What you don’t do is more important than what you do, which sounds a bit absurd at first. After all, the education we have been exposed to since childhood is "If you want to see farther, reach a higher level" and "An inch of time is worth an inch of gold, but an inch of gold cann

What you don’t do is more important than what you do . This sounds a bit absurd at first.

After all, the education we have been exposed to since childhood is "If you want to see farther, reach a higher level" and "An inch of time is worth an inch of gold, but an inch of gold cannot buy an inch of time." These are all teaching us to seize the time and work hard to climb.

now suddenly tells us that it would be better not to do it. Could it be that Ge You and can make a lot of money! Isn’t this lying with open eyes?

1. About being a human being: You must know how to expand the "four ends"

Now is an era of Internet celebrity economy. Although the word "Internet celebrity" is quite controversial, I have seen that many Internet celebrities are spreading positive values, sharing their various knowledge and experiences, and bringing a lot of convenience to people's lives. However, there are also some Internet celebrities who will do whatever it takes to be "famous", perform all kinds of vulgar performances in front of the camera, and use all kinds of strange powers to become famous. In the end, they will definitely be hurt. Because these behaviors have caused you to lose your sense of shame and right and wrong, the results will definitely be ugly.

Mencius once proposed the famous "four ends". The "end" means bud, origin, and foundation.

Mencius’ explanation of these four principles is: “The heart of compassion is the root of benevolence; the heart of shame and disgust is the root of righteousness; the heart of resignation is the root of etiquette; the heart of right and wrong is the root of wisdom. "

It means that the heart of compassion is the bud of benevolence, the heart of shame is the starting point of righteousness, the heart of resignation is the beginning of etiquette, and the heart of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom. A person who possesses the four ends of " benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom" is just like the body has limbs. To put it bluntly, this is a person. A complete person.

If you have these four ends and still feel that you can't do anything, then you are giving up on yourself and destroying your own nature.

Mencius actually said that people are born with four limbs, and compassion and shame. The four ends of the heart, the heart of resignation and the heart of right and wrong, are just like human limbs, they are also born with them. As long as a person strives to expand and expand these four ends, "if the fire begins and the spring begins to reach", it will be like the fire that has just begun to burn and the spring water that has just emerged from the ground. The power is very powerful, even enough to allow you to protect the world and the world.

Later, Mr. Wang Yangming also summarized Mencius's "Four Ends Theory" with "To Conscience", believing that a person who truly has conscience must be a person who always has compassion, distinguishes between good and evil, knows how to give in at the right time, and remains sober in the world when it comes to right and wrong.

As an ordinary person, it is not that easy to always achieve the expansion of the four ends advocated by Mencius and the cultivation of conscience as mentioned by Mr. Wang Yangming. After all, those who can do this may have been the saints Yao and Shun with perfect morals and perfect character. However, the Four Ends is a path of practice that everyone can engage in. As long as we consciously expand it in our daily life and work, do not blame others when encountering problems, and know how to reflect on ourselves, then it will be of great benefit to our personal growth and development.

2. Regarding laws: only by following the laws of nature can everything go smoothly The occurrence and development of anything has its inevitable reasons and laws. If you don’t know how things develop, you won’t understand the unstoppable trends.

The ancients often said "respect the laws of heaven and revere nature." The original intention is to follow the laws. Whether it is an individual, a country, or a society, if you do something that violates the laws, it will be difficult to have good results.

Mencius, a great ancient Confucian, was deeply touched by this. When King Liang Xiang asked him about the basis for unifying the world, he told King Liang Xiang: "Those who don't like killing can unify the world. "

Why did Mencius say this? This was actually against the common sense understood by kings at the time. You must know that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, each vassal state was working hard to strengthen its military strength, recruiting troops, crusades, and killing as many people as possible from other countries so that they could gain a foothold.Mencius actually said that only those who do not like killing can rule the world. Obviously this is inconsistent with the views of various countries at that time. After all, at that time, if you didn’t kill people, it meant you were incompetent and unable to control people. Who would follow you in the revolution?

What Mencius wants to express is not only a question of the laws of nature, but also a question of the laws of life. At that time, there was no king in the world who did not like to kill people. If a king who was not bloodthirsty suddenly appeared, the people in the world would definitely wait for him to rescue them. Once the people join this person, it will be like water pouring down from a waterfall. Who can stop this powerful force?

This is the point that Mencius really wants to convey.

There are two kinds of laws in this world, one is the law of nature and the other is the law of society. For example, if I defeat you and your territory is occupied by me, in the short term, this is a social law at work, but in the long term, it must be a natural law at work. Take Qin Shihuang for unifying the six kingdoms. Qin Shihuang was a murderous man. He killed many people, destroyed the six kingdoms, and established a unified China. On the surface, this seems to be contrary to Mencius's view of achieving "oneness" through force and bloodlust. However, such a powerful Qin State only lasted for 15 years before being destroyed. It was the Han Dynasty that finally stabilized the world. The Han Dynasty only fought wars for a period of time during the founding stage of the country. By the time of Wenjing's rule, the people began to recuperate and no longer fight. So you will find that after the rule of Wenjing, all struggles in the Han Dynasty were basically limited to the court, and had little impact on the common people. This is the real "fixed in one".

So when did the good days of the Han Dynasty end? It ended after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty , because Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty not only enjoyed great achievements, but also had a great shortcoming - a murderous habit. If a minister made a small mistake, he would directly execute him without mercy. Under such circumstances, it was natural that the Han Dynasty would eventually fall.

Human life is often the result of the joint action of natural laws and social laws. Generally speaking, social laws will work in the short term. If we extend the time long enough, it will always be the laws of nature that really work in the end. If people follow the laws of nature and act according to the laws, everything will go smoothly; otherwise, they will be punished, and this punishment will also be reflected in all aspects of life. It may seem like a natural disaster, but it is actually a man-made disaster.

3. About choice: What you don’t do is more important than what you do

Life is a process of continuous selection, and choice means, "People can do something if they don't do something." It means that only by giving up something can you make a difference. In other words, if you want to make a difference, you must do something. After all, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. This sentence of Mencius sounds very simple, but in order to "do something but not do something", you need to understand the four levels of meaning contained in this sentence. The first meaning of

: Don’t fall into the opportunity trap.

During the entrepreneurial stage, people often invited me to dinner, and I almost encountered a temptation at every meal. For example, someone would say to me at the wine table: There is a piece of land that is good, let’s invest in real estate together. In fact, no matter in social life or work, everyone has encountered some opportunities, some are opportunities to make a fortune, and some are opportunities for promotion, but not all opportunities are opportunities, and some opportunities are likely to be traps. Many times, there is only one step between opportunity and trap. Once you step into the trap, you will feel that every opportunity is good, but the final result is just digging countless holes around yourself.

has a well-digger cartoon that everyone should be familiar with. There was a man who wanted to dig a well. He first found a place where he felt there was water and started digging. After digging for a while, he found that there was no water, so he moved to another place and continued digging. However, there was still no water, so he moved to another place and continued digging... In this way, after repeated operations, not a single well was dug, and there were only many holes around it.

There is also a man who also has to dig a well to find water. He didn't dig east and west like the first man did. Instead, he found a spot and kept digging until the water was dug out. This story tells us that not all opportunities need to be seized, some will only waste one's time and distract one's attention.

The second meaning: Don’t forget your own principles and bottom line.

Resolutely do not do things that cannot be done, otherwise it is very likely that nothing will be achieved in the end. For example, in the business world, what can truly satisfy customers is to create value for them and solve practical problems for them. Only in this way can you maintain a good relationship with your customers and keep your business going for a long time.

The third level of meaning: Don’t do strategic decentralization, but do strategic concentration.

Buffett once asked his private pilot to write down 25 goals on paper. Then he asked the pilot to delete these goals one by one and put these goals on the list of "avoid at all costs" - "no matter what, don't let these things attract your attention." In the end, only 5 goals were retained. This is Buffett’s time management rule: focus on 20% of the important things and never do the remaining 80% of the secondary things. Emphasizing strategic concentration means allowing everyone to concentrate their bullets on the most effective positions, so that we have a chance to defeat no matter how strong the enemy is. The fourth meaning of

is: don’t be satisfied immediately, but delay the satisfaction of with .

In the 1960s, Stanford University conducted an experiment on dozens of children. The experimenter gave each child a candy and told them that if they ate the candy right away, they would only get this one; if they waited 15 minutes before eating it, they would get another candy. As a result, some children could not hold on and ate the candy immediately, but some children endured it for 15 minutes and then got the second candy. After 30 years of follow-up, experimenters found that children who were able to hold on for 15 minutes before eating candy generally achieved much higher results than those who ate the candy right away.

"People have to do something, and then they can do something." The four levels of this sentence are worthy of serious thinking and exploration by each of us. At any time, we must keep a clear mind so as not to be swayed by desires and trivial matters. When you cut off excess desires, you will naturally be able to keep your eyes open, identify the main road and move forward bravely until you achieve something.

4. Regarding making friends: "Three No's Principles"

Rely on your parents at home and rely on your friends when going out. In addition to family members, friends are also indispensable in life. But in reality, many people have selfish motives when making friends. For example, they only want to make friends with people who are rich, powerful, and capable, thinking that such talents are useful to them. However, making friends requires heart-to-heart exchanges and true feelings. If you have this kind of utilitarianism, it will be difficult to make real friends. Even if you do, they will mostly just be casual acquaintances.

Since the power and ability of the other party are not the focus of our friendship, then what is the focus?

Mencius told us: "A friend has virtue." In other words, when making friends, the most important thing we should value is the other person's character. Moreover, Mencius also put forward three principles for making friends: don’t rely on elders, don’t rely on nobles, and don’t rely on brothers.

That is to say, when making friends, do not rely on your age and rely on your old age to make the other party respect you; do not rely on your wealth and power to boss around, so that the other party will submit to you; do not rely on the power of your brothers to intimidate them, so that the other party is afraid of you. For this reason, Mencius also used his ancestor Meng Xianzi as an example to illustrate this principle.

Meng Xianzi was a official of the state of Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period. His family was wealthy and he had hundreds of military chariots. Mencius Xianzi had five good friends. Mencius remembered the names of two of them, namely Le Zhengqiu and Mu Zhong. Neither of them had official positions, but they were both virtuous people. Meng Xianzi had a very deep friendship with them.When Meng Xianzi interacted with them, he never put his identity as a doctor first, nor did he consider their identities. What he valued most was the virtue of the other party.

5. About introspection: Only by being good at introspection can we continue to grow.

The ancients paid special attention to introspection. Zeng Zi once said: "I examine myself three times a day." This means that I have to review my own behavior and thoughts multiple times every day to see if there is anything inappropriate.

Confucius also said: "A gentleman seeks everything from himself, and a villain seeks everything from others." A gentleman must be able to restrain himself, demand himself, and be strict with himself; only villains will often blame others and criticize others, and will be able to forgive themselves. These wisdoms are all warning future generations to be good at introspecting themselves. The biggest weakness of

people is that they easily see the shortcomings of others but turn a blind eye to their own shortcomings. Once you encounter a problem or trouble, your first reaction is to blame external things and things and shift the responsibility to others, as if this will make you feel more relaxed and reduce your psychological pressure. However, this lack of responsibility and daring to face up to one's own weaknesses may hinder the development of one's own mind at least, or harm others or oneself at worst.

Mencius once said: "To love others without being close to them is against benevolence; to treat others without being kind is against one's wisdom; to treat others without answering is against one's respect. Those who do not behave well should seek others instead. If they are upright, the world will return to them." When we want to be good to others and get close to others, but find that the other person is not close to us, then we must Let’s reflect on whether our kindness is not enough; when we want to manage others but they refuse to obey, we should also reflect on whether our wisdom is not enough and the way we deal with them is not good enough; when we treat others with courtesy and find that they ignore us, we should also reflect on whether we are not respectful enough or sincere enough.

In the final analysis, these reflect an essential issue, which is "benevolence" and whether your own benevolence is enough. If you have enough benevolence and everything you say and do is in line with the laws of nature, everything will go smoothly. Just like what " Book of Songs " says: "Always say that you are destined to ask for more blessings." The meaning of "asking for more blessings" here is different from today's meaning. It means that as long as you work hard to be yourself, do what you should do, and cooperate with destiny, you will receive more blessings. On the contrary, if you are not benevolent enough and do not often correct yourself, but only blame others, then you will not be able to accomplish anything or gain anything.