When a person measures anything, what he values is their significance in his own life, not how many practical benefits they can bring to himself. This attitude towards life is the true nature. A person living in the world must have something he really loves in order to live an interesting life. This hobby is entirely out of his true nature, not for some external interests, such as money and reputation.
He likes to do this just because he thinks it is beautiful and he is attracted by its beauty. Like a gardener. He opened up his own garden just because he liked it. He cultivated many beautiful flowers and trees in it and devoted himself to it. When he is farming in his garden, he is very down to earth. Wherever he goes, he will care about those flowers and trees, just as a mother cares about her children. Such a person will certainly live a full life.
On the contrary, if a person doesn't have his own garden, no matter how big an official he is or how big a business he does, he is essentially empty. Once such a person loses his official position and property, his sense of emptiness will be exposed. He will always live in fear and find that he has nothing to do in this world, and no one needs him and become a redundant person. When a person measures anything, what he values is their significance in his own life, not how many practical benefits they can bring to himself. This attitude towards life is the true nature.
People do things out of interest or out of temperament. Of course, if you do things for profit, you don't have to care too much about whether you are happy or not. I always see the top players in Vanity Fair complaining and struggling, and I totally understand. I don't think their complaints are false, because I know that interest is a coercive force. As far as the nature of what they do is concerned, interest is indeed more important than pleasure. On the contrary, whatever you do is out of temperament, that is, just to satisfy your mind, happiness is the basic standard. If we don't feel happy, we must doubt whether the coercion of interests plays a role in it.
You said, you have to live. I said, we have to live a taste. Fame and status are clothes, so it's better to get something to wear. However, don't judge others by their clothes and hats. My clothes have changed, and I'm still me. It's more natural for men and women to take off their clothes. All the good things in life, the return is just around the corner. The reward of love is the intoxication and satisfaction when you are in love, not the marriage one day. The reward of creation is the intoxication and satisfaction of creation, not the fame of the world one day. If the thing itself can't give people a sense of intoxication and satisfaction, it is not good enough.
In this life, it really doesn't matter if you don't be a thinker or an essayist and can't write beautiful articles. I just want to keep the true face of a life, a innocence that can listen to other lives quietly and make other lives willing to listen quietly. The happiness in this is far from flashy fame and fortune.
People don't just belong to the times. No matter what the times are, no one can give up his own interests for the sake of interests. Great interest in life comes first from life and then from the soul. As long as a person loves life, is good at savoring the inner pleasure of life, pays attention to the soul at the same time, and is good at associating with the great souls in human history, he can still live an interesting life even in a boring era.