Is Grit the Secret of Success?

What does it take to do really well in life? The answer, says psychologist Angela Duckworth, is not innate（天生的） talent but grit – something she learned the hard way（好不容易才學(xué)到）

這篇文章總共有十五段荐虐，向我們講述了Grit：the Power of Passion and Perseverance一書(shū)作者Angela Duckworth博士本人對(duì)父親教育方式的反思，對(duì)自己育兒方式的思考拷淘，以及解讀了grit對(duì)成功的非凡意義孤里。相對(duì)于個(gè)別單詞和表達(dá)方式哀澈，本文中的一些經(jīng)典句子以及其帶來(lái)的思考才是精華。大家在閱讀的時(shí)候可以根據(jù)自己的程度進(jìn)行取舍。

看看這段TED視頻拔稳，有助于大家對(duì)Grit這一理念的理解。

https://www.ted.com/talks/angelaleeduckworthgritthepowerofpassionand_perseverance?language=zh

原文鏈接: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/07/is-grit-the-true-secret-of-success

[1]

When Angela Duckworth was growing up, her dad often applied(應(yīng)用) the word genius to his daughter. He did it at random（隨機(jī)的） moments, over dinner, watching TV or reading the newspaper, and the sentence was always the same: “You’re no genius!” Duckworth’s older sister and brother got it too. For Duckworth’s mother, an artist, the disparagement （蔑視）was adjusted to（調(diào)整）fit（符合）: “You’re no Picasso!” This approach（方式） to raising children seems inauspicious（不吉利的） but, in a funny way, it has worked pretty well. Duckworth, now 45, doesn’t recall how she answered her father, but her book Grit is her considered (經(jīng)過(guò)深思熟慮的）reply.

金詞：

approach [?'pr??t?] n.方法

approach to doing sth 做某事的方法

approach to raising children 育兒方式

同義詞：

means 方式 （注意锹雏，這不是復(fù)數(shù)）

method 方式

way 方式

avenue 方法

[2]

Subtitled The Power of Passion and Perseverance, the text is the fruit of years studying the psychology of success. Swimmers, chefs, army cadets, telesales executives … Duckworth examines them all, and what she finds is that natural talent – the genius prized（珍視） by her father – does not make humans disposed（有某種傾向） to succeed so much as the qualities（品質(zhì)） she sums up as “grit”. These include the commitment to finish what you start, to rise from setbacks, to want to improve and succeed, and to undertake sustained and sometimes unpleasant practice in order to do so. She calls the people whose inspiring（鼓舞人心的） tales she recounts（敘述） “grit paragons”（毅力典范）. But the most persuasive（有說(shuō)服力的） grit paragon, the one whose story is implicit（含蓄的） rather than directly told – the book is social science not memoir（回憶錄） – is Duckworth herself.

金詞：

disposed [d?'sp??zd] adj.有…傾向的

be disposed to do sth 有做某事的傾向

commitment [k?'m?tm(?)nt] n. 承諾

setback ['setb?k] n 挫折

sustained [s?'ste?nd] adj. 持久的

paragon ['p?r?g(?)n] n. 模范

金句

These include the commitment to finish what you start, to rise from setbacks, to want to improve and succeed, and to undertake sustained and sometimes unpleasant practice in order to do so.

these指代上文提到的qualities

這些品質(zhì)包括：

a. 有始有終 to finish what you start

b. 百折不撓 to rise from setbacks

c. 有上進(jìn)心 to want to improve and succeed

d. 為了成功巴比，排除萬(wàn)難，堅(jiān)持長(zhǎng)期練習(xí)

to undertake sustained and sometimes unpleasant practice

[3]

Every family has its funny sayings, the private lore and logic（邏輯） that its members must negotiate. “At one level, you’re a kid and you accept it,” she says of her father’s sniping（誹謗礁遵，這里指不斷說(shuō)Angela不是天才這件事）, but she did register（表達(dá)轻绞；表示） an emotional reaction: a silent, internal clench（捏緊；收緊）. “Instead of feeling discouraged（沮喪的）, I felt the opposite.” Her voice brightens. “I had the sort of … I’ll show you … response.” The reaction has been Duckworth’s life’s work. She went to Harvard, where she founded a nonprofit summer school for low-income middle-school pupils. She left Harvard with the Fay prize for best female student, passed [McKinsey’s notorious selection process ][1]（麥肯錫出了名嚴(yán)格的選拔過(guò)程）before swerving（突然轉(zhuǎn)向） to teaching – “Couldn’t you at least be a senator（參議員）?” her dad pleaded（懇求） – and from there research psychology, and [Character Lab][2], a nonprofit she co-founded to advance（推進(jìn)） the science and practice of character development.

金詞：

register ['red??st?] vt. 表達(dá)佣耐；表示

a. 登記政勃；記錄 — 出國(guó)留學(xué)時(shí)要到警察局登記，用這個(gè)詞

b. 掛號(hào)郵寄 ： register this letter

c. 流露：Her face registered shock. 她面露驚慌兼砖。

d. 表達(dá)奸远；表示： register a protest 表示抗議

e. 達(dá)到；取得： Language registers human thought in words.

[4]

All along, she challenged（挑戰(zhàn)） her father, who worked as a chemist at Dupont. She recalls an argument, when she was 17, about the meaning of life. “I said, ‘I think the meaning of life is to be happy.’ He looked at me surprised and puzzled. He said, ‘Why would you want to be happy? I want to be accomplished（功成名就的）.’” Duckworth claims “a rebellious（叛逆的） streak（傾向）”, but hers is not a classic tale of rebellion（叛逆）. It’s much smarter than that. She has scientifically dismantled （拆解）her father’s premise（前提）, his coveting（垂涎） of genius, by proving the idea itself to be mistaken. And she has done it all while achieving everything – and more – he could have hoped for. Three years ago, she won a [MacArthur fellowship][3],（麥克阿瑟獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金） commonly known as “the genius grant（獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金）” – thereby proving him wrong on his terms and hers.

金詞：

accomplish [?'k?mpl??】vt.完成掖鱼；實(shí)現(xiàn)

accomplished [?'k?mpl??t; ?'k?m-] adj.功成名就的

accomplishment? [?'k?mpl??m(?)nt; ?'k?m-] n.成就

finish? ['f?n??] vt.完成然走；結(jié)束

finished? ['f?n??t] adj.完成的 （也有完蛋了的意思，比如 you are finished）

金句：

She has scientifically dismantled （拆解）her father’s premise（前提）, his coveting（垂涎） of genius, by proving the idea itself to be mistaken.

Angela博士用科學(xué)瓦解了她父親的假設(shè)戏挡，證明父親這種艷羨天才的觀念本身就是有問(wèn)題的芍瑞。

coveting 在這里是動(dòng)名詞

proving是現(xiàn)在分詞做方式狀語(yǔ)， by doing sth 通過(guò)做某事

例子：We scientifically improve our English by reading English articles everyday.

[5]

Or did she? Is it possible that her father’s relentless（無(wú)休無(wú)止的） disparagement instilled（逐漸灌輸） in Duckworth the impetus（動(dòng)力） to succeed? “That is an excellent question,” she says, and immediately begins to improve it. “I mean, the question is, would I have done so well – so far as I’ve done – if my dad was just, like, ‘You’re great’!” She replies that she cannot know the answer, she can only reason. “I do think that whatever ambition I may have had natively（天生地） was amplified（放大） by my father’s clear valuing（重視） of it. I knew that was what my dad really cared about.”

金句：

I do think that whatever ambition I may have had natively（天生地） was amplified（放大） by my father’s clear valuing（重視） of it.

Angela博士認(rèn)為無(wú)論她與生俱來(lái)?yè)碛惺裁礃拥男坌暮质@心都被父親的熱望放大啦拆檬。

I do think that 主句

whatever ambition I may have had natively 是從句主語(yǔ)

was amplified by 是從句謂語(yǔ)

my father's clear valuing of it 是從句賓語(yǔ)

it指代的是ambition

[6]

It is tempting（吸引人的） to think that Duckworth’s father – her parents were Chinese immigrants – used criticism（批評(píng)） to motivate his children. But Duckworth laughs at this idea. “Oh my God, my dad, I just don’t think he thought about it. My dad was not super-intentional（有意識(shí)的） in his parenting（育兒）. He was very self-absorbed(固執(zhí)己見(jiàn)的；專(zhuān)注于自己的事情的）. I won’t say mean or selfish per se（本質(zhì)上）, but very self-absorbed. I think he was just thinking out loud.” She came to understand “you’re no genius” as a self-rebuke（自責(zé)）. “He was thinking about the fact that he never won a Nobel prize in chemistry, which is hard to win when you’re really working on car paint refinishing. When I was little, he was still climbing up the corporate ladder （企業(yè)階梯妥凳，指的是按部就班地升職）and he wasn’t the man he wanted to be. And so he, I think, was feeling this inadequacy（能力不足） which he projected on to（把自己的感情投射到某人身上） his children. You know: you’re no genius, you’re no nobel laureate（諾貝爾獎(jiǎng)獲得者）.” She always knew her parents loved her.

金句：

My dad was not super-intentional（有意識(shí)的） in his parenting（育兒）. He was very self-absorbed(固執(zhí)己見(jiàn)的竟贯；專(zhuān)注于自己的事情的）. I won’t say mean or selfish per se（本質(zhì)上）, but very self-absorbed. I think he was just thinking out loud.” She came to understand “you’re no genius” as a self-rebuke（自責(zé)）.

Angela博士覺(jué)得，父親教育自己的方式并不是有意為之逝钥。他只是個(gè)非常固執(zhí)己見(jiàn)的人屑那，他本質(zhì)上不是刻薄或者自私，但他的確是個(gè)只專(zhuān)注于自己世界的人艘款。他心直口快持际，想到哪兒說(shuō)到哪兒。所以哗咆，那句 ”你不是天才“其實(shí)是父親對(duì)他自己說(shuō)的蜘欲，是自責(zé)。

[7]

This year her father turns 84. He has Parkinson’s disease（老年癡呆癥） and lives with Duckworth’s mother in an assisted living facility, a 45-minute trip from Duckworth’s home in Philadelphia. It was there that Duckworth drove when she finished the book. “He likes to look outside, so I wheeled him to a window.” Feeling a little afraid, she drew up a chair next to him, and opened Grit. Over several visits, she read and read, pausing to give her father a sip of water or if he fell asleep. “He seemed to be listening,” she says. Didn’t he say anything? Well, she says, now and then she asked what he thought and, “He sort of said ‘wonderful’.” But there is a hole in her comprehension, a rare moment of inarticulacy（拙于辭令）. “I’m not 100% sure he’s saying that because he knows exactly what I said or because he remembers that this is the sort of thing you say,” she admits. Then she says, “He may even have uttered（喃喃自語(yǔ)） ‘it’s wonderful’.”

Angela博士出版了她那本著名的Grit之后晌柬，第一件事情就是讀給父親聽(tīng)姥份。彼時(shí)郭脂，父親已經(jīng)84歲高齡，且患有老年癡呆癥澈歉。Angela博士把父親的輪椅推到窗邊展鸡，然后一頁(yè)一頁(yè)讀給父親聽(tīng)。最終闷祥，父親好像還是說(shuō)了一句：

你的書(shū)寫(xiě)得真棒娱颊。

[8]

I am confused as to whether he said “wonderful” or not. By now, their relationship feels like a long conflict（沖突）, and this – the reading – is the final frontier（前線）. So it really matters. The next day I email Duckworth to check and she replies that she is “not entirely sure”. She thinks he said it – the asterisks（星號(hào)） are hers and might indicate strength of thought（思考的力量）, or simply emphasise that this is only a thought. Ever the scientist, she adds, “I didn’t video or audio tape reading it to him.”

[9]

It is odd（奇怪的） to picture（想象） Duckworth, mild-mannered and sweet, sitting next to her father – “his own daughter telling him things that are not altogether complimentary（贊賞的）”. But there was some closure（終結(jié)） for her, she says. “The one thing my dad has always been is brutally（殘忍地） honest.” She gives a small laugh. “Or let’s say unedited(未編輯的）.” His honesty brought advantages: as a child, Duckworth “always felt she knew him” and even though her mother was a saint, and “growing up you would think I should be super close to her … Strangely I felt closer to my dad.” It was his honesty that gave her the courage to read to him. As she says, “I’m still my father’s daughter.”

金句：

It is odd（奇怪的） to picture（想象） Duckworth, mild-mannered and sweet, sitting next to her father – “his own daughter telling him things that are not altogether complimentary（贊賞的）”. But there was some closure（終結(jié)） for her, she says. “The one thing my dad has always been is brutally（殘忍地） honest.” She gives a small laugh. “Or let’s say unedited(未編輯的）.”

想象這樣一副圖景：溫和甜美的Angela博士坐在父親身邊，讀著自己出版的著作凯砍，而書(shū)中的理念簡(jiǎn)直就在赤裸裸地打父親的臉箱硕。很奇怪吧。但是悟衩，對(duì)于Angela博士來(lái)講剧罩，這是人生某個(gè)階段的結(jié)束。她笑道：“我爸爸總是那么殘忍地誠(chéng)實(shí)座泳，或者說(shuō)說(shuō)話直來(lái)直去惠昔。”

大樂(lè)樂(lè)點(diǎn)評(píng)：

Angela博士是否感覺(jué)在和父親漫長(zhǎng)的天才戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)中取得了勝利呢挑势？其實(shí)镇防，這場(chǎng)斗爭(zhēng)，無(wú)所謂誰(shuí)勝誰(shuí)負(fù)潮饱，只關(guān)乎我們想向我們的孩子傳達(dá)怎樣的人生觀價(jià)值觀来氧，關(guān)乎我們不用自己的人生來(lái)框定下一代。

[10]

Duckworth is a mother as well as a daughter, and in their house, Amanda, 15, and Lucy, 14, hear a lot about grit. “I have gotten the complaint（抱怨） that I talk about grit all the time,” Duckworth says.Maybe the word will function for them as genius did for Duckworth, and provoke（激起） a quiet, internal rebellion. “Hmm. ‘I’m going to be mediocre（普通的） just to show you’,” she muses（沉思）. “I can imagine that might happen, but neither of my girls are all that rebellious, thank God.” The nearest either comes in the book is when Lucy, then four, tries to open a box of raisins. It’s too difficult and she walks away. Duckworth tells her to try again. Lucy declines（拒絕）.

金詞：

拒絕的藝術(shù)

decline [d?'kla?n] vt. 婉拒

refuse [r?'fju?z] vt. 拒絕 refuse to do sth

reject [r?'d?ekt] vt.排斥香拉；斷然決絕

deny? [d?'na?] vt. 否定啦扬；否認(rèn)

[11]

“I don’t know if it was rebellion,” Duckworth says. “But she had a pronounced（明顯的） aversion（厭惡） to things that were hard.” She describes another time, when Lucy was at maths club. “Watching her through the crack（裂縫） of a door, doing these worksheets. She really didn’t like effort. By the way, most animals don’t like effort.” Eyeing（盯著） the raisin box, peeping（偷窺） through a crack in the door – what a watchful parent Duckworth is. “I was observing them from the get-go(開(kāi)端）,” she says. She mentions the marshmallow test（著名的棉花糖實(shí)驗(yàn)）, which looks at delayed gratification（延遲滿足）. “I did all those things. I was studying them but I was also trying to raise them.”

[12]

To avoid some of the mistakes of her own upbringing（成長(zhǎng)）, Duckworth teaches her children grit. With her husband, Jason, she has developed “the Hard Thing rule”. Each family member must choose a discipline（領(lǐng)域） – for Jason and Duckworth their work, for the girls an interest – and apply themselves to it. No one may quit until the activity has run its course.To anyone who has tried to persuade children to attend a club against their will, that rule itself sounds like a Hard Thing. Does Duckworth find it difficult to navigate（操縱） between her belief that a child should persist（堅(jiān)持） at a task and the child’s right to choose? “It’s not like we haven’t had fights and tears about ‘I hate this’ and ‘I don’t want to do it’,” she says. Occasionally（偶然地） Duckworth shoots back（反擊）: “Fine! If you’re not going to practise then I think we should just call it quits!”

[13]

But neither daughter has capitalised （利用）on these outbursts（爆發(fā)） to liberate（解放） themselves from their obligations. “In these tough moments, they have never said, ‘OK, I’m done.’ I don’t want to take credit for it necessarily because maybe they would have been like that without me saying these things, studying these things, but they really are learning to do things and they are learning to do them well, and they are learning to struggle（奮斗） a bit, and they are learning to have bad days and wake up the next day. I would be surprised if my girls ended up as（最終成為） women without grit. I really would.”

金詞：

obligation [?bl?'ge??(?)n] n.義務(wù)；職責(zé)

responsibility [r??sp?ns??b?l?t?] n. 責(zé)任凫碌；義務(wù)

obligation更偏向于職責(zé)扑毡，而responsibility則更寬泛一些

金句：

But neither daughter has capitalised （利用）on these outbursts（爆發(fā)） to liberate（解放） themselves from their obligations.

但是Angela博士的兩個(gè)女兒從來(lái)因?yàn)檫@種情感的小爆發(fā)而停止練習(xí)。

大樂(lè)樂(lè)點(diǎn)評(píng)：

Angela博士制定的家規(guī)非常棒：就是每個(gè)家庭成員每年都要挑戰(zhàn)一樣技能盛险，比如Angela博士和她老公的任務(wù)就是做好工作瞄摊，而他們的女兒則要選擇一個(gè)興趣點(diǎn)，比如彈鋼琴苦掘。盡管中間有些小摩擦泉褐，小放棄，但是一家四口都在默默地用grit這個(gè)概念引導(dǎo)自己鸟蜡，沒(méi)有人輕易放棄。

[14]

If her father is unedited, Duckworth is the opposite. Her most overused（過(guò)度使用的） phrase is “I will say that …” as if what she voices （表達(dá)）is the result of a private（私人的）, mental conference（內(nèi)心小劇場(chǎng)挺邀，在這里指Angela博士措辭十分謹(jǐn)慎）. And while the concept of genius doesn’t figure much（扮演重要角色） in her life, she occasionally experiences “a marvelling（令人驚奇的）, awestruck（令人敬畏的）” sensation（感覺(jué)）. It can happen when she hears Adele singing. But never in regard to her daughters.

[15]

“No,” she says firmly. Though she is “not afraid to say things”. Lucy, for instance, was up till after 11pm last night trying to make flour for macaroons（馬卡龍）. “I won’t hesitate to say, ‘That’s incredible（不可思議的） to me how interested you are in baking,’” Duckworth says. “But I think the thing that’s most useful to emphasise is this admiration（贊賞） for an interest and an admiration for the things they have done.” Occasionally, she tells her daughters, “You really have a knack（竅門(mén)） for this!” The praise is so moderated（溫和的） it feels a little faint（模糊的）. Maybe life in a gritty house can be tough. “I get tired,” she says. “Striving is exhausting. Sometimes I do say things like ‘I wish I were not quite this driven to be excellent.’ It’s not a comfortable life. It’s not relaxed. I’m not relaxed as a person. I mean, I’m not unhappy. But … it’s the opposite of being comfortable.” “Not unhappy” – the phrase brings to mind Duckworth’s conversation with her father at 17, when she argued for happiness, he for accomplishment. If he was not the man he wanted to be, it is irresistible（不可抗拒的） to wonder if she is the woman she wants to be. But the point of grit, true grit, is that no one ever gets there.

讀完本文揉忘，有興趣的同學(xué)可以去看一本書(shū)

https://www.amazon.com/Grit-Passion-Perseverance-Angela-Duckworth-ebook/dp/B010MH9V3W/ref=sr11?ie=UTF8&qid=1492228783&sr=8-1&keywords=grit

大樂(lè)樂(lè)正在努力錄制這本的原版書(shū)課程跳座，爭(zhēng)取在五月初和大家見(jiàn)面，有興趣的同學(xué)不妨先一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)讀起來(lái)泣矛。