What's this?
This sentence comes from the third chapter of "Book of Rites·University". It is an inscription carved on the bath plate by Shang Tang. It has nine words, but it tells a counter-intuitive rule of survival:
> If you can update yourself every day, you must update yourself every day, and you must go one step further and continuously innovate yourself.
In today’s words:
> You don’t lose at the starting point, you lose where you are.
> The person you were yesterday is not your capital today, but your liability today.
> If you don’t evolve, you will degenerate. There is no third state.
Note, this is not a "study hard" chicken soup. It talks about the life version of the law of entropy increase - if you don't actively inject new energy, the system will naturally move toward chaos and decay. Shang Tang engraved this sentence on the bathing plate, which means: When taking a bath every day, you must remind yourself - is today any newer than yesterday?
This is not self-impression, this is the law of physics.
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Why is it important?
Most people live in the world with an illusion: I was successful in the past, so I will be successful in the future.
So they rest on their laurels, use yesterday's experience to solve today's problems, and use last year's methods to deal with this year's market. What they don’t know is that the world is changing and if you don’t change, you become the problem itself.
In the twenty-five years since I came to Europe, I have seen too many people fall into this illusion.
Case 1: The "previously successful" CEO
A CEO built his company into the top three in the industry before he was forty years old. Then he stopped studying. He still manages the company in the same way as in 2008 - hierarchical management, annual planning, and KPI assessment.
In 2018, half of his core team was poached by a new startup. That startup had no hierarchy, no annual planning, just weekly iterations and user feedback. His CEO friend asked him: "Why don't you imitate them?"
"I've been so successful my whole life," he said.
Three years later, his company was acquired. It's not because he did anything wrong, it's because he didn't do anything. He hasn't changed, the world has changed.
This is "Gou Rixin" - it's not that you have to get better, but that if you don't update, you will be eliminated. In the twenty-five years since I came to Europe, I have seen the worst decline, not those who took risks and failed, but those who "once succeeded and then stopped updating."
Case 2: The old tailor in Florence
There is an old tailor in Florence who has been making suits for fifty years. He became an apprentice at the age of fifteen, started working as a master at the age of twenty, and by the time he was thirty his craftsmanship was famous throughout the city.
But when he was forty years old, he did one thing: learn CAD design. Everyone laughed at him - "Why does a tailor learn computers?" He ignored it and continued to learn. At the age of fifty, he began to use 3D scanning to tailor clothes. At the age of sixty, his workshop became the first "digitally customized" suit shop in Florence. At seventy years old, his grandson uses AI to design patterns, and he uses fifty years of experience to ensure quality.
I asked him: "How did you come up with the idea of learning?"
He said: "I look in the mirror every morning and ask myself - is my craft today the same as yesterday? If it is the same, I am old."
This is "new every day" - it is not to wait until a crisis to learn, but to ask yourself every day: What do I have today that I didn't have yesterday? In the twenty-five years since I came to Europe, I have seen the longest-lived Italian craftsmen. They are not the ones with the best skills, but the ones who are most willing to update their skills.
Case 3: The writer who "writes something every day"
There was a writer whose famous work sold millions of copies. But he has a strange habit: get up every morning and write 500 words first - not the content of the new book, but "writing casually". It might be a scene I saw yesterday, it might be a sentence I read, it might be a random thought in my mind.
I asked him: "You are already so successful, why do you still write every day?"
He said: "Writing is like a muscle. If you don't practice it for a day, it becomes stiff. 99% of the 500 words I wrote may not be used, but I am maintaining a 'new' state."
This is "new every day" - updates are not projects, but status. It’s not about updating when there are new tasks, it’s about updating every day, making “new” a way of existence.
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This reminds me of growth mindset and lifelong learning
There are two concepts in modern times, which are exactly the same as Shang Tang’s Pan Ming.
The first is Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset. She said: Human abilities are not fixed and can be continuously developed through hard work. People with a fixed mindset believe "I am born this way", while people with a growth mindset believe "I can be different".
SenseTime's "Gou Rixin" is the Eastern version of growth thinking - You are not your past, you are your next version. Yesterday’s failure does not define you, and yesterday’s success does not define you. What defines you is whether you are willing to update today.
The second is Ray Dalio's "extreme transparency + extreme openness" principle. He said: The success of Bridgewater Funds is not because of how good their strategies are, but because they have established a system that "corrects itself every day." The weekly meeting is not to report results, but to find mistakes, blind spots, and areas that can be improved.
This is the institutionalization of "daily innovation" - it is not an update driven by personal will, but a forced update by the system. Individuals can be lazy, but the system cannot. In the 25 years since I came to Europe, the most powerful organizations I have seen are not the ones with the highest talent density, but the ones with the most complete "self-correction mechanisms."
Even more interesting is Peter Senge's "learning organization" theory. He said: The real competitive advantage is not how strong you are now, but how fast you learn. When the rate of change exceeds the rate you can learn, you are dying.
This is completely consistent with what Shang Tang said - "Gou Rixin" is not a choice, but a survival.
> If you don’t evolve, you will degenerate. There is no third state.
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How to do it?
1. Ask yourself a question every day: "What do I have today that I didn't have yesterday?"
Instead of asking "what did I do today", ask "what was 'new' today".
- Read a new article? Calculate.
- Learned a new word? Calculate.
- Made a new friend? Calculate.
- Found a mistake of your own? Calculate.
- Tried a new method? Calculate.
In the 25 years since I came to Europe, I have been teaching students a principle in the practical business courses of pblcoach.com: Don’t record “how much you have done”, record “how much you have made new”. After doing 100 things, if they are all repeated, you have not made progress. If you do something completely new, you are evolving.
2. Establish a "weekly review" mechanism - not to summarize achievements, but to find "outdated"
Most people review to reinforce "I did something right." A truly effective review is to ask yourself:
-How much time do I spend doing "repetitive" things this week?
-Did I find myself using "last year's method" this week?
-Have I heard any "uncomfortable" feedback this week? (uncomfortable = needs updating)
In my twenty-five years in Europe, I have seen the best leaders have a habit: They don't celebrate victory, they celebrate "discovering blind spots." Because victory is the past and blind spots are the entrance to the future.
3. Do something "never done before" every quarter
It's not "doing better", it's "doing it differently".
- Never written an article? Write it once.
- Never spoken in public? Speak once.
- Never learned programming? Try it once.
- Never been to that industry exhibition? Go once.
After coming to Europe for 25 years, I found that the people who are most resistant to aging (whether in body or mind) are not the best at taking care of themselves, but the ones who are most willing to do things they have "never done before". New experiences are fertilizer for the brain, repetition is the graveyard of the brain.
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when?
"New every day, new every day, new every day" is not a slogan for successful learning, it is the underlying thinking that you can use today:
When you feel that you are "already great" - this is the most dangerous moment. Greatness is a label from the past. If the label is stuck for a long time, you will believe it and you will stop moving.
When you find yourself solving a "new problem" using the "old way" -- stop. New problems require new solutions, and old methods are amplifiers of new problems.
When you hear someone say "you have changed" - don't get defensive. If they say "you have changed" it is because you are better, congratulations, you are "rising". If they say "You're still the same", be careful, you're regressing.
When you feel "tired from studying" - Ask yourself: Is it tiring to "study" or "get out of the comfort zone"? If it's the latter, that's exactly what's happening. Comfort zones are breeding grounds for degradation.
When you see something new that your peers are doing - don't deny it first ("gimmick" or "hype"), first ask yourself: "Did I not see what he saw?" Your denial may be your blind spot.
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Where?
The rule of this sentence is applicable everywhere.
In psychology, Neuroplasticity has been proven: the adult brain can still continuously generate new neural connections. This means - You can learn new things until you die. Shang Tang intuitively knew this truth three thousand years ago. Modern science has only used fMRI to verify the words he carved on the bathtub.
In biology, cell turnover happens every day - your skin is renewed every 28 days, your red blood cells are renewed every 120 days, and your bones are completely renewed every ten years. You are not a fixed "you", you are a constantly updating system. "Gou Rixin" is not a metaphor, it is a physiological fact.
In business, the transformation of Netflix is the most classic case. They started with DVD rentals, then transitioned to streaming, and then transitioned to original content production. Every transformation is "killing yesterday's self". CEO Reed Hastings said: "We are not worried about our competitors, we are worried about our success yesterday." This is the business version of "Daily New" - yesterday's business model is today's biggest enemy.
In sports, Cristiano Ronaldo's body management is legendary. After he turned thirty, he was stronger than when he was twenty. The secret is not talent, it is that he updates his training methods every day - from explosive training to recovery training, from individual training to teamwork, from experience in European football to learning from different leagues. He is not "retiring", he is "updating the version". Cristiano Ronaldo is not a person, he is Cristiano Ronaldo 1.0, Cristiano Ronaldo 2.0, Cristiano Ronaldo 3.0...
In Italian family businesses, the secret passed down through three generations is not "keeping the same" but "updating". In the 25 years since I came to Europe, I have seen the longest-lived Italian workshop. Each generation of successors will do one thing: overthrow half of the previous generation's methods and build another half. This is not a total denial, but a selective update. The first generation’s craftsmanship is the foundation, the second generation adds new materials, and the third generation adds digitalization. It is new every day, and it is new every day - the inheritance of four generations is the renewal of four generations.
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One sentence summary
> The person you were yesterday is not your capital today, but your liability today.
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This article was originally written by Coach Liu. Please indicate the source when reprinting.