勵志英語之一

Don’t compare your insides to someone else’s outsides

別拿自己的內在和別人的外在來攀比

The first time I heard this excellent, if hard-to-implement, advice, I was suffering from a terrible case of envy. Some competitor or other had achieved an inspiring degree of success and I was complaining to a mentor about how unachievable it seemed to me. Her warning took me aback: Look, she told me, You have no idea what it took for them to get there. Don’t act like this was unearned, effortless, or pure dumb luck.And for Pete’s sake, don’t go thinking that because you read the press release, you have a single clue about what’s really going on behind the scenes.

我第一次聽到這個優秀的、但卻難以實施的建議時，我剛好在經受一種可怕的嫉妒。當看到一些競爭對手或其他人取得了令人歡欣鼓舞的成功時，我就向導師抱怨在我看來是如何無法實現的。她的警告使我十分驚訝：看，她告訴我，你并不知道他們為獲得成功付出了什么。不要總覺得這是不勞而獲、毫不費力的，或者純粹的狗屎運。不要再那樣想了，因為你一看這個消息的時候，你就只想到了一點，而不會考慮到他們背后發生了什么。

She was absolutely right. I knew better, yet in the moment that I’d heard the news, I fell prey to reactive thinking and over-simplification. Because it’s much easier to look at someone “up there” and envy what they’ve got than it is to ask the tougher questions:

她是絕對正確的。我其實知道，然而在聽到消息的那一刻，我卻成了反動思考和過于簡單化的犧牲品。因為看到別人達到目標、嫉妒他們所取得的成功時，更容易做出這樣的反應，而不是反問自己一些問題：

What do they have that I wish I had?

他們擁有什么我希望擁有的東西？


What do I admire about them? What are they modelling for me?

我羨慕他們身上的什么？他們給我做出了什么樣的榜樣？

What have they done to get where they are today?

為了今天的收獲他們付出了什么？

How does this relate to my own values?

這點是如何與我自己的價值觀相關的？

When we reflect on these questions, we shift immediately out of comparison mode and turn inwards, to face the heart of the matter: our own desires and fears.

當我們反思這些問題的時候，我們就會立即從攀比的模式當中切換回來，面對我們內心的問題：我們的渴望以及恐懼。

Transform comparison into celebration

將攀比轉換成祝賀