Being an expert at something really pays off. Just how good are top performers compared to everybody else? 

成为某个领域的专家真的是件值得做的事情。不过，我们所说的专家和普通人比起来到底专多少呢？

Research shows in high complexity jobs like professional and sales roles, the top 10 percent produce 80 percent more than average and 700 percent more than the bottom 10 percent. 

一组数据来告诉你，在调查了不同行业的专家到销售人员，位于该行业顶尖的10%贡献了80%的行业成果，是该行业底层10%贡献的7倍还多。

But as I'm sure you're aware, becoming the best ain't easy. As Bobby Knight once said, "Everybody has the will to win; few people have the will to prepare to win."

但你们也一定清楚，想要做到最好并不容易，就像Bobby Knight （著名篮球教练）所说：“每个都渴望成功，但只有少数人会为此做出准备。”

And one of the reasons why it's hard to become great is because a lot of what you've been told about how to learn, study, or train is wrong, wrong, and dead wrong.

阻碍你成功的不利因素很多，其中就有看似引导你成功的学习训练方法，实则带你误入歧途。

So it's time to learn how to get better at gettin' better. Whether you want to be a great public speaker, study for exams, or improve your free throws, we're going to learn what methods research and experts recommend for becoming an expert at anything.

该是学习正确方法的时候啦，不论你是想提升演讲水平，或是应试能力，亦或是更加准确的投球率，以下方法均可适用。

1. Predictor of Expertise

先来测一测

I'm going to ask you one question. And this question will probably predict just how good you'll end up being at whatever it is you're passionate about.

问你个问题，来判断你感兴趣事情将会取得专业程度。

How long are you going to be doing this?

为了达到专业你能坚持多久？

Yeah, doing something for a long time probably correlates with being decent at it but that's not the point.

对，如果你擅长一件事，那么你更可能做得长，但这并不是重点。

Committing in advance to being in it for the long haul made all the difference. Even when practicing the same amount, those who made a long-term commitment did 400 percent better than the short-termers.

是否从一开始就做好长期从事的打算，才是问题的症结。即使练习时长完全相同，做了长期准备的人的表现也比那些只做短期准备的人好4倍。

From The Talent Code：With the same amount of practice, the long-term-commitment group outperformed the short-term-commitment group by 400 percent.

节选自《一万个小时》：练习同样的时间，长期目标小组的成绩4倍于短期小组。

The long-term-commitment group, with a mere twenty minutes of weekly practice, progressed faster than the short-termers who practiced for an hour and a half.

不仅如此，每周训练20分钟的长期目标小组比每周训练90分钟的短期目标小组的进步还要大。

When long-term commitment combined with high levels of practice, skills skyrocketed.

当长期目标小组配合高强度的训练，其成效如同坐上火箭，锐不可当。

2. Find a Mentor

找一个导师

Luke had Yoda. The Karate Kid had Mr. Miyagi. I'm sure Kung Fu Panda had somebody but I never saw that movie.

就像星际大战中的卢克有绝地大师，龙威小子有宫城先生，功夫熊猫也有个师傅，虽然我没有看过电影。

You get the picture.

但是我想你明白我是什么意思。

When I spoke to Anders Ericsson, the professor who did the research behind the "10,000 hour rule" he said mentors were vital. But you knew that already.

曾为“一万个小时理论”作调研的Aders Ericsson, 说有个导师对于成功是非常重要的，这个你们肯定都知道。

So what does the research show about mentors that most people get wrong? Merely finding someone to help you that is already an expert doesn't cut it.

那么根据这份调查，为什么很多人选了倒是却还是没达到效果？原因是：单单找一个已专家来教你是没有用的。

When I spoke to Shane Snow, author of Smartcuts, he said your mentor needs to care about you.

我曾和《Smartcuts》的作者肖恩斯诺谈及此事，他说你的导师需要是一个关心你的人。

Here's Shane: In great mentorship relationships the mentor doesn't just care about the thing that you're learning, they care about how your life goes. They are with you for the long haul. They are willing to say, "No," and to tell you what you're doing is wrong.

Shane的观点是这样的：这个导师不能只关心你学的东西，他还得关心你的生活。这个人需要与你建立长期的关系。他们必须愿意对你说“不”，并告诉你你做的哪些事情是错的。

Those kinds of relationships yield outsized results in terms of future salaries and happiness.

这样的关系将在未来薪资以及幸福感方面带来显著提升。

3. Start with what's important

先学关键的内容

David Epstein put it simply: "The hallmark of expertise is figuring out what information is important."

David Epstein说得很简明：“看一个人是否专业，就要看他是不是知道哪些信息重要。”

There are many components to any skill but practicing them all doesn't produce the same results.

任何技能都由很多部分组成，但你把它们全都拿来练并不一定就总能达到同样的好效果。

When I spoke to Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek he said: Do an 80-20 analysis and ask yourself, "Which 20 percent of these things I need to learn will get me 80 percent of the results that I want?"

畅销书《The 4-Hour Workweek》的作者Tim认为：你应该做个二八原则分析，问问你自己：“学哪20%的部分可以获得80%的知识？”

When Tim was learning chess from champion Josh Waitzkin (whose life was the basis for the film Searching for Bobby Fischer) they did things the opposite from how most chess instruction works.

他曾师从Josh Waitzkin（基本是电影“王者之旅”的现实版）学习国际象棋，而他们的训练方式和主流做法完全相反。

They didn't start with the beginning of a chess game. They jumped straight to key moves that are applicable to the majority of interactions on the board. This allowed Tim to hang with top players after only a few days of practice.

不同于先打基本功，而是在棋谱上学习足以招架大部分进攻的招式。短短几天Tim 就可以和高手对弈了。

4. "Train like you fight"

像实战一样训练

When I spoke to Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Mike Kenny he told me, "Train like you fight."

当我和特种部队上尉Mike Kenny 取经时，他说秘诀是“把每一次训练都当成实战”。

You want your practice to be as similar to the real thing as possible. And research backs Mike up. Not only will you be better prepared, but you learn much better when the context you practice in matches the context you will eventually perform in.

他认为你的练习环境需要尽可能接近实战环境。而有研究显示他的理论是对的。如果你的练习环境和实战环境一致，你不光会为实战做到更好的准备，还会学得更好。

How strong is this effect? Insanely strong.

而这个效果有多强呢？强到变态。

5. Use "desirable difficulty"

“适当增加难度”来复习

Reviewing material is one of the most popular forms of learning. Guess what? It's also one of the least effective.

复习是最流行的学习方式之一。然而，你知道它同时也是最无效的之一么？

Researchers call this "the fluency illusion." Just because it's easy to remember right now doesn't mean it will stay that way.

研究学家称它为“熟练的假象”。你当时记得清楚并不代表你以后也会记得。

"Desirable difficulty" means that the harder you work trying to retrieve something from memory, the better you learn.

“适当增加难度”的意义在于，你越难回忆起某个知识，你就会记得越牢。

Don't merely reread stuff. Practice like a medical student and quiz yourself with flashcards. You're not going to learn much passively. Research show re-reading material four times was not nearly as effective as reading it once and writing a summary.

不要就简单地重复阅读，可以学习医学院的学生利用抽认卡来测试自己。被动地学是学不到东西的，研究表明，一本书你读四遍的效果不如你读一遍然后写一篇读书小结来的好。

You need to struggle. Whether it's memorizing information or practicing a sport or skill, you want your practice to be challenging.

你得受点挫折，不管是在记忆方面或是锻炼某项运动或其他技能。要尽量做些有挑战性的任务。

When I spoke to Dan Coyle, bestselling author of The Talent Code, he said: We learn when we're in our discomfort zone. When you're struggling, that's when you're getting smarter.

就像《一万个小时天才》的作者Dan Colye所说，在我们舒适区以外，我们最能学到东西。就是俗话说的“吃一堑，长一智”。

The more time you spend there, the faster you learn. It's better to spend a very, very high quality ten minutes, or even 10 seconds, than it is to spend a mediocre hour.

花越多的时间钻研，你就会学习得越快。这样高质量的十分钟，哪怕是10秒钟，比一个小时的磨洋工要有效率的多。

6. Get fast, negative feedback

你需要“及时的负面反馈”

One of the 3 key components to "10,000 hours of deliberate practice" is feedback. Without it you don't know if you're improving or what you need to work on next. [/en

]关于“一万小时刻意训练”三个要素的其中之一就是反馈。如果没有反馈那么你就不知道自己哪里需要提高，下一步的训练计划要怎么制定。

[en]And don't just listen to me because I read the nerdy research. The most un-nerdy people in the world are on the same page. When I spoke to Navy SEAL platoon commander James Waters, he said feedback is critical.

而且，也不要光听我这个书虫在这说，事实上，那些最不书虫的人也懂的这个道理。比如海军海豹突击队指挥官James Water 就认为反馈至关重要。

After every mission, SEALs do a review of what happened to get feedback. Do they all just congratulate each other? No, they spend 90 percent of their time on the negative: what they can do better next time.

每次任务结束之后，队员们就会对发生的事情进行意见收集反馈。难道他们仅仅是为了庆祝任务完成，当然不是，他们90%的时间都花在对于问题研究，下一次怎样才能做的更好。

And there's another vital source of feedback: yourself. Always take some time to reflect on how you're doing.

还有一项重要的反馈就是自我评价，每次对于自己的表现进行评价。

7. Study less. Test more.

少学，多练

Get your nose out of that book. Avoid the classroom. Whatever it is you want to be the best at, be doing it.

不要死盯着书本，也不要去教室。如果你想做好一件事，那就赶快去做。

Here's Dan Coyle: Our brains evolved to learn by doing things, not by hearing about them.

Dan Colye (《一万个小时天才理论》作者) 认为，进化使我们大脑习惯通过练习来学习，而不是靠听。

This is one of the reasons that, for a lot of skills, it's much better to spend about two thirds of your time testing yourself on it rather than absorbing it.

大部分技能，要花三分之二的时间来练习，不仅仅是单纯的学习。

There's a rule of two thirds. If you want to, say, memorize a passage, it's better to spend 30 percent of your time reading it, and the other 70 percent of your time testing yourself on that knowledge.

这就是三分之二规律。比如说，你要记忆一片文章，花30%的时间来读，70%的时间来测试你是否记得里面的内容。

8. Naps are steroids for your brain

睡得多，学得快

If you're not getting enough sleep, you're not learning as well as you could be. In fact, research shows there is a correlation between student grades and average amount of sleep.

如果你睡得不够，那么你的学习效果其实并不好。事实上有研究表面，学生的学习成绩与平均睡眠时间长短呈正相关关系。

Via NurtureShock: Teens who received As averaged about 15 more minutes sleep than the B students, who in turn averaged 15 more minutes than the C's, and so on.

NurtureShock 如是说：青少年学习成绩平均得A的学生比平均成绩得B的学生多睡15分钟，平均成绩B的比平均成绩得C的平均多睡15分钟，以此类推。

Wahlstrom's data was an almost perfect replication of results from an earlier study of over 3,000 Rhode Island high schoolers by Brown's Carskadon. Certainly, these are averages, but the consistency of the two studies stands out.

Wahlstrom所的出的数据结论与之前由Brown 选取罗得岛高中3000人所得出的结论如出一辙。诚然，这只是平均值，但两个研究的结果如此一致，说明问题真的如此。

Every 15 minutes counts. Too busy to get eight hours? I hear you. Naps to the rescue!

即使是15分钟的小睡也有用。睡不满8个小时，懂你。那就让小睡来拯救你。

So you do all eight things and practice your tush off and now you're The Master. Know what else you are?

好，现在你已经学到了上面的技巧，并且勤加练习过，你现在已经是个大师了。而除此以外你还会怎样？

Happier.

你会变得更加快乐

When you're good at something and you do it often, the result isn't just promotions or more wins on the tennis court, you also smile more often.

如果你变得擅长某项技能，而且又经常做的话，那结果不仅仅是升职，或是摘得更多的网球比赛桂冠，你会变得更加快乐。

People who deliberately exercise their "signature strengths" — talents that set them apart from others — on a daily basis became significantly happier for months. It's not lonely at the top. It's happy.

天才和普通人的区别，觉得自己的影响力变大了，日积月累，成就感加倍。高处不会不胜寒，能做到最好是让人欢欣鼓舞的一件事。

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