The real issue is that you’re not strong enough.

Take the gaokao, for example. Top scorers never worry about filling out their college preferences, nor do students scoring below 400. It’s the middle-tier students who agonize over it. Middle-scoring students will regret whatever choice they make because, from a probabilistic standpoint, no matter which path you take in life, it’s likely to be a dead end.

Think of it like a video game. If you’re destined to lack the skill to beat it, won’t you keep eyeing the grass on the other side? Of course you will. You’ll always think, “If I could restart life and choose that path instead of this one, wouldn’t I have won?” But even if you got another shot and picked that path, you’d still hit wall after wall and wonder, “If I had chosen this one instead, could I have cleared it?”

Choice matters more than effort—provided your effort has already reached a sufficient level.

If you haven’t met the baseline, no choice you make will help you pass.

A smooth-sailing life requires no one holding you back. That way, if something goes wrong, the problem can only be your own. And if it’s your own problem, that’s simple—you can fix it anytime.

Becoming a better version of yourself is a thousand times easier than changing others, and ten thousand times easier than expecting others to change for you.

Turning the uncontrollable into the controllable—that’s what choosing really means.

The real issue for many people is that they lack self-planning and don’t want to change themselves either. It’s not others dragging them down—it’s them dragging everyone else down.

They themselves are the shortest stave of the barrel.

The people who navigate life most smoothly are usually those willing to improve themselves and who also know how to do it. Willingness to grow is subjective initiative; it’s a life philosophy.

How to improve is a methodology. In practice, you have to put in the work—summarize, reflect, and then you can actually grow.