Author Chen Chunhua
Source: Spring Blossoms
ID CCH chunnuanhuakai
Among the key words of management in 2025, I call 2025 the year of determination.
The uncertainty and complexity of the external environment is a test for everyone, and it requires inner strength. Keeping inner strength can help us move forward steadily in this complicated world.
Many readers have asked in the background, “What is inner strength? How to have inner strength?
Inner strength is not only a psychological state, but also a kind of life attitude and ability, which comes from a deep understanding of oneself and a thorough insight into the external environment.
There are two very important trainings for people who have inner strength: one is to train your cognition so that you can understand the environment, and the other is to train your ability so that you can expand your possibilities.
Cognitive ability
Cognitive ability depends on your own internal mental conditions.
If your cognitive ability is sufficient to accept all the external environment, all kinds of knowledge, and the objective world, you can accept all the uncertainties.
Before the men’s singles table tennis final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, there was a hiccup. The Swedish youngster, Moregard, had brought only one set of blue jerseys, while Fan Zhendong had always preferred blue jerseys in important matches. According to the rules of the tournament, both athletes cannot play in the same color jersey, and in this case, it is usually the lower ranked player who changes the color of his jersey, so it was only right that Moregard should have done so.
However, when learning that Moregard had no other alternate jersey to change to, Fan Zhendong showed extraordinary temperament and offered to change to the red jersey himself, allowing Moregard to wear the blue jersey as he wished.
Fan Zhendong’s move stems from his deep knowledge of his own ability. He understands that even if the environment of the game has changed and the so-called lucky color is lost, his own strength and strong will is the key factor in deciding the victory, and external factors can not interfere with his pursuit of victory. This may be the root of Fan Zhendong’s popularity, as he has interpreted and inherited the true meaning of sportsmanship with practical actions.
You will definitely find that there are a lot of things different from what you have envisioned, a lot of challenges different from what you have prepared for, and a lot of problems that you have not even thought about, but when you accept them peacefully, accept them and embrace them, as Fan Zhendong has shown, all the challenges are just environmental conditions that must be accepted and embraced.
Ability arises out of necessity
Aguirres, a leading scholar of organizational behavior, defines competence as a bridge between needs and the environment, providing a way to express needs.
One of the interesting things about this definition is that competence is created out of need, and without the need, you don’t have the competence.
So, if you want to be a person with inner strength, you should define competence by a very high standard. To put it another way, you should express your ability in terms of higher and more effective performance. When you make higher and more effective performance a requirement, you will realize that you can actually do a lot of work.
I often tell many young students that I never predict your ability because you must have unlimited possibilities. Competence has two parts
One is the more stable and lasting part of your personality, which is called the stability part.
The dynamic part is the specific skills and abilities that can usually be acquired.
The reason we can make ourselves stronger is because of the dynamic part of competence. Therefore, I would very much like you to understand the three connotations of competence.
First, competence is a possibility. Competence has no boundaries, so people should not set boundaries for themselves either.
Secondly, competence is the unity of knowledge and action. Competence is actually a characteristic of high performance, of higher possibilities, and it has to be presented. So you have to think, you have to say, and you have to do, and if you do all three, your ability will be touched.
Third, competence is a kind of resilience. In fact, many times, our ability is not molded or precipitated, in fact, it is that we are not resilient enough. Often we encounter obstacles, conflicts, and challenges, and we may just give up.
Going deeper and deeper, seeking sources of strength
Inner strength is not something you’re born with, it’s a self-made process that depends on your willingness to keep digging and learning. The part that I particularly want to talk to young people about is building their inner strength.
1 Be able to see the world from multiple perspectives. We must have multiple perspectives on the world in order to have greater inclusiveness and acceptance, to learn more knowledge and form more perceptions, so as to determine the direction of our own development, and to have greater dialog and possibilities.
2 Obtain a sense of self-happiness. Work-life balance is a key factor in determining employee happiness. Don’t put work and life against each other, but balance the two.
3 Possess spiritual pursuit. The core source of gaining inner determination is spiritual independence. One of the biggest challenges lies in the ability to not care about external evaluations, to have a clear goal of self-development, and to return to inner value judgment.
Prof. Shi Yigong, President of Westlake University, told a story about his postdoctoral advisor, Nikola Bavaratich. Once, Philip Sharp, the 1993 Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine, came to give a lecture, and he hoped to meet Nikolai for a talk. Nicola was there that day, but Shi Yigong heard him say to his secretary, “Sorry, please tell Sharp that I have something to do that day, thank him, and we will have a chance to meet again later.
On the day Sharp came to give his lecture, Nicolai locked himself in his office, talking with Shi Yigong in the morning and concentrating on his mechanistic research in the afternoon. Few people have this kind of determination, and to Prof. Shi Yigong, it was an incredible thing. This story is also the point I want to make, don’t waste your time for others, and don’t spend your time on things that can’t create value.
Many times we are not able to be alone because we are used to the external evaluation system, used to be labeled according to the circle group, or class, and treated by the so-called secular standard. This leads many people to spend a lot of energy and time socializing, doing unnecessary things or wasting time in order to prove their success.
Therefore, I want everyone to be more like a plant than an animal. Like a tree that can keep going deeper and deeper down, giving itself stronger support and determination, not avoiding circumstances, whether good or bad, but seeking its own source of strength, and then growing into a huge tree.
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