Political Work

Forging Ahead with Courage Is a Soldier's Most Beautiful Posture! Your Effort Deserves to Be Shown Openly and Without Shame

奋勇前行是军人的最美姿态！你的努力理应大大方方

PLA Daily (解放军报) 15 May 2026

Summary

A political education officer in an unidentified brigade of the PLA 83rd Group Army conducted a morale and motivation class targeting what he identified as 'effort anxiety' among junior enlisted soldiers—a reluctance to be seen working hard out of fear of social judgment. The article is a unit-level political work piece published to model grassroots ideological correction methods, and is useful primarily as evidence of how the PLA's political officer corps is adapting its messaging to address psychological and motivational patterns it associates with post-1990s and post-2000s recruits. It signals no change in posture or capability but reflects a continuing institutional effort to close the gap between the PLA's stated combat-readiness culture and the attitudes of its incoming enlisted cohort.

Translation

Recently, Instructor Ma of a certain company in a certain brigade of the 83rd Group Army set his sights on Private Xiao Guo.

Xiao Guo had no particular strengths, performed averagely in day-to-day work, and had once been jokingly called by older soldiers "the most ordinary ordinary soldier." Why, then, did such a soldier attract Instructor Ma's attention?

One night, as Instructor Ma walked past the Third Squad's dormitory, he noticed a dark figure silently rising and falling beside a bunk. Moving closer for a better look, he found it was Xiao Guo doing squats.

Catching Instructor Ma's surprised gaze, Xiao Guo said sheepishly in a low voice: "Couldn't sleep, just doing a bit of training." Instructor Ma initially did not think much of it, but over the following period he ran into Xiao Guo several more times secretly training extra in the night.

"The training ground has equipment and is well-lit during the day, yet I never see you doing extra training there—why do you only find the motivation when the lights are out?" Unable to make sense of it, Instructor Ma simply went directly to Xiao Guo and asked. Xiao Guo lowered his head and mumbled: "I just don't want others to know."

"Is doing extra training something to be ashamed of? Why can't others know?" Hearing Xiao Guo's answer, Instructor Ma was even more puzzled. But pressing further, Xiao Guo could not give a specific reason, only saying he "felt embarrassed."

Afterward, through careful inquiry and consultation with experts, Instructor Ma came to realize that Xiao Guo may have developed "effort anxiety" (努力焦虑). This condition is relatively common among young people: out of fear of others' eyes and judgments, even when one knows that making an effort is the right thing to do, one still feels embarrassed, and may even choose to conceal that effort. In conversations with several young soldiers, Instructor Ma also learned that, while they had not secretly done extra training as Xiao Guo had, they harbored similar thoughts to varying degrees.

"A soldier should have the drive to stand at the front of the ranks and compete to be first—what does it look like to train in hiding?" To address this, Instructor Ma organized a class on the theme of "Forging Ahead with Courage Is a Soldier's Most Beautiful Posture."

"When Zhang Huanrong first joined the company, even meeting the passing standard was difficult for him, so whenever he had time he would do extra training on the training ground. Seeing this, many comrades offered him advice and taught him techniques, and other soldiers with weaker foundations were also inspired, spontaneously carrying out remedial training..." Soldier Zhang Huanrong had lagged behind in physical training as a new recruit, but later won first place in the 30-meter × 2 serpentine run event at a Group Army skills competition. During the class, Instructor Ma used Zhang Huanrong's growth experience to make clear to everyone that the process of overcoming difficulties may be "messy" (狼狈), but there is no cause for shame in that. As soldiers, pressing forward in the face of difficulty is only right and proper; it is stagnation and a lack of drive to improve that should be a source of shame.

Some young soldiers admitted frankly: "Everyone else can pass, but I'm always the one doing extra training—it makes me look stupid." Others said: "I'm afraid that even if I work hard, I won't get good results, and people will laugh at me." To these concerns, veteran soldiers responded on their own initiative: "No one's results come from nowhere—the reason we look relaxed now is because of the hard training we put in before"; "Effort is not laughable—'losing without even fighting' (不战而败) is what's shameful"... Watching the younger comrades' worries being dispelled one by one, Instructor Ma turned his gaze to Xiao Guo and added with earnest sincerity: "Effort is not a 'performance' put on for others—there is no need to care about what others think. Whatever the final result may be, your effort deserves to be shown openly and without shame, and every bit of work you put in is something to be proud of."

From that point on, soldiers who had previously been somewhat awkward about their extra training shed their ideological burdens, and their enthusiasm for training surged—Xiao Yin volunteered to participate in a higher-level chemical defense specialty skills competition, making use of every spare moment to train independently; Xiao Wang trained physical fitness together with top performers every morning, putting pressure on himself; Xiao Guo no longer trained in secret, and when he could not grasp the essentials of a training item he actively sought guidance from squad leaders and backbone personnel, with his scores improving noticeably... In recent days, higher authorities organized a mass military training and skills competition (群众性练兵比武), and Xiao Guo achieved good results in the field fortification construction and camouflage and five-kilometer armed cross-country events.

Original Chinese

最近一段时间，第83集团军某旅某连马指导员“盯上”了列兵小郭。小郭没有什么特长，日常工作表现一般，曾有老兵打趣他是“最普通的普通一兵”。这样一个战士，为什么会引起马指导员的注意？那天夜里，马指导员走到三班宿舍时，发现一个黑影正在床边悄无声息地起起伏伏。走近细看，正是小郭在做深蹲。看到马指导员诧异的目光，小郭不好意思地小声解释：“睡不着随便练练。”马指导员原本没将此事放在心上，但接下来的一段时间，他又几次撞上小郭在夜里偷偷加练。 “白天训练场上有器械又亮堂，不见你加练，怎么非要黑灯瞎火才有干劲？”实在想不通缘由，马指导员干脆直接找小郭询问。小郭则低着头支支吾吾：“我就是不想让别人知道。” “加练是什么见不得人的事吗？为啥不能让别人知道？”听了小郭的回答，马指导员更加不解。但继续追问，小郭也给不出具体原因，只是说“觉得不好意思”。随后，经过细致了解和咨询专家，马指导员意识到，小郭可能是产生了“努力焦虑”。这种情况在年轻人中比较常见，因为害怕他人的目光和评价，即便知道努力本身是正确的，仍会感到不好意思，甚至因此选择隐藏自己的努力。在与多名年轻战士的交流中，马指导员还了解到，虽然他们没有如小郭一样偷偷加练，但也或多或少存在这种想法。 “当兵就要有站排头、争第一的劲头，训练还要躲躲藏藏像什么样子？”为此，马指导员以“奋勇前行是军人的最美姿态”为主题组织授课。 “刚下连时，张桓荣达到合格标准都很困难，所以一有时间就在训练场加练。见此情景，不少战友给他支招、教他技巧，其他基础较弱的战士也被带动起来，自发开展补差训练……”战士张桓荣新兵时体能训练成绩落后，但后来在集团军比武中获得30米×2蛇形跑课目冠军。课上，马指导员通过张桓荣的成长经历为大家讲清，克服困难的过程也许“狼狈”，但不应为此感到羞耻。身为军人，迎难而上理所应当，停滞不前、不思进取才应引以为耻。有年轻战士坦言：“大家都能过关，只有我总是加练，显得很笨。”还有人说：“我害怕努力付出却得不到好的结果，让人看笑话。”对于这些担忧，老兵自发回复：“没有谁的成绩是平白无故得来的，我们现在看起来轻松，是因为过往的苦练”“努力并不可笑，‘不战而败’才丢人”……眼看年轻同志的顾虑被一一打消，马指导员望向小郭，语重心长地补充道：“努力不是做给别人看的‘样子’，不必在意他人目光。无论最后结果如何，你的努力，理应大大方方，你的每一份付出，都值得骄傲。” 自此之后，过往加练时有些扭捏的战士卸下思想包袱，训练热情高涨——小尹主动请缨参加上级组织的防化专业比武，利用点滴时间自主加练；小王每天清晨和训练尖子一起练体能，给自己加压；小郭也不再偷偷加练，训练不得要领便积极向班长骨干请教，成绩进步明显……这两天，上级组织开展群众性练兵比武，小郭在掩体构筑与伪装以及五公里武装越野课目中获得佳绩。