My 2019 Keyword

It's January 1, 2020.

At the start of the new year, I've summed up three key words for my 2019.

Pain, growth, joy.

Pain made me grow, and growth made me joyful.

I won't go into the specifics of the pain, but as for how I grew and found joy, it's all written in World of Gods. Old readers should be able to sense the shift in style in the new book.

Not long ago, when I was chatting with Sweeping the Horizon, the author of The Scroll of Creation that launched today, I said I was destined never to write anything lighthearted. Yet a few months later, I started letting loose and eating my words.

Sure enough, no one can escape the law of eating their words.

I won't say much about the book's content; I'll talk about it properly before the launch.

At the end of the year, just like last year, I did my annual life review (see my public account article from last year for the method).

There's a lot to cover, but I'll only highlight three key points.

1. Successfully lost 25 pounds.

And it only took half a year. Now another half year has passed, and I haven't regained any weight.

Hahaha... let me take a moment to laugh with my hands on my hips.

This experience made me realize that I can completely change myself!

There are many factors behind successful weight loss, but the most important reason and method—I wrote about it in an earlier chapter, and I doubt anyone found it.

2. Successfully mastered emotion management.

This was actually a blessing in disguise.

Probably due to road construction outside my neighborhood and various other factors, I developed tinnitus.

So, I started looking for solutions to the tinnitus, but eventually realized it was hard to fix. So I switched gears and focused on controlling my emotions.

I studied, signed up for courses, read books... and eventually built my own emotion management system.

Its foundation is rooted in psychology and neuroscience. Whether it's scientifically sound or not, it's very effective! This achievement scored the highest on my annual happiness coordinate chart, even higher than losing 25 pounds.

3. Awareness.

This is a skill I cultivated this year through a combination of meditation, learning, emotion management, and more.

Before this year, half my life was chaos.

After this year, my whole life is clear.

Most outstanding people gain the ability of "awareness" in childhood. I didn't, but I always thought I did.

Fortunately, through continuous learning, I acquired the skill of awareness.

I'm not outstanding now, but I believe I will become an outstanding person in the future.

In a way, this year was also the year I kept discovering "I don't have it, but I thought I did."

I'm even convinced that starting from realizing "I don't have it, but I thought I did," and from identifying "specific mistakes" and actively "seeking ways to change," marks the beginning of a person's self-awareness and progress.

I won't go into the details—they'd take up quite a bit of space.

Pain, growth, and joy describe the phenomena.

Weight loss, emotion management, and awareness review the actions.

Next comes summarizing the patterns and refining the mindset.

Mm... the text itself can reflect that, so I won't elaborate.

Finally, it's about planning for next year—not looking forward, not fantasizing.

Let me think about the key words for next year.

1. Deliberate Practice.

When I first heard about this, I thought it was nothing special.

After reading others' simple summaries and book notes, I still thought it was nothing—I already knew it.

But when I seriously read the original work, first I was like "holy crap," then I ate my words.

Maintaining deliberate practice in writing methods, learning methods, reading methods, self-management methods, and other methods is my top priority for next year.

This theme will probably last for many years.

What makes me especially happy is that last year, I set the key word theme for 2019 as "accumulation." It was useful, but too vague.

But this year, my key word "deliberate practice" is much more specific.

This also made me realize that every true learning experience is a subversion of "I know." If you can't subvert "I know" multiple times in a field, it means you don't really know.

"I know" is the brain's self-protection.

Overthrowing "I know" indicates the ability for deep thinking.

2. The Dumbest Learning Method.

This is a learning method I've synthesized by standing on the shoulders of giants. For an ordinary person like me, using it once is like wringing out every drop of brainpower.

To avoid mental exhaustion triggering physical resistance, I don't dare use it every day.

This is complicated to explain, so I won't go into detail—it will appear in the main text.

For now, the goal is to use it 50 times in a whole year, roughly once a week. Once it solidifies into an ability, the usage count should increase a bit.

3. Review.

My annual review was quite good. This year, I not only reviewed the year's events but also the year's people.

The sense of accomplishment was overwhelming.

However, my monthly reviews, writing reviews, and weekly reviews were very poor.

I won't force, blame, deny, or question myself. I'll only take a small step forward: reviewing my writing monthly.

Once the monthly writing review is solid, I'll consider other reviews.

What are your 2019 keywords, fellow Mages? If you can't think of three, writing one is fine.

Then, what keywords do you look forward to for 2020? If you can't think of three, writing one is fine.

You can also pick a number below to fill in.

0.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Not writing? No number you like? Finally, as my summary goes.

This year, setbacks aren't important; reflection is more important.

Results aren't important; growth is more important.

Gains aren't important; progress is more important.

The present isn't important; the future is more important.

Stay hungry, stay humble.

Let's encourage each other!

Finally, I hope we grow together in the new year!