你这样永远都会失败:成功人士的3大学习秘诀

There is no shortage of advice on how to learn English. And people love articles like this.

关于学英语的建议，一点都不缺乏，而且人们也很喜欢这样的文章。

You know, stuff like ‘watch more TV and ‘be consistent’ and ‘label all the stuff in your house with the English words’. Kill me now.

你懂的，像“多看电视剧”、“有持续性地学习”或是“给家里所有东西贴上英文标签”这类的话，不要太多。

I’m not going to give you an endless vague list on how to succeed with English.

我不会给你漫无边际、模棱两可的英语学习指南。

Today I’m going to teach you the 3-critical success/study habits I’ve developed over the years that have allowed me to find success at school, in my business, and in every area of my life.

今天我会教你我在过去几年摸索出来的3种批判性成功/学习习惯，它们使我在学业、商业和生活的各个方面都取得了成功。

Success is hard. But it’s not complicated. And it starts with getting focused.

成功是艰难的，但并不复杂。它始于专注。

It’s popular to have goals. Just Google “goals” and you’ll find half a billion articles on the topic. How to pick them, how to set them, how to ….

拥有目标现在挺流行的。谷歌一下“目标”，会有五亿多条相关文章。如何选择、如何确立、如何…

That’s because it’s fun to write them all down, talk about them, and then think about how great our life is going to be once we accomplish them. ALL of them.

因为把目标写下来、谈论它们，然后想象一下在完成之后我们的生活会变得多美好，这些都很有意思。

The problem is that most people set too many goals and end up accomplishing none.

问题是大多数人制定了很多目标，结果一个也没完成。

But what if you picked just one goal?

但如果你只选择一个目标呢？

A couple of years ago when I was studying Chinese, wondering what I wanted to do with my life, and feeling a bit overwhelmed, one of my friends asked me, “What’s your number one goal?”

几年前学中文的时候，我很想知道以后自己想做什么，瞬间就会感觉压力很大。当时有个朋友问我：“你的第一目标是什么？”

That question made me nervous. I didn’t want to answer. I was afraid if I said my single most important goal, I’d be closing doors to all of my other goals. Which were many.

那个问题问得我很紧张。我不想回答。我唯恐说出了最重要的那一个目标以后，就关闭了其他的可能性，很多其他目标的可能性。

I said, “I want to be fluent in Chinese, but I also want to work from home and I want to do this and learn a million other languages and blah, blah, blah.” He cut me off and said, “Cut the BS. What’s your number one goal?”

我就说：“我想把汉语说得很流利，但我也想在家工作，然后学n多其他语言，什么的什么的。”他打断我说：“别废话。你的第一目标是什么？”

Again, I hedged. But he pushed me and forced me to get crisp. He said, “The number one goal.”

我又想闪烁其词。但他强迫我干脆一点，说：“第一目标。”

I said, “I want to get so good at Chinese that Chinese people say my Chinese is better than theirs.”

我说：“我想把汉语说好，好到让中国人说我比他们说得还好。”

We hate giving ourselves constraints because it feels limiting. It feels like we’re giving something up, and that’s exactly what it felt like in that moment.

我们不想束缚自己，因为会感觉很受限。好像我们放弃了什么，在那一瞬间就是那种感觉。

However, it’s also freeing at the same time. Once I decided (declared out loud) that I wanted to get REALLY good at Chinese, it became crystal clear what I needed to do in order to achieve my goal. I focused ALL of my attention on those things. Once I mastered Chinese, then I could do a lot of the other things that I wanted to do.

然后同时，也会感觉到解脱。一旦我决定了（并且大声说了出来）我想把中文学好，那我为了达到这个目标所需要做的也就变得异常清晰了。我把全部注意力都集中在了这上面。当我掌握了汉语，我就可以开始做很多很多其他我想做的了。

If you want to become successful at learning English — or in any area of your life — you have to have that kind of focus.

如果你想在英语学习或生活的其他方面取得成功，你就必须得有那种专注。

Here’s a clip from a motivational video that talks about trying to get rich. The motivation you need to study and be successful at learning English is the same as the one you must have if you want to be rich.

下面是一个关于努力致富的励志视频。你要学好英语的动机跟你要挣钱所需的动机是一样的。

How much more quickly could you achieve a top performer level of success if you had that same relentless focus?

如果有了同样坚持不懈的专注力，你成功达到高级外语水平的过程会快多少呢？

There’s a difference between doing something that’s ‘just okay’ and something amazing.

把一件事做得“差不多”和惊人是不完全不同的。

A few years ago I was studying Japanese.

几年前我学过日语。

For SIX MONTHS, I studied haphazardly, taking about 1 hour a day to study. I still watched TV and wasted time on WeChat, went out drinking with friends, played video games, etc., but I still put in an hour a day studying Japanese.

六个月里，我每天大概花一个小时，很随意地学习。当时我还看电视、把时间浪费在微信上、跟朋友出去喝酒、玩电子游戏等等，但我每天确实花一个小时学习日语。

Result: Really, really shitty Japanese where I couldn’t even hold a basic conversation.

结果就是，我的日语非常非常差，连简单对话都不行。

Another time, for ONE MONTH, I spent 6 hours a day studying Cantonese, writing and reading essays, scheduling online classes with teachers (I wasn’t living in a Cantonese speaking part of China), filling multiple notebooks with example sentences, watching dozens of TV shows, etc.. Every day, I got up 2 hours earlier than I did the first month, didn’t waste time on WeChat, didn’t go out drinking with friends and didn’t play video games.

还有一次，一个月内，我每天花六个小时学习粤语，练习阅读和写作，在网上找老师上课（当时我也不在粤语区），写了几大本例句，看了好几部电视剧等等。我每天早起2小时，不在微信上浪费时间，不出去喝大酒，也没打游戏。

Result: Conversationally fluent Cantonese where I didn’t have to use English at all. Could ask what words meant in Cantonese and have high-level discussions about various topics.

结果是：我可以用粤语跟人交流，而完全不需要借助英文。可以直接用粤语询问词意，也可以就不同话题进行较高水平的讨论。

I spent approximately the same amount of time studying both languages. But I got 10x the results.

我差不多花了相同的时间学习以上两种语言，但结果差了不止十倍。

THAT is a disproportionate impact.

效果完全不成比例。

Imagine being able to systematically focus on doing just 10 high-impact actions per year. Now compare your results to your friend, who does 100 different things. Who gets better results?

现在想象一下每年系统性地专注在能得到十倍成效的事情上。对比一下你和那些忙着做一百件事的朋友，谁会得到更好的结果呢？

Disproportionate impact is not easy. Most people have an ordinary impact in the world. They work in ordinary jobs. They save ordinary amounts of money. They take an ordinary number of trips per year. When they go to work, they affect an ordinary number of people.

要得到这么超常比例的效果并不容易。世界上大多数人只有再普通不过的结果。他们做着再普通不过的努力。他们存着平常的积蓄。每年普普通通地外出旅行。他们工作时，也就再普通不过地影响着一些人。

Most people are, by definition, ordinary.

大多数人，很显然，就是普普通通的。

It sounds like a depressing view of humanity, but I don’t look at it that way. Because most people are ordinary, you can be extraordinary by getting as much return as possible from the effort you put in. For example, by spending 10x as long on something (if you’re working on the right thing), you can get 100x the results.

听起来好像对人类非常沮丧，但我不这样看。正因为大多数人很普通，你才能与众不同，只要你付出足够多的努力，你就会收获多得多。

Let me give you a couple of examples of disproportionate impact:

让我给你举几个超常比例成效的例子：

Learning English in a short amount of time: (Extraordinary at English)

短时间内学习英语（异乎寻常的英文）

What most people do: Wing it. They make a list of TV shows and movies in English and they want to watch and watch them. They maybe take some notes, but they never review their notes. They practice a few English sentences in their heads during their lunch break but they never make flash cards or schedule class with a real teacher. They think the fact that they’ve done SOME work should be enough.

大多数人的做法：列出英文电视剧、电影的单子，看。可能记点笔记，但从不复习。吃午饭时脑子里会过几句英文，但从不亲手做词卡或真的去找老师好好上课。他们觉得自己确实付出了努力，这就够了。

What SUCCESSFUL English learners do: They study ‘study techniques’, the mistakes most people make when trying to learn English, and how to study more efficiently. They use apps to track their study habits and make sure they never forget vocabulary. Then they rehearse those words thousands of times in their head. They practice in front of a mirror, with their friends, and with strangers on the street. And they get 6 figure jobs being sent abroad because of their excellent English skills.

成功学习者的做法：他们学习“学习技巧”，比如大多数人学英文时会犯的错误是什么，以及如何更有效地学习。他们使用手机应用追踪自己的学习习惯，确保自己不会忘记生词。他们在脑子里把每个词都演练过上千遍。他们在镜子前、跟朋友、在街上和陌生人练习。然后他们拿着六位数工资的工作被派到国外，就是因为他们英语好。

Getting in shape for a marathon:

为马拉松比赛锻炼体能：

What most people do: Say they’re going to start training by running 3 miles, 4 days a week. They accomplish their goal for the first week or two but soon life gets in the way. Then they run “whenever they get a chance.”

大多数人的做法：声称他们要开始每天跑3英里的训练，每周四天。他们在第一周或前两周达到了目标，但很快生活里的其他事情出现了。然后他们就会变成“有空的时候才跑”。

What SUCCESSFUL people do: Commit to running 5 minutes a day EVERY day for the first week. Then 10 minutes EVERY day the next week. And so on. Then they use their Pomodoro app to schedule one-mile run/activity breaks every 50 minutes during the workday. At the end of three months they’re running 60 minutes a day, in addition to the activity they’re doing during their work breaks, which could add up to an additional 6-8 miles a day. At that point, running has become such a habit that they can create whatever training plan they need to get to the finish line.

成功的做法：第一周每天跑5分钟。第二周每天10分钟。以此类推。然后在工作日他们用Pomodoro每隔五十分钟做一组一英里跑步或活动。三个月后谈们每天跑60分钟，而且在工作间隙做额外运动（那时可能已达到每天6-8英里）。当跑步已经完全成为了习惯，他们就可以根据所需设立训练计划来帮助自己跑到终点线了。

Sure, it’s easier to do just enough get by. To do what you’re used to doing. But if you seek out opportunities to create phenomenal returns, success will come easier than you think.

当然，只是勉强通过要容易得多。就按照你习惯的来做。但如果你寻求回报显著的机会，name成功也许会来得比你想象的容易。

Combine that with relentless focus toward your primary goal, and success habit #3, and you’ll be unstoppable.

把坚持不懈的专注和你以前的目标结合起来，加上第三个通向成功的习惯，你会势不可挡。

A few years ago, I was studying Chinese.

几年前，我在学习中文。

Over the years, my Chinese has helped me:

这些年来，我的中文帮助我：

Start my own business

创办了自己的事业

Get on TV

上了电视

Meet dozens of amazing people. Friends and business contacts who I would never have otherwise met.

遇到了很多不可思议的人。如果不是因为中文，我不会遇到的朋友和商业伙伴们。

Years ago, while I was still studying Chinese by myself, I heard about a Chinese study program called IUP at Tsinghua University. I applied, got accepted to do an interview, did the interview, and got into the program. 60k RMB for 16 weeks of classes.

几年前，当我还在自学中文的时候，我听说了清华大学一个叫IUP的中文项目。我申请了，获得了面试资格，通过了面试，最终进入了项目。16周的课程，60000人民币。

And I would do it again for 10x the price.

而且我愿意以10倍的价格再去一次。

But you don’t have to spend 60k RMB to get a teacher.

但你不必花6万块去请老师。

Teachers don’t always have to be people you meet face-to-face. You can get access to amazing teachers from online or even just within your friend circle.

老师不一定必须跟你面对面。你可以通过线上甚至就在你的朋友圈中找到很棒的老师。

With 2 hours of your time and 50 RMB, you can learn from some American’s lifetime of English ‘expertise’. I’ll take that ROI any day.

两小时，50块，你也还是可以从一些美国英文“专家”身上得到他们的“一生所学”。对于这样的投资回报率我完全没意见。

To take this idea to the next level, here’s how you utilize your teacher’s time most effectively.

再进一步，来说说究竟如何更有效地使用你老师的时间。

It’s as simple as having crystal clear expectations for what you want your teacher to provide for you. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

很简单，对你希望老师给你提供的有清楚明白的预期。以下几点需要你常记心中：

Put in the work up front. As I said in success habit #2, put in 2x the work that leads to 10x the results. So don’t slack or half-ass your way through lessons or studying. Focus on becoming the best you can be and absorbing all the knowledge you can from your teacher. This means that you study hard OUTSIDE of class. Don’t only study English in class with your teacher. This is the biggest failure I see in English students and I see it in EVERYWHERE I go.

提前做好功课。正如我在第二个习惯时所说的，付出2倍努力，得到10倍效果。所以千万不要在上课或学习过程中松懈或者半途而废。致力于成为最好的自己，竭尽全力吸收老师所授的知识。这意味着你要在课堂以外努力学习，而不只是在上课时跟老师学习。这种情况比比皆是，我认为是学英文的学生最大的问题。

You want to optimize for learning. Make sure that the teacher knows this. (You also want them to know the PRIMARY goal you’re working toward.) Show up to class with a list of prepared questions. Words that you don’t understand, sentences with odd chunks of grammar, idioms that you’re not sure how to use. Do not just show up to class and expect the teacher to start teaching you EXACTLY what you want and need to know. Having specific questions makes things easier for the teacher and is a MUCH more effective use of your time.

你得优化学习。确保老师知道这点（你也要让他们了解你学习的首要目标）。到课堂上你应该已经准备了一个问题单，包括你不懂的词、包含不常见语法结构的句子、你不确定如何使用的俗语等等。不要只去上课，然后期待老师就会把所有你想知道和需要知道的都教给你。如果你有具体的问题，对老师来说会更容易，对你来说则让时间变得有效多了。

NEVER ask a teacher a question Google can easily answer for you. Do your homework before you ask busy people for answers. If Google could provide the answer in 20 seconds, don’t waste your teacher’s time. You want them to help you solve complex and meaningful English problems that you can’t do with just your computer. This can include asking them for more colloquial (口语) example sentences, explaining how formal a word is, or pronunciation techniques for tricky words. Also, by looking these things up yourself, you’ll improve your own understanding of the words/grammar/spelling/whatever.

不要问老师明明能马上百度出答案的问题。如果对方很忙，你就要在提问前做好功课。如果百度20秒内能回答，那就别浪费老师的时间。你肯定是想让他们解决复杂而有意义的英文问题，也是电脑帮不了的问题。这可能包括问他们更“口语”的例句、一个词有多正式、或者拗口词的发音技巧。而且，自己查这些，会提高你对词汇、语法、拼写等等的理解。

If you don’t think you’re having a valuable experience, you don’t have to keep the relationship going. Don’t just disappear and not return their calls and emails. But don’t waste their valuable time – or yours – either. Communicate your feelings and move on.

如果你觉得体验不太值，久无须继续。不要就此消失或者不再回复电话和邮件，而应该利用他们（和你的）宝贵时间。好好交流感受，然后继续。

My teachers have helped me learn thousands of words over the years. But they’ve also taught me more about the PROCESS of language learning — and what it looks like — than I could have ever figured out on my own. I can’t put a price on that.

这些年来我的老师教会了我几千个词，然而他们更教会了我语言学习的过程和实践，这不是我自己一个人就能搞明白的。这绝对是无价的。

When I look back on my life, I can’t think of a single language learning success I’ve had that doesn’t somehow tie into one of the 3 success habits I’ve just shared with you.

当我回看过去，每成功学到一种语言都和我与你们分享的这三个习惯有关。

And that has taught me a great lesson — don’t complicate things.

这也教会了我一件事——不要把事情复杂化。

I talk to students, friends, and colleagues every day who used to be like me – hell bent on listing out everything they want and then scratching their heads when they don’t get it.

我每天都跟像我以前一样的学生、朋友和同事说：尽力把想要的一切列出来却不付诸行动，然后在达不到目标时百思不得其解。

Achieving extraordinary success takes extraordinary focus and a willingness to let all your other wants take a backseat to your primary goal. It’s not easy at first. But once you realize that everything else is just distracting you from what you really want, you’ll become a master at getting it.

要取得非凡的成功需要非凡的专注和意志，其他的需求都要给首要目标让路。万事开头难。可一旦你意识到别的事情都是在分散你的注意力，那时你将领会达到心中目标的真谛。

So, what's your goal? What do you want to achieve in the next month? 3 months? How are you going to get to it? 那你有什么目标呢？接下来一个月你想有什么样的成功？3个月呢？你打算怎么做到？留言跟我说一下。Thanks and see you again soon!

很多人经常问我有哪些软件、词典、卡片app可提高学习英文的效率。可能我自己比较old school，但是记笔记还是喜欢用纸和笔。因此我跟Danny老师设计出了一本英语学习手册，《生词之道》。只记对自己有用的信息，随时随地翻开就学！现在购买打6.8折，快来认识一下这本前所未有的学习手册！扫下面的二维码即可购买《生词之道》！