.

""When Gaishi people study, they must first be ambitious, secondly knowledgeable, and thirdly perseverant. If you have ambition, you will not be willing to be inferior; if you have knowledge, you will know that knowledge is endless, and you will not dare to be self-sufficient in one thing. You are like a river boy looking at the sea, like a frog in a well peeping into the sky. They are all ignorant; if you have perseverance, you will be able to accomplish anything. All three are indispensable. ”

After reading it, I was really confused and enlightened.

Without ambition, there is no direction in doing anything, lack of motivation to move forward, lack of perseverance in doing things, lack of clear direction, and ultimately mediocrity. After living a mediocre life, he becomes a lowly person with bad taste; he sets his ambitions and aims high, just like a poor monk in Shu. One pot and one bowl are enough to return to the South China Sea. Is it difficult or easy to do it? It's easy, but if you don't do it, it's also difficult. The method of living is always more important than the final result.

Without knowledge, Yelang is arrogant, stands still, and is content with the status quo, like a frog in a well. Self-awareness. When many people reach the point of becoming rich, they will never learn or accumulate further. On the one hand, they are not capable enough, and on the other hand, they have not broadened their experience and knowledge. Compared with this, The current self.

Without perseverance, nothing will be accomplished. Those who are ambitious will always strive to achieve their dreams. Qingshan does not relax his tenacity to achieve the goal. As long as the direction is right, then it doesn't matter if the road is longer? p>

In his reply to his brother, Zeng Guofan wrote, "The fourth brother's letter is very detailed. His determination to work hard and self-improvement overflows with questions. However, he must be looking for a place to go out. What's the point of this?" However, it is said that the private school is too close to home, and it is easy to stay in the pavilion. It is better to go out to be more clear. " On the one hand, his brother said that he must work hard, strengthen his ambition, and study hard. On the other hand, he complained that his family was not clean and he could not study quietly. He wanted to go to a school farther away to concentrate on his studies.

"Just be patient. If you can work hard and be self-reliant, you can study in a private school, in a wilderness, in a bustling place, and even if you have to work as a herdsman, you can study. If you cannot work hard and stand on your own feet, it is not suitable to study in a private school, that is, in a pure land or a land of gods, you cannot study. Why choose the place, why choose the time, but ask yourself whether the determination is true. "If you really want to study, then even if you have to cut a wall to borrow light and watch the fireflies reflecting in the snow, you will not forget to study; it is said that even in a busy market, Chairman Mao can read quietly; why choose a place, why choose a time, why bother Why put off today's things until tomorrow?

Looking back on my middle school days, I didn't really love studying, but even in the fields, I always wanted to copy some vocabulary texts and memorize them while working. While chopping firewood and cooking, I put a book beside me and memorized key points of knowledge. I also copied most of the English words on a handboard on the way to school, and I memorized them as soon as I got to school.

Looking back now, I am really too lazy. Instead of complaining about the environment, why not seek peace in my heart? Most of the time, this is just an excuse for laziness.

"People can be independent. If you have great ambitions, then there will be great sages and sages. What can't you do? Why rely on people? I want to be benevolent, and I am extremely benevolent.

If I want to be Confucius and Mencius, I will work hard day and night. But who can learn from Confucius and Mencius and control me? If you don't make up your mind, even if you live with Yao, Shun, and Yu Tang, they will be on their own, and I will be on my own, so what is there for me? "

I want to be benevolent, and I am very benevolent. After reading this sentence, many things suddenly became clear. If the wind is like wind and the rain is like rain, there are not so good things in the material world, so why not start from the spiritual world? Searching, when many people are lost in the outside world and can't find their way, why don't they follow their hearts and save themselves? In the eyes of materialists, time is objective and the individual is insignificant. However, if I no longer exist, this world will be in my eyes. Is there any meaning in it? All the troubles and difficulties are nothing more than shackles imposed on the heart by the outside world. If I am open-minded, who can stop me?

If I cannot strengthen my will and persist in my dreams, Improve your self-awareness, so even if your parents are saints, even if you study in the best schools every day, what will you gain? There are so many mediocre people, and one more of you is not much.

Self-cultivation. The journey starts from now on. The road to self-salvation is long and difficult, so we can no longer follow the trend and live in mediocrity day after day.

At home in Shanghai on the fifth day of June in the Gengzi Year