It's all too late.

Shannan Hu

March 22nd, 2022 4:41 min read 1289 words

6:00 am
I open my eyes and instantly bounce out of bed. I grab my phone, walk into the bathroom, turn on the Science Podcast, take a shower, brush my teeth, and finish within 20 minutes.

6:20 am
I have 40 minutes to read. I plan to read two books a week, 100 books a year, with 40% economics, 30% psychology, 15% history and 15% other. And today’s routine is a bit delayed. I need to read faster.

7:00 am
I get dressed for work while thinking about the items I must take with me. I don’t want to spend my time on meaningless chores.

7:10 am
I get dressed, put on my shoes, walk to the door of the flat, take out my headphone cable, plug in my iPhone 7, open the English Reading Podcast, hold the door handle, open the door, turn around and close the door. I should be listening to NO.228 today, press the lift down, “Hello, welcome to Xia Peng English Reading. Today, we are bringing you news from the New York Times. First, I’ll read it to you…”Going down, please be careful when the door closes”. Unlock my phone, no signal, l put it in my pocket. Exhale, inhale, heart racing, anxiety, in the time it takes to get from the 22nd to the 1st floor I could read the entire book War and Peace. The door opens. I open the Podcast again, “I will read it to you and then analyse the phrases and difficult sentences in the paragraph. Without further ado, let’s begin…”

I order delivery or eat at restaurants because cooking is time-wasting; I cut my hair short because washing hair is time-wasting; I have a list of friends I didn’t socialise with because socialising is time-wasting. All my free time is spent working, studying, reading and sporting.

I have to say. I arrange my life very well. I always try to find more efficient ways to get things done when I work. I join a lot of design and software classes when I study. When I read, I read the table of contents first and grab the key points to read. When exercising, I cut down on breaks and run for an hour without stopping.

It’s too late to miss more.

Don’t miss celebrating any festivals, don’t miss exhibitions, don’t miss books recommended by celebrities, don’t miss a good TV show, don’t miss a friend’s birthday. Go for it, Shannan! Work hard to get what you want.

When my life started to speed up, I experienced many rewards. I was able to take on two branding jobs simultaneously and do greeting card design and poster design at the same time. My life took flight. I was earning a significant amount of money each month. All the high-brow reading allowed me to appear knowledgeable when I spoke to people about specific topics, and I could talk eloquently about the events I’d attended, keeping up with the world. It seemed like my hard work was paying off.

Everything was bright, and I could be faster.

As I became faster and had more, I grabbed more and more, like I was running late, But is it really too late? Is this really what I want?