Life Direction & Way of Living · Vocation & Choice
Vocation & Choice · Life Direction & Way of Living
9 reflections
《Four Things in Life》 What places do family, career, self, and partners each hold in my life?
Love family, build a career, establish yourself, build alliances
● Love family
○ Quietly give your all to family; in return, they share your pressure. Within family, speak only of love, with no need to argue reason.
● Build a career
○ Whether the career goes smoothly or not, changes or not, simply invest persistently with the fullest confidence. Success and failure are both results; do not fear failure, and do not give up.
● Establish yourself
○ Persist in improving yourself. In family or career, simply keep a pure heart, maintain a progressive, optimistic attitude, and continually improve yourself.
● Build alliances
○ Set aside interests while using interests to build relationships. Seek resonance of values and union. Setting aside interests allows alliances to develop longer without being disrupted by interests; using interests to build relationships is also a requirement for results, an expression of the alliance’s value.
《Pursuit》 If life were long enough, would I still pursue only material things?
If you knew you could live 10,000 years
Your pursuits would move beyond material needs
Because you would know
Material things are no longer enough to fill the emptiness of your inner spiritual world
《A Way of Living》 Beyond earning money, have I thought clearly about how I want to live?
A person’s greatest suffering is not finding life’s foundation. What is life’s foundation? “A way of living.” What is a way of living?
Finding goals, purpose, and a place to belong: having something to pursue, doing meaningful things, and, through doing them, gathering a group of caring, loyal people to live with in old age. Money is merely a tool for realizing a “way of living”! Affection is merely a memory in realizing a “way of living”! Love, hatred, attachment, and enmity are merely recollections in realizing a “way of living”! Temperament, fame, and gain are merely seasonings for realizing a “way of living”!
Life is like a play: a way of living determines life;
Life is like chess: breadth of vision sketches life;
Life is like tea: perception savors life.
Find your way of living, cultivate a broader perspective, perceive the mortal world, and enjoy the existence of everything, good and bad!
《Believing》 If the goals I voice fail to move others, should I also look back at my own convictions?
Why do employees not believe the boss’s goals?
Some say the goals are unreasonable; the goals are useless; employees will not buy it… These are all appearances.
The underlying core is that your inner energy cannot carry your words.
In other words, you cannot boast! The bigger you can boast, the bigger the things you can accomplish. All political and religious leaders can give humanity “hope”!
And when a boast falls apart, there is only one reason: “You do not believe it yourself.”
《The Three Alignments of Happiness》 How can interests, intimate relationships, and inner aspirations align with everyday life?
Ordinary people pursue happiness
Great achievers pursue happily!
What do they pursue?
“The three alignments”
One is alignment between interests and career
One is alignment between love and marriage
One is alignment between body, mind, and soul
When interests and career align,
Your potential can be developed to the fullest
Marriage without love is an immoral marriage, an unstable, false marriage
When body, mind, and soul cannot unite, you become entangled in the past and worried about the future
And cannot enter the present
Happiness need not be deliberately pursued; it requires only unity of body, mind, and soul
Leave suffering and attain joy!
《Keep Interest in Your Own Work》 When work becomes repetitive, how can I preserve motivation to engage?
One thing I find very happy is that what I do still interests me. Wanting to study, ask further questions, and understand problems sustains motivation at work. When merely completing instructions in exchange for income, people tire more easily.
Interest changes too. Things feel fresh initially, become repetitive once familiar, and later may grow difficult. Keeping interest alive requires finding something worth exploring deeply in concrete work: an unresolved problem, a method that could improve, an ability I want to build over time.
Real conditions also matter. Does it have practical value, support life, and require investment I can afford? When interest connects with these conditions, there is room to continue; if they do not connect yet, small-scale practice can gradually test them.
Interesting things can still be hard and tedious. But knowing why I want to continue gives hardship direction. More than continually seeking novelty, I value the feeling of going deeper and deeper in one direction.
《Pursuit Continues, and Happiness May Already Exist》 If my career still has setbacks, must life be unhappy?
I once viewed my situation in separate parts: at the levels of survival and everyday life, I felt happy; in pursuing value, I experienced many setbacks. Both judgments can hold at once. Different parts of life need not progress at the same pace.
Measuring all life only by unmet goals obscures every existing good. Conversely, a stable life does not mean pursuits should stop. Acknowledging present happiness can coexist with wanting to make work more valuable.
Distinguishing these levels helps allocate energy accurately. Handle career problems as career problems; develop abilities where growth is needed; people nearby and daily life also deserve careful attention. Do not let disappointment in one area keep overdrawing others.
Pursuit gives direction; happiness gives feeling. The former can reach further into the distance while the latter is seen today. Those whose wishes remain partly unrealized still have the right to acknowledge beauty already present in their lives.
《Who Am I, and Why Set Out?》 Before arranging my daily actions, am I clear about why I am setting out?
First answer “Who am I, where am I going, and why set out?” Then arrange each day’s actions.
《Live Your Way Every Day》 Is the way of living I speak of reflected in daily choices?
A way of living is not a slogan, but the unity of goals, purpose, destination, and daily choices.