Pessimism and Optimism 4

In fact, the way out lies within the crisis itself.

You were right in the first half - life is indeed full of risks beyond your control, lying in ambush to strike you at any time, and you don’t stand a chance against them. It’s natural to feel afraid at the thought of having to live like this for the rest of your life.

But you also need to realize - the first half of your life was precisely lived in this way.

In fact, there was not a moment in the first half of your life that was not spent navigating through all kinds of uncontrollable accidents.

Your first half of life was already full of all kinds of accidents - not just the ones you saw and knew about, but countless others you did not see or know about.

The second half of life that you worry about has no essential difference from the first half you have already safely passed through, and have you not already successfully passed through the first half?

If you are now depressed by the threat of sudden risks that you cannot foresee, control, or compensate for, so much so that you fear the possibility of future failure, then the first change you should make is to re-acknowledge all the successes you’ve had so far.

All the successes you have had so far depended first and foremost on the absence of sudden risks that you could not foresee, control, or compensate for, and not firstly on your own efforts.

You were【lucky】first before you were【hardworking】. Your past successes, your own efforts accounted for just a small part of the “credit”. 【Luck】 was the main reason they were achieved.

So when you worry about your abilities declining all the way, and fear that the chances of success will decrease significantly, remember - that is first of all because you attributed your success to your abilities. If you had known all along that your abilities were not the main factor in your success, then why would you need to worry about how much this insignificant “decline in abilities” would affect the outcome?

The ship’s cook need not worry too much that his aging will delay the ship’s voyage.

Look closely,

your depression is a fair, inevitable, and completely symmetrical retribution for your previous “attribution of all glory to your own efforts.” This punitive mechanism is so perfect that it will automatically extend for every bit of arrogance you have.

The more you previously attributed to yourself, the more desperate you will be when you are no longer up to the task; the more you cling to this mentality for a minute, the more your despair will continue for a minute. Only when you sincerely realize “all my success was really first a gift from heaven”, and wholeheartedly attribute glory first to luck, can you leave this road straight to hell.

Those who are unrepentant to the death cannot resolve the fear that arrogance inevitably leads to, no matter how they struggle, and have no luck.

People must eventually depart, tea must eventually cool; the feast must eventually end, the music and dances disperse, even the tallest towers and loudest songs must one day come to an end. No one can escape that day, the death knell tolls for every man.

The gates of hell will surely gape open for every arrogant one, and the road of life is also paved for every man.

Abandon your arrogance, and you can live.

Abandon it!