Your Most Important Choices
你最重要的选择
As I mentioned, as we head toward our goals we encounter an enormous number of choices that come at us, and each decision we make has consequences. So, the quality of our lives depends on the quality of the decisions we make. We literally make millions of decisions that add up to the consequences that are our lives.
我说过，在实现目标的过程中，会遇到大量选择，而我们所做的每一个决定都会产生结果，生活质量取决于我们所作决定的质量。我们大概会做出几百万次决定，最终的累加构成了我们的人生。
Of these millions, I believe that there are five big types of choices that we continually must make that radically affect the quality of our lives and the rates at which we move toward what we want. Choosing well is not dependent on our innate abilities such as intelligence or creativity, but more on what I think of as character. For this reason, I believe that most people can make the right choices.
这几百万次我们一直在做的，深刻影响生活质量与实现目标速度的选择，主要有五大类。选对与否不是取决于我们天生的智慧或创造力，而是取决于我们的性格，所以我认为大多数人都能做出正确的选择。
The following five decision trees show these choices. I believe that those who don’t move effectively to their goals do the things on the top branches, and those who do move to them most quickly do the things on the bottom branches.
下面五大“决策树”展现了不同的选择。实现梦想的征途上，不能高效到达目标的人会选上分支的选项，高效到达目标的人会选下分支的选项。
First:
第一个选择：
It is a fundamental law of nature that to evolve one has to push one’s limits, which is painful, in order to gain strength—whether it’s in the form of lifting weights, facing problems head-on, or in any other way. Nature gave us pain as a messaging device to tell us that we are approaching, or that we have exceeded, our limits in some way. At the same time, nature made the process of getting stronger require us to push our limits. Gaining strength is the adaptation process of the body and the mind to encountering one’s limits, which is painful. In other words, both pain and strength typically result from encountering one’s barriers. When we encounter pain, we are at an important juncture in our decision-making process.
大自然的一条根本定律是，要想进化，就要突破极限，承受痛苦，方能获得成长，举重也好， 直面难题也好，都不外乎如此。大自然赋予我们痛苦，其实是让我们感受到离目标越来越近， 或已在某方面超越了自己的极限。同时，大自然中物种变得强大的过程也要求突破极限。获得成长是身心适应环境，了解自身极限的痛苦过程，换句话说，痛苦与成长都是克服自身障碍的过程，当我们感到痛苦之时，我们其实是处于做出抉择的重要分叉口。
Most people react to pain badly. They have “fight or flight” reactions to it: they either strike out at whatever brought them the pain or they try to run away from it. As a result, they don’t learn to find ways around their barriers, so they encounter them over and over again and make little or no progress toward what they want.
大多数人对疼痛反应激烈，采取“战斗或逃避”的法子，要么奋起反抗给他们带来痛苦的东西，要么就想逃之夭夭，结果呢，终究没能解决这些障碍，这也决定了他们将会一次又一次遇到这些困难，在达成目标这事上没能取得很好的进展。
There are literally two different parts of each person’s brain that influence these reactions: the pre-frontal cortex and the amygdala. They work as though they were two different brains that fight for control of decision-making. The prefrontal cortex is the logical part of the brain that evaluates choices logically and the amygdala is the “animal instinct” part of the brain that triggers emotional reactions like the instinct to fight or flee. When faced with an obstacle or threat, an emotional reaction (e.g. pain) can be triggered that can lead to a fight or flight reaction that “hijacks” decision making away from the pre-frontal cortex, where the rational choices are being made. This can result in our making decisions that produce consequences that we do not want. This typically causes really big problems.
人体大脑有两个部分会影响这类反应：前额叶皮层和杏仁体。它们就像两个不同的大脑，相互斗争想控制决策行为。前额叶皮层是大脑的逻辑组织，从逻辑上评估各种选项，杏仁体是大脑 “动物天性”部分，会引起诸如战斗或逃跑这样的情绪反应。面对障碍或威胁，情绪反应导致的行为会将做理性决策的行为能力从前额叶皮层那里抢过来，这样会导致不是我们想要的行为结果。那后果还挺严重的。
Those who react well to pain that stands in the way of getting to their goals— those who understand what is causing it and how to deal with it so that it can be disposed of as a barrier—gain strength and satisfaction. This is because most learning comes from making mistakes, reflecting on the causes of the mistakes, and learning what to do differently in the future. Believe it or not, you are lucky to feel the pain if you approach it correctly, because it will signal that you need to find solutions and to progress. Since the only way you are going to find solutions to painful problems is by thinking deeply about them—i.e., reflecting — if you can develop a knee-jerk reaction to pain that is to reflect rather than to fight or flee, it will lead to your rapid learning/evolving.
那些致力于达成目标的人，就能够很好地应对痛苦，从而获得力量和满足感，因为他们能明白是什么原因造成的，明白怎样应对，最终能清除掉这些人生路障。这是因为人是在犯错中学习、反思错误的根源，并学会如何在未来有不同的做法。不管你信不信，如果处理得当的话，遭受痛苦是件幸事，这表明你需要找到解决方案并取得进展。因为，要想解决这些令人痛苦的问题，唯一的法子就是深入思考，或者说是，反思。如果如果膝跳反应一般，对疼痛建立的的反应是反思， 而不是反抗或逃避，就可以快速学习和成长了。
Your very unique power of reflectiveness—i.e., your ability to look at yourself, the world around you, and the relationship between you and the world—means that you can think deeply and weigh subtle things to come up with learning and wise choices. Asking other believable people about the root causes of your pain in order to enhance your reflections is also typically very helpful— especially others who have opposing views and who share your interest in finding the truth rather than being proven right.
因为你拥有一项独特的能力，即反思的能力，能审视自己、周围的世界和你与世界的关系。因此你能够深入思考，对细节进行考量，从而有所收获，做出明智的选择。让值得信赖的人告诉你那些痛苦的根源，来提升自己反思的质量，是非常有用的。尤其当对方与你观点相对立，或与你一样乐于去寻找真相，而不是只想证明自己是对的。
If you can reflect deeply about your problems, they almost always shrink or disappear, because you almost always find a better way of dealing with them than if you don’t face them head on. The more difficult the problem, the more important it is that you think hard about it and deal with it. After seeing how effectively facing reality—especially your problems, mistakes and weaknesses— works, I believe you will become comfortable with it and won’t want to operate any other way.
如果你能深刻反思自己的问题，这些问题基本都会减少或消失。因为比起躲避这些问题，你几乎总是能找到一种更好的解决方法。问题越难，越需要你认真思考并解决它。当你看到自己能有效面对现实，尤其是面对那些问题、错误和缺点时，我相信你就会从容应对，到时候都不会想用其他方法去处理了。
So, please remember that:
所以，请记住：
Pain + Reflection = Progress
痛苦+反思=进步
How big of an impediment is psychological pain to your progress?
心理上的疼痛对你的进步有多大的影响？
通往成功之路上，困难阻碍对你的心灵能造成多大的痛苦呢？
原创文章，作者：创业百花谷，如若转载，请注明出处：https://www.liuwanlan.com/tools/1094
