Monthly Review of June, 2017

Welcome to the No.19 Edition of

THE REVIEW ARMY

June — What have you achieved and what do you want to change?

My flight is delayed several times tonight, and I’m only able to get on the plane around midnight. As I sit alone in the airport without the normal noise and busy people walking into different directions, my mind is getting clearer and clearer, which helps me really have some serious self reflection, while the day is also coming close to the end of June.

Yes, half of 2017 is already gone. And I was asked by my mind with 2 simple questions:

What have you achieved?
What do you want to change?

I read through some blogs I wrote early this year, including my new year manifesto, comparing what I set out to do with things I’ve achieved. I have to say I’m a total loser and fraud, if I introduced myself to the Zake you knew back in January.

Here’s who am I early this year:

And now:

Yes, I quit updating the spreadsheet for almost 2 weeks. I even quit updating my Chinese blog on WeChat for a entire month, which I will never allow this to happen last year.

Now, you may think I’m gonna talk about the so called reasons make me quit those good habits, but no, I’m not gonna go through the reasons, no, excuses. Fuck those excuses.

Yes, life sucks. Everybody knows.
And you have to learn to love it, and live it.

So I consider this monthly review as my approach to bend myself back on track. I probably need couple days to reframe my next 6 months, and work out an applicable solution to rewire myself in the rest of 2017.

Here I put all the things I wrote in the past week together, and hopefully it will also help you, have a deep self reflection.

What I Fear

My fear is all about myself. As you may know, I moved to Shenzhen this new city in Jan without basically knowing anyone here, and started trying to fit in this high intensity work environment with millions of people from all over the world.

People ask me,

How’s the pressure of living in Shenzhen?

I will say a lot. And a ton much more if you want to thrive and be one of the best instead of just surviving here. And my fear comes from losing the passion and dream I have when I jumped on the flight in Boulder, CO.

It’s always easy to go to work just to earn your living expenses, and get off work playing games on your smartphone and laptop. It’s easy to hangout on weekend and travel when you have holidays. It’s easy to lie in bed until noon on weekend mornings…

And I’m not saying those things are bad, it’s also good to travel and see this world when you are young. But these easy small things are just going to suck you dry, and erode your passion day by day, without your any attention.

That’s what scares me the most. And I have to admit these things are also happening to me, unfortunately.

It’s hard to wake up at 6AM every morning, reading, jogging, cooking and still feel powered up for work. It’s hard to keep updating my 2 blogs weekly, since I need time to write my daily journal and all kinds of documents at work. It’s hard to keep self disciplined 24/7 living alone in my apartment…

And these things need to be changed. I have to make the change.

The Only Way Out

I was listening to Lewis Howes The School of Greatness podcast the other day. In his 500th episode, he made a mashup of people he’d interviewed. And I felt really lucky to hear a clip of Mel Robbins’ interview.

She’s the author of 5 Second Rule, and basically she claims that your life are not going to change with your thoughts, but only through actions.

95% of our decisions are made by our feelings.

You cannot always count on your prefrontal cortex to help you make perfect life decisions. Our brain are not designed to work this way.

You cannot control your feelings, but you can always control how you think, and how you behave. What happens over time is that you will find a better version of yourself with confidence and courage through actions.

Again, this is may be the only solution I have for saving myself from the rust I’m in right now. We all know the so called “advice” and “life hacks”, but not all of us have the determination and consistency to execute like a fucking robot.

What’s My Plan?

A lot of people believe that you can put your goals in public, you are a sayer, not a doer.

But I disagree, when I put my plan out there, for me it’s process of documenting, and we are probably the first generation who have the ability to document our entire life, with the convenience of Internet and devices like smartphones.

The old saying should also replaced by the new one. So here’s my plan for my next awesome 6 months in 2017.

Writing

As you may notice, my last Chinese blog post is on May 30, and my last daily product journal is on Jun 21.

I have explained why in the last journal. I started to write back in 2015, because I think it’s fun and meaningful to get my voice heard. I never regret doing so and I make a ton of friends as well as help many people through my blog, which makes me very proud of.

But as I shifted main focus on product management and work in Jan, I don’t have much time writing what I love and thinking what should be a good topic to write. In the mean time, my work is pretty much filled with all kinds of research and documents. I cannot spend 10–12 hours at office writing or thinking about how to write, and keep writing when I get home.

I guess I need time to cut off from my keyboard, and be present with myself.

You cannot get people love you, if you are not in love with yourself.

So here’s my writing plan:

Project: Product Journal
Frequency: Every Friday
Platform: http://medium.com
Language: English

Changing my daily plan to weekly is one of hardest decisions I made this year. In the past 6 months, I keep write a 3-min daily journal after I get off the work, and you can read them on Medium, Linkedin and Zhihu.

But it’s time to make some change. As I’ve developed a habit of reflecting on myself everyday, why not writing down what you learn today in one sentence, and do weekly mashup sharing some stories in details.

Project: Newsletter
Frequency: Every Sunday Night
Platform: Newsletter & WeChat
Language: English & Chinese

A lot of people are quitting WeChat moments feeds, and I’m also one of them. I disabled this feature couple months ago, and only open this feature when I want to post my photos and articles. After that, I disable it again.

So I’m thinking about switching platform for a long time, I’m not quitting WeChat, but I just don’t think WeChat is the best place to digest good content. Newsletter comes to my mind.

Every Sunday night, I will send you this email. It could be what I experience, what I learn and what I’m thinking during this week. It could also be me answering some questions people ask me on WeChat. And I will also share some good content I come across during the week.

I will send you through email first, and update on WeChat in the coming week when I’m free. So make sure you subscribe!

Life is short, let’s be pen pals!

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Project: THE REVIEW ARMY

Frequency: Monthly
Platform: Newsletter & http://medium.com
Language: English

Writing this monthly review is one of the best decisions I made in my early 20s. It helps me build up a group of audience and improve my self awareness. Every time when I lost motivation and passion, my monthly review is always there to bend me motherfucker back.

Work

I cannot see myself grow a lot in the past 6 months, but when I talk with friends and other people, I’ve picked up so much knowledge in VR and product management.

This is still my most important thing in 2017, so stay creative and stay sharp.

As some you may know, I’ve never been to Japan. But I find myself love it more and more. My plan for the next 10 years, is to explore as much as I can, move to a new country for study or work every 2–3 years, challenge myself to learn a new language, a new culture and a couple of new friends.

Japan is my ideal next spot. I’ve started to learn Japanese and let’s see what will happen and where will I be in 3 years.

Love

Since I was kid, I preferred playing with myself rather than hanging out with others. So during my 4-year college, I never traveled with friends, always by myself.

And due to this reason, I cannot convince myself to put a lot of time and energy on relationship. Looking back, I think I was too young to be in a relationship at that time.

After moving to Shenzhen and finally live on my own, I find myself sometimes looking for hangouts with new friends. I started couchsurfing people from all over the world, and their passions for life are what motivate me constantly.

I don’t call my family that often, but they know everything I go through everyday because they read my journal. (Literally with Google translate) I’m also in a relationship lately, I feel like sometimes it’s good to have someone you care about besides your family. And she or he can make your life a way more colorful.

And sometimes you have to put your smartphone away, and just be present. Because love is what brings us happiness.

Travel & Making Videos

120% focus on the above 3 things on weekdays, and play hard on weekend or holidays, whether I’m travelling to new places or making videos. Be creative and have fun!

And there you have it. These are things I care about the most in the next 6 months. And I hope you could also take time to reflect on your past 6 months in 2017.