2016年终总结及2017展望2016 Year in Review

"Life needs to keep a kind of passion. The unyielding spirit inside a person can move others, and can change the way we live."

2016 — where did all my time go? 2016 is about to end; the year went by fast. It's time to settle accounts with the fast-fading 2016. Why say goodbye to 2016? Because maybe one day I'll come riding back in a time machine.

Time slips past like flowing water. In the blink-and-it's-gone snap of a finger, one day remains — I'm about to see off 2016 and welcome in 2017. I've always had the habit of summing up, looking back, then looking ahead and setting plans. Young man, do the initial intention and the final ending matter? Of course they do. They decide whether your chapter in the legend is written out in full or brushed past in a single stroke. More importantly, they're the rivers you waded and the peaks you scaled, the dragons you slew and the torch you held high — they're you, standing at last before the castle, saying to the crowd streaming past, indifferent: I made it.

I used to be someone who took gains and losses very much to heart, who set great store by a lot of things. Later I thought it over carefully: what is it, really, that I want? The truth is, all I've ever wanted in this life are the things I'm interested in for the moment. That word "for the moment" can spook me sometimes — I worry I'm short-sighted, not the far-planning kind of creature. But Hou Dejian (I'll admit my taste in music is a little odd) has a song called "You Only Understand After Thirty": "You only understand after thirty — change comes faster than plans; you only understand after thirty — nothing will turn out too bad."

It's true, change really does come faster than plans. Words like "for the moment," "fragments" — they don't spook me anymore. Whatever I'm interested in now, I clamber over to it, hands and feet. Interest gone, I just shrug and walk away.

I used to love writing inspirational fluff, always feeling I had some spark that could influence others. But the things that happened this year made me do a lot of soul-searching. I'm in no position to encourage anyone about anything. If I can just deliver on the promises I've made and finish the things I set out to do, that's enough — everyone finds it less cloying, and I feel a lot more relaxed too. Inspirational fluff, in the end, is for fooling kids. Being able to just chat with everyone — that'll do.

Here's the 2016 year-end review. Enjoy:

Reading

To my embarrassment, in 2016 — what with exam prep and my coursework books — I read only 15 books in total. Just a third of 2015. I have a quirk, or a habit, when it comes to reading: it has to happen over a concentrated stretch of time, with no long break in the middle. So I mostly need big blocks of reading time.

Reading is for understanding, and when it comes to understanding, slow is fast; fast is nothing. You shouldn't read only by your own tastes or by some booklist, but should range widely across every subject, building your knowledge system from many dimensions. The books you've read and the things you've lived through — once enough time passes, you forget all the fine details, and what's left behind becomes your character.

Movies

In 2016, as of this writing, I watched 56 films in total. Fifty in the first half of the year, only 6 in the second, and 5 of those in the last five days. The domestic ones that left the deepest impression were Operation Mekong, Soul Mate, and 12 Citizens; the foreign ones were WALL-E, 3 Idiots, Saving Private Ryan, Our Times, and Flying Colors.

Running

Unlike 2015, in 2016 I didn't set running goals, and I started running fairly late — basically not until I got back to campus in May. But whether by quantity or by quality, it was a lot better than 2015.

(Image: the original had a chart here — 2015 running data.)

(Image: the original had a chart here — 2016 running data.)

I ran 142 times this year. 3K: 32 times; 4K: 62 times; 5K: 25 times; 6K: 4 times; 10K: once. The most important part: I got my 3K down to 12:07, my 5K to 21:09, and my 10K under 50 minutes — no doubt a solid foundation for the half and full marathons to come.

Sticking with running, I sleep better, and I pay closer attention to how my body feels afterward. People who don't exercise, or exercise little, probably won't feel like they shouldn't eat too greasy — and most people's willpower can't beat their own instincts. But once you keep running, your body's instincts start telling you not to eat that way. It's the same reason a lot of people who take up fitness quit smoking and drinking so easily. I won't claim that sticking with exercise or running will transform your life — that varies from person to person — but I can tell you that sensible, sustained exercise really does bring your life a kind of "rebirth." It's like opening a window that had been shut on you, letting you understand yourself better; the effect on you is entirely positive and uplifting.

I've already felt the immense happiness that long-term running gives me. This is the joy running brings. That joy converts directly into a ticket to a better life. It peaks after every 5K, every 10K, when the world goes so quiet you can hear only your own breathing. Looking at a T-shirt soaked through with sweat, my heart is full of confidence and satisfaction.

Internships

This year I was lucky and happy to intern at my two favorite companies, and on my second day I met a big shot I'd long admired. Career planning is really something you should always be preparing, adjusting as the times change. Jeff Bezos (Amazon's CEO) once said: you should ask yourself — what won't change over the next ten years? Then put all your energy and effort into those things. Because you can build a business strategy around the things that won't change for a while. Career planning should work the same way. Pick out the direction an industry is heading and go deep into it — that's more meaningful than agonizing over exactly what you should do. Once you've got a bead on something that's about to happen, go after it aggressively. After you've locked onto a direction, it's just as important to confirm the bounds of your ability: ask yourself what you can do, ask yourself again and again whether you can actually pull it off, then move fast.

I really want to tell you: why can a compass draw a circle? Because the foot walks while the heart stays fixed. Why can't you fulfill your dream? Because the heart won't settle and the foot won't move. There really are things in this world you can't see clearly from where you stand now — you have to take a couple of steps first. If you want to truly solve a problem, you first have to let the problem actually surface, rather than letting it stay forever in the realm of hypothesis. Some things you shoot first, then aim.

At the same time, you have to be able to get along with people of different ages and different strata, especially people more capable than you. Mixing only with people your own age, you won't grow much. Whether a person is good at getting along with people they don't like is a mark of how mature their character is. And the test of a first-rate intelligence is whether the mind can hold two opposed ideas at once and still function.

Maturity is what lets you travel light. The heavier your past, the harder it is to lighten. Don't run with the herd, don't compromise, don't follow the crowd. And in the end you find that, beyond effort, what really makes you sigh is opportunity. However hard you work, without opportunity there's no play. Success is hard; harder than success is knowing that your success was an accident. For young people, vision outranks ability, and ability outweighs what you're given. The platform matters a great deal.

Postcards

For me, 2016 was something of a "bumper harvest" year for postcards. Because I'm someone who loves to travel, whenever I go somewhere I mail a postcard to myself and to friends, to keep as a memento and a thread of memory.

I think the fondness you feel for a place doesn't necessarily equal its scenery; on the other side of that equals sign should be time. Your affection for a place is made of memories: ten Forbidden Cities can't compare to walking through a park on an autumn afternoon with the person you loved then; twenty Old Summer Palaces can't touch getting soaked through on a rainy summer day. Fondness for a place has little to do with the scenery, and more to do with the friends you made there, the time you spent there, the languid Sunday afternoons you frittered away in a nearby café. Life is like this, and so, really, is travel. Whatever draws you there — a photo, a film, a song, or a person — what truly makes a place matter in your life is surely your encounter with it. For me, only after the encounter does the world take on warmth.

Among all the things you can spend on, I feel the two with the highest returns, for a man, are travel and treating impressive people to a meal, tea, and a chat. The least worthwhile are luxury goods. Travel, put plainly, is going from a place you're sick of to a place someone else is sick of; trading the stories you're tired of telling for the stories they're tired of telling. That's experiencing life. On the surface the point of roaming is play; deeper down it's living and experiencing — moving from that first jittery excitement to a calm and even keel. Treating impressive people to a meal, tea, and a chat — these conversations are hugely rewarding, since any one person's own experience is limited. One way to stand on the shoulders of giants is to talk to a lot of people. The more you're exposed to, the more drive you have to improve yourself. The more you're around people who shine, the more you want to become someone who shines too.

Finally, this summer, after a long wait, I received a postcard from Australia in the southern hemisphere, completing my goal of collecting all six continents except Antarctica. Later I got one from Israel too. Waiting for this moment took about three years. The order went: Asia — Europe — North America — South America — Africa — Oceania.

The Wishlist

1. Build some muscle, run a half and a full marathon (if the chance comes).

2. Domestic travel: set foot on the rest of the land I've never trodden.

3. Overseas travel: work through my favorite countries in order.

4. Camping + cycling + road trips (if the chance comes).

5. Collect the original English Harry Potter books.

6. Learn cooking.

7. If the chance still comes, go to their concerts: Jonathan Lee, Rene Liu, Fish Leong.

Year-End Review: What I Want to Say

This is what I told myself before I started college, and for three-plus years I've more or less kept faith with that first intention, holding to my own path. 2016, for me, was a year of more pressure, more "grinding it out," regret, restlessness, unease, and growth — but on the whole, it went reasonably well.

As for the setbacks and pain you meet in life — it's like getting caught in a downpour out in the open. Running or hiding is useless, so you might as well just let it drench you, rub off a little mud while you're at it, and treat it as a bath. Thinking that such a thing might not come around again once it passes, you scrub all the more eagerly. Then the thunder starts, and you're the only thing sticking up around you, so all you can do is crouch and press yourself down into the mud. In the instant the mud fills you head to toe, you suddenly feel released, and your heart, strangely, turns happy.

As Romain Rolland said, there is a kind of heroism in still loving life after you've seen through to its truth. I'm still young, without enough life or experience behind me — I dare not claim to have seen through the truth of life; I'm only walking the road of understanding, grasping, seeing that truth. When you gradually understand, or see through, the truth of life, holding on to that first-love feeling for it is very hard. It takes considerable patience, steadiness, grit, and fervor.

I hope that in the new year I can still hold on to plenty of curiosity. What I fear most isn't death, but losing my curiosity while I'm still alive. The tortoise may live five hundred years — but what's the point? Even with just one year left, I'd still choose a real life.

Things to Be Proud Of

A. Interned at my two favorite companies — I'm grateful for the hard-won chance.

B. Went to a few new places, learned new things, made new friends.

C. On the whole, kept up my public account: topics, news sense, layout, and so on.

D. A calmer mindset, a more multi-dimensional way of seeing things, less blind stubbornness.

Things to Improve

A. Ramp up the exercise, stay healthy and strong.

B. Rein in impulse and impulse spending; self-discipline needs work.

C. Always being busy isn't a good thing either — tension and release, both.

D. Read more, catch up on the news, snack less, keep a normal sleep schedule.