More independent, optimistic, strong, and graceful than ever before.

Each day, I tend to my body, mind, and spirit, embracing moments of tender self-acceptance and care.

My companions, ever-fluid, are splendid souls: open, truth-seeking, loving. We appreciate, assist, and inspire one another. In dialogues and discussions, I draw and impart wisdom with some; with others, I share life’s journey, offering and receiving nurture and safety; and with yet others, we play and laugh, cherishing joyful times. Daily, I engage positively with others.

Uncertain when I’ll pluck a bloom from the wandering state, but even amidst chaos and uncertainty, I keep my mind light, open, and sharp.

More actively, I partake in the real world’s game. With goals and skills honed, priorities clear, focus sharp, each day brings flow.

In motion, I observe my inner world — motives, emotions, personality, thoughts — growing more mindful.

In travels and life, I reconnect with the core part of me — curious, creative, simple, joyful.

我比以往任何时候都更独立、乐观、强壮和优雅。

我每天都会关注到自己的身体、头脑、心灵，和自己有温柔相处的、全然接纳的时刻。

我身边的小伙伴处于流动之中；他们都很好：开放、求真、会爱。我们彼此欣赏、帮助，互相启发。和其中一些人，在自如随意的对话和讨论之中，我汲取也分享；和另外一些人，我们互相陪伴彼此经历人生，我获得和给予滋养和安全感；和另外一些人，我们玩耍嬉戏，共度好时光。 我每天都和他人有良好的互动——即使只有一次。

我不知道我什么时候能从「漫游」状态的线索中拈出一朵花来。但即使在混沌与不确定之中，我也将这颗心守持得轻盈、开阔、清醒。

我更积极地去参与真实世界的游戏——不管是商业的部分，还是一个其它的生命的展开。 我有目标、有在磨练的技艺；我有轻重缓急、有专注，每天都会有心流的体验。

我在动中观察我的内心世界（动机、情绪、性格和思维）、更富有觉察，我的内在修为在长进。

我在这一年中，去了更多的地方；建立/治理/参与/进入了好社群，认识了更多五湖四海的好友。在旅行和生活中，我连接到 2016 年的 Amber——好奇、充满创造力、简单、快乐。

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

Specialization is for insects.

生而为人，应该能够换尿布、策划入侵、杀猪、开船、造房子、写十四行诗、算账、建墙、正骨、抚慰临终之人、接受命令、下达命令、合作、独行、解决方程式、分析新问题、清理马粪、编程、烹饪美食、高效战斗、英勇牺牲。

专业化是虫子的事。

My definition of “Life’s Work”: “A lifelong quest to build something for others that expresses who you are”

3 parts to the definition, all important…

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“A LIFELONG QUEST” reflects the reality that work isn’t about a series of accomplishments, which ultimately ring hollow. Asimov wrote “past glories are poor feeding.”

Those doing their life’s work agree with Kevin Kelly’s brilliant maxim: “the reward for good work is more work,” and want to spend as much time “working” as they can in this short life.

Everything worth doing is worth doing for its own sake.

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“TO BUILD SOMETHING FOR OTHERS” is a reminder that work is about service— making others’ lives better. The poet David Whyte wrote “the authentic watermark running through the background of a life’s work is an arrival at generosity.”

Steve Jobs believed this was a central idea, too: “Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call ‘life’ was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

The most important line I’ve ever read is from the Upanishads:

“Those who realize that all life is one are at home everywhere and see themselves in all beings…who shares food with the hungry protects me; Who shares not with them is consumed by me. I am this world and I consume this world. They who understand this understand life.”

The giving is the getting.

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“THAT EXPRESSES WHO YOU ARE” reminds us that it’s not sustainable to be something you aren’t. The best work comes from people expressing themselves in a way that embraces what makes them different.

“Apple was Steve Jobs with 10,000 lives.”

Joseph Campbell, who studied the human story more than anyone, believed this was the key question to ask: “what is it we are questing for? It is fulfillment of that which is potential in each of us. Questing for it is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world…”

Rumi wrote: “take off your mask, your face is glorious.”

There’s nothing like someone immersed in a field they love, no matter what the field.

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David Whyte again: “Ambition takes willpower and constant applications of energy to stay on a perceived bearing; but a serious vocational calling demands a constant attention to the unknown gravitational field that surrounds us and from which we recharge ourselves, as if breathing from the atmosphere of possibility itself.”

“A life’s work is not a series of stepping-stones, onto which we calmly place our feet, but more like an ocean crossing where there is no path, only a heading, a direction, in conversation with the elements.”

Jobs also said: “One of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there. And you never meet the people. You never shake their hands. You never hear their story or tell yours. But somehow, in the act of making something with a great deal of care and love, something’s transmitted there. And it’s a way of expressing to the rest of our species our deep appreciation.”

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Life’s work: a lifelong quest to build something for others that expresses who you are.

I sincerely hope that everyone reading this finds their life’s work, and thrives doing it.

是今年最打动我的文字之一，所以细细翻译了一下。

我对「生命之业」（Life’s Work）的定义：

终生追求为他人建造能表达你自己本质的东西（A lifelong quest to build something for others that expresses who you are）。

这个定义包含了三个重要部分：

「终身追求」

「生命之业」不仅仅是一连串成就的堆砌，成就终究是空洞的。正如阿西莫夫所说：

往昔的荣光，难充今日之粮。

那些在追求他们生命之业的人会同意凯文·凯利这个很有洞见的格言：

好工作的奖赏是更多的工作

并希望在这短暂的生命中尽可能多地「工作」。

一切值得做的事，都值得因其本身而做。

「为他人建造」

这提醒我们，工作是为了服务他人、让他人的生活更美好。诗人大卫·怀特（David Whyte）写道：

生命之业的验真水印，乃是达至慷慨之境。

史蒂夫·乔布斯也认同这样一个核心观念：

一旦你发现一个简单的事实，那就是你周围的一切你称之为「生活」的东西都是由跟你一样聪明的人创造出来的，生活就变得更为广阔了。你可以改变它，你可以影响它，你可以建造你自己的东西为他人所用。一旦你明白了这一点，你将再也不一样了。

我所读过的最重要的一句话来自于印度宗教哲学奥义书（Upanishads）：

那些认识到所有生命都为一体的人，无处不在家，见诸生灵皆见自我……与饥者共食者护我；不与之共食者为我所噬。我即是这个世界，我也消耗这个世界。理解这一点的人，就理解了生命。

施予即是获得。

「表达你自我本质」

这是想要做个提醒，做不真实的自己不是可持续的。最好的工作来自于人们以拥抱差异的方式表达自我。

苹果就是拥有万千次生命的乔布斯。

对人类的英雄史诗研究最深的约瑟夫·坎贝尔，相信最关键的是：

我们究竟在追求什么？乃是各中潜能、圆满显化。此番追寻，并不只是自负的追求。而是一次冒险，将天赋之资，至臻完善，再回馈于世。

鲁米写道：

摘下面具，你的面庞是多么光辉。

没有什么能比得上一个人沉浸在他所热爱的领域中，无论那个领域是什么。

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大卫·怀特还说过：

对于「目标」或「成就」的雄心需要意志力和持续的能量投入来保持在一个预期的轨道上；但是对真正的职业使命则需要不断关注围绕我们的无形引力场，从中我们汲取能量，就像从可能性的大气中呼吸一样。

怀特继续说：

生命之业不是一系列我们轻松踏上的踏脚石，而更像是一次海洋穿越，那里没有明确路径，只有一个大致的航向，和同大自然元素进行对话的过程。

乔布斯也说：

我相信人们向整个人类表达他们的感激之情的一种方式就是创造出美好的东西并将其传播出去。你永远不会见到那些人。你永远不会和他们握手。你永远不会听到他们的故事或者讲述你自己的故事。但是不知何故，在用心和爱制造出一些东西的过程中，一种东西被传递了出去。这是向我们整个物种表达我们深深的感激之情的一种方式。

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生命之业：终生追求为他人建造表达你自我本质的东西。

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.

A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

没有人把这些告诉初学者，真希望当初有人告诉过我。我们所有从事创意工作的人，都是因为品味好才入行的。然而有一道裂缝横亘在那里。在最初的几年里，你做的东西说实话不太好——它在努力变好，它有潜力，但就是还差那么一口气。而你的品味——那个把你领进门的东西——依然锋利如初。也正是你的品味，让你对自己的作品感到失望。

很多人就卡在这里，再也过不去，于是放弃了。我认识的大多数做出有趣创意工作的人，都在这个阶段里熬了好几年。我们清楚地知道自己的作品缺那种我们渴望的特质——所有人都经历过这个。如果你刚刚起步，或者还在这个阶段里，你得知道：这是正常的。你现在能做的最重要的事，就是大量地去做。给自己设截止日期，每周完成一个故事。只有积累足够多的量，你才能弥合那道裂缝，让作品配得上你的野心。要弄明白这件事，我花的时间比我认识的任何人都长。这需要一段时间。花时间是正常的。你只管咬牙冲过去。

Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—

God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.

你好，孩子们。欢迎来到地球。这里夏天炎热，冬天寒冷。它是圆的，是湿的，是拥挤的。孩子们，你们在这里，最多大概有一百年。我所知道的只有一条规则，孩子们——

他妈的，你们必须善良。