2020 Year in Review

This short blog continues the 2019 Year in Review, mainly on:

• Summary of my 2020
• Random thought on COVID
• Goals for my 2021.

Summary of my 2020

Results of the goals I came up with at the beginning of the year:

There were many unexpected things that happened this year, but the main reasons so many goals failed are:

• Executed badly, e.g., things could be better if I had pre-assign some time block each week for important goals 😅
• Some sad events occurred in my personal life (recovered at the moment writing this blog).

Will execute the plans better this year 🤞

Some nice stuff unplanned initially

• Participated in the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training at the end of the year, learned lots of useful tips, thanks to Canva for paying it
• Joined a podcast show, it’s in Chinese though, happy that I can produce part of a podcast after consumed lots of them in the past 5 years
• Got the Australia permanent resident approved, one less thing to worry about for the future, thanks to Canva for sponsor it!
• The remote working went well (for nearly a whole year).

Books I finished this year
(much less than last year)

• The Librarian of Auschwitz — Antonio Iturbe
• Principles — Ray Dalio
• The End is Always Near — Dan Carlin
• Keep Going — Austin Kleon
• 悉尼沉浮1997 — 东羽，景新
• Zero to One — Peter Thiel

Random thought on COVID

Normally, we live a simple life, to quote from one of my ex-colleague “we live in a web that weaved by ourselves”.
In normal life, we execute a planned sequence of behavior on work, study, entertainment, etc, the results sometimes match (or overmatch) our expectations, sometimes not, we might modify our plans, but our models on the current life and ideal future won’t change much.
But it’s possible that we will be dragged out into the chaos, COVID might do that (layoffs, people important to us get seriously ill, quarantine, the close of national borders, etc), they might drag us from the established web to an unknown environment, where lots of “for sure” won’t be that sure anymore, and lots of old plans won’t work, our models on the current life and ideal future might need huge modifications (“the world is not familiar to me anymore”).

How to face situations like that?

In Man’s Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl wrote:

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

How we face any situation is completely our freedom, react calmly and readjust ourselves quickly with courage, re-establish the “web” not only for oneself but their family and group is so beautiful and I respect these type of actions highly.
Hope we can get through the pandemic well :)

Goals for my 2021

Body & mental health

• Run at least 1300 KM in total, at least a single 42 KM run
• Cycling at least 1500 KM in total
• Meditate at least 2 hours each week.

Professional Skills

• Improve my Java proficiency: build 2 side projects with it
• Improve my Vim proficiency: try every tip in Pracitcal Vim — Drew Neil at least
• Study & practice algorithm stuff for at least 5 hours each week.

Hobbies

• Read at least 1 book each month
• Join another podcast show
• Make 4 Youtube videos.

Work

• Try my best & don’t forget to get out of the comfort zone.

Hope everyone a great year ahead :)