Most people react to pain badly. They have “fight or flight” reactions to it: they either strike out at whatever brought them the pain or they try to run away from it. As a result, they don’t learn to find ways around their barriers, so they encounter them over and over again and make little or no progress toward what they want.
大多数人对疼痛反应激烈，采取“战斗或逃避”的法子，要么奋起反抗给他们带来痛苦的东西，要么就想逃之夭夭，结果呢，终究没能解决这些障碍，这也决定了他们将会一次又一次遇到这些困难，遭受痛苦，无法取得进步，无法达成目标。
There are literally two different parts of each person’s brain that influence these reactions: the pre-frontal cortex and the amygdala. They work as though they were two different brains that fight for control of decision-making. The pre-frontal cortex is the logical part of the brain that evaluates choices logically and the amygdala is the “animal instinct” part of the brain that triggers emotional reactions like the instinct to fight or flee. When faced with an obstacle or threat, an emotional reaction (e.g. pain) can be triggered that can lead to a fight or flight reaction that “hijacks” decision making away from the pre-frontal cortex, where the rational choices are being made. This can result in our making decisions that produce consequences that we do not want. This typically causes really big problems.
人体大脑有两个部分会影响这类反应：前额叶皮层和杏仁体。它们就像两个不同的大脑，相互斗争想控制决策行为。前额叶皮层是大脑的逻辑组织，从逻辑上评估各种选项，杏仁体是大脑“动物天性”部分，会引起情绪反应，如战斗或逃跑。面对障碍或威胁，会产生情绪反应（比如痛苦），导致战斗或逃跑之类的行为，这种行为会将人做理性决策的行为能力从前额叶皮层那里抢过来，这样做的决策结果不是我们想要的。
Those who react well to pain that stands in the way of getting to their goals—those who understand what is causing it and how to deal with it so that it can be disposed of as a barrier—gain strength and satisfaction. This is because most learning comes from making mistakes, reflecting on the causes of the mistakes, and learning what to do differently in the future. Believe it or not, you are lucky to feel the pain if you approach it correctly, because it will signal that you need to find solutions and to progress. Since the only way you are going to find solutions to painful problems is by thinking deeply about them—i.e., reflecting — if you can develop a knee-jerk reaction to pain that is to reflect rather than to fight or flee, it will lead to your rapid learning/evolving.
面对困难，有人反应得体，这种人深知根源起因，明白如何应对，清除掉这些人生路障，获得成长与满足感。这是因为人是在犯错中学习、反思根源，并学会如何在在未来改变策略。不管你信不信，我觉得遭受痛苦是件幸事，能从中意识到哪儿有什么问题需要解决与提高。要想解决这些令人头疼的问题，唯一的法子就是深入思考。膝跳反射中，对疼痛的反应是思考，而不是反抗或逃避，只有这样才能快速学习，获得成长。
> Your very unique power of reflectiveness—i.e., your ability to look at yourself, the world around you, and the relationship between you and the world—means that you can think deeply and weigh subtle things to come up with learning and wise choices. Asking other believable people about the root causes of your pain in order to enhance your reflections is also typically very helpful— especially others who have opposing views and who share your interest in finding the truth rather than being proven right.
因为你拥有一项独特的能力，即反思的能力，能使你审视自己、周围的世界和你与世界的关系。因此你能够深入思考，对细节进行考量，从而获得知识，做出明智的选择。让值得信赖之人告诉你痛苦的根本原因，这样做能提升反思的质量，很有帮助。尤其当对方与你观点相对立，或与你一样乐于自己去寻找真相而不是乐于坐等事实被别人证明。
If you can reflect deeply about your problems, they almost always shrink or disappear, because you almost always find a better way of dealing with them than if you don’t face them head on. The more difficult the problem, the more important it is that you think hard about it and deal with it. After seeing how effectively facing reality—especially your problems, mistakes and weaknesses— works, I believe you will become comfortable with it and won’t want to operate any other way.
如果你能深刻反思自己的问题，这些问题基本都会减少或消失。因为比起躲避这些问题，你经常就已经找到了更好的解决办法了。问题越困难就越是想多想想怎么解决，然后在面对现实情况时看这种办法是否有效，尤其是面对自己的问题，错误和缺点。我相信你终会从容应对，到时候都不会想用其他方法解决了。
So, please remember that:
所以，请记住：
Pain + Reflection = Progress
痛苦+反思=进步
How big of an impediment is psychological pain to your progress?
通往成功之路上，困难阻碍对你的心灵能造成多大的痛苦呢？
Second:
第二个选择：
People who confuse what they wish were true with what is really true create distorted pictures of reality that make it impossible for them to make the best choices. They typically do this because facing “harsh realities” can be very difficult. However, by not facing these harsh realities, they don’t find ways of properly dealing with them. And because their decisions are not based in reality, they can’t anticipate the consequences of their decisions.
有人会混淆“期望的真相”与“事实真相”，真实情况因而被扭曲，也就无法做出最佳选择，这可能是因为直面“残酷的现实”确实很难做到。但不直面这些残酷的现实，人们就没法找到从容应对这些现实的办法。如果决策若不是基于真实情况，那么决策的结果就无法预测。
An example of this is what discussed earlier: wanting to save the wildebeest from the hyenas. When you don’t want to face what’s really happening, you can’t make sound decisions.
我之前谈过有人想从土狼手中救回羚羊的例子就是如此。若你回避现实，是不可能做出明智决定的。
In contrast,people who know that understanding what is real is the first step toward optimallydealing with it make better decisions.
相比之下，人明白实事求是从容应对困难的第一步，这些人会做出更明智的选择。
So, remember…
所以，记住。。。
Ask yourself, “Is it true?”
问问自己：这是真的吗？
…because knowing what is true is good.
因为了解真实情况是大有好处的。
How much do you let what you wish to be true stand in the way of seeing what is really true?
你会让“期望的真实情况”阻碍自己认清事实真相吗？如果是，程度是怎样呢？
