行胜于言：空谈者和实干家的区别

行胜于言：空谈者和实干家的区别
译者：?半言
发表时间：2010-09-30浏览量：3457评论数：4挑错数：0
你是否有许多的空想无法付诸实践？你是否总觉得自己的才能未能兑现？你是否羡慕着那些你曾经想要成为的名家？听听J.D.Roth是怎么说的吧，他也走过了一段从空谈者到实干家的转变。
It’s Sunday morning and I should be editing articles in advance of my upcoming vacation. Instead, I just got done playing another game of Starcraft II. Since the game was released on July 27th, I’ve played many games of Starcraft II. In fact, I’ve played at least 150 games of Starcraft II. (I know this because the game keeps track of your record. I played 50 training matches, and have since won 47 and lost 42 against human opponents, putting me near the top of my division in the “Silver League”. Plus I’ve played some single-player games.)
星期天的早上，我本应该赶在即将到来的假期前完成文章的校订。但是，我却把时间花在了一局新的星际游戏上。自从7月27日游戏发布以来，我已经玩过很多次了。事实上，我已经玩过不下150场的星际Ⅱ游戏。（因为游戏会跟踪记录玩家信息，所以我知道这个数目。我打过50场练习赛，在和人族的对抗中47胜42败，使我接近了白银组的顶级。此外，我还玩过一些单机游戏。）
How much time has playing 150 games of Starcraft II sucked from my life? At about 30 minutes per game, it’s safe to say I’ve spent about 80 hours over the past month — or about 20 hours per week — building virtual armies and blowing stuff up.
这150场星际Ⅱ游戏耗费了我生命中多少宝贵的时间啊？以30分钟一局来算，在过去的一个月里我已经虚耗了大约80个小时——也就是每周20小时——用于组建虚拟的军队，再把他们都破坏掉。
Now on the surface, there’s nothing wrong with me having a little fun. I’ve been waiting for this game for almost twelve years. Plus, I’ve been working hard for the past two years, and I’ve been stressed because of it. I deserve some time off, and have intentionally been downshifting to a simpler life, one that gives me time for computer games.
从表面上看，我寻求一点娱乐的做法是无可厚非的。为了这款游戏，我已经等待了将近两年时间。在过去的两年里，我努力工作，并为此而承担压力。我需要一些时间来休息。我主动放慢了生活节奏，使之变得简单，从而给自己留出了时间来享受电脑游戏。
However, having said that, in this case there’s a problem. Recently my game-playing — I’ve also been obsessed with Carcassonne on the iPad (getting close to the global top 100 list!) — has been obsessive, and has come at a price.
话虽如此，这里仍然有个问题。最近，我沉溺于游戏之中——iPad上的卡卡颂游戏同样使我着迷

（我已快登上全球百强榜）——并为此付出了代价。
I haven’t been cycling (though I have been going to the gym).
·我还没有去骑自行车（尽管我去了健身房）
I haven’t been doing my work around the house.
·我还没有做家务活
I haven’t been studying my French. (One of my goals was too be able to speak a bit of French before our upcoming trip to Paris.)
·我还没有学习法语（我的目标之一是在即将出行的法国游前能够说一点法语）
I haven’t been prepping my Animal Intelligence blog for re-launch (which is still scheduled for Wednesday!).
·我还没有准备“动物的智慧”博客的重新上线（它仍然在我周三的计划表上）
I’ve been scrambling to get articles ready for Get Rich Slowly.
·我为“慢慢致富”网站写文章变得仓促混乱
I say I’m going to do all of these things, but I never do. Instead I play computer games. Basically, I’ve turned into the old J.D. — the J.D. of five years ago. I’ve become a Talker instead of a Doer.
我说过我要做完这些事情，但我从来都没有去做。我的时间花在了电脑游戏上。从根本上说，我又回到了自己过去的样子——一个五年前的自己。我成了一个空谈者，而非实干家。
Talkers vs. Doers
空谈者 vs. 实干家
Five years ago, I was full of hot air. Well, that and I was clinically depressed. And lazy. This was not a good combination for Getting Things Done. I talked a lot about the things I wanted to do, but I never did them. I found reasons not to. I even had trouble keeping up my end of the household chores, which my wife found very frustrating.
五年前，我是一个夸夸其谈的人。好吧，那时我患了抑郁症。人还很懒。这些缺点结合在一起肯定与《尽管去做》一书相悖。我说过很多自己想做的事情，却从来没有真正付诸行动。我为自己的不作为找借口。我甚至很难做完分内的家务活，这让我的妻子非常沮丧。
I was a Talker.
我只是一个空谈者。
Maybe you know somebody like this. A Talker seems to know the solutions to everything, has great plans on how he’s going to make money or get a new job. But the funny thing is, the Talker never acts on his solutions and his great plans. And he never gets that new job. He’s out of work or stuck in a job he hates. To everyone else, it’s clear that the Talker is full of hot air, but he believes he’s bluffing everyone along, or conflates talking with doing. When confronted, a Talker always has excuses for not getting things done: he doesn’t have time, he doesn’t have the skills, the odds are stacked against him. When a Talker does do something, he often takes a shortcut.
也许你认识一些像这样的人。一个空谈者看上去像是知道所有事情的解决办法，他有许多关于如何挣钱或是找份新工作的计划。但搞笑的是，他从来不按自己提出的

解决途径办事，也不遵从自己定下的计划。他一直得不到那份新的工作，总是处于失业状态，或是在自己憎恶的岗位上停滞不前。对其他人而言，空谈者明显过于浮夸，但他却以为自己可以唬的别人和他一样，把言行混为一谈。每当遇到困难的时候，空谈者都能为自己没有完成任务找到理由：没有时间，缺少技术，机会不佳。而当他做了什么的时候，通常都是走的捷径。
That, my friends, was the man I used to be.
各位朋友，那就是我过去的样子。
But something changed in the autumn of 2005. I began to read a lot of books. Not just personal finance books (though, as you know, I read plenty of those), but also self-help books and success manuals. I read Feeling Good to deal with my depression, How to Win Friends and Influence People [my review] to learn how to talk with people, and so on. And gradually I began to take the advice in these books to heart.
但是，2005年的秋天，有些东西开始发生改变。我开始阅读大量的书籍。不仅是个人理财方面的（你知道的，我过去读了很多这类的书），还有一些关于自励和成功指南的书。我通过阅读《感觉良好》来消除自己的抑郁心情，阅读《人性的弱点》来学习与人沟通。慢慢的，我开始从心底接受书中的建议。
I began to take small steps, began to be more active in my world. Instead of just talking about doing things, I did them. I stopped looking for shortcuts — I had been a huge fan of shortcuts — and started actually doing the work required to get things done. Shockingly, this worked. By doing the work, I got the expected results. By doing instead of talking, things started to happen.
我开始迈出向前的步伐，在自己的世界中变得更加积极。除了嘴上说说，我进一步的开始动手做事。我不再事事寻求捷径——我曾经总是想走捷径——并开始按要求完成任务。令人震惊的事情发生了，这些改变生效了。通过这些工作，我得到了想要的结果。实干代替了空谈，那些事情开始一一兑现。
I became a Doer.
我成为了一个实干家。
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Will Durant, though often misattributed to Aristotle
“我们重复的作为决定了我们是什么样的人。因而，优秀不是一种行为，而是一种习惯。”——威尔·杜兰特，这句话常被误传为亚里士多德的名言。
We Are What We Repeatedly Do
我们重复的作为决定了我们是什么样的人
Author Kevin J. Anderson has a fantastic post on his blog about the similarities between the Olympics and writing. Here’s a lengthy excerpt:
在作家凯文·J·安德森的博客上有一篇极为精彩的文章，论述了奥林匹克与写作的相似性。以下是部分章节摘录：
I’ve had many people tell me, “Oh, wri

ting is easy. Anybody can do it if they just sit down and put their minds to it.” Here’s how the conversation goes:
曾经有许多人对我说过，“噢，写作十分简单。任何人，只要他们肯坐下来，花点儿心思来做，就可以写成。”以下是对话的后续进展：
Somebody at a book-signing: “I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I could write a novel.”
在书本的签售会上，有人说：“我一直都想成为一个作家。我能写小说的。”
Me: “Oh? Why haven’t you?”
我问：“哦？那你为什么没有呢？”
Person: “I just don’t have the time.”
那人回答：“我只是没有时间。”
Me: “Hmm. Nobody gives me the time, either. I have to make the time, set priorities, discipline myself to get my writing done each day, no matter how tired I am. I worked a full-time regular job while I wrote my first novels, scraping out an hour here or there in evenings and weekends. That’s how I’ve become a successful author.”
我说：“嗯。也没有人给我时间。我得自己创造时间，确定优先项，无论多累，都要训练自己完成每天的写作任务。当我写自己的第一本书时，每天还在做一份全职的工作，我得在晚上和周末挤出一个小时来写作。就这样，我现在成了一名成功的作家。”
Person: “Yeah, right. I think you’re just lucky.”
那人说：“呃，是啊。我觉得你真是幸运。”
[...]
……
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was five years old. I sat in my dad’s study and plunked out my first “novel” on a manual typewriter when I was eight. By the age of ten, I had saved up enough money to buy either a bicycle (like a normal kid), or my own typewriter. I chose the typewriter. I got my first rejection slip by the time I was 13, had my first story published when I was 16 (after I had gathered 80 rejection slips), and sold my first novel by the time I was 25.
我从五岁开始就渴望成为一名作家。八岁那年，我坐在父亲的书房里，在那台人工打字机上敲出了自己的第一部“小说”。等到十岁的时候，我攒下了足够的钱来给自己买一件礼物。在自行车（像一个平常的孩子那样）和打字机之间，我选择了给自己买一台打字机。十三岁的时候，我收到了人生中的第一封退稿信。好在，十六岁时，我发表了自己的第一篇故事（那时我已收到过八十封退稿信了），继而在二十五岁那年卖出了自己的第一部小说。
I have a trophy in my office proclaiming me to be “The Writer with No Future” because I could produce more rejection slips by weight than any other writer at an entire conference. My files now bulge with more than 800 rejections. On the other hand, I also have 100 books published, 46 of which have been national or international bestsellers, I’ve got a shelf full of awards, and my work has been translated into 30 languages.

I’ve written more than twelve million words, so far.
在我的办公室里有一面奖牌，它宣称我是“没有未来的作家”，因为在参加那次会议的全部作家中，从重量上来比较，我收到的退稿信是最多的。如今，我的文件夹被八百余封拒信塞得鼓鼓囊囊。从另一方面来说，我同时又出版过一百本书，其中的四十六本成为了国内或是国际上的畅销书，我的书架上堆满了各种奖项，我的作品已被译为三十种语言。迄今为止，我已经写了超过1200万字的作品。
Anderson is a Doer. He doesn’t just talk about writing — he writes. He writes over and over and over again. Through the sheer act of writing, he became a writer.
安德森是一位实干家。他不仅仅是在口头上谈论写作——他是真的写了。积年累月，笔耕不辍。正是通过这种全然的写作行为，他成为了一名作家。
Note: Anderson’s entire post is awesome. Go read it now. My article will still be here when you finish.
提示：安德森的全文十分精彩。你可以现在就前往阅读。当你读完之后，我的文章还将继续。
People often ask me about the secret to this blog’s success. “How did you get so many readers?” they ask. “How can I do the same?”
人们时常会问我关于这个博客获得成功的秘诀。“你怎么会有那么多的读者？”他们问，“我怎样才能做到像你一样呢？”
My answer is similar to Anderson’s. There aren’t any secrets. Write and post great content on a regular basis for a long, long time. In short, you can’t just talk about building a great blog; you also have to put in the work. Simple, right? But it’s not easy.
我的回答与安德森的相类似。这里并没有什么秘密。在相当长的一段时间里，你得定期写作和发布有质量的文章。简言之，你不能仅仅把建一个优质的博客挂在嘴边儿，你还得用心去做。这听起来容易，实际操作中却并不简单。
(I appreciate the folks who come up to me and say, “You know, J.D., I don’t know how you do it. I tried to keep a blog for a few months. It was hard.” Yes, it is. It’s work, just like anything else.)
?（我十分感激那些来我博客留言的人们，他们说：“你了解的，J.D.，我不知道你是怎样实现的，但我也在努力坚持，尝试在几个月的时间里持续更新一个博客。这真的挺难。”是的，这的确很难。但它十分有效，就像做其他事情一样。）
If there’s something you want to be or do, the best way to become that thing is to actually take steps toward it, to move in that direction. Don’t just talk about it, but do something. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Just take a small step in the right direction every single day.
如果你真正想要成为什么或是实现什么，最好的途径就是扎扎实实去做，朝着你的方向，采取切实

行动。不要再空谈了，切实的做点儿什么吧。它不必是什么宏大的事情，只要每天在正确的方向上前进一小步就可以了。
If you want to get out of debt, take small steps toward becoming debt-free. If you want to save for a trip to Africa, save a little bit at a time. If you want to get a new job, make moves in that direction. But take action. That’s the most important step.
如果你想摆脱负债累累的困境，试着定期偿还一些小额贷款；如果你想攒钱去非洲旅游，每次节省一定开销；如果你想获得一份新的工作，在你期望的方向每天前进一点。但是，请牢记，采取行动。那才是最重要的一步。
Action Not Words
?行胜于言
Of course, there’s more to getting stuff than just taking action. It’s one thing to say you want to become a commercial airline pilot and another to actually do it. Here are some of the things I learned as I made the move from Talker do Doer:
当然，除了行动起来，你还可以做得更多。你说自己想成为一名商业航空公司的飞行员和你能真正驾驶飞机行越云天完全是两码事。我在说大话到干实事的转变中略有心得，暂列如下：
Make time for the things you want to do. One of the keys to getting things done is setting aside time for the things you want to accomplish. You have to make time to get stuff done. As the Kevin J. Anderson article I mentioned above demonstrates, you don’t just become a best-selling author or an Olympic athlete. Talking doesn’t make it so. You have to carve out time to do this stuff. You have to put your Big Rocks first and fit the small stuff in around them.
·为你想做的事情腾出时间。想要达成你想做的事情的关键之一就是要为它腾出一定的时间。你必须花时间去做才能完成它。就像我上面提到的凯文·J·安德森的文章所证实的那样，你并没有成为一个畅销书作家或是奥运会选手。空谈是达不到这一点的，你必须挤出时间来做这些事情。你得首先做完那些重要的事情，然后用适当的时间完成这些小内容，从而变得更加充实。
Have a goal in mind. I truly believe that the biggest reason I used to struggle with getting stuff done is that I didn’t have any sort of plan. I had no goals. Goals give you purpose. It wasn’t until I became committed to digging out of debt that I was able to actually start moving in the right direction. Part of my current problem is that I’ve recently achieved a bunch of big goals, but now have nothing planned for the future.
?·在心中树立目标。我确信，我过去总在与自己无法做成事情斗争的最大原因就是缺少计划。我没有目标。而目标通常能给人以希望。直到我开始为偿还债务而努力，才真正开始朝着正确的方向行进。目前，我仍然面临着这一问题，我最近刚刚实现了自己的一系列目标，

对于未来，又回到了空白。
Don’t take on too much. While it’s important to set goals, don’t take on too many tasks at once. I try to set just one or two major goals at a time. Any more and I find I can’t pursue any of them effectively. This year, my one goal is to lose 50 pounds. I’m on pace to do that. Why? Because I don’t have anything else on my schedule competing for time. This is my Big Rock.
·不要贪多。尽管树立目标很重要，但不要一次给自己安排太多的任务。我每次仅仅给自己设定一到两个主要的目标。如果再多，我想自己是无法有效完成它们的。今年，我的目标是减掉五十磅。目前正在一步步的施行中。由于我的计划表上没有别的事情来和它抢时间，我的计划进行的很顺利。这真是一个艰巨的任务。
Don’t let failures deter you. This is huge. One of the reasons I used to talk so much without acting is that I was afraid of failure. I’m not sure where I learned to be afraid of defeat, but that’s the way I was. And when I did try something but failed, I’d give up. This is no way to get stuff done. Talkers let fear of failure keep them on the sideline; Doers overcome fear and move on, and when they fail, they simply try again.
·不要让失败成为你的拦路虎。这很重大。我过去光说不做的很大一个原因就是害怕会失败。我不确定自己是从哪儿学会害怕失败的，但我已经如此了。当我尝试一些事情并以失败告终的时候，我会放弃它们。这样就没法儿把事情做完了。空谈者受胁于失败的恐惧而主动退出；实干家却能克服内心的胆怯继续前进，即使他们失败了，也不过是从头再来。
Don’t find reasons that something can’t be done; instead, find ways that something can be done. This is a pet peeve of mine. I hate when people come to me for advice, but when I give it, they tell me all of the reasons it won’t work for their circumstances. (This often happens when I suggest people take a second job to boost their income, for example.) One of the biggest difference between successful people and those who aren’t is that the successful don’t make excuses. If something looks difficult or impossible, they find ways to make it happen anyhow.
?·不为失败找借口，只为成功找方法。这是我个人的一点小小忌讳。我不喜欢那些来向我寻求建议的人以各种理由开脱搪塞，当我向他们提供想法的时候，他们总会告诉我那对他们不适用。（比如，在我建议人们通过找份兼职来提高收入的时候，这样的情景经常发生。）成功者和普通人之间的很大一个区别就是他们从来不为自己找借口。即便事情真的很难，甚至不可能实现，他们也会想方设法的寻求解决之道。
In the past five years, I’ve learned that I can do anything I set my mind to. Get out of debt? After I stopped talking an

d started doing, I got out of debt quicker than I thought possible. Losing 50 pounds? Well, I’m not there yet, but I’ve lost over 30 pounds since January 1st — but it didn’t happen until I stopped talking about it and started working hard to make it happen. Learning French? Well, there’s one where my talk outpaces my action right now, and it’s a perfect example of what I mean when I say actions speak louder than words. I don’t study my French as much as I should, so basically all I can do is count and tell you what color my clothes are. (”J’ai deux chemise noir.”)
在过去的五年里，我认识到，世上无难事，只怕有心人。想要偿清负债？在我停止空谈着手还贷之后，我用比想象中快的多的时间还清了债务。减掉五十磅？好吧，我目前还没有达到，但从年初到现在，我已经减掉了三十磅——在我停止大话开始努力瘦身之前它可并没有发生。学习法语？呃，目前来说，这是我言语大过行动的一项，也是一个极好的反例来证明我所说的行胜于言。我没有付出足够的精力来学习法语，所以目前我能做的只有数数和谈论衣服的颜色而已。（“我有两件黑衬衫。”）
For five years, my doing slowly increased until this past winter it reached a frenzied pace. I was burning myself out. I was writing and speaking and working and exercising and…well, it seemed like I never had a spare moment. This was the dark side of doing, and it’s what triggered my desire to downshift. It’s what led the pendulum swinging too far in the direction of Starcraft II.
?五年时间，我的行动力在逐渐提升，直到去年冬天，它几乎到达了疯狂的地步。我的小宇宙在彻底燃烧。我不停的写作、演讲、工作、锻炼……就好像自己完全没有空余的时间。这是行动力爆发带来的消极一面，也是让我想要放慢节奏的原因。结果，它却引导我在星际Ⅱ的游戏道路上渐行渐远，脱离轨道了。
Finding a Solution
?找出解决之道
So what’s the solution to my current problem? How can I stop playing computer games so much? How can I stop just being a Talker and become a Doer again? Well, making this public confession is a first step. But the thing that I think will really help is the “decision tree” I came up with the other day. Whenever the urge to game strikes, I’m going to ask myself the following questions:
我如何才能走出目前的困境呢？我怎样才能停止无休止的游戏呢？我怎样才能从空谈重新走向实干呢？我想，向大家坦白自己的错误是第一步。但是，真正有用的是我日前想出的一种“决策树”。不管有多渴望开始游戏，我都会首先问自己下列问题：
Have I exercised today?
·我今天锻炼了吗？
Are the house and yard tidy?
·房间和庭院打扫干净了吗？
Have I run all of my errands?
·我的正事儿都办

完了吗？
Have I written and/or edited at least two articles for Get Rich Slowly?
·我为“慢慢致富”网站写作和/或编辑的文章达到两篇了吗？
Does my inbox have fewer than 20 messages?
·我的收件箱中的消息处理到二十条以下了吗？
If I can answer “yes” to these five questions, then it’s okay to play Starcraft II or Carcassonne. But if I answer “no” to even one of these questions, I need to have the discipline to let the gaming go. I believe this will help me strike a balance. It’ll help me return to the world of Doing again. Because you know what? Life is a lot more fun as a Doer than a Talker.
如果我对这五个问题的回答都是“是的”，那么，我可以随意去玩星际Ⅱ或者卡卡颂游戏。但是，只要我的回答中有一项是否定答案，我就得约束自己，远离游戏。我相信这能帮助我取得平衡。它将使我重新回到踏实做事的世界里。你知道吗？做一个实干家比当一个空谈者要有趣的多。
Note: At the risk of creating more Talkers in the GRS audience, I’d just like to point out that the Carcassonne app is outstanding. If you’ve played the board game, you must play the iPhone/iPad version. The ability to play — gulp — dozens of games in a matter of days lets you see just how rich and complex this game is. This adaptation is perfect in every way.
注意：尽管有可能让“慢慢致富”的读者变得言过于行，我仍想强调一下，卡卡颂游戏真的非常棒。如果你也爱玩桌游，你一定得尝试下它的iPhone或是iPad版本。在短短几天内玩过几十个游戏后，你可以比较出这款游戏是多么丰富而内涵。无论从哪方面来说，这款应用程序都是完美无缺的。