Last year, I heard a saying, which roughly means:you turn pages for your own story, because no one can help but yourselves.

A friend said, everyone talks about turning the page, and inspirational quotes everywhere, but how come most people still can’t ? Is there any simple and practical way that you can share with everyone?

For this topic, I have been sorting and observing for a while: it is easier to start with changing habits!

Although it is said that everything comes from the mind, it is easier to change the kingdom than one’s inside nature(Chinese idiom). Changing one’s thoughts/concepts is a devil-level challenge and is not easy.

When encountering difficulties, sometimes we think it is because of the environment causing the issue. However, oftentimes the external environment cannot be changed just by saying so. If we change the attitude of “If the mountain doesn’t come to me, I will go to her.”, and try to adjust our habits a little bit, wouldn’t it be simpler?

Then we should start with the easy “kingdom”, look into ourselves in the mirror. Do not go and fight the big devil all at once, or try to fight against the big environment. Otherwise you will easily get frustrated and have no sense of accomplishment. We should treat it as training for fighting monsters and practicing kung fu, step by step.

We should not think too complicated about the “kingdom” here, but first replace it with a different way than usual.

For example, there are three entrances to the park. Usually you enter the park from entrance #1. Now you can change to entrance #2 or #3. Because the path changes, the people and things you meet will also change slightly, or you may discover new surprises.

A while ago, I went to a MRT station and changed my usual route to look for food. I ended up finding a lively night market. Suddenly many more delicious foods to choose from for dinner, as well as the novelty. Then I realized that the exit I often used for so many years turned out to be the least busy area, haha…

The story of Jimmy Liao’s “Turn Left, Turn Right” picture book,a man and a woman, one used to turn left when going out, the other used to turn right… After an accidental heart-warming encounter, they lost contact. They wanted to find each other, but they couldn’t meet each other…

Until one day, they decided to leave, still either going left or right… They later met again at the roundabout… It turned out that they lived next door to each other!

If you are used to drinking a certain beverage, try a new one; if you are not used to dine out, try it, regardless of whether it is disappointing; if you walk on a different road, you may see beautiful flowers and trees…

When changing habits, let go of expectations and prejudices, be open to all your encounters and experience, see the differences with your heart – you will see that life becomes more colorful, and your mood will find living water over time, and slowly to open and understand your heart, turning the page will not be far away.

I heard a sentence a while ago: What is success? When you can overcome what you call difficulties or adversities, that is success.

To turn the page, you have to want to turn the page. After all, we cannot wake up a person who is pretending to be asleep unless he is willing to wake up, right?

Wish you happy turning pages~~~

— Author: Ponponyu
— Translated by Haru

P.S. Turn left,turn right:
. Full Story Narration:
Turn Left, Turn Right – Full Story Narration
. Song:
Turn Left, Turn Right《向左走，向右走》-Jimmy Liao

Chines version:
. 翻篇起手式: 由改變習慣開始

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. You, used to walking with your head down, could jump a little bit sometimes