I believe that the way we make our dreams into reality is by constantly engaging with reality in pursuit of our dreams and by using these encounters to learn more about reality itself and how to interact with it inorder to get what we want—and that if we do this with determination, we almost certainly will be successful. In short:

要梦想成真，得不断在现实里历练，追寻梦想，总结教训，进而获得成长，了解现实，明白如何解决现实中的问题，实现自己的目标——下定决心，坚持不懈，定能成功。简而言之：

Reality + Dreams + Determination = A Successful Life

现实+梦想+决心=成功的人生

So what is success? I believe that it is nothing more than getting what you want—and that it is up to you to decide what that is for you. I don’t care whether it’s being a master of the universe, a couch potato, or anything else—I really don’t. What is essential is that you are clear about what you want and that you figure out how to get it.

成功是什么?没什么比实现梦想更重要了，想要什么是自己决定的。做宇宙之主？躺沙发看电视的宅男？还是别的什么？我可不在乎，重要的是清楚自己想要什么，知道怎么去实现这个梦想。

However, there are a few common things that most people want.

然而，有些东西看起来普通，但却是大多数人都想要的。

As I mentioned, for most people success is evolving as effectively as possible, i.e., learning about oneself and one’s environment and then changing to improve. Personally, I believe that personal evolution is both the greatest accomplishment and the greatest reward.

我说过，对大多数人来说，成功是一个高效的进化过程，即了解自己和周遭环境、做出改变、获得提高。我认为实现个人进化，即成长是最伟大的成就，也能获得最丰厚的回报。

Also, for most people happiness is much more determined by how things turn out relative to their expectations rather than the absolute level of their conditions. For example, if a billionaire loses $200 million he will probably be unhappy, while if someone who is worth $10 thousand unexpectedly gets another $2 thousand, he will probably be happy. This basic principle suggests that you can follow one of two paths to happiness: 1) have high expectations and strive to exceed them, or 2) lower your expectations so that they are at or below your conditions. Most of us choose the first path, which means that to be happy we have to keep evolving.

同样，对大多数人来说，幸福感取决于同自身期望值的关联度，而非个体条件的绝对水平。例如，一个亿万富翁输了两亿美金，他可能会不开心，但如果另一个身价一万美元的人意外获得了两千美金，那他可就乐开了花。这条基本原则说明，通往幸福之路有两条：1）期望值高，努力超越；2）降低期望值，符合或低于自身客观条件。大家一般都会选第一条路，也意味着想幸福，就得不断成长。

Another principle to keep in mind is that people need meaningful work and meaningful relationships in order to be fulfilled. I have observed this to be true for virtually everyone, and I know that it’s true for me.

另一条要牢记的原则是，充实的生活需要从事有意义的工作，需要跟值得打交道的人建立人脉。我发现这几乎是适用于每个人的一条真理，当然，对我更是如此。

As Freud put it, “Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.”

弗洛伊德说过：爱情和工作是我们人性的基石。

The work doesn’t necessarily have to be a job, though I believe it’s generally better if it is a job. It can be any kind of long-term challenge that leads to personal improvement. As you might have guessed, I believe that the need to have meaningful work is connected to man’s innate desire to improve. And relationships are the natural connections to others that make us relevant to society.

工作不一定是一份职业，当然我觉得最好是一份职业。只要是一项长期挑战，可以提升自我，就能称作是工作。我认为必须从事有意义的工作，因为想要提升自己是人类与生俱来的欲望，所以我们在社会中才会自然而然和他人建立关系。

Regardless of others’ principles, you will need to decide for yourself what you want and go after it in the best way for you.

别的原则暂且不谈，首先你得决定自己想要追寻的是什么，并通过最适合自己的方式实现它。

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 qualityof the decisions we make. We literally make millions of decisions that add up to the consequences thatare our lives.

我提过，实现目标的征途中，会遇到大量选择，我们要依次做出抉择，得到结果，生活质量取决于我们所作的抉择的质量。我们大概会做出百万次抉择，最终的结果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 moare on what I think of as character. For this reason, I believe that most people can make the right choices.

这百万次选择中，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”体现了这些选项。实现梦想的征途上，效率低下之人会选上分支的选项，效率高的会选下分支的选项。

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 wehave 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，痛苦与成长都源自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，遭受痛苦，无法取得进步，无法达成目标。