Chapter 32 don't try to sawdust

Just as I was about to write these words, I could see through the window some dinosaur footprints left on large flagstones and stones in the yard outside the window.I bought these dinosaur footprints from the Peet Museum at Yale University.I also keep a letter from the director of the Peet Museum, saying that these footprints are very old, about 180 million years ago.I don't think even an idiot would want to go back 180 million years and change those footprints.And worry can make a person stupid enough to think that way, because even if something happened 180 seconds ago, we can't go back and correct it, and yet there are many of us who are doing similar things.More precisely, we can think of ways to change the impact of what happened 180 seconds ago, but we can't do anything about what happened then.

The only way to make past mistakes worthwhile is to calmly analyze our past mistakes, learn from them, and then forget them once and for all. Although this sentence is very reasonable, but do I always have the courage and thought to practice it like this?To answer this question, let me tell you about an amazing experience I had a few years ago in which I lost over $30 for nothing and didn't make a penny of profit.The whole thing looks like this: I started a large-scale adult education tutoring class, with branches in many cities, and spent a lot of money on advertising.I was busy teaching classes at the time, so I had neither the time nor the mood to manage financial issues, and I was too simple to know that I should find a good business manager to manage my various expenses.

Then, after nearly a year, it became clear and startling to me that although we were making good money, we weren't making a profit.Upon discovering this, I should have immediately started doing two things: First thing, I should learn from George Washington Carver, the black scientist.When he was completely broke and the bank seized $50,000 of his life savings, he was asked if he knew he was broke, and he replied, "Yes, I heard about it," and continued teaching.He blotted out the loss from his mind and never mentioned it again. The second thing I should do is to analyze my mistakes and learn from them.

However, frankly, I did neither of those things.Instead, I started to worry.For months, I was in a trance, didn't sleep well, not only lost a lot of weight, but instead of learning from this big mistake, I made some relatively small mistakes. For me at the time, it was very embarrassing to admit to such stupid behavior in the past.But I discovered a truth early on: "It is much easier to teach 20 people how to do it than to do it by yourself." I really hope that I can also go to George Washington High School in New York to be Paul Brandwin's teacher. Student - This teacher had taught Aaron Saunders who lived in the Bronx, New York City.

Mr. Saunders said that my teacher, Dr. Paul Brandwin, who taught my physiology and hygiene class, taught me the most valuable lesson in my life.I was only a teenager at the time, but I was often worried about many things and blamed myself for the mistakes I made. After handing in the test papers, I would often be unable to sleep in the middle of the night, biting my nails, and worrying about failing to pass. .I'm always thinking about the things I've done that I wish I hadn't done; I'm always thinking about the things I've said and regretting I didn't say them more perfectly.

One morning our class went to the lab for a lesson and our teacher, Dr. Paul Brandwin, put a bottle of milk on the edge of the table.We all sat and looked at the bottle of milk and wondered what that had to do with the hygiene class he was teaching.At this moment, Dr. Paul Brandwin stood up suddenly, knocked over the milk bottle with his palm, and the milk splashed in the sink.Then he said aloud, "Don't cry over spilled milk." He then called all of us to the sink to take a closer look at the bottle of milk that had been smashed. "Watch carefully," he said to us, "because I want you to learn this lesson for the rest of your life. The bottle of milk is gone! You spilled it when you saw it, and no matter how anxious or complaining you are, Impossible to recover. With a little brains and prevention first, the bottle of milk can be saved. But it is too late now - all we can do now is to forget about it, put this matter aside, and focus on Do the next thing."

Aaron Saunders also said: "This little performance, I remember it long after I have forgotten my knowledge of geometry and Latin. In fact, the actual life experience this incident taught me, Better than anything I ever learned in high school. It taught me that if possible, don't spill the milk, and if you do, forget about it completely." Some readers may think that it is a bit of an overkill to expend so much energy on the old saying "don't cry over spilled milk".I know this sentence is very common, and it can be said to be a cliché.However, such clichés contain the experience and wisdom accumulated by human beings over the years. It is precisely because it is the crystallization of human wisdom that it has been passed down from generation to generation.Assuming you could read all the books on worry written by the great scholars of every age, you wouldn't read anything more basic and useful than "The boat will be straight when it reaches the bridge" and "Don't cry over spilled milk." It's a cliché.As long as we apply these two old sayings well and don't take them lightly, we don't need to read this book at all.However, knowledge cannot be power if it cannot be harnessed.The purpose of this book is not to tell you anything new, but to remind you of what you already know, and to encourage you to apply what you have learned to practice.

I have always had great admiration for the late Fred Fuller Schneider.He was the editor of a newspaper in Philadelphia.Has an innate knack for telling old truths in new and engaging ways.He once gave a lecture to a senior college class, and he asked this question: "How many people have sawed wood? Please raise your hands." It turned out that most of the students had sawed wood.Then he asked again: "How many people saw sawdust?" No one raised their hands below. Mr. Xu De said: "Of course, it is impossible for you to saw sawdust, because the sawdust is sawn off. The same is true of the past. When you start to worry about those things that have been done and the past, you are equal to Sawdust."

I have read a lot of histories and biographies and watched how ordinary people get through bad times, and I have always been both envious and amazed at those who are able to forget their worries and misfortunes and go on living happily. I went to Star Prison once, and the thing that surprised me the most was that the inmates seemed as happy as the people outside.I immediately told my opinion to Lewis Lewis, the warden of Star Prison at the time.He told me that when these prisoners first arrived at Xingxing Prison, they were full of resentment and bad temper. Have a good time.Warden Lewis told me that a prisoner who worked in the vegetable garden of Xingxing Prison was able to grow vegetables and sing at the same time.The prisoner who sang while watering and growing vegetables is much smarter than most of us, because he knows that after writing a row and a row on a white paper, no matter how capable you are, you can’t erase half a line, even if you sprinkle it all Your tears can't wipe away a little.

Why waste your tears on this?Of course, mistakes and omissions are our fault, but so what, who hasn't made mistakes?Even the world-famous Napoleon lost 1/3 of all his important battles.Maybe our average record won't be worse than Napoleon's, who knows?What's more, even if all the king's men are mobilized, the mistakes made in the past cannot be undone. So, let's remember the eighth step of the rule: Don't try to go sawdust.