六个秘诀让你事事成功

I'vebeen playing tennis for nearly five decades. I love the game and I hitthe ball well, but I'm far from the player I wish I were.

我已经打了50几年网球了，我热爱这项运动也打得很不错，但我离自己的期望还很远。

I'vebeen thinking about this a lot the past couple of weeks, because I'vetaken the opportunity, for the first time in many years, to play tennisnearly every day. My game has gotten progressively stronger. I've had anumber of rapturous moments during which I've played like the player Ilong to be.

这几周，我一直在想这件事，因为从最近开始我终于有机会能够每天打网球了，我的球也打得越来越猛。最近像以前一样打球的时候，有几次我觉得自己已为此而痴迷。

Andalmost certainly could be, even though I'm 58 years old. Untilrecently, I never believed that was possible. For most of my adult life,I've accepted the incredibly durable myth that some people are bornwith special talents and gifts, and that the potential to truly excel inany given pursuit is largely determined by our genetic inheritance.

虽然我已经58了，但最近我发现，我确实为网球而痴狂，我以前从来没有这么想过。在我成年以后，我也认同了一直以来广泛存在的一种想法：有些人有与生俱来的天赋， 而很多时候你无法成功绝大部分是取决于你的遗传基因。

Duringthe past year, I've read no fewer than five books — and a raft ofscientific research — which powerfully challenge that assumption (seebelow for a list). I've also written one, The Way We're Working Isn'tWorking, which lays out a guide, grounded in the science of highperformance, to systematically building your capacity physically,emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

在过去的几年里，我读到不下五本书还有很多研究报告（请看文后的附录），都反驳了这一观点。我也写了一篇文章——我们的努力用错了方法，里面说到了一些方法，从高效工作法到对提高身体，精神和情绪的工作效率的一些系统的方法。

We'vefound, in our work with executives at dozens of organizations, thatit's possible to build any given skill or capacity in the samesystematic way we do a muscle: push past your comfort zone, and thenrest. Aristotle Will Durant*, commenting on Aristotle, pointed out thatthe philosopher had it exactly right 2000 years ago: "We are what werepeatedly do." By relying on highly specific practices, we've seen ourclients dramatically improve skills ranging from empathy, to focus, tocreativity, to summoning positive emotions, to deeply relaxing.

我们发现，在我们与各个单位组织的领导一同工作时，我们运用技术和自身能力的模式，和我们的肌肉锻炼的模式相似：首先超出你感到舒适的界限，然后再休息调整。威尔·杜兰特在对亚里士多德的哲学思想做的评论中指出：“我之所为既为我。”可见，早在2000年前，哲学家就认同了这一观点。参加我们的培训的一些人通过一些特定的训练，他们从集中力，理解力，创造力这些方面，到营造积极情绪，深沉地放松等很多方面的能力都有了很大的改善。

Likeeveryone who studies performance, I'm indebted to the extraordinaryAnders Ericsson, arguably the world's leading researcher into highperformance. For more than two decades, Ericsson has been making thecase that it's not inherited talent which determines how good we becomeat something, but rather how hard we're willing to work — something hecalls "deliberate practice." Numerous researchers now agree that 10,000hours of such practice as the minimum necessary to achieve expertise inany complex domain.

我和那些参加培训的人一样都很感谢安德斯·爱立信，他也许可以被称作是世界上首屈一指的效率学家之一了。近二十年来，爱立信一直在做效率方面的研究，他认为我们的表现并不是由遗传而来的天赋所决定的，而取决于我们自身的努力和决心，他称之为“自主学习”。很多研究人员也认为在任何领域，1万小时的“自主学习”能造就一名专家。

Thereis something wonderfully empowering about this. It suggests we haveremarkable capacity to influence our own outcomes. But that's alsodaunting. One of Ericsson's central findings is that practice is notonly the most important ingredient in achieving excellence, but also themost difficult and the least intrinsically enjoyable.

这是多么美妙而鼓舞人心的事啊，这让我们有理由相信自己有能力成就大事。但这同时，这也有可能令人气馁。在爱立信的主要的发现外，他还发现这种学习不仅是成功要素，同时也是最难做到，最没有乐趣的事。

Ifyou want to be really good at something, it's going to involverelentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, along with frustration,struggle, setbacks and failures. That's true as long as you want tocontinue to improve, or even maintain a high level of excellence. Thereward is that being really good at something you've earned through yourown hard work can be immensely satisfying.

如果你想在某件事上成功，那么你肯定不能安逸闲适地生活，而是饱受挫折，在痛苦与失败中挣扎着努力着。如果你想要更上一层楼或者是保持一流水平，那么这些苦难是你必须克服的。因你的艰苦奋斗而取得的那些成就将带给你无尽的满足感。

Here, then, are the six keys to achieving excellence we've found are most effective for our clients:

接下来，我将我们为学员而研究出的最有效用的六条成功秘诀分享给大家：

1.    Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.

        1.追求心之所爱。你的激情和热爱是最好的动力，让你能更专心，更好的适应环境，并坚持不懈。

2.    Dothe hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure andaway from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found,delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in themornings, before they do anything else. That's when most of us have themost energy and the fewest distractions.

2.先做最困难的事。人总是趋乐避苦的，而爱立信和其他研究人员发现，要做到最好一定要将享受放在吃苦之后，把最难的事放在早上什么事情都还没做以前做，这个时侯我们会投入所有的精力而不会分心。

3.    Practiceintensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be the maximumamount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any givenactivity. The evidence is equally strong that great performers practiceno more than 4 ½ hours a day.

3.学习不能断断续续，好好的工作学习整整90分钟不间断，然后再小歇一会。90分钟是人能集中心力的极限，类似的，人能发挥巅峰状态的时间一天不会超过4个半小时。

4.    Seekexpert feedback, in intermittent doses. The simpler and more precisethe feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too muchfeedback, too continuously, however, can create cognitive overload,increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.

4.在不断努力的过程中，向专家求得反馈，这种反馈越简单精炼，你就越能据此而不断调整自己的学习。而持续不断的反馈，或指导的太多，反而会让你的认知超负荷，加重你的负担，扰乱你的方寸。

5.    Takeregular renewal breaks. Relaxing after intense effort not only providesan opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embedlearning. It's also during rest that the right hemisphere becomes moredominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs.

5.定时休息一下，刷新一下。在紧张持续的努力之后，休息一下，不仅给了你一个焕然一新的机会，还能让你在学习的过程中进行一番“新陈代谢”。在放松身心的过程中，休息的环境十分的重要，好的环境能激发创造性的突破。

6.    Ritualizepractice. Will and discipline are wildly overrated. As the researcherRoy Baumeister has found, none of us have very much of it. The best wayto insure you'll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them — buildspecific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time youdo them without having to squander energy thinking about them.

        6.形式化的练习。意志和纪律一直都被过度重视，就像瑞·鲍迈斯特在研究中发现的，很少有人能拥有超强的意志和严酷的自律。能保证自己完成艰难任务的最好方法是让你的学习变得形式化。拿出特定的不可挪用的时间去做这些工作，这样经过一段时间你在做这件事的时候就不会为了其他事分心了。

Ihave practiced tennis deliberately over the years, but never for theseveral hours a day required to achieve a truly high level ofexcellence. What's changed is that I don't berate myself any longer forfalling short. I know exactly what it would take to get to that level.

我练习网球是很多年一直以来的努力，而不是在一天里练很长时间就能达到一个很好的水平的。而现在即使稍有退步，我也不会自责不已，我知道我只要适当的努力还能达到原来的水平。

I'vegot too many other higher priorities to give tennis that attentionright now. But I find it incredibly exciting to know that I'm stillcapable of getting far better at tennis — or at anything else — and soare you.

我现在除了打网球以外有太多事要做，但是我很开心地认识到自己在网球上还有很长的路要走，在其他的事情上也是这样。