Forever young

Recently I read a perfect book written by Stanley Yen. I think most people know about him. He published many books. His every book always touches me a lot and affects me a lot in my different period. The book is “The education should not be the same”. This book has described “how young people to expand our view in this world”. Stanley asked several questions to young people “Is learning only limited in school? Do you afraid to challenge? Or you just want to stay your comfort zone?” and their presents. “Is high degree always good? Are PhD and Master always the major (or important) persons in our society? Is the little screw not important?” He wants to mention that career is equal, and the most important is where is your enthusiasm? Here, he cites Robert Frost’s poem to encourage young people.

The Road not Taken. by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Don’t be afraid the difficulty, choose the one you really like. Don’t follow others minds, follow your dreams.

It’s a really perfect book. But, when I start to read this book, I have asked myself. Am I still young to pursue the dreams? Could I take any risk to pursue these dreams? Until I read this quotation from Douglas MacArthur from this book. This quotation likes the light to shoots into the darkness.

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

Youth does not dependent on the number, but dependent on the attitude. Here, I want to share with you some methods to decrease our soul age.

1. Keep learning.

2. Do exercise regularly. Do any exercise you like? Such as swimming, jogging, ridding bicycle. Any kinds of exercise are ok. Please remember. just follow the 3-3-3 rules. Do exercise three times per week, and every time, keep your heart rate reaches 130 beats per minute.

3. Reading variety of good books. Reading is the easiest way to get new knowledge and new suggestions. We can observe different life, different views from different person from different books. Two books per month is benefit for us. If you don’t know how to start, I suggest you can read Stanley’s books first.

4. Maintain a positive and enthusiastic attitude.

It is common to hear that people grow old and bitter. Please avoid it. Please keep a positive and enthusiastic attitude to our life, our work, every situation we meet. I believe that our thoughts have incredible power. You believe you can do a thing, and you can. Contrariwise, you don’t believe you can do a thing, and you can’t.

5. Discover new hobbies for continual learning.

Good hobbies can help our mental active. The desire to learn new things is an essential part for keeping younger.

6. Challenge self to take new risks

As we grow older, we often become more conservative and less willing to take risks. It is the question I start to ask myself in the beginning. Am I still young to take any risks to persuade the dreams? I think everyone has their own thing to fear. But we need to learn to push ourselves outside our comfort zone. Never mind success or failure. Every experience is the beautiful color in your life. If you can’t conquer the fear and don’t to try, how you paint your life?

Growing older is unavoidable. But the important thing is how to maintain your soul young. Today, I have shared some tips with you as reference. And I want to conclude by quotation from Douglas MacArthur.

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt;

as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear;

as young as your hope, as old as your despair.