What things will change us?

Everyone can do many things. Some of the things we have done before have had a significant impact on us, but most of them did not leave a deep impression on us or bring about obvious changes.

I have played table tennis, swam, cooked, practiced calligraphy, taken pictures, read financial management books, gone shopping, done technical skills, run, kept fit, and invested. I have worked in finance, sales, and tourism, and have studied languages, mathematics, foreign affairs, history, geography, chemistry, etc. After so many years, most of the things I have done have not become my specialty. At most, they can only be regarded as gaining a little bit of experience.

A few years ago, I saw the beautiful photos taken by others with SLR cameras, which inspired me to take photography. There was a time when I really wanted to buy a SLR camera, but I didn’t buy one after all. I just had fun taking photos with my mobile phone. Taking photos has not made me a good photographer, but I have not invested much time and money in this area.

The friends I grew up with all liked to swim in the water in the summer. When I was a child, I was very envious of those friends who could swim. Every time I go swimming with them, I lie down in the shallow water and watch them swim happily. Occasionally, I would imitate their swimming movements in shallow water. As I spent more time in shallow water and imitated swimming movements, one day I discovered that I could actually swim a few times. The more you swim, the longer you swim. Later I went swimming in the swimming pool and found that compared with professional swimmers, athletes' swimming postures were more beautiful and faster.

When I was a child, I suddenly liked calligraphy. Due to my interest, I started practicing calligraphy. After a few months, the enthusiasm for practicing calligraphy gradually faded away, but fortunately it did not completely fade away. In the following ten years or so, every time I wrote, I would carefully make the words as beautiful as possible. I don't do this to get praise from anyone, it's more an attitude towards words. Many of my classmates have always said that my handwriting is beautiful, and some teachers think so too. After graduation and working, my handwriting is not too ugly.

Regarding cooking, I didn’t have such a habit at first. In order to make my meals more hygienic and healthier and more in line with my own taste, I started cooking simple meals a few years ago. Because I have to eat every day, I cook at home every day as long as I have time. Eating is a rigid necessity, and eating healthily and taste-appropriate are also strong needs for me. Therefore, cooking has become something I do every day when the time comes. After a few years passed, I discovered that I could also cook well (I thought). This is an interesting skill, right?

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Looking back at the past now, those things I did briefly have become a thing of the past, and I don’t even remember the more temporary things I did. But those things that I think can be called skills or what make me different from the friends around me are those things that I do with my heart, often and for a long time, such as calligraphy, cooking, etc.

In general, no matter what we do, if we do it seriously, do it every day, and do it for a long time, over time, we will naturally master the relevant skills. If we do something occasionally on a whim and then never do it again, we won't get anything out of it.

For the things that are important to us, we have to do them every day, repeatedly, and for a long time. Time will give us the answer.