A proper goal is something that you really need to achieve. Desires are things that you want that can prevent you from reaching your goals. Typically, desires are first-order consequences. For example, your goal might be physical fitness, while your desire is to eat good-tasting but unhealthy food. Don’t get me wrong, if you want to be a couch potato, that’s fine with me. You can pursue whatever goals you want. But if you don’t want to be a couch potato, then you better not open that bag of chips.
正确的目标是你真正需要实现的目标。欲望是你想要的但会阻止你实现目标的东西。通常，欲望是一阶结果。例如，你的目标可能是身体健康，而你的愿望是吃美味但不健康的食物。别误会我的意思，如果你想成为一个沙发迷，我没问题。你可以追求任何你想要的目标。但如果你不想成为一个沙发迷，那么你最好不要打开那袋薯片。
分类： Principles by Ray Dalio
来自www.principles.com的翻译
中译 Think about what you want out of life and make your work a path to getting it.
The quality of your life ultimately depends on quality of your decisions, and since work is such a big part of life, you need to make sure that how you spend your work time is aligned with your goals. What’s important to you? Being on a fulfilling mission? Making money? Stability? Or excitement and unpredictability? Your answers to these questions may evolve over time, but what’s constant is the need to answer them and closely visualize different opportunities to see which path is aligned with the type of life you want. For example, say you’re considering whether you want to work for someone else or strike out on your own? You need to visualize closely what your life will be like on each path, and how each path fits with what you are like. As you do this, make sure to triangulate with people who have succeeded and failed going down each path.
你的生活质量最终取决于你决策的质量，并且由于工作是生活的重要组成部分，因此你需要确保如何度过工作时间与你的目标保持一致。什么对你来说很重要？正在履行使命吗？赚钱？稳定？还是兴奋和不可预测？你对这些问题的答案可能会随着时间的推移而变化，但不变的是需要回答这些问题并仔细想象不同的机会，看看哪条道路适合你想要的生活类型。例如，假设你正在考虑是想为别人工作还是自己创业？你需要仔细想象每条道路上你的生活会是什么样子，以及每条道路如何适合你的性格。当你这样做时，一定要与每条道路上成功和失败的人进行三角测量。
中译 Prioritize: While you can have virtually anything you want, you can’t have everything you want.
Life is like a giant smorgasbord with more delicious alternatives than you can ever hope to taste. Choosing a goal often means rejecting some things you want in order to get other things that you want or need even more. Some people fail at this point, before they’ve even started. Afraid to reject a good alternative for a better one, they try to pursue too many goals at once, achieving few or none of them. Don’t get discouraged and don’t let yourself be paralyzed by all the choices. You can have much more than what you need to be happy. Make your choice and get on with it.
生活就像一个巨大的自助餐，有比你想象的更多美味的选择。选择一个目标通常意味着拒绝一些你想要的东西，以获得你想要或更需要的其他东西。有些人甚至在开始之前就失败了。由于害怕拒绝更好的替代方案，他们试图同时追求太多目标，但很少实现或根本没有实现。不要气馁，也不要让自己因所有的选择而陷入瘫痪。你可以拥有比你快乐所需的更多的东西。做出你的选择并继续下去。
中译 Have clear goals.
- Have clear goals. 有明确的目标。
- Prioritize: While you can have virtually anything you want, you can’t have everything you want.
- 优先考虑：虽然你几乎可以拥有你想要的任何东西，但你不可能拥有你想要的一切。
- Think about what you want out of life and make your work a path to getting it.
- 想想你想从生活中得到什么，并让你的工作成为实现它的途径。
- Recognize when to ride the wave.
- 识别何时乘风破浪。
- Don’t confuse goals with desires.
- 不要将目标与欲望混淆。
- Decide what you really want in life by reconciling your goals and your desires.
- 通过协调好你的目标和欲望，来决定你在生活中真正想要什么。
- Don’t mistake the trappings of success for success itself.
- 不要将成功的外饰标志误认为是成功本身。
- Never rule out a goal because you think it’s unattainable.
- 永远不要因为你认为某个目标无法实现而将其排除在外。
- Remember that great expectations create great capabilities.
- 请记住，伟大的期望创造伟大的能力。
- Almost nothing can stop you from succeeding if you have a) flexibility and b) self-accountability.
- 如果你具备 a) 灵活性和 b) 责任感，那么几乎没有什么可以阻止你成功。
- Knowing how to deal well with your setbacks is as important as knowing how to move forward.
- 知道如何处理好挫折与知道如何前进同样重要。
中译 Use the 5-Step Process to Get What You Want Out of Life
It seems to me that the personal evolutionary process—the looping I described in the last chapter—takes place in five distinct steps. If you can do those five things well, you will almost certainly be successful. Here they are in a nutshell:
在我看来，个人的进化过程——我在上一章中描述的循环——分五个不同的步骤进行。如果你能做好这五件事，你几乎肯定会成功。简而言之：
中译 Almost nothing can stop you from succeeding if you have a) flexibility and b) self-accountability.
Flexibility is what allows you to accept what reality (or knowledgeable people) teaches you; self-accountability is essential because if you really believe that failing to achieve a goal is your personal failure, you will see your failing to achieve it as indicative that you haven’t been creative or flexible or determined enough to do what it takes. And you will be that much more motivated to find the way.
灵活性让你能够接受现实（或知识渊博的人）教给你的东西；自我负责是至关重要的，因为如果你真的相信未能实现目标是你个人的失败，你就会认为未能实现目标表明你没有足够的创造力、灵活性或决心来完成所需的任务。你会更有动力去寻找出路。
中译 Never rule out a goal because you think it’s unattainable.
Be audacious. There is always a best possible path. Your job is to find it and have the courage to follow it. What you think is attainable is just a function of what you know at the moment. Once you start your pursuit you will learn a lot, especially if you triangulate with others; paths you never saw before will emerge. Of course there are some impossibilities or near-impossibilities, such as playing center on a professional basketball team if you’re short, or running a four-minute mile at age seventy.
大胆一些。总有一条最佳路径。你的工作就是找到它并有勇气遵循它。你认为可以实现的只是你目前所知道的函数。一旦你开始你的追求，你会学到很多东西，特别是当你与他人进行三角测量时；你以前从未见过的道路将会出现。当然，也有一些不可能或近乎不可能的事情，比如如果你身材矮小，就可以在职业篮球队打中锋，或者在七十岁的时候跑四分钟一英里。
中译 If you are open-minded enough and determined, you can get virtually anything you want.
So I certainly don’t want to dissuade you from going after whatever you want. At the same time, I urge you to reflect on whether what you are going after is consistent with your nature. Whatever your nature is, there are many paths that will suit you, so don’t fixate on just one. Should a particular path close, all you have to do is find another good one consistent with what you’re like.
所以我当然不想阻止你追求你想要的任何东西。同时，我也劝你反思一下，你所追求的东西是否符合你的本性。无论你的本性是什么，都有很多适合你的道路，所以不要只专注于一条。如果某条路关闭了，你所要做的就是找到另一条符合你喜好的好路。
中译 Because it is difficult to see oneself objectively, you need to rely on the input of others and the whole body of evidence.
I know that my own life has been full of mistakes and lots of great feedback. It was only by looking down on this body of evidence from a higher level that I was able to get around my mistakes and go after what I wanted. For as long as I have been practicing this, I still know I can’t see myself objectively, which is why I continue to rely so much on the input of others.
我知道我自己的生活充满了错误和很多很好的反馈。只有从更高层次上审视这些证据，我才能避开自己的错误，追求我想要的东西。只要我一直在练习这一点，我仍然知道我无法客观地看待自己，这就是为什么我继续如此依赖别人的投入。
中译 Decide what you really want in life by reconciling your goals and your desires.
Take passion, for example. Without passion, life would be dull; you wouldn’t want to live without it. But what’s key is what you do with your passion. Do you let it consume you and drive you to irrational acts, or do you harness it to motivate and drive you while you pursue your real goals? What will ultimately fulfill you are things that feel right at both levels, as both desires and goals.
以激情为例。没有激情，生活就会索然无味；没有它你就不想活下去。但关键是你用你的热情做什么。你是让它消耗你并驱使你做出非理性的行为，还是利用它来激励和驱使你追求真正的目标？最终让你感到满足的是在两个层面上都感觉正确的事情，无论是愿望还是目标。
Yuxiao 