6. Squash Your Negative Self-Talk

　　6. 捏碎你消极的自我对话

　　When you’re taking charge of your career, you won’t always have a cheerleader in your corner. This magnifies the effects of self-doubt. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that—thoughts, not facts. When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it’s time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what you’re doing and write down what you’re thinking. Once you’ve taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.

　　当你负责自己的事业时，不会总有一个拉拉队长在角落为你加油。这放大了自我怀疑的影响。你越是沉湎于消极的想法，他们就会越强大。我们大多数消极的想法都只是想法，并不是现实。当你发现自己相信内心深处消极悲观的声音时，是时候停止并把它们写下来了。停止你正在做的事，把你的想法写下来。一旦你用片刻的时间去减缓思想的消极势头，你就会更加理性、清醒地评估它们的真实性。

　　7. Avoid Asking “What If?”

　　7. 避免问“如果...将会怎样?”

　　“What if?” statements throw fuel on the fire of stress and worry, which are detrimental to reaching your goals. Things can go in a million different directions, and the more time you spend worrying about the possibilities, the less time you’ll spend taking action and staying productive. Asking “what if?” will only take you to a place you don’t want—or need—to go. Of course, scenario planning is a necessary and effective planning technique. The key distinction here is to recognize the difference between worry and strategic thinking about your future.

　　“如果...将会怎样?”语句无异于在压力和担忧的火上浇油，不利于达成你的目标。事情可能有成千上万种发展方向，你花费越多的时间去担心各种可能性，采取行动和保持高效工作的时间就越少。问“如果...将会怎样?”只会把你带到自己不想去或没有必要去的地方。当然，情景规划是必要且有效的规划技术。区别的关键是意识到担心和思考未来战略之间的不同。

　　8. Schedule Exercise And Sleep

　　8. 安排好运动和睡眠

　　I can’t say enough about the importance of quality sleep. When you sleep your brain removes toxic proteins from its neurons that are by-products of neural activity when you’re awake. Unfortunately, your brain can remove them adequately only while you’re asleep. So when you don’t get enough sleep, the toxic proteins remain in your brain cells, wreaking havoc by impairing your ability to think—something no amount of caffeine can fix.

　　充足的睡眠是非常重要的。当你睡着时，大脑从神经元中去除毒蛋白，也就是你清醒时神经活动的副产品。不幸的是，你的大脑只能在你睡着时才能充分清理他们。所以当你没有充足的睡眠时，毒蛋白停留在你的脑细胞中，通过影响你的思考能力来造成严重破坏，这是再多的咖啡因也无法修复的。

　　Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough—or the right kind—of sleep. Sleep deprivation raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present, which are a major productivity killer. Ambition often makes you feel as if you must sacrifice sleep to stay productive, but sleep deprivation diminishes your productivity so much throughout the day that you’re better off sleeping.

　　如果没有充足或者正确的睡眠，你的自制力、注意力、以及记忆力都会下降。即使没有压力，睡眠不足也会导致应激激素水平上升，这是高效率的最大杀手。野心往往让你觉得必须牺牲睡眠来保持生产力，但睡眠不足能大大减弱你一整天的生产力，所以最好还是睡觉吧。

　　A study conducted at the Eastern Ontario Research Institute found that people who exercised twice a week for 10 weeks felt more competent socially, academically, and athletically. They also rated their body image and self-esteem higher. Best of all, rather than the physical changes in their bodies being responsible for the uptick in confidence, it was the immediate, endorphin-fueled positivity from exercise that made all the difference. Schedule your exercise to make certain it happens, or the days will just slip away.

　　东部安大略省研究所的一项研究发现，那些10周以来每周运动两次的人感觉到在社会、学术和运动方面更加有干劲。同时他们认为这些人的身体形象和自尊心都更强。最重要的是，运动时内啡肽的刺激直接造成了差异，而不是身体上为了增加信心而产生的物理变化。安排你的运动并确保它能进行，否则时间会白白浪费。

　　9. Seek Out Small Victories

　　9. 寻找小胜利

　　Small victories can seem unimportant when you’re really after something big, but small victories build new androgen receptors in the areas of the brain responsible for reward and motivation. This increase in androgen receptors increases the influence of testosterone, which further increases your confidence and your eagerness to tackle future challenges. When you have a series of small victories, the boost in your confidence can last for months.

　　当你真的在追求大事的时候，小胜利似乎是不重要的，但小胜利会在大脑负责奖赏和激励的区域建立新的激素受体。雄激素受体的增加会增加睾丸激素的影响，进而增加你的信心和热心来应对未来的挑战。当你有一系列小胜利时，信心增加会持续数月之久。

　　10. Don’t Seek Perfection

　　10. 不要追求完美

　　Don’t set perfection as your target. It doesn’t exist. Human beings, by our very nature, are fallible. When perfection is your goal, you’re always left with a nagging sense of failure that makes you want to give up or reduce your effort. You end up spending your time lamenting what you failed to accomplish and what you should have done differently instead of moving forward excited about what you’ve achieved and what you will accomplish in the future.

　　别把完美定为你的任务。完美是不存在的。人类本质上是不可靠的。当完美是你的目标时，总是会留下挥之不去的失败感，这让你想放弃或减少努力。最后你花时间感慨你未能完成的事，你应该做的不同，而不是为已经完成的、未来将要完成的事情感到兴奋。

　　11. Focus On Solutions

　　11. 专注于解决办法

　　Where you focus your attention determines your emotional state. When you fixate on the problems that you’re facing, you create and prolong negative emotions which hinder your ability to reach your goals. When you focus on the actions you’ll take to better yourself and your circumstances, you create a sense of personal efficacy that produces positive emotions and improves performance.

　　在哪里集中注意力决定了你的情绪状态。当你注视你所面临的问题时，你创造和延长了负面情绪，它会阻碍你达到目标的能力。当你专注于将要采取的行动时，为了更好的自己以及周围环境，你会创造生产积极情绪的个人功效感，它会提升你的表现。

　　12. Forgive Yourself

　　12. 原谅自己

　　When you slip up, it is critical that you forgive yourself and move on. Don’t ignore how the mistake makes you feel; just don’t wallow in it. Instead, shift your attention to what you’re going to do to improve yourself in the future.

　　当你跌倒时，关键是要原谅自己并继续前进。别忽视了你对错误的感觉，只是不要沉湎于它。相反，将注意力转移到将要做的事情上，在未来提升自己。

　　Failure can erode your self-confidence and make it hard to believe you’ll achieve a better outcome in the future. Most of the time, failure results from taking risks and trying to achieve something that isn’t easy. Success lies in your ability to rise in the face of failure, and you can’t do this when you’re living in the past. Anything worth achieving is going to require you to take some risks, and you can’t allow failure to stop you from believing in your ability to succeed. When you live in the past, that is exactly what happens, and your past becomes your present, preventing you from moving forward.

　　失败会侵蚀你的自信，让你很难相信自己在未来会取得更好的结果。大多数时候，失败来源于冒险以及实现困难的事。成功存在于你面对失败时个人能力的上升，如果你只是活在过去是不能做到的。任何值得实现的事都需要你承担一些风险，你不能让失败阻止你相信自己成功的能力。当你活在过去，这样的事就会发生，你的过去变成了你的现在，阻止你前进。

　　Bringing It All Together

　　综上所述

　　I hope these lessons are as useful to you as they have been to me over the years. As I write them, I’m reminded of their power and my desire to use them every day.

　　我希望这些经验教训对你们来说是有用的，因为这么多年来它们一直对我有帮助。当我写下这些内容时，我想起了他们的力量以及每天都用到它们的愿望。

（编辑：何莹莹）