The little niece had her summer vacation.
Her mother was worried that she would stay at home all day, scrolling on her phone and playing games, so she hoped that I would take her out for some exercise.
At least, during these two months of vacation, she could develop a habit of exercising apart from completing her homework.
So the next morning, she followed me to go running.
However, she only persisted for one day.
The next day, she told me seriously:
"I don't like running."
I smiled and asked her in return:
"I didn't see that you were interested in dancing either?"
She was a student at an art school and was learning to dance ethnic dances.
She thought for a moment but didn't answer.
At that moment, I suddenly realized that this was not a matter of whether she liked running or not, but a problem of growth.
When we were young, we always lived based on our interests.
Looking back at ourselves in our teenage years, it seemed to be the same.
Things we liked could be enjoyed for a whole day.
Things we didn't like could always find various excuses to avoid.
There's nothing wrong with this.
The greatest asset in youth is time.
- If you don't exercise today, your body will still be full of energy;
- if you stay up late tonight, you will still be energetic the next day;
- if you don't learn anything today, you won't immediately feel the difference.
Because the future is still far away, many things don't seem urgent.
Being young, one should allow oneself to try, explore, and search for the things one truly likes.
So, I didn't continue to persuade my little niece.
Because some things cannot be understood just by being told a few words by others.
After reaching adulthood, we start doing many things that we don't really like.
Later on, I increasingly noticed that there was a change in the adult world.
Many things that we persist in doing are not because we like them.
Rather, we do them because we know they are important.
Take running for example.
To be honest, I don't enjoy running every day.
- Sometimes after running yesterday, I would tell myself, "Let's rest today."
- Sometimes the sun is too strong, and I worry about getting sunburned and worrying about my skin.
- Sometimes if I didn't sleep well the night before, I would think that my physical condition is not good today and it's better to start tomorrow.
Almost every day, my brain would come up with a seemingly reasonable excuse for itself.
Previously, I was often persuaded by these reasons.
Later, I set for myself a rule that I almost couldn't break:
I have to step out of my house every day.
If I'm really tired, I'll just walk.
Even if I can't run, I have to complete the 5-kilometer journey every day.
I found that after the rule was established, persistence became easier.
What really makes one exhausted is never running itself.
Later, I made another interesting discovery.
What really wears me out is not running itself.
Rather, it is the ten minutes before I leave home when my brain keeps negotiating with itself.
- "Let's take a break today."
- "The weather is bad."
- "It's not too late to start tomorrow."
These voices always appear at the exact time.
However, every time when I put on my running shoes and stepped out of my house, truly starting to run, those so-called feelings of exhaustion gradually disappeared.
The air in the morning is very fresh.
There are already people running in the park, sweating profusely.
Occasionally, one can still come across elderly people with white hair who are still persistently doing morning exercises.
At this point, when looking back at those excuses, one would find them somewhat ridiculous.
Often, what we really need to overcome is not the body, but the initial bit of resistance in our hearts.
Discipline, fundamentally, is about investing in the future version of oneself.
Running has made me increasingly believe in one thing.
Most of the things that truly change one's life share a common characteristic:
It may be very hard today, but it will generate returns continuously in the future.
- Reading is like this.
- Learning is like this.
- Investing is like this.
- Exercise is like this.
They all have a common name - compound interest.
- One step of running won't make your body healthy immediately.
- Reading a book won't cause a qualitative change in your cognition immediately.
- Investing for one day won't bring financial freedom.
But when these things continue for several years, several decades, or even several centuries, the gap between them will become increasingly larger.
This is why, the more mature one becomes, the more one believes in long-termism.
Because after reaching adulthood, we finally understand that the truly important things are never acquired overnight.
We always regret: If only we had started earlier.
Many adults have similar sentiments.
- If we had learned to manage money earlier in our youth, perhaps we would be more calm about money matters today.
- If we had persisted in exercising when young, perhaps our physical condition would be better now.
- If we had developed the habit of reading when young, perhaps our perspective on the world today would be completely different.
These regrets essentially all stem from the same reason:
We underestimated time and also underestimated compound interest.
When young, we always felt that there was plenty of time.
We always thought that starting tomorrow would be fine.
However, when we truly enter society, we realize that the real gap in life is not a certain opportunity, but those day-to-day, seemingly insignificant accumulations.
Interests can change, but discipline remains.
Later, I no longer asked my little niece to continue running with me.
I knew that she might not understand now why adults always enjoy running, reading, learning, and managing finances.
Just like me back then, I couldn't listen to those "start early" suggestions.
Many truths are not taught by others, but rather learned gradually through life.
Growth is probably when one starts to actively do things they don't like but know they must persist in.
Because you finally understand that those repetitive daily tasks are not wasting time, but are accumulating the future version of yourself bit by bit.
- When we were young, we lived by our interests.
-
When we grew up, we accumulated assets by following discipline.
These assets are not just wealth, but also health, cognition, and that increasingly powerful self.
And all of these will, on a certain day in the future, return to you in the form of compound interest for your persistence today.
