“What seems nasty, painful, evil can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind.” – Henry Miller
“如果心态开放，即使丑陋、痛苦、邪恶的东西也可以变为美丽、快乐和力量的源泉。”—亨利·米勒
Your first commitment must be to discover and accept new truths, no matter how difficult or unpleasant the consequences.
你的首要任务应该是发现并接受新真理，不论过程多么艰难抑或结果多么令人不快。
Perception is the most basic aspect of truth. If you want to improve some part of your life, you have to look at it first.
认知是真理的最基本层面。如果想改善自己生活中的某个部分，首先你要先研究一下。
For example, if you want to know how your relationship is doing, you ask yourself, “How do I feel about this relationship? What parts are working well? What parts need improvement?”
比如，你想知道自己的关系如何，问问自己，“对于这种关系，我感觉如何？哪些方面比较好？哪些部分需要改善？”
You can’t get from point A to point B if you refuse to acknowledge that you’re at point A!
如果你拒绝承认自己身处A点，你就无法从A点到达B点！
What do you perceive about your life that you’d like to change?
对于自己想要改变的生活，你有什么认识？
Are there any addictions or destructive habits you’d like to break?
有没有你想打破的上瘾或者破坏性习惯？
Look around you and notice what you like and dislike about your life.
反省自己，看看你的生活中，有哪些是你喜欢的，哪些不喜欢。
Prediction is how you learn from experience, enabling you to discover what is true. As you observe any new situation or event, one of two things can happen: either the experience will meet your expectations, or it won’t. When an experience meets your expectations, your mental model of reality remains intact. But when an experience violates your expectations, your mind must update its model of reality to fit the new information. This is how you learn from experience and discover new truths.
预测是你如何从经验中学习，促使你发现什么是真理。当你观察任何新情况或事件时，以下两件事总有一件会出现：要么经验会满足你的预期，要么不会。当经验满足你的预期时，你的现实大脑模型保持不变。但当经验违反了你的预期，大脑必须更新它的现实模型以适应新信息。这是你从经验中学习并发现新真理的方法。
If something satisfies all your expectations, you won’t learn anything new. To help you grow, something (this book) must violate your expectations and give you some unexpected “Aha!” moments.
如果有东西满足你所有的期望，你无法学到新知识。为了帮助你成长，有些东西（譬如本书）必须使你的期望幻灭，让你出乎意料地“啊！”一声。
There are two powerful ways you can apply your mind’s predictive powers to accelerate your personal growth:
有两种强有力的方法可以供你应用自己的思维预测性力量来加速个人成长：
1. Embrace new experiences that are unlike anything you’ve previously encountered.
1. 拥抱那些与过去经历截然不同的新经验。
You’ll literally become more intelligent. New situations shift your mind into learning mode, which enables you to discover new patterns. The more patterns your mind learns, the better it gets at prediction, and the smarter you become.
你会变得更有智慧。新环境让你的思维进入学习模式，促使你发现新模式。你学到的模式越多，预测就越准确，你就变得越聪明。
Read a book on a topic that’s completely alien to you. Talk to people you’d normally avoid. Visit an unfamiliar city. Stretch beyond the patterns your mind has already learned. In order to grow, you must repeatedly tackle fresh challenges and consider new ideas to give your mind fresh input. If you merely repeat the same experiences, you’ll stagnate, and your mental capacity will atrophy.
就一个完全陌生的话题，读一本书。和你通常避免讲话的人交谈。访问不熟悉的城市。超越思维定势。为了成长，你必须不断解决新的挑战，考虑新观点，给大脑新鲜输入。如果你只重复相同的经验，就会停滞不前，脑容量会萎缩。
If you want to become smarter, you must keep stirring things up.
如果想变得更聪明，就必须不断搞搞新意思。
2. Make conscious deliberate predictions and use those predictions to make better decisions.
2. 有意识地进行预测，用这些预测作出更好的决定。
Think about where you’re headed and ask yourself, “How do I honestly expect my life to turn out?”
想想你的方向，问自己，“诚实地说，我希望自己的生活是怎样的？”
Imagine that a very logical impartial observer examines your situation in detail, and predicts what your life will look like in 20 years, based on your current behavior. What kind of future will this person predict for you?
假设有一位逻辑极其公正的观察家仔细审查你的情况，根据你当前的行为，预测20年后你的生活会怎样。这个人为你预测的未来会怎样呢？
Positive feelings stem from positive predictions.
积极的情感源自积极的预测。
When you feel good, your mind is anticipating a positive outcome.
当你感觉好时，你的大脑预测积极的结果。
When you feel bad, your mind expects an unfavorable outcome.
当你感觉不好时，你的大脑预期不利的结果。
The closer your internal model of reality matches actual reality, the more capable you become.
你内在的现实模型和真正的现实模型越接近，你的能力就越强。
Accept the long-term consequences of your predictions.
接受你预测的长期结果。
Do you accept the truth of where you’ll likely end up?
你能接受最终的真相吗？
Are you willing to live with those consequences?
你愿意在这样的结果下生活吗？
Whatever you fear, you must eventually face.
不论你怕什么，你始终都要面对。
Don’t deny the truth of the situation.
不要否认情况的真相。
Never pretend to be happy.
不要假装开心。
Make your important decisions from the most reasonable thinking you can muster – when you feel alert, clearheaded, and intelligent. Put the decisions in writing and fully commit yourself to them. When you inevitably sink back to lower states and lose sight of the higher perspective, continue to act on those decisions even though you may no longer feel as committed to them.
用你能掌握的最理性的思考来做重要决定——当你警觉、头脑清醒、充满智慧的时候。把决定写下来，然后全力以赴。当你不可避免地陷入低迷状态，看不到更高的层面时，也继续执行这些决定，哪怕你觉得不再想全力以赴。
When you make choices from a place of anger, fear, sadness, or guilt, you cannot be aligned with truth because your predictions will be negatively biased by those lower states.
当你在愤怒、恐惧、悲哀或内疚的情况下做决定时，你无法与真相保持一致，因为你的预测会应因为这些低迷状态而产生负面影响。
Positive emotions can make you overly optimistic, encouraging you to take unreasonable risks and to make overaggressive promises that you won’t keep.
积极的情绪会让你过度乐观，鼓励你出乎情理地冒险，作出你无法信守过度激进的承诺。
Secondary gain is when you temporarily benefit(gain) by embracing falsehood. Lying to get ahead. Etc.
次要收获是当你暂时受益于假象的时候。撒谎以前进。诸如此类。
The more you succumb to secondary gain, the phonier you become as a human being.
你越屈服于次要收获，你就成了越虚伪的人。
Instead of abiding friendship and human intimacy, you settle for a sea of casual contacts, none of whom know, accept, and love the real you.
你将就于随意的关系，没有人了解、接受、爱真正的你，无法建立真正的友谊和人与人之间那种亲密的关系。
The pursuit of secondary gain leads to persistent dissatisfaction, emptiness, and unhappiness.
追求次要收获会导致永远的不满、空虚和不幸。
Rate the different areas of your life each from 1 to 10:
– Habits & daily routine
– Career & work
– Money & finances
– Health & fitness
– Education
– Social & relationships
– Home & family
– Emotions
– Character & integrity
– Life purpose & contribution
– Spiritual development
从1至10，给你生活的不同领域打分：
— 习惯与日常工作
— 职业与工作
— 金钱与理财
— 健康与运动
— 教育
— 社交与关系
— 家与家庭
— 情感
— 性格与诚实
— 生命的意义与贡献
— 心灵发展
Take every rating that isn’t a 9 or 10 and replace it with a 1.
所有未达到9分或10分的都取出，用1代替。
A 7 is what you get when you allow too much falsehood and denial to creep into your life – when you know you don’t have what you want, but you aren’t ready to face up to it yet. A 7 is a comfortable living arrangement instead of a deeply fulfilling relationship.
7分是当你让太多虚假和否定蚕食你的生活——当你知道没得到自己想要的，但也没准备好面对这个事实。7分是一种舒服的生活安排，而不是真正充实的关系。
Look at each part of your life again, and ask yourself:
再次看看你生活中的每个部分，问自己：
What do I truly want?
我真正想要的是什么？
What is my dream, my grand vision?
我的梦想，我的伟大愿景是什么？
What is the deep desire I’ve been longing for – the one that I hesitate to admit because I don’t think I can have it?
我最深的渴望是什么——因为我觉得无法拥有而害怕承认的那个？
What path do I most want to experience?
我最想体验哪种经历？
Accept that you want what you want, and stop living in denial of your true desires.
接受你想要自己想要的东西这一事实，不再生活在否认自己的真实愿望中。
Media fast : For 30 days, no TV, and avoid all newspapers, magazines, online media sources. Unplug yourself completely and see what happens.
媒体斋戒：30天内，不看电视，避免所有报纸、杂志、在线媒体资源。把自己完全断电，看看结果会怎样。
