冒险：抓住机会的4个步骤

 　　你有过曾经停在演讲台上，与站在你面前的参议员讲话时双手颤抖的经历吗？你有过曾经给你的冰鞋饰上花边，听到你将作为下个滑冰运动员出场比赛时浑身战栗的经历吗？你有过曾经发现一个吃惊的机会，却只让你意识到你害怕尝试的经历吗？冒险并不能保证你能实现你所渴望的结果。然而，当机会向你走来时，你可以做一些事来最优化成功的机会。

　　1. Get yourself prepared (and keep your eyes open).

　　时刻做好准备（把你的眼睛睁大了）Malcolm Gladwell said it in Outliers, and I'll say it again: It takes time to achieve expertise¹. To be precise, it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to become a true proficient². This is no small investment of your life energy.

　　As such, it pays to spend time thinking about the kinds of opportunities you want to prepare yourself for.

　　If you're an advocate, what do you want to say to those senators? Start saying it now, even if you're speaking to an empty room at first. If you're a figure skater, what elements do you want in your Olympic program? Start practicing those elements every day.

　　Once you have seriously invested yourself, and have discerned what kind of opportunity you're looking for, keep your eyes open, because opportunity has a strange way of showing up once you've prepared. Said opportunity may be unexpected (the best ones are), but if you've put in the time beforehand, you can seize the opportunity when it arises.

　　Nevertheless, it's also essential to...

　　2. Realize that you'll never be totally prepared. (In other words, you may fail.)意识到你永远不可能完全准备好（换句话说，你可能会失败）Even if you're a professional figure skater who has put in 10,000 hours of ice time, it will still feel terrifying to take the ice for your Olympic short program. You don't know what will happen. Case in point: You may hit a rough patch and fall flat.

　　However, it's worth noting that many a short-program snafu has turned into long-program gold. As sports writer Robin³ Ritoss notes, "The short program has long been seen as where competitions have been lost—not won." In other words: Most of the world will see a stumble as a reason for you to give up.

　　You can choose see a screw-up as a reason to hope, an opportunity to grow. The best skaters take a fall and keep going with a smile. They have the ability to consider the audience perspective.

　　It's tough to smile right after you've made a mistake, but think of it this way: Is there anything an audience loves better than a good comeback? As author Mark Batterson writes, "Our best days often start out as our worst days. And our greatest opportunities are often disguised as our biggest problems."This is also an excellent time to...

　　3. Anthropomorphize the critical voices (and then put a lid on them.)将批判的声音人格化（然后限制他们）In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott shares an ingenious method for coping with the critical voices in your mind (the ones that say "I can't do it" and "You're ridiculous to even try.") Your critical teachers (and the not-so supportive friends you may have had) are all in your head when you're trying to seize an opportunity. Instead of letting their negativity reign⁴, try to:

　　"...isolate⁵ one of the voices and imagine [it] as a mouse. Pick it up by the tail and drop it into a mason jar. Then isolate another voice...And so on...Then put the lid on, and watch all these mouse people, clawing at the glass, jabbering⁶ away..."This exercise helps you to mute the volume on the voices that don't serve you. Now that you've got the critics taken care of...

　　4. Put up a fight and believe. (Let your second self have a turn on the dance floor.)信任并且奋起战斗（让你的第二自我展露出天赋）If you want to influence a senator's vote, win a gold medal or guest post on an amazing blog, you cannot allow doubts and fears to drag you down. You have to let something else guide you.

　　What is that something else? Well, that's you, actually. As Juan Ramón Jiménez writes: I am not I. / I am this one / walking beside me whom I do not see... / who will remain standing⁷ when I die.

　　In other words, your scared, fearful self isn't the only ticket in town. You have another self, one that relishes⁸ intensity⁹ and newness. You have a self that's ready to seize the opportunity you desire.

　　As Martha Beck, Ph.D, writes in Steering¹⁰ by Starlight, "Scholars...who study human happiness concur¹¹ that we are most centered and blissful 'in the zone' when we're intensely focused on something that is almost too hard or too scary to do..."True, you do have a self that wants to flee from a challenge. Yet you also have a self that wants to meet that same challenge head-on.

　　Get to know that second self. Think back to a time when you felt it, a time when you felt as though you were flowing beyond your natural abilities. Befriend it as you would a new acquaintance.

　　Feel the way it makes your fingers tingle¹², the way it guides your feet to unexpected thresholds. Chances are, that second self will be the one turning the knob when opportunity knocks.

1 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

2 proficient   

adj.熟练的，精通的；n.能手，专家

参考例句：

• She is proficient at swimming.她精通游泳。
• I think I'm quite proficient in both written and spoken English.我认为我在英语读写方面相当熟练。

3 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

4 reign   

n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势

参考例句：

• The reign of Queen Elizabeth lapped over into the seventeenth century.伊丽莎白王朝延至17世纪。
• The reign of Zhu Yuanzhang lasted about 31 years.朱元璋统治了大约三十一年。

5 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

6 jabbering   

v.急切而含混不清地说( jabber的现在分词 )；急促兴奋地说话；结结巴巴

参考例句：

• What is he jabbering about now? 他在叽里咕噜地说什么呢？
• He was jabbering away in Russian. 他叽里咕噜地说着俄语。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 relishes   

n.滋味( relish的名词复数 )；乐趣；（大量的）享受；快乐v.欣赏( relish的第三人称单数 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望

参考例句：

• The meat relishes of pork. 这肉有猪肉味。 来自辞典例句
• The biography relishes too much of romance. 这篇传记中传奇色彩太浓。 来自辞典例句

9 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

10 steering   

n.操舵装置

参考例句：

• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。

11 concur   

v.同意，意见一致，互助，同时发生

参考例句：

• Wealth and happiness do not always concur.财富与幸福并非总是并存的。
• I concur with the speaker in condemning what has been done.我同意发言者对所做的事加以谴责。

12 tingle   

vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动

参考例句：

• The music made my blood tingle.那音乐使我热血沸腾。
• The cold caused a tingle in my fingers.严寒使我的手指有刺痛感。