The year end is coming, before we move on to the new year, it’s high time for all of us to do a review for the year. To me, doing this annual review is like getting a report card. It’s no different with my annual review – except these results aren’t for my studies – they’re bigger. They’re for my life.

　　时间转瞬到年底，在我们步入新的一年之前，我们所有人都应该对这一年做个回顾总结。对于我来说，年终总结就算是拿成绩单。年终总结和成绩单一样，只不过收获的并不是学习成绩，它们更重要，是关于我的人生的总结。

Importance of Year End Reviews

年终总结的重要性

　　So why is it important to do a year end review? There are 4 simple reasons:

　　年终总结为什么这么重要？有这样四个简单的理由：

　　1. Draw lessons from the year

　　从一年中吸取经验教训

　　What have you experienced this year? What have you learned from them? With every experience we face, there are important things to learn. We can either let these incidences pass us by, or we can stop to understand, internalize them, and draw lessons from them. Life is your school, and the lessons are dressed up as your everyday incidences. You don’t want to be living year after year without learning from your experiences. That’s just sleepwalking your life away.

　　2011这一年，你经历了些什么？从中你又学到了些什么？我们面对的每一次经历，都有一些重要的东西值得学习，我们可能会让发生的这些事情就从我们的生命中匆匆而过，或者我们也可以选择停下来，理解并消化这些经历，从中学到经验教训。生活就是你的学校，这些经验教训会假扮成每天的琐事。你也不想年复一年只是过生活，却从不从经历中学到些什么吧，那样的话，你只是在梦游度日。

　　There are a lot of lessons which I learn every year. Looking back at my review for 2007, one of the biggest lessons I learned is that our reactions to life’s situations is a choice, and it’s up to how we make out of situations we encounter. This realization came after a highly intense period at my job. At that time I was already a positive person, but the situation was so out of control that it really made me negative. It was after a short period of feeling miserable that I realized that the reality was such and it was up to me to make the best out of it. I could either sit and bitch about it which would do absolutely nothing to change the situation, or I could take action and make the best out of it. This small shift in my mindset created a big shift in my reality – it made me a lot more proactive and solution-oriented. It made me realize that many of us generate unnecessary baggage with negative situations in life, and it’s all about taking action to create the lives that we want. Happiness is truly a choice.

　　每年我都能学到很多。现在回头看看我2007年的总结，我学到的最重要的一课是我们对生活环境的反应是一种选择，取决于我们如何解决遇到的情况。这种感悟是在我的工作经历了一段高度紧张的阶段之后得出的。其实那时候我是个很积极向上的人，但是当时的情况完全不在我的掌控下，让我也变得消极了。有那么一小段时间，我觉得很痛苦，然后我就意识到，生活就是这样，如何做到最好取决于我自己，我可以选择干坐在那里抱怨牢骚，但这根本对改变现状一点帮助都不起；我也可以选择采取行动做到最好。这样简单的心态转变使我的生活出现了很大的改变：我变得更加主动，积极选择解决问题的方法。这也让我意识到，我们许多人在遇到不利状况时，总是背负了太多不必要的包袱，只要采取行动，我们就能创造想要的生活。幸福快乐其实只是个选择。

　　Because I would write down lessons I learned each time (in my life handbook)， I could then build upon my learnings. Rather than deja vuing through life situations, every time I would think about how I could apply what I had learned earlier and how I could do something different. As a result, I kept moving forward in my growth.

　　因为我每次都会记下学到的经验教训(在我的生活手册里)，所以我从所学中慢慢成长。每次总结后我都会想，下次遇到我会如何利用之前学到的改正错误，而不是一次次的重复犯错栽跟头。就这样，我在成长的路上一步步前进。

　　2. Wrap up what you’ve done this year

　　打包今年所做的事情

　　Many things can happen in a year and this is the perfect time to wrap them up. Were there any ups and downs? Did you get a promotion? Did you recently quit your job and joined a new workplace? Did you just start up a business? Did you move to a new place? Did you just end an unhappy relationship? Did you move on from a bad partnership? Any major events took place? Or perhaps there are nothing significant that happened?

　　每年都会发生许许多多的事情，现在就是你把之前的事情打包的最佳时机。生活中有一些起起落落？你升职了？最近刚辞职进入新的工作环境？刚开始创业？搬到新地方？刚结束一段不快乐的感情？走出了一段很糟的伙伴关系？发生了很多大事？也或许没什么重要的事情发生？

　　This is the time to wrap up the year. It’s time to let go of past baggage, tie up the loose ends, tidy up your feelings, and get ready for what’s ahead.

　　现在是该打包这一年了，也是时候放下这些过去的包袱，做一些收尾让工作有始有终，收拾起情绪，准备迎接即将到来的新一年。

　　3. Regain focus

　　重新找到重点

　　After working for a few years, you’d find that the years sort of just start to blend into each other. Soon it’s hard to tell one year apart from the next. Subsequently, it’s so easy to fall into a routine without being conscious of it. Sometimes I hear people commenting that they’re not sure what exactly they’ve been doing with the past few years of their lives, because everything just seems like the same.

　　工作了几年后你会发现，每年似乎开始有些混在一起的感觉，很难把它们区分开来。然后不知不觉，工作就很容易变成例行公事的老套路。有时候我会听到人们在说，不知道过去的几年具体都干了些什么，因为一切看起来都一样。

　　It’s just like driving. When you’re driving in a car, it can be hard to see where you are and where you’re heading to. On the other hand, pausing for a short moment to look at the map can be amazingly helpful. Where are you right now? How far have you traveled? Where do you want to go to? Doing so helps you to regain focus.

　　这就像开车一样。当你开车的时候，很难看出来你开到哪和要去哪。而另一方面，如果你停下来看看地图，你会发现超级有帮助。你现在正在哪儿？你走了有多远了？你想去哪儿？年终总结会帮你重新找到重点。

　　Like I mentioned above, doing my annual review is like getting the report card for my life. How do I grade myself for this year? Do I give myself an A+? A? B? C? D? or even F? This assessment reminds me if I have lived this year the way I had wanted to.

　　我之前提到过，写年终总结，就像拿成绩单一样。今年给自己打多少分？A+? A? B? C? D? 还是F? 这样的自我评估会提醒我，让我反思过去的一年是否是我想要的生活方式。

　　4. Start the next year on a high note

　　高起点开始下一年

　　Last but not least, your annual review will help you to start the next year on a high note. As I’m going to share later in the post, doing your review includes setting your goals for the next year. For this year 2011, my one single biggest goal was to build this blog. So this year, while other people were figuring out what to make out of their year, I was a person on a mission. By mid-year I had already exceeded some of my goals, and now that it’s the end of the year, I’ve accomplished what I had set out to do at the beginning, and more.

　　最后，年终总结会帮你从一个高起点开始下一年的工作和生活。正如我稍后要跟大家分享的，年终总结会包括你下一年的目标。2011年我的最大目标是建好这个博客，所以在这一年，当其他人还在找寻到底该干些什么的时候，我已经是一个有任务的人了。年中的时候我就已经超额完成目标，现在到年末，我已经完成了年初的目标，甚至做的更多。

Exercise: Write Your Year End Review for 2011

练习：写下你的2011年终总结

Let’s get started on your year end review for this year!

从今年开始写下你的年终总结吧！

　　Take out your life handbook, or if you don’t have your life handbook, take out any notebook or blank piece of paper. If you have a blog, you can copy the questions and answer them in your blog entry.

　　拿出生活手册，如果没有的话，就随便拿本笔记本或是张白纸。如果有博客，也可以把这些问题复制过去在你的博客里回答。

　　Set aside some quiet time with yourself, for 30-45 minutes or so. Now, write your answers to the following 6 questions:

　　给自己留出30到45分钟的安静时间，现在写下对这6个问题的回答：

　　1. What are your biggest accomplishments this year? (Accomplishments here refer to any results you are proud of)

　　今年你最大的收获是什么？(这里的收获指任何你感到骄傲的结果)

　　2. What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned this year?

　　今年最大的教训是什么？

　　3. On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with how you spent the year? (Or if you prefer giving grades, what grade would you give yourself for how this year turned out, between F- to A+?) Why?

　　如果让你从1到10给自己打分，今年你对自己的满意程度是几分？(如果你喜欢分等级的话，那么从F-到A+你今年表现怎么样呢？)为什么？

　　4. What do you want to accomplish next year, such that it’s your best year ever? Alternatively:

　　最想完成什么样的目标让明年成为最棒的一年？或者：

　　If it’s now Dec 31 of next year, what do you want to see in your life?

　　如果现在是2012年12月31日，你希望自己生活是怎样的？

　　What does it take to make you feel a 10/10 satisfaction level at the end of next year?

　　到明年年底，什么事情会让你对自己百分百满意？

　　5. What new habits to cultivate that will help you to achieve your goals in Q4?

　　为了实现第四个问题中的目标，你应该培养那些新习惯？

　　6. What are your immediate next steps to achieve these goals?

　　为了实现这些目标，下一步你马上会进行什么？

　　Take as much time as you need to write your review. These are the very same questions I use for my personal review every year, so I’ve no doubt that you’ll find them useful in yours.

　　写年终总结别着急，慢慢来。每年我都会拿这些问题来问自己，所以我肯定你们会发现这些问题很有用。

　　If you want, you can get started with questions 1-3 first, which are more reflection questions for the year. Spend a couple of days to think about them, before moving to questions 4-6, which are about the year ahead.

　　如果愿意的话，可以先从问题1到3开始，这些都是更值得思考的年终问题。花上几天时间想一想，然后再回答问题4到6，这些是关于你来年的计划。