双语阅读 | 毅力不长久，习惯才永恒
普通人与成功人士最大的区别不是缺少力量，也不是缺少知识，而是毅力不够。
——文斯．隆巴迪
作者|Steve Pavlina
译者|低头麦穗
源自|stevepavlina.com
原题|Self-Discipline: Willpower - Steve Pavlina
转自|译言
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
– Vince Lombardi
普通人与成功人士最大的区别不是缺少力量，也不是缺少知识，而是毅力不够。
——文斯．隆巴迪
Willpower — such a dirty word these days. How many commercials have you seen that attempt to position their products as a substitute for willpower? They begin by telling you that willpower doesn’t work and then attempt to sell you something “fast and easy” like a diet pill or some wacky exercise equipment. Often they’ll even guarantee impossible results in a dramatically short period of time — that’s a safe bet because people who lack willpower probably won’t take the time to return these useless products.
But guess what… willpower does work. But in order to take full advantage of it, you must learn what it can and cannot do. People who say willpower doesn’t work are trying to use it in a way that’s beyond its capabilities.
毅力，是现实期为人不齿的字眼。你遇到过多少经销商试图用他们的商品取缔毅力这二字？ 一开始他们会告诉你，毅力这玩意根本没用，然后开始对你洗脑式的阐述产品，可快速且轻松地帮助你，就像一片营养药片或者某种人体被动运动器材。他们惯用的说辞就是可在短时间内达到意想不到的结果，之所以如此没有后顾之忧，很可能是因为人们缺少毅力，不愿再花时间重复用这些无用的产品。
然而猜一下，到底要多有毅力才会奏效？利用好毅力的前提是你要对毅力了如指掌。说毅力无用论的人都是在做超过自己能力范围的事。
What Is Willpower?
Willpower is your ability to set a course of action and say, “Engage!”
Willpower provides an intensely powerful yet temporary boost. Think of it as a one-shot thruster. It burns out quickly, but if directed intelligently, it can provide the burst you need to overcome inertia and create momentum.
Willpower is the spearhead of self-discipline. To use a World War II analogy, willpower would be D-Day, the Normandy Invasion. It was the gigantic battle that turned the tide of the war and got things moving in a new direction, even though it took another year to reach VE Day (Victory in Europe). To make that kind of effort every day of the war would have been impossible.
何为毅力？
毅力是一种能力，让人在行动时自我鼓励。
毅力，给人强有力的支持，并非暂时的支援。毅力如同一发推动器，迅速燃尽；若目标明确，它所爆发出的力量足以助你战胜惰性，创造新动力。
毅力是自律的重中之重。借用二战时的一个比喻，毅力就是诺曼底登陆日——诺曼底入侵成功。这是一场大规模战争，掀起了战争的浪潮，虽然第二年欧洲获胜，但这场战争使整个态势朝着新的方向进发。
Willpower is a concentration of force. You gather up all your energy and make a massive thrust forward. You attack your problems strategically at their weakest points until they crack, allowing you enough room to maneuver deeper into their territory and finish them off.
The application of willpower includes the following steps:
Choose your objective
Create a plan of attack
Execute the plan
With willpower you may take your time implementing steps 1 and 2, but when you get to step 3, you’ve got to hit it hard and fast.
毅力本身自带极大力量。有了毅力，你能集中全部能量，为目标尽心竭力。为了突破自己的弱点，你能有计划、有策略去攻克己心，排除拦阻，最终完成目标。
如何运用毅力呢？
1、寻找目的；
2、做计划，攻克己身；
3、实施计划。
第一步和第二步可以花时间来完成，但想要完成第三步，就需要毫不拖延的付出很大代价。
Don’t try to tackle your problems and challenges in such a way that a high level of willpower is required every day. Willpower is unsustainable. If you attempt to use it for too long, you’ll burn out. It requires a level of energy that you can maintain only for a short period of time… in most cases the fuel is spent within a matter of days.
不要挑战高难度，毅力不足的人是没法成功的。毅力本身是不可持续的，实施计划若要靠毅力长久维持，你一定会崩溃。期间，你需要一定的能量维持住一小段时间，多数情况下，只能维持几天。
Use Willpower to Create Self-Sustaining Momentum
So if willpower can only be used in short, powerful bursts, then what’s the best way to apply it? How do you keep from slipping back into old patterns once the temporary willpower blast is over?
The best way to use willpower is to establish a beachhead, such that further progress can be made with far less effort than is required of the initial thrust. Remember D-Day — once the Allies had established a beachhead, the road ahead was much easier for them. It was still challenging to be sure, especially with the close quarters fighting among hedge rows in France before the Rhino Tanks began plowing through them, but it was a lot easier than trying to maintain the focus, energy, and coordination of a full scale beach invasion every single day for another year.
So the proper use of willpower is to establish that beachhead — to permanently change the territory itself such that it’s easier to continue moving on. Use willpower to reduce the ongoing need for such a high level of sustained force.
拥有自立能力
如果毅力只能在短期内奏效，那么运用毅力的最有效方式是什么？一旦毅力有效期过去了，如何避免后退？
答案是建一个滩头阵地，也就是下一步的进步要收力，不要再用一开始的势头猛发力。在电影《诺曼底登陆日》里，盟国建立的一个滩头阵地，接下来再往下走就容易多了。当然这肯定是个挑战，尤其是在法国树篱丛里正面交锋但是犀牛坦克还没有推进到的时候，但是这比起在一年里每天集中精力在这个沙滩上冲锋要简单得多。
所以想要适当运用毅力就得建立一个滩头阵地，变可永久地占领领土，这样前进会更容易，也可以避免长期很高的毅力消耗。
An Example
Let’s put all of the above together into a concrete example.
Suppose your objective is to lose 20 pounds. You attempt to go on a diet. It takes willpower, and you do OK with it the first week. But within a few weeks you’ve fallen back into old habits and gained all the weight back. You try again with different diets, but the result is still the same. You can’t sustain momentum for long enough to reach your goal weight.
That’s to be expected though because willpower is temporary. It’s for sprints, not marathons. Willpower requires conscious focus, and conscious focus is very draining — it cannot be maintained for long. Something will eventually distract you.
举个例子。
藉着一个例子来说明上述理论。
假设你的目标是减重20磅，你就会设法节食减肥。在第一周，你靠着毅力可以坚持下来。但接下来的几周里，你就现原形，在旧的饮食习惯里没有节制，体重又回到了解放前。然后呢，你又再次尝试不同方式节食，结果还是一样。想要减肥成功，你却没法长时间保持毅力在线。
虽然毅力是短暂的，但人们还是希望可以运用它。它就如同是短跑，不是马拉松。毅力需要有意识的集中精力，但这会逐渐消失，没法长久保持下去。总有一些事会让你分心。
Here’s how to tackle that same goal with the proper application of willpower. You accept that you can only apply a short burst of willpower… maybe a few days at best. After that it’s gone. So you’d better use that willpower to alter the territory around you in such a way that maintaining momentum won’t be as hard as building it in the first place. You need to use your willpower to establish a beachhead on the shores of your goal.
那么，下面就是合理运用毅力达到目标的方式。你要接受一件事，就是你只能在短时间内运用毅力，最好是几天。之后就不行了。所以呢，你最好维持住毅力的势头去改变你的工作计划，这样在第一步就不会太难了。为你的目标建立一个滩头阵地。
So you sit down and make a plan. This doesn’t require much energy, and you can spread the work out over many days.
You identify all the various targets you’ll need to strike if you want to have a chance of success. First, all the junk food needs to leave your kitchen, including anything you have a tendency to overeat, and you need to replace it with foods that will help you lose weight, like fruits and veggies. Secondly, you know you’ll be tempted to get fast food if you come home hungry and don’t have anything ready to eat, so you decide to pre-cook a week’s worth of food in advance each weekend. That way you always have something in the refrigerator. You set aside a block of several hours each weekend to buy groceries and cook all your food for the week. Plus you get a decent cookbook of healthy recipes. Create a weight chart and post it on your bathroom wall. Get a decent scale that can measure weight and body fat %. Make a list of sample meals (5 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and 5 dinners), and post it on your refrigerator. And so on…. At this point all of this goes into the written plan.
接下来就是静下心制定个计划。这不需要太大精力，花上几天时间都可以。
如果你想要成功，就得找寻目标。
首先，厨房里不能有快餐食品，包括那些让你饭后还胃口大开的食品；用其他有助于减肥的食物代替它们，比如：水果和蔬菜。
第二， 如果你饥肠辘辘的回到家，没有做好的饭菜，你很容易禁不住快餐的引诱。所以每周你都要花时间去购物，按照健康的食谱提前做好能吃的饭菜，这样你冰箱里就会有存货。做个体重图表，把它贴在浴室墙上，写上体重和体脂的范围。列出一份菜单样品（5份早餐、5份中餐、5份晚餐），贴在冰箱上。把这些都写在计划里面。
Then you execute — hard and fast. You can probably implement the whole plan in one day. Attend your first Weight Watchers meeting and get all the materials. Purge the unhealthy food from the kitchen. Buy the new groceries, the new cookbook, and the new scale. Post the weight chart and the sample meals list. Select recipes and cook a batch of food for the week. Whew!
第三，行动！不易但要速度。你可能会在一天之内写完整个计划，然后准备材料。把厨房里的不健康食物清理掉，买新的食材、健康的菜谱、重新设定减肥标准。贴上体重图表和菜单样品，挑选食谱，开始掌勺。
By the end of the day, you’ve used your willpower not to diet directly but to establish the conditions that will make your diet easier to follow. When you wake up the next morning, you’ll find your environment dramatically changed in accordance with your plan. Your fridge will be stocked with plenty of pre- cooked healthy food for you to eat. There won’t be any junkie problem foods in your home. You’ll be a member of Weight Watchers and will have weekly meetings to attend. You’ll have a regular block of time set aside for grocery shopping and food prep. It will still require some discipline to follow your diet, but you’ve already changed things so much that it won’t be nearly as difficult as it would be without these changes.
忙活了一天之后，虽然没有运用毅力去节食，但却做足了准备。第二天起床后，你会发现计划让你周围的环境发生了巨变。你的冰箱里存满了很多提前烹饪好的健康食物，你家里再没有任何有问题的快餐。你要设置一个时间表，严格遵守时间表的时间购物和提前烹饪。所以你得有足够的自律去遵守，习惯成自然，就不再难了。
Don’t use willpower to attack your biggest problem directly. Use willpower to attack the environmental and social obstacles that perpetuate the problem. Establish a beachhead first, and then fortify your position (i.e. turn it into a habit, such as by doing a 30-Day Challenge). Habit puts action on autopilot, such that very little willpower is required for ongoing progress, allowing you to practically coast towards your goal.
不要运用毅力直接解决你最困惑的难题，而是要针对致使问题存在的环境和社会障碍。先建立一个滩头阵地，加强自身能力，比如：形成一个习惯，30天挑战。然后习惯就像坐着自动驾驶机一样，不需要毅力就可以大踏步朝着目标迈进，最终达成目标。