习惯是改变未来的隐形算法，它让存钱、阅读等困难之事变得毫不费力。目标会因终点而失效，习惯却能在无意识中持续复利——每周自动存50美元比反复自律更可靠。正如奥克塔维亚·巴特勒所说："不管有没有灵感，习惯都会支撑你前行。"
一旦养成，习惯就会自动运作。
习惯可以让那些原本很难坚持的事情(比如存钱)在实践中变得轻而易举。
改变人生路径的关键，不是目标设定，而是行为系统的构建。
目标是阶段性的，依赖外部动机，容易因不可控因素中断；而习惯是自动化的决策机制，一旦建立，能在无意识中持续推动结果。
Compound Growth:The Power of Habits
复利增长:习惯的力量
Nothing will change your future trajectory like your habits.
没有什么比你的习惯更能改变你未来的轨迹。
We all have goals, big or small, things we want to achieve within a certain time frame. Maybe you want to make a million dollars by the time you turn 30.Or to lose 20 pounds before summer. Or to write a book in the next six months. When we begin to chase a vague concept (success, wealth, health, happiness), making a tangible goal is often the first step.
我们每个人都有目标，无论大小，都是想在某个时间范围内实现的事情。也许你想在30岁之前赚到一百万美元，也许你想在夏天之前减掉20磅，也许你想在接下来的六个月内写完一本书。当我们开始追逐一个模糊的概念(成功、财富、健康、幸福)时，制定一个具体的目标通常是第一步。
Habits are algorithms operating in the background that power our lives. Good habits help us reach our goals more effectively and efficiently. Bad ones makes things harder or prevent success entirely.
习惯是运行在我们生活背景里的“算法”。好的习惯能帮助我们更高效、更有效地达成目标;坏的习惯则会让一切变得更困难，甚至彻底阻碍成功。
Habits powerfully influence our automatic behavior.
习惯深刻地影响着我们的自动行为模式。
First forget inspiration.
首先，忘了灵感这回事。
Habit is more dependable.
习惯更值得依赖。
Habit will sustain you whether youre inspired or not.
不管你有没有灵感，习惯都会支撑你继续前行。
Habit is persistence in practice.”
习惯就是持续的练习。”
-Octavia Butler
一奥克塔维亚·巴特勒
The difference between habits and goals is not semantic. Each requires different forms of action. For example:
习惯与目标的区别并不是语义上的差异，它们所需要的行动方式完全不同。举个例子:
Lets say you want to read more books. You could set the goal to read 50 books bythe end of the year, or you could create a habit and decide to always carry a book with you.
假设你想多读书。你可以设定一个目标，比如在年底前读完50本书;也可以养成一个习惯，比如随身携带一本书。
The problems with goals
目标存在的问题
Lets go over the problems with only having goals.
让我们来看看仅仅依靠目标存在的几个问题:
First off, goals have an endpoint. This is why many people revert to their previous state after achieving a certain goal. People run marathons, then stop exercising altogether. Or they make a certain amount of money, then fall into debt soon after. Others reach a goal weight, only to spoil their progress by overeating to celebrate.
首先，目标有一个终点。这就是为什么很多人在达成目标后会回到原来的状态。有人跑完马拉松之后就彻底停止锻炼;有人赚到一笔钱之后很快又陷入债务;也有人达到理想体重后，为了庆祝而暴饮暴食，前功尽弃。
Habits avoid these pitfalls because they continue indefinitely.
而习惯则能避免这些陷阱一因为习惯 没有终点，是可以持续进行的。
Second, goals rely on factors that we do not always have control over.
第二，目标常常依赖于我们无法控制的因素。
Its an unavoidable fact that reaching agoal is not always possible, regardless of effort. An injury might derail a fitness goal. An unexpected expense might sabotage a financial goal. And family issues might impede a creative-output goal.
这是一个无法回避的现实:即便我们努力，目标也不一定能实现。一场伤病可能会打乱健身计划，突发开销可能会破坏财务目标，家庭问题可能会影响创造性工作的进度。
When we set a goal, were attempting to transform what is usually a heuristic process into an algorithmic one. Habits are better algorithms, and therefore more reliable in terms of getting us to where we want to go.
设定目标其实是在试图把一种通常是“启发式”(灵活应对)的过程，变成一种“算法式”(机械执行)的路径。而习惯，就是更可靠的“算法”一在帮助我们达成理想状态上更稳妥。
The third problem with goals is keeping a goal in mind and using it to direct our actions requires a lot of thinking and effort to evaluate different options. Presented with a new situation, we have t figure out the course of action best suited to achieving a goal. With habits, we already know what to do by default.
第三，目标需要我们不断思考和评估，而这会消耗大量精力。当遇到新情况时，我们需要思考:哪种行为最有助于达成目标?而如果我们有一个好习惯，我们就不需要再思考一我们知道默认该怎么做。
During times when other parts of our lives require additional attention, it can be casy to push off attaining our goals to another day. For example, the goal of saving money requires self-discipline each time we make a purchase. Meanwhile, the habit of putting $50 in a savings account every week requires less effort as a practical action.Habits, not goals, make otherwise difficult things easy.
当生活中其他领域开始消耗我们的注意力时，目标往往会被推迟。比如，存钱的目标需要我们在每一次消费时都保持自律:而每周自动存入50美元的习惯，则几乎不需要额外努力就能完成。习惯能够让那些原本困难的事情变得轻松。
Finally, goals can make us complacent or reckless.
最后，目标还可能让我们变得自满，甚至鲁莽。
Sometimes our brains can confuse goal setting with achievement because setting the goal feels like an end in itself. This effect is more pronounced when people inform others of their goals.
有时候我们的大脑会把“设定目标”误认为“已经完成了目标”，因为光是设立目标就让人有种成就感。如果我们还把目标告诉别人，这种错觉会变得更强。
Furthermore, unrealistic goals can lead to dangcrous or unethical behavior because we make compromises to meet our stated objective.
更糟糕的是，不切实际的目标可能让人为了达成目标而做出危险或不道德的选择一-我们可能会牺牲底线，只为实现自己立下的誓言。
“Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).”-Stephen Covey
“习惯，是知识(知道做什么)、技能(知道怎么做)、和欲望(想要去做)三者的交汇点。”一史蒂芬·柯维
The benefits of habits
习惯的好处
Once formed, habits operate automatically. Habits take otherwise difficult taskslike saving money--and make them easy in practice.
一旦养成，习惯就会自动运作。习惯可以让那些原本很难坚持的事情(比如存钱)在实践中变得轻而易举。
The purpose of a well-crafted set of habits is to ensure that we reach our goals with incremental steps.
一个精心设计的习惯系统，其目的就是通过一点一滴的累积，最终帮助我们实现目标。
As the saying goes, the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. The benefits of a systematic approach to life include:
俗话说，“吃掉一头大象的方法，就是一口一口来。”而系统化的生活方式所带来的好处包括:
Habits can mean we overshoot our goals.
习惯有时甚至能让我们超额完成目标。
Consider a person who has the goal to write a novel. They decide to write 500 words a day, so it should take200 days.Writing 500 words generally doesnt require an enormous amount of effort assuming interest in and knowledge of the topic, and even on the busiest, most stressful days, the person gets it done.
比如，有人设定了写小说的目标，于是决定每天写500字。按理说这样200天就可以完成一本书。写500字在多数情况下并不需要太大的精力，特别是如果这个人对题材感兴趣、有内容可写的话。即使在最忙碌、最压力山大的日子，他也能完成。
However, on some days, that smaller step leads to their writing 1000 or more words.As a result, they finish the book in much less time.
但在某些状态不错的日子里，他可能会一口气写1000字、甚至更多，结果就是一-他提前完成了整本书。
On the contrary, setting “write a book in four months" as a goal would have been intimidating on final word count alone.
相比之下，如果他一开始就设定目标“在四个月内写完一本书”，那恐怕光是预估字数就足以让人望而却步。
Habits are easy to complete.
习惯更容易完成。
As Charles Duhigg wrote in The Power of Habit,“Habits are powerful, but delicate. They can emerge outside our consciousness or can be deliberately designed. They often occur without our permission but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts. They shape our lives far more than we realize they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense."
正如查尔斯·杜希格在《习惯的力量》中所说:“习惯很强大，但也很脆弱。它们可以在我们无意识中形成，也可以被有意识地设计出来。它们往往不经我们允许就发生，却可以通过调整其中的组成部分来重塑。它们在我们生活中的影响远超我们想象一它们的力量甚至强大到会让大脑固守它们，哪怕代价是常识的丧失。”
Habits are for life.
习惯是终身的。
Our lives are structured around habits.many of them barely noticeable.
我们的一生都围绕着习惯在运转，其中很多习惯几乎难以察觉。
According to Duhiggs research, habits make up 40% of our waking hours. These often minuscule actions add up to make us who we are.
根据查尔斯·杜希格的研究，习惯占据了我们清醒时间的40%。这些看似微不足道的动作，日积月累，最终塑造了“我们是谁”。
"All our life, so far as it has definite form，is but a mass of habits -practical, emotional, and intellectual systematically organized for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny, whatever the latter may be.
“我们全部的生活一只要它有明确的结构一就是一团习惯的总和:实用的、情绪的和智力的，系统地排列，带领我们走向幸福或痛苦，并不可抗拒地将我们推向各自的命运，不管那命运是什么。”
" Once a habit becomes ingrained, it can last for life and takes a lot of work to break.
一旦一个习惯根深蒂固，它就可能伴随我们一生一而要打破它，将会非常困难。
Habits can compound.
习惯可以“复利增长”
Sow a thought, reap an action;
播下一种想法，收获一个行动;
sow an action, reap a habit;
播下一个行动，收获一个习惯;
sow a habit, reap a character;
播下一个习惯，收获一个性格:
sow a character, reap a destiny."
播下一个性格，收获一个命运。
In other words, building a single habit can have a wider impact on our lives.
换句话说，一个习惯的建立，可能对我们整个人生产生连锁影响。
Duhigg calls these keystone habits. These are behaviors that cause people to change related areas of their lives. For example, people who start exercising daily may end up eating better and drinking less alcohol.Basically, those who quit a bad habit mayend up replacing it with a positive alternative. (Listen to Naval Ravikant riff on habit replacement a lot on this podcast cpisode.)
杜希格把这些称为“关键习惯”一即那些能够引发其他积极改变的核心行为。例如，有些人开始每天锻炼后，可能自然而然开始吃得更健康、喝酒更少。换句话说，戒掉一个坏习惯时，人们往往会用另一个更好的习惯去替代它。(Naval Ravikant就在他的播客里频繁谈到“习惯替代”的概念。)
Habits can be as small as necessary.
习惯可以小到极致
A common piece of advice for those seeking to build a habit is to start small. If you want to read more, you can start with 25 pages a day. After this becomes part of your routine, you can increase the page count to reach your goal. Once your small habits become ingrained, the degree of complexity can be increased.
在养成习惯的过程中，一个常见建议是:从小处开始。比如，你想多读书，可以从每天25页开始。当这个行为成为日常节奏的一部分后，再逐渐增加阅读量，直到达到你的目标。一旦这些小习惯根植下来，就可以进一步提升难度或复杂度。
"First we make our habits, then our habits make us." Charles C. Nobel
最初，是我们创造习惯;最终，是习惯塑造我们。”一查尔斯·C·诺贝尔
