三件坏事竟能成就你的事业

 　　1. Selfishness。

　　1.自私

　　Selfishness is rarely seen as something positive. The word may fill your head with images of greedy and soulless Montgomery Burns-like people。

　　自私很少被认为是好的品质。一提到这个词，你脑海中可能就浮现出类似于Montgomery Burns那样贪婪、无情的人。

　　However, personal development is in a way pretty selfish. You are trying to make yourself and your life better. But the thing is that by focusing on helping¹ yourself first you can become stronger and help others in a better way too。

　　然而，个人提升在某种程度确实是一件很自私的事。你总是试图让你和你的生活更好些。事实上，通过优先关注自己的事不仅会让你变得更强大，而且还可以更好的帮助别人。

　　If you just focus on other people and not on yourself then you risk burning out. Or people may take advantage of you as you set no limits or boundaries. You become the “nice guy/girl” who is always out there to help people but think little about yourself which in the long run can become pretty unhealthy。

　　如果你只关注别人的事，那你就有被“耗尽”的可能。因为你对事情没有约束和限制，被人很可能会利用你。你成了“好好人”，因为你总是在帮人忙这忙那，却很少考虑你自己。长期来说，这样是很不好的。

　　And selfishness and helping others often go hand in hand anyway. I did for example improve my health and increased my energy levels last year. This also gave me the extra energy to work on an free ebook – that will, if everything goes as planned, be up on the blog very soon – besides writing the usual articles. So that is a win-win。

　　话又说回来，自私和帮助别人也并不矛盾。举例来说，去年一年，我努力使自己更健康也更有精力了。这使我在除却写平常的一些文章外还有多余的精力去完成一本免费的电子书(若不错意外，明年就可与大家见面了)。所以这是双赢。

　　2. Lazyness。

　　2.懒惰

　　Being lazy isn’t all that bad. Being lazy about stuff² that is irrelevant³ or not that important will help you quite a bit to free up time and minimize⁴ unnecessary stress. Getting the most stuff done isn’t the best option. Getting the most important things done will improve your life and world the most。

　　懒惰也并非都是坏事。对一些无关紧要的事懒惰会为你节省很多时间，减少不必要的压力。做完最多的事并非是最好的选择，做完最重要的事才是最佳选择。它能最大限度地提升你的生活和你生活的世界。

　　So, as I wrote a few weeks ago, set limits for checking inboxes, Twitter etc. Use your laziness and come up with ideas on how to make things as simple as you can in your daily life. Find the smartest path instead of thinking there is some reward for doing things in the most roundabout and complicated⁵ way。

　　所以，在几个星期前我就建议，要对你每天查看邮箱或Twitter的次数做一个限制。在日常生活中，要利用你的懒惰来想一些点子，好让有些事情尽可能简单。找一种最聪明的方法解决问题，而不是想着如果绕一些弯子或用一些很复杂的方法会获得奖励。

　　This also makes it easier to really relax when you relax and work in focused way when you are working. Be smart and balance life and take advantage of laziness instead of making things into an unnecessarily big struggle。

　　这样做可以让你更容易在该放松的时候彻底放松，在该工作的时候专注工作。要生活地既聪明又平衡，尽量利用懒惰的优势，不要做不必要的巨大努力。

　　3. Ruthlessness⁶。

　　3.冷酷无情

　　Adding a bit of ruthlessness has, in just the right amount, been very helpful for me. It allows me to cut out the unnecessary instead of wimping around and trying to everything to fit in somehow. If you have problems with putting a stop to something or making decisions then a little bit more ruthlessness may be what you need。

　　多一点恰当的冷酷对我非常有帮助。它让我剔除了一些不必要的事，而不是犹犹豫豫，并试着以某种方式适应它。如果你对停止做某些事或做某个决定感到困难，那么一点点的冷酷就是你所需要的。

　　Because at some point you have to make harder decisions and cut out stuff you may not want to. Otherwise you won’t be able to find the time and energy you need. This may mean to skip some social engagements⁷ or cutting down on the TV-shows you follow from 10 hours a week to 2 hours a week. Not always fun, but you have to be the boss of your life. You have to make the decisions and say no both to yourself and to others if necessary。

　　到了某些时候，你必须做出一些对你来说更困难的决定或是放弃一些你不想放弃的事，因为否则你将无法腾出你所需要的时间和精力。这可能意味着，你将砍掉一些社会交际时间或是将每周花10小时看你所热衷的TV秀减至每周2小时。这也许并不好过，但你是自己生活的主人。你必须做决定，如果需要，你要向自己或是别人说“不”。

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

3 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

4 minimize   

vt.使减（缩）小到最低，极力贬低，最低估计

参考例句：

• To minimize the risk of burglary,install a good alarm system.安装可靠的报警设备以减低被盗的风险。
• To minimize the public expenditure of this country.把该国的财政支出减少到最低限度。

5 complicated   

adj.错综复杂的，麻烦的，结构复杂的

参考例句：

• The poem is so complicated that I cannot make out its meaning.这首诗太复杂，我理解不了它的意思。
• This is the most complicated case I have ever handled.这是我所处理过的最为复杂的案子。

6 ruthlessness   

无情，冷酷

参考例句：

• There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. 对残暴行为是不能姑息的。 来自演讲部分
• The terrorists' ruthlessness shocked the population. 恐怖分子极其残忍，全体人民无不感到震惊。

7 engagements   

订婚( engagement的名词复数 )； 婚约； 约会； 约定

参考例句：

• I have numerous engagements next week. 下星期我有许多约会。
• Broadway was full of loafing thespians in search of next season's engagements. 百老汇大街上挤满了闲荡的演员，在寻找下个季度的演出机会。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹