I've been lucky enough to have had a few accomplishments in my studies and career, for which I've been writing and giving people advice on how to be great on various subjects since middle school. Having just turned 30 this year, however, for the first time in my life I feel reasonably confident that I can now articulate a "theory of everything" on being great (luck excluded, as much as possible). In this first of potentially several posts, I'm sharing with you the most important lessons I've learned.
我一直很幸运，在学习和职业生涯中取得了一些成就。自从中学时代起，我就开始撰写并给人们提供关于如何在各个学科上变得出色的建议。然而，今年刚刚 30 岁，我生平第一次感到自己可以合理地阐述一个关于如何变得出色的“万物理论”（尽可能排除运气）。在这可能的多篇帖子中的第一篇，我要与大家分享我学到的最重要的教训。
The inspiration for this post, How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably, said it the best. Being great is not about getting to a destination with meticulous planning and herculean efforts. It's about being consistent in the act of being good, from which greatness emerges as a by-product.
这篇帖子的灵感，如何成为伟大？只需做好，反复如此，说得最好。成为伟大并非关于通过细致的计划和巨大的努力达到一个目的地。它关乎在做好事情的行为上保持一致性，伟大作为副产品从中产生。
Of course, this is a mental distinction, not a material one. You would still set goals and work hard to achieve them. But framing that as a side effect of consistently being good rather than the end result is immensely liberating and empowering! Greatness cannot be planned and few can navigate the path to get there, but most people instinctively know what goodness is or can learn that easily. Being good on one occasion is to do things that create positive changes for our lives; being good consistently is to turn that into behavior patterns that run automatically to help us go beyond goodness and toward greatness.
当然，这是一种心理上的区分，而不是物质上的。你仍然会设定目标并努力实现它们。但将这视为持续优秀而非最终结果的一种副作用，则是一种极大的解放和赋权！伟大无法被计划，而且很少有人能找到通往那里的道路，但大多数人本能地知道什么是善良，或者可以轻松地学会这一点。偶尔表现善良就是做一些能为我们生活带来积极变化的事情；持续表现善良则是将这转化为自动运行的行事模式，帮助我们超越善良，走向伟大。
That's it, the single most fundamental axiom in the theory of being great. Everything else, be it an atomic habit, a decision heuristic, a focus ritual, a mental model, a productivity technique, etc, is either a tool of goodness for you to exercise, or a tool to facilitate other tools (finding them, knowing when to apply which, making them easier to hold on to, etc).
那便是了，理论中关于伟大的最基本公理。其他一切，无论是原子习惯、决策启发式、专注仪式、心智模型、生产力技巧等，要么是你用来锻炼的善的工具，要么是辅助其他工具的工具（找到它们、知道何时使用哪个、使它们更容易坚持等）。
I would like to end this section with two quotes echoing the axiom:
我想以两个引用来结束本节，呼应这个公理：
Excellence is mundane. Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence. -- The Mundanity of Excellence
卓越是平凡的。卓越的表现实际上是由数十种小技能或活动汇聚而成，每一种都是通过学习或偶然发现，经过精心训练成为习惯，然后组合成一个综合的整体。在这些行为中没有任何超凡脱俗或超人的地方；只有它们被持续且正确地执行，并且整体上产生卓越。-- 卓越的平凡
Traditional self-help tends to see change in terms of lofty goals and total transformation, but research actually supports the opposite view: that small, deliberate tweaks infused with your values can make a huge difference in your life. -- Emotional Agility
传统自助往往将改变视为崇高的目标和彻底的转型，但研究实际上支持相反的观点：融入你价值观的小心调整可以在你的生活中产生巨大的影响。-- 情绪敏捷
Simply knowing that something can be done is incredibly powerful -- now you know nothing except yourself can stop you. Similarly, knowing that something exists and what it's called gives you the power to leverage it even before you dig into it. Vocabulary as a Meta Mental Model said it the best.
仅仅知道某事可以做到就非常强大——现在你知道除了自己，没有什么可以阻止你。同样，知道某物存在以及它的名称，在你深入研究之前，就赋予了你利用它的力量。元认知模型将词汇描述得最好。
So how do you know? Intentionally and carefully curate your information sources:
所以你怎么知道？有意且谨慎地筛选你的信息来源：
On top of that, adopt a growth mindset and liminal thinking. Believe that:
在此基础上，采取成长心态和临界思维。相信：
Nothing like a clear understanding and strong conviction sets you up for greatness.
没有任何比清晰的理解和坚定的信念更能让你成就伟大。
Whatever we do, we constantly exchange one resource (investment) with another (return). Let's assume we are investing time, arguably the most precious resource, in exchange for personal learning or business impact in our work.
无论我们做什么，我们都在不断地用一种资源（投资）交换另一种（回报）。让我们假设我们正在投资时间，这无疑是成本最高的资源，以换取我们在工作中的个人学习或业务影响。
Mathematically, there are three straightforward approaches to increase the return on investment:
从数学上讲，有三种简单的方法可以增加投资回报率：
It's a simple yet effective framework. Internalize it so you can effortlessly invoke it whenever you need to.
这是一个简单而有效的框架。将其内化，以便您可以在需要时轻松调用。
I've said this many times but I can't emphasize enough: write, things, down!
我已经说过很多次，但强调得还不够：写下事情！
Writing is so inextricably linked to thinking that it might as well be equated to thinking. It organizes our thoughts and reveals what we still don't fully understand. It's one of the most effective ways to scale your ideas to audiences beyond your personal reach. And it's an indispensable tool for collecting objective truth as the human brain is a very unreliable memory storage device.
写作与思考紧密相连，几乎可以等同于思考。它组织我们的思想，揭示我们仍不完全理解的事物。这是将你的想法扩展到个人接触范围之外受众的最有效方式之一。而且，它是收集客观真理的不可或缺的工具，因为人脑是一个非常不可靠的记忆存储设备。
For those who find writing daunting, start small. It doesn't need to be perfect or made public right away. One of the best ways to get started is to keep a log of things you've read, decisions you had to make, and what you plan on doing next. Another great tip is to write more but shorter.
对于觉得写作令人畏惧的人来说，从小处着手。它不需要一开始就完美或公之于众。开始的一个最好方法是记录下你所阅读的内容、你必须做出的决定以及你计划下一步做什么。另一个很好的建议是写得更多但更短。
Remember that it's fundamentally an iterative process. To each his own but my process is generally to write ideas down as soon as I have them, expand and refine them over time, and compose them into posts when I feel ready. I relate a lot with Mise en Place Writing.
记住，这本质上是一个迭代的过程。因人而异，但我的过程通常是：一旦有想法就写下来，随着时间的推移扩展和精炼它们，当我感觉准备好了就写成帖子。我与“ mise en place 写作”有很多共鸣。
For those getting serious about publishing their writings, check out David Perell's The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online.
针对那些认真考虑出版自己作品的人，查看大卫·佩雷尔的《在线写作终极指南》。
The success formula: solve your own problems and freely share the solutions. -- Naval Ravikant
成功公式：解决自己的问题，自由分享解决方案。-- 纳瓦尔·拉维坎特
As the saying goes, we often underestimate how much others can benefit from our sharings, even when we've taken this into consideration. Things we've come to take for granted are not obvious to others, vice versa.
正如俗话所说，我们常常低估了他人从我们的分享中能获得多少益处，即使我们已经考虑到了这一点。我们视为理所当然的事情对他人来说并不明显，反之亦然。
Oftentimes, being informed is half the win. The reality is not a zero-sum game. Embrace an abundance mindset and always look for a win-win scenario.
经常，了解情况就是成功的一半。现实并非零和游戏。拥抱丰盛心态，始终寻找双赢的局面。
You should especially prioritize sharing with those close to you, not just because it's an effective way to find and maintain friendships. A deeper reason is that your success is inextricably linked with the successes of people around you. To collectively achieve greater things, it's in everybody's interest to continuously shape the beliefs of those around you while also getting shaped by them. For the better.
你应该特别优先与身边的人分享，这不仅是因为这是一种有效寻找和维护友谊的方式。更深层次的原因是，你的成功与周围人的成功密不可分。为了共同取得更大的成就，每个人都应该不断塑造周围人的信念，同时也被他们塑造。为了更好。
All sorts of sharing elicit some form of reaction from its recipients. It could be inspiration, admiration, or sometimes even envy. But whatever it is, they become "nudges to revisit dreams and desires".
所有类型的分享都会引起接收者的某种反应。这可能是一种灵感、钦佩，有时甚至是嫉妒。但无论是什么，它们都变成了“重新审视梦想和欲望的推动力”。
Thank you for reading thus far. I've covered my "theory of everything" about being great and a couple of "tools" I found most critical. I've strived for this post to be high-level and "strategic" yet still actionable (your feedback is welcome if I failed to do so). In doing so I intentionally chose not to cover some of the more "tactical" topics such as getting things done, time management, creating tight feedback loops, decision making, etc. I've written about some of these topics though (check out ) and might write more in the future.
感谢您阅读至此。我已经介绍了我的“万物理论”以及我认为最关键的几个“工具”。我努力使这篇帖子具有高度和“战略”性，同时仍然具有可操作性（如果我没有做到，欢迎您的反馈）。在这样做的同时，我故意没有涵盖一些更“战术”性的话题，例如完成任务、时间管理、创建紧密的反馈循环、决策等。我已经写过一些关于这些话题的内容（查看），未来也可能会有更多。
Till next time! 下次见！