002839张家港行:我这一年的变化

Yesterday marked my 23rd birthday. Thank you all who wished me happy birthday, it totally made my day. Judging by the comments, I also realized that was the first time I ever announced my age on this blog. Some people were shocked and awed at the fact that I’m “only” 23. I think it’s awesome that we can bridge the age gap and learn from each other, despite the number of years we’ve been on this planet.
昨天是我的23岁生日。我要感谢那些祝福我的人，让我开心了一整天。和大家一样，我看到这是我第一次在博客里公开我的年龄。一些人惊讶于我“仅仅”23岁的现实。我觉得我们应该撇开我们已经活了多少年，而是打破这个代沟，互相了解彼此。
Anyway, I don’t really have anything on Scott Young. He started his blog at 17, and currently has over 6,000 subscribers. I guess age isn’t everything.
当然，这和Scott Young扯不上关系。他17岁开通博客，如今有6000多阅览者。所以我想年龄并不代表什么。

Over the past year, I’ve made a lot of changes in my life. I’ve set a lot of goals, achieved most of them and have learned more than anything.

过去的一年，我的生活变化很多。我做了很多目标，大部分都做到了，从中获得了其他都无法取代的东西。

One of the biggest things I’ve learned is having patience. I have some long term goals that will probably take a while to accomplish (like killing my day job).
最大的收获之一即是要有耐心。我的一些长期目标会花很长时间去完成（如做完我的工作）。

A kind of amusing goal I had was at the beginning of this blog (last February) I set the goal to get 2,000 subscribers in 30 days. Wow, I had no idea that was not as easy as I thought it was. Just slap some content up and people will start hoarding in, right? Not exactly.
其中的一大目标是在我开博之初（去年二月份）定的要在30天达到2000的阅览量。呵呵，困难程度出乎我的意料，本以为不过是这边加了内容，那边就会有人来看，但事实并非如此。

I want to share with you the goals I’ve achieved in the past year. I’m not trying to brag, I just want to show you what I’ve learned.

我想和大家分享一些这一年的心得，我不是炫耀，只是想让大家看到我的所得。

Here they are:

接下来的便是：

Quit smoking. This was probably the biggest thing I achieved in the past year and really catapulted me to taking control of my life. I have relapsed a couple of times, but I’m sticking with it. The difference between smoking and not is too huge.

戒烟 这件事差不多是去年我最伟大的壮举，而且我真正能够控制我的生活了。虽然我复吸了好几次，但我一直坚持着。抽烟与不抽烟迥然不同。

Created an emergency fund. Last year I started a savings account and actually started contributing to it. Imagine that, huh? This is something that I’ve always wanted to do, but could never seem to manage. The biggest breakthrough for me, was not counting money I didn’t yet have. I switched from thinking that I could spend money I didn’t have yet, to changing my mindset about the things I really need.

建立应急资金 去年我开了一存储账户并不断往里存些钱。想一下？我一直想做些什么事情，但从未成功。对于我最大的突破就是不再去想还没到手的钱。本来只想如何花将来才会有的钱，但现在我会集中在什么东西真正需要我花钱。

Started eating more raw. I aim to become a 100% raw foodist in the future, but I’m not there yet. I did start eating more raw every day, usually breakfast and lunch and then eating cooked vegetarian food for dinner. I am 100% vegetarian as well, but this isn’t a goal I achieved last year. I’ve been vegetarian for a little over 6 years now.

吃生食 我立志成为一名合格的生食主义者，虽然现在不是。之前我每天都吃生食，通常是早饭和午餐，慢慢的晚饭我就吃熟的蔬菜。我还是绝对的素食者，这已经不是我需要达成的目标了，因为我坚持素食已经6年多了。

Became more impeccable with my word. This is one of the most important things I’ve implemented in my life. How many times do you go against yourself in your thoughts and actions? I know I struggle with this a lot. But in the past year I’ve managed to make leaps and bounds in being true to myself.

言行一致 这是我生命中做到的最重要的事情之一。想一想大家可曾频频做着与自己真实想法相违背的事？我一直痛苦于此，但在去年做到了飞跃---做回真的自我。

Daily exercise and walking. I’ve never been a big runner, but I’ve always loved walking. Last year I started walking to work daily, about 4.5 miles each way. Sometimes I would take the bus home, or my wife would pick me up, but for the most part I walked. This is something I’ve slipped a little on lately, but I would like to get back into. I’m thinking about starting to bike instead.

多活动多走路 我不喜欢跑步，但热爱走路。去年我每天来回步行4.5英里上班，有时回家会做公交车，或者我妻子去接我，但大多数我都是步行。这件事我最近有些松懈了，但我能恢复以前，而且正在考虑骑自行车。

Journaling and meditation. These two things alone have allowed me to make leaps and bounds in my personal growth. One of the things about journaling is that it forces you to be honest with yourself. Meditation has allowed me to clear a lot of the mental clutter in my mind and become in tune with the space between thoughts.

记录想法，秉心静气 这两种做法让我个人成长卓越。记录想法要求你诚实于自己，平心静气使我清楚思想混乱，思想秩序井然。

Started this blog. In February of this year, I started this blog. It has since become my illegitimate child (it’s taken on a life of its own). My goal by next May is to have this blog be my sole source of income, so I can fund the ownership of my own time. To date, this blog has been read by over 500,000 people.

开通博客 今年二月，我有了自己的博客，这仿佛我的私生子（而且已经很长的时间）。我期望到明年5月时博客能成为我的唯一收入来源，这样我就可以完全支配我的时间。到目前为止，我的博客浏览量已超过500000.

Started writing. The only writing I had done previous to this blog, had been in Elementary school English class. Writing has been one of the most positive and scariest things I’ve ever done. It’s forced me to become coherent with my thoughts and has allowed me to become a teacher. Often the best way to learn something, is to try to teach someone else. This has rang true in my experience.

写作 写作是唯一一件在开博之前就已经做的事，是在初级中学英语课上，是最积极的事之一。这使我思路清晰，并成为了一名老师。通常学习的最好方法就是教别人，我的经历便验证了它的真实性。

Became a regular writer for Zen Habits. This past month I started writing regularly for Zen Habits. This has pretty much affirmed outwardly what I felt inwardly about finally getting over the learning curve of blogging. I don’t think I’ve “made it” yet, but this has been a huge sign for me that I’m making progress toward my goal to make this blog a business.

成为有禅习惯的笔者 这个月的写作即是为了禅习惯。这种使我的内心绝对表露出来的习惯最终能克服我写博客的学习曲线。我感觉我还没有达到，但就现在我逐渐把博客商业化表明我有很大进步的迹象。

Helping others. If there’s one thing becoming a writer for Zen Habits has taught me, it’s the value of helping others. It was due to me helping Mary from Good Life Zen, that I got a recommendation from her to Leo, to write for Zen Habits. If it weren’t for helping others, without expecting anything in return, I don’t think that would have happened. So it really is true. If you want to be successful, help other people succeed.

乐于助人 如果说禅宗的习惯让我获得了什么，之一就是帮助别人的价值。由于我帮助了Mary，他就能帮忙我把推荐给Leo。如果没有帮助别人却像有所回报，我想那是不可能的。如果想成功，那就把帮助别人传递下去。

So what have you learned in the past year? Do you have any special rituals for your birthday?

那么你在过去的一年里学到了什么？在你生日时有什么比较特殊的礼节吗？

Also, I’m going to be putting together a project of sorts. It’s kind of a collection of the top personal development/growth articles online. So if you could help me out, what’s the best personal development article you’ve ever read? What article have you read that has impacted you the most? Thanks for your help with this.

另外，我准备把各种各样的东西汇总起来，就像网络上的名人传记一样。如果你能帮我，请告诉我你读过的最好的人物传记有哪些，哪本书对你影响最大？感谢你的帮忙！