Confucius once talked about the "three stages" of life: young people's vitality is not stable, and the warning lies in sex; middle-aged people's vitality is strong, and the warning lies in fighting; old people's vitality has declined, and the warning lies in gaining. . Simply looking back at Zeng Guofan's 61 years of life, he had a very deep understanding of life, which can be summarized in his own three sentences:

A young man cannot withstand good times,

There is no leisure in middle age,

There is no adversity in old age.

In three simple sentences, he summed up his more than sixty years of life experience. For us, if we can read these three sentences thoroughly, we will definitely benefit a lot.

1

Youth cannot withstand good times

Zeng Guofan believes that youth is the time for determination and must experience enough adversity. Only through experience can one develop a perseverant spirit. If you spend your entire teenage years in good times without any hardships or setbacks, you may be unable to recover if you encounter even the slightest difficulty in your future life.

Life, like nature, has similar laws. The youth period is like the sun at seven or eight o'clock, and the spring in the four seasons of the year. It is the time when we accumulate knowledge and strength and lay a solid foundation. . Therefore, we must seize this golden time, hone and exercise more, suffer more losses, suffer more, and gain wisdom every time we suffer!

"If a young man does not work hard, his old man will be sad." This is the teaching left by the ancients for thousands of years! Therefore, we must not choose comfort at the age when we should strive, and then have regrets later! When you are a teenager, don’t live too smoothly, otherwise you will easily become arrogant, arrogant, unaware of the difficulty of success, the complexity of society, the sinister nature of the human heart, and you will develop bad habits of arrogance and extravagance!

2

Middle-aged people cannot afford leisure time

When people reach middle age, it is the time to make achievements. If you do nothing every day and live a hazy life day after day, you may not be able to accomplish much in your life.

Zeng Guofan believes that by the age of forty or fifty, most people can be divided into two types. One is that one has achieved some big or small achievements and is complacent; the other is that one has experienced setbacks in life and is depressed. The results of these two situations may lead to laziness in people. Successful people will be complacent and unwilling to make progress, thus starting to decline. Losers become demoralized and cannot muster the courage to start over, giving up the chance to make a comeback.

To change these two situations, only by keeping yourself in a fighting spirit, not being proud and complacent, not greedy for enjoyment, and always restraining your desires can you drive yourself forward.

3

Unable to withstand adversity in his later years

Zeng Guofan's grandfather once told him: "When you are old, you are most afraid of being beaten." For the elderly, , most afraid of being hit with a stick and never getting a chance to stand up again. His grandfather also reminded him: "To know how to go down to the pond, you must also know how to get back to the shore." (To know how to go down to the pond, you must also know that you will eventually return to the shore.)

In his later years, after working hard all his life, he should have It’s the time when children and grandchildren come to live in their old age. If something unexpected happens at this time, it can be said to be a huge blow. At this age, if you want to make a comeback, you probably have more than enough ambition but not enough energy. Seeing the fruits of your life's struggle shattered in the final stages of your life is the cruelest thing in the world.

When people reach old age, they should stop doing risky things, stop competing for fame and fortune, take care of their health, be quiet and far-reaching, and be indifferent to their aspirations. When people get old, they should know how to seek for their shortcomings and cherish their blessings, enjoy their old age in peace, and leave more spiritual legacy to future generations to benefit future generations.

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