1、THE RULES THAT EVERY ACHIEVER KNOWSIn October 1982, a 25-year-old woman finished the New York City Marathon. No big deal- until you learn that Linda Down has cerebral palsy and was the first woman ever to complete the 26.2-mile race on crutches. Down fell half a dozen times, but kept going until she
2、 crossed the finish line, 11 hours after she started. Her handicap limited her speed but not her determination. 1982 年 10 月，一位 25 岁的姑娘跑完了纽约市马拉松赛的全程。这没什么了不起可是当你了解到琳达道恩患有大脑性麻痹，是第一位拄着双拐跑完 26.2 英里的女子的时候，你就会改变想法了。道恩摔倒了五、六次，但仍坚持不懈，一直跑到终点。这时她已跑了 11 个小时。残疾限制了速度，但不能减弱她的决心。Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrot
3、e:“Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending.“How nice it would be if we all had a genie who could help us finish what we begin. Unfortunately, we dont. But what we do have is a dynamic called discipline-which extracts a high price. Following one of Paderewskis performances, a
4、fan said to him, “Id give my life to play like that.“ The brilliant pianist replied, “I did.“ 19 世纪美国著名诗人亨利瓦兹沃思朗费罗曾写道：“善始固然伟大，善终更为伟大。”如果能有一位神灵帮助我们去完成业已开始的事情，那该多好呀 ! 只可惜，我们没有。但是，我们却拥有一种叫做自律的动力它要求我们付出很高的代价。听完帕德雷夫斯基的演奏，一位音乐迷对他说：“要是能弹得象您这样，我宁愿付出整个生命。”这位卓越的钢琴家答道：“我已经付出过了。”Accomplishment is often deceptiv
5、e because we dont see the pain and perseverance that produced it. So we may credit the achiever with brains, brawn or lucky break, and let ourselves off the hook because we fall short in all three. Not that we could all be concert pianists just by exercising enough discipline. Rather, each of us has
6、 the making of success in some endeavor, but we will achieve this only if we apply our wills and work at it.How can we acquire stick-to-itiveness? There is no simple, fast formula. But I have developed a way of thinking that has rescued my own vacillating will more than once. Here are the basic elem
7、ents: 成就常常有误导作用，因为它会使我们看不到成功背后的艰难困苦和坚韧不拔的精神。于是我们常会把别人的成就归功于人家脑子灵，身体壮或者运气好，而以我们不具备这三个条件为自己开脱。不是说我们只要严格要求自己就都能成为独奏钢琴家；而是说我们每个人都具备在某一方面取得成功的基本条件，不过只有下决心，坚持不懈才能达到目标。怎样才能做到坚持不懈呢? 简单快捷的公式是没有的。但我已总结出一套思想方法，使我不止一次地克服了意志动摇的毛病。其要点如下：“Wont“ power. This is as important as will power. The ancient Chinese philoso
8、pher Mencius said, “Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do.“ “不为”的毅力。“不为”与“有为”同等重要。中国古代哲学家孟子说过：“人有不为也，而后可以有为。”Discipline means choices. Every time you say yes to a goal or objective, you say no to many more. Every prize has its
9、 price. The prize is the yes; the price is the no. Igor Gorin, the noted Ukrainian-American baritone, told of his early days studying voice. He loved to smoke a pipe, but one day his professor said,“ Igor, you will have to make up your mind whether you are going to be a great singer, or a great pipe
10、smoker. You cannot be both. “ So the pipe went. 自律就意味着有取有舍。每当你选定了一个目标，也就同时放弃了其他许多目标。每项成绩的获得都有它的代价。成绩来自你的所取，代价就是你的所舍。著名乌克兰裔美国男中音歌唱家伊戈尔戈林曾谈起他早年学声乐的事。他喜欢抽烟，可是一天教授对他说：“伊戈尔，你得下决心，要么做个大歌唱家，要么做个大烟鬼。两者不可兼得。”于是，他舍弃了烟斗。Delayed gratification. M. Scott Peck, M.D., author of the best-seller the Road less Travele
11、d, describes this tool of discipline as “a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with.“ 先苦后甜。医学博士 M 斯科特佩克写了一本题为较少有人走过的路的畅销书。他把这种自律的方法描述为“对生活中苦与乐的一种安排：先去吃苦，苦尽甜来，欢乐倍增。”This may involve
12、 routine daily decisions-something as simple as skipping a favorite late-night TV show and getting to bed early, to be wide awake for a meeting the next morning. Or it might involve longer-term resolves. A young widow with three children decided to invest her insurance settlement in a college educat
13、ion for herself. She considered the realities of a tight budget and little free time, but these seemed small sacrifices in return for the doors that a degree would open. Today she is a highly paid financial consultant. 这可能只涉及日常小事的安排.比如这么一个简单的决定:你爱看的电视节目很晚才能 演,为了次日上午开会头脑清醒,只好早点上床睡觉.也许会涉及较为长期的目标.一位带 着
14、三个孩子的年轻寡妇决定用保险金去上大学. 她考虑过经济拮据, 时间紧张这些现实问题, 但较之学位将为她开启的扇扇大门, 这些只是小小的牺牲而已. 如今她已是一位收入颇丰的 金融顾问了The secret of such commitment is getting past the drudgery and seeing the delight. “The fact is that many worthwhile endeavors arent fun,“ says one syndicated radio and TV commentator. “True, all work and no p
15、lay makes Johnny a dull boy. But trying to turn everything we do into play makes for terrible frustration, because life - even the most rewarding one - includes circumstances that arent fun at all. I like my job as a journalist. Its personally satisfying, but it isnt always fun.“ 做出这种抉择的诀窍在于,要越过艰辛看到欢乐. “实际上,许多值得为之一搏的事并 没有什么乐趣, “一位为多家电台和电视台撰稿的评论家说道, “确实,只会工作不会玩儿, 约翰变成笨小孩儿. “ 然而,把我们做的每件工作都当成愉快的游戏,就会招致悲惨的失 败,因为生活,即便是最富成果的生活,也有全然没有乐趣的时候.我喜欢我的记者工作, 它让我感到满足,但也并非总是趣味盎然的.
