10 Things You Should Know When You're Young

10 Things You Should Know When You’re Young

1. Most ambitious people ultimately fail to turn their ideals into reality. If your dreams are beautiful and firm, you should start pushing forward with all your might from the very beginning, and the earlier, the better.

Once you develop the habit of leading and racing ahead from the start, you’ll find it difficult to slack off or become lazy as you grow. The psychological root of this skill lies in human competitiveness—people generally don’t want to be surpassed by others, especially young people with ambition.

In my circle of friends, there are several who wake up early on weekends and holidays, even during long vacations and Golden Week, they dive into studying at Beitu. Few among them consider themselves very diligent; rather, their motivation to work hard is simply because they don’t want to be overtaken by classmates, colleagues, or competitors in the market. This mindset is very similar to top students in school who hope to be number one in the next exam, and no one wants to be pushed out of the top ten.

2. Trustworthy people around you are few. Most ordinary people’s thoughts and actions are based on their own interests. Accept this fact calmly and remember it for life.

If you find interactions with others to be unsmooth or full of obstacles, it’s usually because it involves someone’s interests. Don’t be distressed or discouraged—this is a universal rule of society. Since you have your own interests, others do too.

In the process of growing up, you’ll encounter many people who boast loudly and blow their own horns, claiming they can shake the mountains and fill the skies. My personal experience is that after interacting with such people for a while, you’ll find that their integrity, actions, and scholarship are not very reliable.

Old saying: “A promise lightly made is seldom kept,” essentially describes such people. Remember this point—it can save you from being fooled or deceived several times in the future.

3. Psychology is an essential subject to learn.

Most people only start paying attention to this after entering society. Being able to quickly and accurately judge others’ psychology and understand their intentions is an important skill for self-protection both on campus and in society.

Moreover, psychology is also a very practical tool in the workplace and business world. You should at least choose one field to study seriously, such as consumer psychology, advertising psychology, love psychology, child psychology, or educational psychology.

Based on my observations in real life, friends with low emotional intelligence and poor interpersonal skills generally have some shortcomings in psychological knowledge.

Looking at recent reports of psychological issues among university students in domestic media over the past few years, learning psychology is very meaningful and relevant.

4. What you learn at school is far from enough. The sooner you realize this, the better.

Most teachers simply follow the curriculum and teach their specialized knowledge. Outside of that, they are just ordinary people like your parents—respect is enough, no need to worship.

At graduation parties, many classmates say that after so many years of study, the most valuable skills are English and computer science.

I personally think we should add one more course—marketing. The course I learned by chance in my youth, and now looking back, its greatest value was that it sparked my interest in business knowledge, making me start to observe commercial behaviors around me. For example, when buying a bag of instant noodles, I would think about its packaging; when watching TV ads, I would pay attention to the advertising slogans; in the supermarket, I would notice the placement of products, and so on.

Plus, I’ve always had a habit of reading, so after graduation, my job search was much smoother than others.

If you want to learn a skill outside of school textbooks, go for business. It’s arguably the most practical knowledge that has helped ordinary people across all eras live freely.

5. Inner qualities and external appearance are equally important.

Most people in this world don’t have the looks of Ning Zetao, Lin Zhiying, or Wu Yanzu, but if you cultivate good manners, politeness, and keep yourself neat and fresh, it will almost always be a plus in life, work, and love.

Exercise more, stay active— the older you get, the more you’ll understand the meaning of “mainly look at your temperament.”

6. Love is a good thing. When the time comes, just go with the flow.

Listen to the advice of those around you, whether they mean well or not.

Because the truth is: among those giving you advice, few are truly happy.

Love is always a highly discussed topic, regardless of when. Although universities have become more tolerant than before, and various media make it easy to learn about love and relationships, and despite countless teachers and relationship experts emerging, many people still feel lost in love.

My view is that although love is a compulsory course in life and an important factor in happiness, our education on love is indeed poor. The biggest obstacle often comes from the people closest to us.

In fact, whether you understand love has no necessary connection to age, and the level of love doesn’t necessarily correlate with age.

Moreover, no one in this world has never been hurt in love.

PS: A tip for female students on how to pick ambitious boys at school:

If you want to judge whether a boy has ambition and is reliable, you can start by talking to him about his future study plans and goals after graduation.

Usually, boys will respond in two ways: either they haven’t thought about it yet, or they will talk about grand ambitions.

So, your first step is to pass on the boys who haven’t considered it, and remember those with big ambitions.

Next, observe these ambitious boys in private, see who often goes to the library to read, studies late every day, or reads books related to their ambitions, and who just sleeps lazily or plays games in the dorm.

You can also invite him to go shopping or watch movies. If he always happily puts down his books and goes with you, he’s probably just talk. But if he often says, “I need to go to the library to study,” or “I have homework to finish,” and refuses you, and you observe that he really does that, then you can be fairly sure he’s more reliable.

By repeatedly testing a few times, you can identify who truly has ambition and who is just bluffing.

The principle of this method is: realizing your dreams doesn’t fall from the sky. Truly reliable boys will work steadily toward their future goals.

Of course, this method isn’t foolproof; you might pick a bookworm, so use it as a reference only—haha.

7. The story of the Little Horse crossing the river might be the most inspiring story about personal growth, especially when facing difficulties and setbacks.

Our country’s education on setbacks is very lacking—mainly just setbacks, little education.

Thinking about life experiences often reveals that the reason for the huge gap between people isn’t necessarily because of stronger willpower, but because of the different levels of understanding of the value of difficulties and setbacks in personal growth.

Some people, after encountering difficulties and setbacks, bravely move forward and become more courageous with each failure. Others shrink back or even become discouraged.

Attitude and behavior after facing difficulties and setbacks are the true dividing line in life. Others’ opinions and advice are only for reference; not everyone can be that brave little horse that finally crosses the river.

8. The harshness of society and the warmth of human relationships are the norm. Few people truly care about you; only a few lifelong friends are genuine.

Be kind to your parents, don’t always go out to indulge and party, and don’t always hang out with troublemakers. Spend more time with your parents when you can. Even if you buy them things they don’t appreciate, I guarantee that moment will fill your heart with warmth, and it will be one of the most beautiful memories of your life.

9. The value of time is often misunderstood by young people. Most only realize it when they become aware that one day they will leave this world.

Read more books daily, make friends with smarter people, and learn more about the world.

Don’t become someone boring and outdated in your thinking.

10. If you believe you have a thirst for knowledge and ambition, the internet might be the greatest invention of mankind you will see in your lifetime and the most powerful tool to improve yourself—nothing else compares.

PS: Master English well.

I hope my other articles can also help you:

How can I figure out what I really want?

How can I become better?

Is academic performance more important than interpersonal relationships in college? What should college students learn? Draft a general education reading list for college students—what books should be included?

How to judge a candidate’s personality traits and values through brief conversations and observations? Why do classmates’ differences grow larger three or four years after graduation? **$BOME **$AQT **$COOKIE **