-Tuesday-
对话框回复“早安”或者“morning'，获取清晨元气满满的英文金句
1
Most of us go through life trying to do our best at whatever we do, whether it's our job, family, school or anything else.
我们中的大多数人在生活中凡事都想要尽力做到最好，无论是关于工作、家庭、学业或者其他种种。
I feel that way. I try my best.
我觉得自己已经尽力了。
But some time ago, I came to realization that I wasn't getting much better at the things I cared most about and I wasn't improving much at those things even though I was spending a lot of time working hard at them.
但不久之前，我才明白在那些我最在乎的事情上，我并没有表现得更好，我也没有任何提高，尽管我为之付出了很多努力。
I've since realized from conversations I've had and from research that this stagnation, despite hard work, turns out to be pretty common.
我是从和别人的一次谈话以及一些研究中发现了这个问题：尽管我很努力，但是我还是停滞不前。
So I'd like to share with you some insights into why that is and what we can all do about it.
所以我想跟大家分享一些自己的看法，为什么会这样？我们还能做些什么呢？
2
What I've learned is that the most effective people and team in any domain do something we can all emulate. They go through life deliberately alternating between two zones: the learning zone and the performance zone.
我们可以从各个行业中最高效的人士和团队所做的事情中，得到借鉴。那就是他们刻意让自己的生活在两个区域交替：学习区和执行区。
The learning zone is when our goal is to improve. Then we do activities designed for improvement, concentrating on what we haven't mastered yet, which means we have to expect to make mistakes, knowing that we will learn from them.
学习区是当我们的目标是提高自己时， 我们便会采取一些行动以改进目标，把精力集中在我们还没有掌握的地方，这也就意味着我们得期待着自己犯错误，这样才能从中汲取教训。
That is very different from what we do when we're in our performance zone, which is when our goal is to do something as best as we can, to execute. Then we concentrate on what we have already mastered and we try to minimize mistakes.
这和我们处于执行区时所做的事情是截然不同的，也就是说当我们要尽自己所能去做一些事情时，我们就会去执行。然后我们就必须专注于自己已经掌控的区域，并且尽量减少错误。
Both of these zones should be part of our lives, but being clear about when we want to be in each of them, with what goal, focus and expectations, helps us better perform and better improve.
这两者都应该成为我们生活的一部分，但很明确的是，无论我们身处哪一个，制定目标、集中精力，以及满怀希望都能帮助我们更好地执行和提高。
The performance zone maximizes our immediate performance, while the learning zone maximizes our growth and our future performance.
执行区可以提高我们即时的做事能力，但是学习区则可以最大化我们未来的成长和表现的提高空间。
The reason many of us don't improve much despite our hard work is that we tend to spend almost all of our time in the performance zone. This hinders our growth, and ironically, over the long term, also our performance.
尽管我们很努力，但是仍然没有进步，原因就在于我们还是在在执行区投入太多时间。这就会阻碍我们的成长，而且讽刺的是，长远来看，这也会阻碍了我们执行能力的提高。
3
So what does the learning zone look like?
那么，学习区到底长什么样呢？
Take Demosthenes, a political leader and the greatest orator and lawyer in ancient Greece, to become great, he didn't spend all his time just being an orator or a lawyer, which would be his performance zone. But instead, he did activities designed for improvement.
德摩斯梯尼，一位政治领袖，也是古希腊最伟大的演说家和律师。成为一位伟人的他并没有将全部的时间都用在演说和法律这两块。这两块也就是他的执行区。但是，他为了提高自己做了很多其他事情。
Of course, he studied a lot. But he also learned that being a lawyer involved persuading other people, so he also studied great speeches and acting.
当然，他也学习了很多。但是他也发现当一名律师就要说服他人，所以他就学习了演讲和表演。
To get rid of an odd habit he had of involuntarily lifting his shoulder, he practiced his speeches in front of a mirror, and he suspended a sword from the ceiling so that if he raised his shoulder, it would hurt. To speak more clearly despite a lisp, he went through his speeches with stones in his mouth.
他有一个旧习惯就是会无意识地耸肩，为了改掉这个坏习惯，他会对着镜子联系演讲，并在天花板上挂了一把剑。如果他一耸肩，头就会被剑刺到。为了避免演讲时咬字不清，他会在嘴里放些石头。
It is this type of practice in the learning zone which leads to substantial improvements, not just time on task performance.
正是在学习区的这些练习才使我们能够不断取得进步，而不只是我们在任务区所做的努力。
For example, research shows that after the first couple of years working in a profession, performance usually plateaus. It happens because once we think we have become good enough, adequate, and then we stop spending time in the learning zone.
举个例子，研究表明人们在一个职位上工作了几年后，经常会面临高原期。这是因为一旦我们认为自己已经足够好了，可以完全胜任了，我们就不会再花时间在学习区了。
But the people who continue to spend time in the learning zone do continue to always improve.
但那些继续将时间花在学习区的人，总是能够不断提高。
The best chess players spend a lot of time not playing games of chess, but trying to predict the moves of grand masters made and analyzing them.
顶尖的棋手们并不是花很多时间去下棋，而是去推测那些大师的棋路。
4
So how we can spend more time in the learning zone?
那么，我们应该如何在学习区投入更多时间呢？
First, we must believe and understand that we can improve.
首先，我们应该相信并且知道我们是可以取得进步的。
Second, we must improve at that particular skill. There has to be a purpose we care about, because it takes time and effort.
其次，我们必须是有针对性地提高。你必须要有一个想要实现的目标，因为我们要为之付出大量的时间和努力。
Third, we must have an idea about how to improve, what we can do to improve.
第三，我们要知道怎样提高，以及我们能够做什么。
And forth, we must be in a low-stakes situation.
第四，我们需要处于低风险的情况下。
One reason that in our lives we spend so much time in the performance zone is that our environments often are, unnecessarily, high stakes. We would feel that if we make a mistake, others will think less of us.
我们之所以会在执行区耗费大量时间的一个原因就在于，我们常常处于不必要的高风险情况下。如果我们犯错，我们可能就会被别人看不起。
Real confidence is about modeling ongoing learning.
真正的自信来源于不断地学习。
What if, instead of spending our lives doing, doing, doing, performing, performing, performing, we spent more time exploring, asking, listening, experimenting, reflecting and becoming?
如果我们不再花时间只是不停地做事、做事、做事，而是去探索、去追问、去倾听、去尝试、去沉思、去改变呢？
（整理自TED，图片来源于百度）
编辑：Bella
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