1. 你的人生由你自己决定

No matter what your goals are in life, there is one great law that you need to obey in order to be successful: No one else is going to climb the ladder of success for you. No one else is responsible for your health, wealth, happiness, or success. From the day you leave your parents' house and start to make your own choices, you are responsible for your life and the choices you make. You choose the job you work in, the person you live with, and how much you exercise every day. Only you can choose how you spend your time, and the decisions you make on a consistent basis will make or break your life.

无论你的人生目标是什么，为了成功，你都必须遵守一条伟大的法则：没有人会替你爬上成功的阶梯。没有人对你的健康、财富、幸福或成功负责。从你离开父母家开始做出自己选择的那一天起，你就要对自己的生活和选择负责。你可以选择你的工作，和你一起生活的人，以及你每天锻炼的时间。只有你才能选择如何利用自己的时间，你持续做出的选择将决定你的生活。

If you want a better life, you need to make better decisions. You can blame other people for your lack of results or happiness all life long, but it doesn't change anything. Only you can change your life by changing the choices you make. Take responsibility for everything in your life, even if you can't directly influence it. Even if it's not in your direct control, you can always choose how you respond.

如果你想要更好的生活，你需要做出更好的决定。你可以因为自己一无所成或不够幸福而责怪别人，但这不会改变任何事。你只能通过改变自己的选择来改变你的生活。对生活中的每件事负责，即使你不能直接影响它。即使它不在你的直接控制之下，你也可以选择如何回应。

2. 成功最大的敌人

According to motivational speaker Brian Tracy, the biggest enemy to success is the path of least resistance. If you choose what is fun and easy over what is necessary, you will never reach the levels of success and happiness you are capable of achieving in your life. That's because every great victory requires great sacrifice. If success was easy, everybody would be successful. But because success in any area of your life requires hard work and sacrifices, most people will never reach their full potential.

励志演讲家布赖恩·特蕾西说，通往成功的最大敌人是阻力最小的道路。如果你选择做有趣和容易的事，而不是必要的事，你将永远无法达到你在生活中能够达到的成功和幸福的水平。那是因为每一次伟大的胜利都需要巨大的牺牲。如果成功很容易，每个人都会成功。但是，因为在生活的任何领域取得成功都需要努力付出和牺牲，大多数人永远无法充分发挥出他们的潜力。

Whenever you decide not to do what you should be doing, you not only waste your opportunity to grow as a person, but you also lose confidence in yourself. You start to see yourself as lazy and unsuccessful, and that self-image will become a successful prophecy.

每当你决定逃避你应该做的事情时，你不仅浪费了一个成长的机会，而且也失去了对自己的信心。你开始认为自己懒惰、失败，然后你就会真的自暴自弃。

To achieve any goal you have, there are only three things you need: A clear vision for what it is you want, a plan to get there, and massive action consistently repeated over time! While the first two parts are the easy parts of the equation, most people struggle with the last part: Hard work.

要实现任何目标，你只需要做三件事：清楚你想要的是什么，一个实现目标的计划，以及随着时间的推移不断重复的大量行动！前两部分很简单，大多数人都难以做到最后一部分：努力。

There is nothing that you can't achieve with hard work, so it is necessary that you build the habit of choosing what is hard and necessary over what is fun and easy to do. Doing this is probably the surest way to succeed in life.

没有什么是你通过努力无法实现的，因此你有必要养成习惯，选择困难和必须做的事情，而不是选择有趣和容易做的事情。这可能是通向成功最可靠的路。

3.做长远的考虑

To quote Abraham Lincoln, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” If you ever wonder where you will be 10 years from now, look at your current life. What actions are you taking to make your goals reality? How many books are you reading to grow as a person, and how many new things are you learning? Which people are you associating with? Are you putting in the effort necessary to achieve your goals today?

亚伯拉罕·林肯说过：“预测未来的最好方法就是创造未来。”如果你想知道10年后你会在哪里，看看你现在的生活。你正在采取什么行动来实现你的目标？为了个人成长，你读了多少本书，你在学习什么新东西？你和哪些人交往？你今天是否投入了必要的努力来实现自己的目标？

People oftentimes think that their lives will suddenly change through some magical event in the future, but that is not the case. Your life changes only to the extent that you change. If you are not happy with your current circumstances, are you taking actions to change them? If not, you are just daydreaming. Nothing will ever change if you don't change what you do daily. As Aristotle noted over 2,000 years ago, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”

人们常认为生活会因为未来的一些神奇事件而突然改变，但事实并非如此。只有你做出改变，生活才会改变。如果你对目前的情况不满意，你是否开始采取行动改变现状？如果没有，你只是在做白日梦。如果你不改变你每天做的事情，什么都不会变。正如亚里士多德在2000多年前指出的，“我们反复做的事决定我们成为什么样的人。因此，卓越不是一种行为，而是一种习惯。”

A great way to actively create your future is to ask yourself: If I already achieved my goals, how would I act on a daily basis? What books would I read, how often would I work out, and how would I spend my time at the office?

积极创造未来的一个好方法是问问自己：如果我已经实现了目标，我每天会怎么过？我会读什么书，多久锻炼一次，我会如何利用办公时间？

Once you answer these questions, you know what to do.

一旦你回答了这些问题，你就知道该怎么做了。

4.挫折是成功的一部分

In life, nothing worth having comes easy. You have to make sacrifices in the form of time, effort, pain, and hard work if you want to succeed. There will be many setbacks, and any time you get close to finally succeeding, there will be some more adversity testing how bad you really want it. Only after passing one more test, and then another, will you be able to succeed.

在生活中，任何值得拥有的东西都来之不易。如果你想成功，必须付出时间、精力、痛苦和努力。人生有很多挫折，每当你接近最终成功的时候，都会有更多的逆境来测试你到底有多想成功。只有通过一次又一次的测试，你才能成功。

The great tragedy of life is that most people give up right before achieving success. They already made it to the five yard line, and all they need is one final push to make the touchdown and bring home the sweet victory. But right before they do that, there is one final obstacle standing in their way – one last failure that they need to overcome. Way too many people give up right then and there, without realizing how close they are.

人生最大的悲剧是大多数人在取得成功之前就放弃了。他们离成功只有一步之遥，他们所需要的只是最后一搏，就能触地得分，并带回甜蜜的胜利。但就在他们这么做之前，还有最后一个障碍挡在面前——这是他们需要克服的最后一个失败。太多的人直接放弃了，却没有意识到他们离成功有多近。

If you just take one thing from this post, let it be this: Whenever you encounter failure and adversity, keep going! Success is supposed to be hard because that's what makes it so special. If it was easy, anybody could do it.

如果你只能从这篇文章中学到一件事，那就是：无论何时遇到失败和逆境，都要坚持下去！成功是艰难的，这也是它如此特别的原因。如果容易的话，任何人都能成功。

The only way to grow as a person is by facing the biggest challenges in life and enduring long enough to succeed. No matter how long it takes or how hard it gets, always remember the words of motivational speaker Les Brown: “It's not over until I win!”

成长的唯一途径是面对生活中最大的挑战，并坚持下去以取得成功。无论需要多长时间，无论有多困难，都要记住励志演说家莱斯·布朗的话：“我赢了才算结束！”

5.做好决不放弃的准备

To make sure that you stay strong in the face of adversity, make sure to resolve in advance how you will respond once it occurs. You need to have a plan for what to do when all hell breaks loose, or else it is too easy to just give up. When writing your goals, commit to making them come true, no matter how hard it may be. Determine how you will respond to failures and setbacks so you can bounce back stronger and better than ever before.

为了在逆境面前保持坚强，一定要事先确定一旦困难出现你将如何应对。你需要有一个计划，当最坏的情况出现时你该怎么做，否则就很容易放弃。定下目标时无论有多困难，要保证将其实现。确定你将如何应对失败和挫折，这样你才能比以往任何时候都更坚强、更好地站起来。

If you make this commitment and never break it, you will succeed at anything you set your mind to. Maybe not immediately, but definitely.

如果你许下这个承诺，并且坚持下去，你下定决心做的所有事情都能成功。也许不会马上成功，但肯定会。