1. The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits
THE FATE OF British Cycling changed one day in 2003. The organization, which was the governing body for professional
2003年的一天，英国自行车运动的命运发生了改变。这个组织是专业人员的管理机构
cycling in Great Britain, had recently hired Dave Brailsford as its new performance director. At the time, professional cyclists in Great Britain had endured nearly one hundred years of mediocrity. Since 1908, British riders had won just a single gold medal at the Olympic Games, and they had fared even worse in cycling’s biggest race, the Tour de France. In 110 years, no British cyclist had ever won the event.
在英国骑自行车，最近聘请戴夫布雷尔斯福德作为其新的表演总监。当时，英国的职业自行车手已经忍受了近百年的平庸。自1908年以来，英国车手在奥运会上只获得了一枚金牌，而在自行车运动中最大的比赛环法自行车赛中，他们的表现更糟糕。在过去的110年里，没有一个英国自行车手赢得过这项比赛。
In fact, the performance of British riders had been so underwhelming that one of the top bike manufacturers in Europe refused to sell bikes to the team because they were afraid that it would hurt sales if other professionals saw the Brits using their gear.
事实上，英国骑手的表现是如此平庸，以至于欧洲顶级的自行车制造商之一拒绝向车队出售自行车，因为他们担心如果其他专业人士看到英国人使用他们的装备会影响销售。
Brailsford had been hired to put British Cycling on a new trajectory. What made him different from previous coaches was his relentless commitment to a strategy that he referred to as “the aggregation of marginal gains,” which was the philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do. Brailsford said, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
布雷尔斯福德受雇将英国自行车运动推上新的轨道。他之所以与以前的教练不同，是因为他坚持一种他称之为“边际收益累加”的战略，这种战略的哲学是，在你做的每一件事情上都寻求微小的进步空间。布雷尔斯福德说，“整个原则来自这样一个想法:如果你把你能想到的所有事情都分解成骑自行车，然后再提高1%，那么当你把它们放在一起时，你就会得到显著的提高。”
Brailsford and his coaches began by making small adjustments you might expect from a professional cycling team. They redesigned the bike seats to make them more comfortable and rubbed alcohol on the tires for a better grip. They asked riders to wear electrically heated overshorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature while riding and used biofeedback sensors to monitor how each athlete responded to a particular workout. The team tested various fabrics in a wind tunnel and had their outdoor riders switch to indoor racing suits, which proved to be lighter and more aerodynamic.
布雷尔斯福德和他的教练们开始做一些小的调整，你可能会期望从一个专业的自行车队。他们重新设计了自行车座椅，使他们更舒适，并擦酒精对轮胎更好的抓地力。他们要求骑手在骑行和使用时穿电热超短裤以保持理想的肌肉温度生物反馈传感器来监控每个运动员对特定锻炼的反应。研究小组在风洞中测试了各种面料，并让他们的室外车手换上室内赛车服，事实证明这种服装更轻，更符合空气动力学。
But they didn’t stop there. Brailsford and his team continued to find 1 percent improvements in overlooked and unexpected areas. They tested different types of massage gels to see which one led to the fastest muscle recovery. They hired a surgeon to teach each rider the best way to wash their hands to reduce the chances of catching a cold. They determined the type of pillow and mattress that led to the best night’s sleep for each rider. They even painted the inside of the team truck white, which helped them spot little bits of dust that would normally slip by unnoticed but could degrade the performance of the finely tuned bikes.
但是他们并没有止步于此。Brailsford和他的团队继续发现在被忽视和意想不到的领域有1%的进步。他们测试了不同类型的按摩凝胶，看看哪种能使肌肉恢复得最快。他们聘请了一名外科医生教每位骑手如何最好地洗手，以减少感冒的机会。他们决定了为每位骑手提供最佳睡眠的枕头和床垫的类型。他们甚至把车内漆成白色，这样可以帮助他们发现那些通常不会被注意到但是会降低自行车性能的小灰尘。
As these and hundreds of other small improvements accumulated, the results came faster than anyone could have imagined.
随着这些和其他数以百计的小改进的积累，结果来得比任何人想象的都要快。
Just five years after Brailsford took over, the British Cycling team dominated the road and track cycling events at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where they won an astounding 60 percent of the gold medals available. Four years later, when the Olympic Games came to London, the Brits raised the bar as they set nine Olympic records and seven world records.
就在布雷斯福德接手后的五年里，英国自行车队在2008年北京奥运会的公路和场地自行车项目中占据了主导地位，他们夺得了令人震惊的60%的金牌。四年后，当奥运会在伦敦举行时，英国人提高了标准，他们创造了9项奥运会纪录和7项世界纪录。
That same year, Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. The next year, his teammate Chris Froome won the race, and he would go on to win again in 2015, 2016, and 2017, giving the British team five Tour de France victories in six years.
同年，布拉德利·威金斯成为第一位赢得环法自行车赛冠军的英国自行车手。第二年，他的队友克里斯·弗鲁姆赢得了比赛，并在2015年、2016年和2017年再次获胜，使英国队在六年内五次获得环法自行车赛冠军。
During the ten-year span from 2007 to 2017, British cyclists won 178 world championships and sixty-six Olympic or Paralympic gold medals and captured five Tour de France victories in what is widely regarded as the most successful run in cycling history.*
在2007年至2017年的10年间，英国自行车手赢得了178次世界锦标赛和66枚奥运会或残奥会金牌，并获得了5次环法自行车赛的胜利，这被广泛认为是自行车运动史上最成功的比赛。
How does this happen? How does a team of previously ordinary athletes transform into world champions with tiny changes that, at first glance, would seem to make a modest difference at best? Why do small improvements accumulate into such remarkable results, and how can you replicate this approach in your own life?
这是怎么发生的？一支以前很普通的运动员组成的球队是如何通过一些细微的改变变成世界冠军的呢？为什么小的改进积累成如此显著的结果，你如何在自己的生活中复制这种方法？
WHY SMALL HABITS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
为什么小的习惯会产生巨大的不同
It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action. Whether it is losing weight, building a business, writing a book, winning a championship, or achieving any other goal, we put pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about.
人们很容易高估一个决定性时刻的重要性，而低估每天做出小小改进的价值。我们常常说服自己，巨大的成功需要大量的行动。无论是减肥，创业，写书，赢得冠军，还是实现任何其他目标，我们都给自己施加压力，让自己做出一些大家都会谈论的惊天动地的改进。
Meanwhile, improving by 1 percent isn’t particularly notable— sometimes it isn’t even noticeable—but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding. Here’s how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more.
与此同时，增长1%并不是特别明显ーー有时候甚至不明显ーー但是它可能更有意义，尤其是从长远来看。随着时间的推移，一个微小的进步所带来的变化是惊人的。计算结果是这样的:如果你在一年中每天都能提高1%，那么到你完成的时候，你就会提高37倍。相反，如果你一年中每天都糟糕1%，你就会下降到几乎为零。一开始的小小的胜利或小小的挫折会积累成更多的东西。
1% BETTER EVERY DAY
1% worse every day for one year. 0.99365 = 00.03
1% better every day for one year. 1.01365 = 37.78
FIGURE 1: The effects of small habits compound over time. For example, if you can get just 1 percent better each day, you’ll end up with results that are nearly 37 times better after one year.
图1:小习惯的影响会随着时间的推移而加重。例如，如果你每天只能提高1%，那么一年之后你的成绩就会提高近37倍。
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent.
习惯是自我提高的复合利益。就像金钱通过复利倍增一样，习惯的影响也会随着你的重复而倍增。它们似乎对任何一天都没有什么影响，然而它们在几个月和几年中所产生的影响可能是巨大的。只有在两年、五年或者可能是十年之后，好习惯的价值和坏习惯的代价才会显而易见。
This can be a difficult concept to appreciate in daily life. We often dismiss small changes because they don’t seem to matter very much in the moment. If you save a little money now, you’re still not a millionaire. If you go to the gym three days in a row, you’re still out of shape. If you study Mandarin for an hour tonight, you still haven’t learned the language. We make a few changes, but the results never seem to come quickly and so we slide back into our previous routines.
这在日常生活中可能是一个很难理解的概念。我们经常忽略一些小的改变，因为它们在当时似乎并不重要。如果你现在存一点钱，你仍然不是百万富翁。如果你连续三天去健身房，你的身材仍然走样。即使你今晚学了一个小时的普通话，你仍然没有学会这门语言。我们做了一些改变，但结果似乎永远不会很快到来，所以我们滑回到我们以前的日常生活。
Unfortunately, the slow pace of transformation also makes it easy to let a bad habit slide. If you eat an unhealthy meal today, the scale doesn’t move much. If you work late tonight and ignore your family,they will forgive you. If you procrastinate and put your project off until tomorrow, there will usually be time to finish it later. A single decision is easy to dismiss.
不幸的是，缓慢的转变步伐也很容易让坏习惯溜走。如果你今天吃了一顿不健康的食物，体重秤不会移动太多。如果你今晚工作到很晚忽略了你的家人,他们会原谅你的。如果你拖延并且把你的项目推迟到明天，通常会有时间晚点完成它。一个简单的决定很容易被忽略。
But when we repeat 1 percent errors, day after day, by replicating poor decisions, duplicating tiny mistakes, and rationalizing little excuses, our small choices compound into toxic results. It’s the accumulation of many missteps—a 1 percent decline here and there— that eventually leads to a problem.
但是当我们日复一日地重复百分之一的错误时，通过复制错误的决定，复制微小的错误，以及合理化小借口，我们的小选择就会变成有害的结果。正是许多失误的累积ーー到处下降1%ーー最终导致了问题的产生。
The impact created by a change in your habits is similar to the effect of shifting the route of an airplane by just a few degrees. Imagine you are flying from Los Angeles to New York City. If a pilot leaving from LAX adjusts the heading just 3.5 degrees south, you will land in Washington, D.C., instead of New York. Such a small change is barely noticeable at takeoff—the nose of the airplane moves just a few feet— but when magnified across the entire United States, you end up hundreds of miles apart.*
习惯的改变所产生的影响就像飞机航线改变几度一样。想象一下你正从洛杉矶飞往纽约。如果从洛杉矶国际机场起飞的飞行员将航向调整为向南3.5度，你将降落在华盛顿特区，而不是纽约。这种微小的变化在起飞时几乎看不出来ーー飞机的机头只移动了几英尺ーー但是当这种变化放大到整个美国时，你会发现两者相距数百英里。
Similarly, a slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a very different destination. Making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be. Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.
同样，日常生活习惯的一个小小的改变就可以引导你的生活到达一个完全不同的目的地。选择好1%还是坏1%在当下看起来微不足道，但是在构成一生的时间跨度中，这些选择决定了你是谁和你可以成为谁。成功是日常习惯的产物ーー而不是一生只有一次的转变。
That said, it doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success. You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results. If you’re a millionaire but you spend more than you earn each month, then you’re on a bad trajectory. If your spending habits don’t change, it’s not going to end well. Conversely, if you’re broke, but you save a little bit every month, then you’re on the path toward financial freedom—even if you’re moving slower than you’d like.
也就是说，无论你现在是成功还是失败。重要的是你的习惯是否让你走上成功的道路。你应该更关心你当前的轨迹，而不是你当前的结果。如果你是一个百万富翁，但是你每个月花的比你挣的多，那么你的人生轨迹就很糟糕。如果你的消费习惯没有改变，结果不会很好。相反，如果你破产了，但你每个月都存一点钱，那么你就走上了通往财务自由的道路ーー即使你的行动比你希望的要慢。
Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat.
你的结果是你习惯的滞后测量。你的净资产是衡量你财务习惯的滞后指标。你的体重是衡量你饮食习惯的滞后指标。你的知识是对你学习习惯的滞后衡量。你的杂物是你清洁习惯的滞后措施。你得到你重复的东西。
If you want to predict where you’ll end up in life, all you have to do is follow the curve of tiny gains or tiny losses, and see how your daily choices will compound ten or twenty years down the line. Are you spending less than you earn each month? Are you making it into the gym each week? Are you reading books and learning something new each day? Tiny battles like these are the ones that will define your future self.
如果你想预测自己的人生最终会走向何方，你所要做的就是沿着微小收益或微小损失的曲线走下去，看看十年或二十年后你的日常选择会如何复合。你每个月的花费是否少于你的收入？你每周都去健身房吗？你每天都在读书和学习新的东西吗？像这样的小战役将定义你未来的自我。
Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.
时间放大了成功与失败之间的差距。无论你喂它什么，它都会成倍增长。好习惯使时间成为你的盟友。坏习惯使时间成为你的敌人。
Habits are a double-edged sword. Bad habits can cut you down just as easily as good habits can build you up, which is why understanding the details is crucial. You need to know how habits work and how to design them to your liking, so you can avoid the dangerous half of the blade.
习惯是把双刃剑。坏习惯会像好习惯一样轻易地让你放弃，这就是为什么理解细节是至关重要的。你需要知道习惯是如何运作的，以及如何按照自己的喜好来设计习惯，这样你才能避开危险的那一半。
YOUR HABITS CAN COMPOUND FOR YOU OR AGAINST YOU
你的习惯可能对你有利，也可能对你不利
Positive Compounding
正复利
Productivity compounds. Accomplishing one extra task is a small feat on any given day, but it counts for a lot over an entire career. The effect of automating an old task or mastering a new skill can be even greater. The more tasks you can handle without thinking, the more your brain is free to focus on other areas.
生产力化合物。在任何一天完成一个额外的任务都是一个小小的壮举，但对于整个职业生涯来说却意义重大。使一项旧任务自动化或掌握一项新技能的效果可能更大。你不用思考就能处理的任务越多，你的大脑就越能自由地专注于其他领域。
Knowledge compounds. Learning one new idea won’t make you a genius, but a commitment to lifelong learning can be transformative. Furthermore, each book you read not only teaches you something new but also opens up different ways of thinking about old ideas. As Warren Buffett says, “That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest.”
知识复合体。学习一个新的想法不会让你成为天才，但是对终身学习的承诺可以是变革性的。此外，你读的每一本书不仅教给你一些新的东西，而且开辟了思考旧观念的不同方式。正如沃伦•巴菲特(WarrenBuffett)所言:“这就是知识的运作方式。它会累积起来，就像复利一样。”
Relationships compound. People reflect your behavior back to you. The more you help others, the more others want to help you. Being a little bit nicer in each interaction can result in a network of broad and strong connections over time.
人际关系复合。人们会把你的行为反馈给你。你帮助别人越多，别人就越想帮助你。随着时间的推移，在每次交互中变得更好一点可以形成一个广泛而强大的关系网。
Negative Compounding
负复利
Stress compounds. The frustration of a traffic jam. The weight of parenting responsibilities. The worry of making ends meet. The strain of slightly high blood pressure. By themselves, these common causes of stress are manageable. But when they persist for years, little stresses compound into serious health issues.
压力化合物。交通堵塞的挫折感。为人父母责任的重量。收支相抵的烦恼。轻度高血压。就其本身而言，这些压力的常见原因是可以控制的。但是当它们持续多年时，几乎没有压力会导致严重的健康问题。
Negative thoughts compound. The more you think of yourself as worthless, stupid, or ugly, the more you condition yourself to interpret life that way. You get trapped in a thought loop. The same is true for how you think about others. Once you fall into the habit of seeing people as angry, unjust, or selfish, you see those kind of people everywhere.
消极思想混合物。你越觉得自己没有价值、愚蠢或者丑陋，你就越会让自己这样解释生活。你陷入了一个思维循环。同样的道理也适用于你对他人的看法。一旦你养成了把别人看作是愤怒、不公正或自私的习惯，你就会在任何地方看到这种人。
Outrage compounds. Riots, protests, and mass movements are rarely the result of a single event. Instead, a long series of microaggressions and daily aggravations slowly multiply until one event tips the scales and outrage spreads like wildfire.
愤怒的化合物。骚乱、抗议和群众运动很少是单一事件的结果。相反，一系列长时间的微侵略和每天的恶化慢慢地繁殖，直到一个事件打破了规模，愤怒像野火一样蔓延。
WHAT PROGRESS IS REALLY LIKE
进步到底是什么样的
Imagine that you have an ice cube sitting on the table in front of you. The room is cold and you can see your breath. It is currently twenty-five degrees. Ever so slowly, the room begins to heat up.
想象一下，你面前的桌子上有一个冰块。房间很冷，你可以看到你的呼吸。现在是二十五度。房间慢慢地开始升温。
Twenty-six degrees.
Twenty-seven.
Twenty-eight.
The ice cube is still sitting on the table in front of you.
冰块还在你面前的桌子上。
Twenty-nine degrees.
Thirty.
Thirty-one.
Still, nothing has happened.
然而，什么也没有发生。
Then, thirty-two degrees. The ice begins to melt. A one-degree shift, seemingly no different from the temperature increases before it, has unlocked a huge change.
然后，32度。冰开始融化。一度的转变，似乎与之前的气温上升没有什么不同，释放了一个巨大的变化。
Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change. This pattern shows up everywhere. Cancer spends 80 percent of its life undetectable, then takes over the body in months. Bamboo can barely be seen for the first five years as it builds extensive root systems underground before exploding ninety feet into the air within six weeks.
突破性的时刻往往是许多之前行动的结果，这些行动建立了释放重大变革所需的潜力。这种模式随处可见。癌症一生中有80%的时间是无法被检测到的，然后在几个月内就占据了身体。竹子在最初的五年里几乎看不到，因为它在地下建立了广泛的根系，在六个星期之内就会在空中爆炸九十英尺。
Similarly, habits often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold and unlock a new level of performance. In the early and middle stages of any quest, there is often a Valley of Disappointment. You expect to make progress in a linear fashion and it’s frustrating how ineffective changes can seem during the first days, weeks, and even months. It doesn’t feel like you are going anywhere. It’s a hallmark of any compounding process: the most powerful outcomes are delayed.
同样，习惯似乎没有什么不同，直到你跨过一个关键的阈值，并开启一个新的水平的表现。在任何任务的早期和中期阶段，通常都会有一个失望谷。你希望以一种线性的方式取得进展，而在最初的几天、几周甚至几个月里看起来无效的变化是令人沮丧的。感觉你哪儿也去不了。这是任何复合过程的标志:最强大的结果是延迟的。
This is one of the core reasons why it is so hard to build habits that last. People make a few small changes, fail to see a tangible result, and decide to stop. You think, “I’ve been running every day for a month, so why can’t I see any change in my body?” Once this kind of thinking takes over, it’s easy to let good habits fall by the wayside. But in order to make a meaningful difference, habits need to persist long enough to break through this plateau—what I call the Plateau of Latent Potential
这就是为什么很难养成持久的习惯的核心原因之一。人们做了一些小的改变，没有看到切实的结果，就决定停下来。你会想，“我已经连续一个月每天跑步了，为什么我看不到我身体的任何变化?”一旦这种思想接管，它很容易让好的习惯落在路边。但是为了做出有意义的改变，习惯需要坚持足够长的时间来突破这个高原----我称之为潜在势能高原。
如果你发现自己正在努力养成一个好习惯或者打破一个坏习惯，这并不是因为你失去了改进的能力。这通常是因为你还没有越过潜伏势的高原。
Complaining about not achieving success despite working hard is like complaining about an ice cube not melting when you heated it from twenty-five to thirty-one degrees. Your work was not wasted; it is just being stored. All the action happens at thirty-two degrees.
抱怨努力工作却没有成功，就像抱怨冰块在25到31度加热时没有融化一样。你的工作没有浪费，只是被储存起来了。所有的动作都在32度的温度下进行。
When you finally break through the Plateau of Latent Potential, people will call it an overnight success. The outside world only sees the most dramatic event rather than all that preceded it. But you know that it’s the work you did long ago—when it seemed that you weren’t making any progress—that makes the jump today possible.
当你最终突破潜能的高原，人们会称之为一夜成名。外面的世界只看到最戏剧性的事件，而不是之前发生的所有事件。但你知道，正是你很久以前所做的工作ーー当时你似乎没有取得任何进展ーー使得今天的跳跃成为可能。
It is the human equivalent of geological pressure. Two tectonic plates can grind against one another for millions of years, the tension slowly building all the while. Then, one day, they rub each other once again, in the same fashion they have for ages, but this time the tension is too great. An earthquake erupts. Change can take years—before it happens all at once.
这相当于人类的地质压力。两个板块可以相互摩擦数百万年，这种张力一直在缓慢形成。然后，有一天，他们再次互相摩擦，以同样的方式，他们已经多年，但这一次的紧张太大。地震爆发了。改变可能需要数年时间ーー直到它一下子全部发生。
Mastery requires patience. The San Antonio Spurs, one of the most successful teams in NBA history, have a quote from social reformer Jacob Riis hanging in their locker room: “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.”
精通需要耐心。圣安东尼奥马刺是NBA历史上最成功的球队之一，他们的更衣室里挂着社会改革家JacobRiis的一句话:“当什么都没有用的时候，我会去看一个石匠锤打他的石头，也许一百次都没有一个裂缝露出来。然而，到了第一百零一次打击的时候，它就会裂成两半，我知道这不是最后一次打击造成的，而是之前发生的一切。”
THE PLATEAU OF LATENT POTENTIAL
潜在势能的平台
FIGURE 2: We often expect progress to be linear. At the very least, we hope it will come quickly. In reality, the results of our efforts are often delayed. It is not until months or years later that we realize the true value of the previous work we have done. This can result in a “valley of disappointment” where people feel discouraged after putting in weeks or months of hard work without experiencing any results. However, this work was not wasted. It was simply being stored. It is not until much later that the full value of previous efforts is revealed.
图2:我们经常期望进展是线性的。至少，我们希望它会很快到来。事实上，我们努力的结果往往被拖延。直到几个月或几年以后，我们才认识到我们以前所做工作的真正价值。这可能会导致“失望谷”，人们在付出数周或数月的努力却毫无结果后感到沮丧。然而，这项工作并没有白费。它只是简单地被储存起来。直到很久以后，以前的努力的全部价值才显露出来。
All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.
所有的大事情都是从小事开始的。每一个习惯的种子都是一个单一的、微小的决定。但是随着这个决定的重复，一个习惯萌芽并且变得越来越强。树根固定自己，树枝生长。打破坏习惯的任务就像拔掉我们心中一棵强大的橡树。养成一个好习惯的任务就像一天一朵娇嫩的花。
But what determines whether we stick with a habit long enough to survive the Plateau of Latent Potential and break through to the other side? What is it that causes some people to slide into unwanted habits and enables others to enjoy the compounding effects of good ones?
但是，是什么决定了我们是否坚持一个习惯足够长的时间来生存的高原潜在的潜力和突破到另一边？是什么原因导致一些人陷入不必要的习惯，并使其他人享受到好习惯的复合效应？
FORGET ABOUT GOALS, FOCUS ON SYSTEMS INSTEAD
忘掉目标，专注于系统
Prevailing wisdom claims that the best way to achieve what we want in life—getting into better shape, building a successful business, relaxing more and worrying less, spending more time with friends and family— is to set specific, actionable goals.
普遍的观点认为，实现我们人生目标的最佳方式是设定具体的、可行的目标。这些目标包括:塑造更好的身材、建立一个成功的企业、放松更多、少担心、多花时间与朋友和家人在一起。
For many years, this was how I approached my habits, too. Each one was a goal to be reached. I set goals for the grades I wanted to get in school, for the weights I wanted to lift in the gym, for the profits I wanted to earn in business. I succeeded at a few, but I failed at a lot of them. Eventually, I began to realize that my results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed.
多年来，我也是这样养成习惯的。每一个目标都是要达到的。我为我想在学校获得的成绩，为我想在体育馆举起的重量，为我想在商业中赚取的利润设定目标。我有几次成功了，但很多次都失败了。最终，我开始意识到我的结果与我设定的目标没有多大关系，而几乎与我遵循的系统有关。
What’s the difference between systems and goals? It’s a distinction I first learned from Scott Adams, the cartoonist behind the Dilbert comic. Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.
系统和目标之间有什么区别？这是我第一次从《呆伯特》漫画背后的漫画家斯科特·亚当斯那里学到的区别。目标是你想要达到的结果。系统是关于导致这些结果的过程。
If you’re a coach, your goal might be to win a championship. Your system is the way you recruit players, manage your assistant coaches, and conduct practice.
如果你是一个教练，你的目标可能是赢得一个冠军。你的系统就是你招募球员、管理助理教练和进行练习的方式。
If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal might be to build a million-dollar business. Your system is how you test product ideas, hire employees, and run marketing campaigns.
如果你是一个企业家，你的目标可能是建立一个百万美元的企业。你的系统就是你如何测试产品创意，雇佣员工，以及进行营销活动。
If you’re a musician, your goal might be to play a new piece. Your system is how often you practice, how you break down and tackle difficult measures, and your method for receiving feedback from your instructor.
如果你是一个音乐家，你的目标可能是演奏一首新曲子。你的系统是你练习的频率，你如何分解和解决困难的措施，以及你从你的教练那里得到反馈的方法。
Now for the interesting question: If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still succeed? For example, if you were a basketball coach and you ignored your goal to win a championship and focused only on what your team does at practice each day, would you still get results?
现在有一个有趣的问题:如果你完全忽略你的目标，只关注你的系统，你还会成功吗？例如，如果你是一个篮球教练，你忽略了你想要赢得冠军的目标，只关注你的球队每天的训练，你还会得到结果吗？
I think you would.
我想你会的。
The goal in any sport is to finish with the best score, but it would be ridiculous to spend the whole game staring at the scoreboard. The only way to actually win is to get better each day. In the words of three-time Super Bowl winner Bill Walsh, “The score takes care of itself.” The same is true for other areas of life. If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
任何运动的目标都是以最好的成绩结束比赛，但是如果整场比赛都盯着记分牌看，那就太荒谬了。真正取得胜利的唯一方法就是每天都变得更好。用三届超级碗冠军比尔·沃尔什的话来说，“比分会自己照顾自己。”生活的其他领域也是如此。如果你想要更好的结果，那就忘记设定目标。把重点放在你的系统上。
What do I mean by this? Are goals completely useless? Of course not. Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress. A handful of problems arise when you spend too much time thinking about your goals and not enough time designing your systems.
我这么说是什么意思？目标真的毫无用处吗？当然不是。目标有助于设定方向，但系统最适合有进展了。当你花太多时间思考你的目标而没有足够的时间设计你的系统时，会出现一些问题。
Problem #1: Winners and losers have the same goals.
问题#1:成功者和失败者有相同的目标。
Goal setting suffers from a serious case of survivorship bias. We concentrate on the people who end up winning—the survivors—and mistakenly assume that ambitious goals led to their success while overlooking all of the people who had the same objective but didn’t succeed.
目标设定受到一个严重的倖存者偏差的影响。我们把注意力集中在那些最终获胜的人ーー那些幸存者ーー而错误地认为雄心勃勃的目标会带来成功，却忽视了所有拥有相同目标但没有成功的人。
Every Olympian wants to win a gold medal. Every candidate wants to get the job. And if successful and unsuccessful people share the same goals, then the goal cannot be what differentiates the winners from the losers. It wasn’t the goal of winning the Tour de France that propelled the British cyclists to the top of the sport. Presumably, they had wanted to win the race every year before—just like every other professional team. The goal had always been there. It was only when they implemented a system of continuous small improvements that they achieved a different outcome.
每一位奥运选手都想赢得金牌。每个候选人都想得到这份工作。如果成功和不成功的人拥有相同的目标，那么目标就不能区分成功者和失败者。并不是赢得环法自行车赛的目标将英国自行车手推向了这项运动的顶峰。据推测，他们以前每年都想赢得比赛ーー就像其他职业球队一样。目标一直都在那里。只有当他们实施了一个持续的小改进系统之后，他们才取得了不同的结果。
Problem #2: Achieving a goal is only a momentary change.
问题#2:实现一个目标只是一个短暂的改变。
Imagine you have a messy room and you set a goal to clean it. If you summon the energy to tidy up, then you will have a clean room—for now. But if you maintain the same sloppy, pack-rat habits that led to a messy room in the first place, soon you’ll be looking at a new pile of clutter and hoping for another burst of motivation. You’re left chasing the same outcome because you never changed the system behind it. You treated a symptom without addressing the cause.
想象一下，你有一个凌乱的房间，你设定了一个目标来清理它。如果你能集中精力整理房间，那么你将拥有一个干净的房间----至少现在是这样。但是，如果你还是保持着那种邋遢的、喜欢收拾东西的习惯，那种习惯一开始就导致房间凌乱不堪，那么很快你就会看到一堆新的杂物，并希望再次获得动力。你只能追求相同的结果，因为你从来没有改变它背后的系统。你在没有解决原因的情况下治疗了一个症状。
Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. That’s the counterintuitive thing about improvement. We think we need to change our results, but the results are not the problem. What we really need to change are the systems that cause those results. When you solve problems at the results level, you only solve them temporarily. In order to improve for good, you need to solve problems at the systems level. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.
实现一个目标只会改变你当下的生活。这是关于进步的违反直觉的事情。我们认为我们需要改变我们的结果，但结果不是问题。我们真正需要改变的是导致这些结果的系统。当您在结果级别解决问题时，您只是暂时解决它们。为了获得更好的改进，您需要在系统级解决问题。修复输入和输出将自行修复。
Problem #3: Goals restrict your happiness.
问题#3:目标会限制你的快乐。
The implicit assumption behind any goal is this: “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy.” The problem with a goals-first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone. I’ve slipped into this trap so many times I’ve lost count. For years, happiness was always something for my future self to enjoy. I promised myself that once I gained twenty pounds of muscle or after my business was featured in the New York Times, then I could finally relax.
任何目标背后都隐含着这样的假设:“一旦我达到了目标，我就会很快乐。”目标第一的心态的问题在于你总是把快乐推迟到下一个里程碑。我已经陷入这个陷阱太多次了，我都数不清了。多年来，幸福一直是我未来自己享受的东西。我向自己保证，一旦我增加了20磅的肌肉，或者在我的事业登上了《纽约时报》之后，我终于可以放松下来了。
Furthermore, goals create an “either-or” conflict: either you achieve your goal and are successful or you fail and you are a disappointment. You mentally box yourself into a narrow version of happiness. This is misguided. It is unlikely that your actual path through life will match the exact journey you had in mind when you set out. It makes no sense to restrict your satisfaction to one scenario when there are many paths to success.
此外，目标创造了一个“非此即彼”的冲突:要么你实现了目标并且成功了，要么你失败了，你变成了一个失望者。你在精神上把自己限制在一种狭隘的幸福中。这是一种误导。你人生的实际道路不太可能与你出发时脑海中的旅程完全一致。当有许多通向成功的道路时，将你的满足感限制在一种情况下是没有意义的。
A systems-first mentality provides the antidote. When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running. And a system can be successful in many different forms, not just the one you first envision.
系统优先的心态提供了解药。当你爱上过程而不是产品时，你不必等待给自己快乐的许可。您可以在系统运行的任何时候得到满足。一个系统可以以多种不同的形式取得成功，而不仅仅是你第一次想象的那样。
Problem #4: Goals are at odds with long-term progress.
问题#4:目标与长期进展不一致。
Finally, a goal-oriented mind-set can create a “yo-yo” effect. Many runners work hard for months, but as soon as they cross the finish line, they stop training. The race is no longer there to motivate them. When all of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after you achieve it? This is why many people find themselves reverting to their old habits after accomplishing a goal.
最后，以目标为导向的心态可以产生“溜溜球”效应。许多跑步者努力训练几个月，但是一旦他们越过终点线，他们就停止训练。这场竞赛不再是为了激励他们。当你所有的努力工作都集中在一个特定的目标上时，在你实现它之后还有什么可以推动你前进呢？这就是为什么许多人在完成一个目标后发现自己又回到了原来的习惯。
The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.
设立目标的目的是为了赢得比赛。建立系统的目的是为了继续玩这个游戏。真正的长期思考是没有目标的思考。这与任何单一的成就都无关。这是一个不断完善和不断改进的循环。最终，你对这个过程的承诺将决定你的进步。
A SYSTEM OF ATOMIC HABITS
原子习惯系统
If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.
如果你无法改变你的习惯，问题不在你。问题在于你的系统。坏习惯一次又一次地重复着，不是因为你不想改变，而是因为你有一个错误的改变系统。
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
你没有达到你的目标水平。你跌落到你的系统的水平。
Focusing on the overall system, rather than a single goal, is one of the core themes of this book. It is also one of the deeper meanings behind the word atomic. By now, you’ve probably realized that an atomic habit refers to a tiny change, a marginal gain, a 1 percent improvement. But atomic habits are not just any old habits, however small. They are little habits that are part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results.
关注整个系统，而不是单一的目标，是这本书的核心主题之一。这也是原子这个词背后的深层含义之一。到现在为止，你可能已经意识到原子习惯指的是一个微小的改变，一个边际收益，一个百分之一的提高。但是原子习惯不仅仅是任何旧习惯，无论多么微小。这些小习惯是更大系统的一部分。正如原子是构成分子的基石一样，原子的习性也是构成卓越成果的基石。
Habits are like the atoms of our lives. Each one is a fundamental unit that contributes to your overall improvement. At first, these tiny routines seem insignificant, but soon they build on each other and fuel bigger wins that multiply to a degree that far outweighs the cost of their initial investment. They are both small and mighty. This is the meaning of the phrase atomic habits—a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do, but also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth.
习惯就像我们生活中的原子。每一个都是一个基本的单位，有助于你的整体提高。起初，这些小小的例行公事看起来微不足道，但是很快它们就会相互促进，并且带来更大的成功，成倍增长，远远超过了它们最初投资的成本。它们既小又有力。这就是“原子习惯”这个短语的意思ーー这是一种常规的实践或例行公事，不仅规模小，容易做到，而且还是不可思议的力量之源;是复合生长系统的一个组成部分。
Chapter Summary
章节摘要
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. Getting 1 percent better every day counts for a lot in the long-run.
习惯是自我提高的复合利益。从长远来看，每天提高1%很重要。
Habits are a double-edged sword. They can work for you or against you, which is why understanding the details is essential.
习惯是把双刃剑。他们可以为你工作，也可以为你工作，这就是为什么理解细节是至关重要的。
Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient.
小的改变通常看起来没有什么不同，直到你跨过一个临界点。任何复利过程中最强大的结果都是延迟的。你要有耐心。
An atomic habit is a little habit that is part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results.
原子习惯是一个小习惯，是一个更大系统的一部分。正如原子是构成分子的基石一样，原子的习性也是构成卓越成果的基石。
If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
如果你想要更好的结果，那就忘记设定目标。把重点放在你的系统上。
你没有达到你的目标水平，你跌落到你的系统的水平。
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