1 . With so many investments required of us to succeed - time, resources, talents, responsibilities, even finances for our retirement - it’s easy to lose sight of the most difficult investment of all to commit to : ourselves.

Getting to the point where you’re ready to start upgrading to you 2.0 isn’t easy. But it doesn’t mean dropping the ball everywhere else. It’s not about omissions, but admissions. Come clean with yourself to kick-start your personal growth.

Unstuck starts with “u”

No one purposely chooses to stop learning and growing again, it just kind of happens in a lot of daily responsibilities and life. And if it were easy to just kick it into gear（ 档 位 ）again, you would have already done it. But the truth is inescapable. If you want to get off that place to higher ground, it’s up to you and only you. No one will just hand you a steady stream of opportunities for growth.

You’ve been working in your life, not on it

Activity is often confused with acceleration（忙碌）. I was guilty of this for years in working place - staying always busy but not admitting I was bored. I was lost in activity and not steeping back to take time to question what I wanted my life to be. Once I began working on my life - quitting corporate, becoming an entrepreneur, restructuring to my life - I started growing once again. And I’ve never been happier.

Things aren’t happening to you, they’re happening for you

A victim mentality（心态）is the enemy of personal growth. Lamenting over everything that has gone wrong in your life only wastes energy from working to make more things go right. If you want to kick-start growth, you must view setbacks as having a purpose, and then put them in their place. The past shouldn’t run or define you - only fuel you.

The perfect time to start doesn’t exist

I had so many things that had to be just right before I could make my long-planned leap from corporate. I’d tell myself, “I’d love to go for it right now, but practically speaking.” Well, guess what? Practicality is poison. It’s the convenient excuse stopping you from what you’re meant to become.

It’s time to unplug others’ opinions

Grow where you want to grow. Learn what you want to learn. Wherever you are on the scale of hat you want to learn next - be it beginner or near - expert own it, be proud of it. Pretenses are for pretenders. You’re just trying to become a better version of your genuine self.

Sincerely,

Li Hua

3 . You can get a clear picture about Deep Work by Cal Newport in 5 minutes. Deep Work tells us professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive (认知的) capabilıties to their limit. These efforts create new value and improve your skill. The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who develop the skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive (蓬勃发展)

The book tells us the core abilities for thriving in the new economy, which are the ability to quickly master hard things, the ability to produce a high level, in terms of both quality and speed. If you can’t learn, you can’t thrive. If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive- no matter how skilled or talented you are. If you haven’t mastered deep work, you’ll struggle to learn hard things. To learn hard things quickly, you must focus intensely without distraction.

The key to developing a deep work habit is to move beyond good intentions and add routines and habits to your working life designed to minimize a state of unbroken concentration. To master the art of deep work, therefore, you must take back control of your time and attention from the many entertainments on the Internet that attempt to steal them. Adopt a tool only if its positive impacts on these factors substantially outweigh its negative impacts. It’s crucial that you figure out in advance what you’re going to do with your evenings and weekends before they begin.

In the end of Deep Work, we can know that the ability to-concentrate is a skill that gets valuable things done. If you’re struggling to use your mind to its fullest capacity to create things that matter, then you’ll discover, as others have before you, that depth generates a life rich with productivity and meaning.

6 . There is something to be said for being a generalist, even if you are a specialist. Knowing a little about a lot of things that interest you can add to the richness of a whole, well-lived life.

Society pushes us to specialize, to become experts. This requires commitment to a particular occupation, branch of study or research. The drawback to being specialists is we often come to know more and more about less and less. There is a great deal of pressure to master one's field. You may pursue training, degrees, or increasing levels of responsibility at work. Then you discover the pressure of having to keep up.

Some people seem willing to work around the clock in their narrow specialty. But such commitment can also weaken a sense of freedom. These specialists could work at the office until ten each night, then look back and realize they would have loved to have gone home and enjoyed the sweetness of their family and friends, or traveled to exciting places, meeting interesting people. Mastering one thing to the exclusion of others can hold back your true spirit.

Generalists, on the other hand, know a lot about a wide range of subjects and view the whole with all its connections. They are people of ability, talent, and enthusiasm who can bring their broad perspective (视角) into specific fields of expertise (专长). The doctor who is also a poet and philosopher is a superior doctor, one who can give so much more to his patients than just good medical skills.

Things are connected. Let your expertise in one field fuel your passions in all related areas. Some of your interests may not appear to be connected but, once you explore their depths, you discover that they are. My editor Toni, who is also a writer, has edited several history books. She has decided to study Chinese history. Fascinated by the structural beauty of the Forbidden City as a painter, she is equally interested to learn more about Chinese philosophy. “I don't know where it will lead, but I'm excited I'm on this pursuit.”

These expansions into new worlds help us by giving us new perspectives. We begin to see the interconnectedness of one thing to another in all aspects of our life, of ourselves and the universe. Develop broad, general knowledge and experience. The universe is all yours to explore and enjoy.

Tene Konate takes pride in telling relatives about her job driving a 72-ton truck at the Hounde gold mine in western Burkina Faso. She is one of 111 women at the mine     1     (teach) for jobs like moving rocks, or     2     (drive) heavy vehicles which are more traditionally done by men in West Africa. They remain firmly in the minority, however, with women making up just 11 percent of     3     workforce at Hounde which is run by Canada's Endeavour Mining. Konate had struggled to provide for her two young daughters. This     4     (eventual) led her to the mining industry and she acknowledged the mine had changed everything in her life since she worked at Hounde. Konate now lives in a large house in Hounde and can pay for her daughters’ schooling. In the beginning, the mother     5     (train) on how to operate trucks     6     wheels are so large that drivers must climb a ladder (梯子) to get into the cabin. Konate said that the work was tiring     7     she liked it very much. She encourages those around her     8     (forget) gender (性别) and judge colleagues by the quality     9     their work. “As I always say to my     10     (operator), as soon as you cross that gate, we are no longer women. We have become men, because we do the same job.”

9 . Thousands of college students have part-time jobs and nobody wants to become a slave to graduation debt.    1     If you are one of those people,here are some small business ideas for you to try out.

●Tutoring

Make use of your strong understanding of a specific subject and become a tutor.    2     All you need to do is log in,sign up,and specify the subjects you’re good at,and the employer will match you with students.You can work online with learners from middle school to college level.

●Blogging

If you wouldn’t mind sharing your knowledge or life with other people,then this option is right for you.You can earn some cash by starting a blog.To make your blog a money-making machine,you need to gain much blog traffic.    3     If you succeed in getting a lot of subscribers,you’ll start making cash quickly.

●Residential and Commercial Cleaning Services

Every business aims to satisfy a particular need of their customers.    4     Before moving into a new place,people usually hire a house cleaner to tidy it up.Some people are just too busy to clean their homes or offices themselves.So,they use cleaning services.This is money waiting to be made.

●Graphic Design

    5     If you’re a student majoring in art,design or a relative field,you can start a small design business that can provide such service.The quality of your products and design will determine the number of customers that will run after you.If you become successful in gaining a lot of returning customers,you might even make this your full time business after college.