The Four Hidden Habit Skills

这是一篇我的译文。来自LEO 的文章。

The Four Hidden Habit Skills

BY LEO BABAUTA

When you learn a new skill, feedback is important: if you fall off a bike, you need to make an adjustment so you don’t keep falling.

But when people learn the skill of creating new habits, they usually take the feedback of missing the habit as complete failure. A sign that they have no discipline.

In actuality, it means no such thing. It just means you need to practice the skill more and make an adjustment.

What people don’t realize is that creating habits is actually a skillset that can be learned and practiced and mastered.

And there are four hidden habit skills that most people don’t realize they’re bad at:

Committing to actually starting. Lots of people think, “I should learn a language,” or “I’m going to start exercising soon” … but then don’t actually take action. That’s because they haven’t really committed to getting started. In our minds, we half commit to things all the time. The habit skill to master is fully committing. That means overcoming your mind’s resistance to taking action, and saying, “I’m doing this. I’m all in. I’m going to start today.” And then get moving. If you’re not good at doing this, start your practice right now: commit to making a small habit change, right this second.

Focus on starting. Once you’ve chosen your habit, and are ready to get started … the focus should be on actually doing the habit. There’s a resistance we face many times when we’re supposed to do a new habit, and we procrastinate, run to distractions, and rationalize. The skill to master is getting started. You don’t have to exercise for 30 minutes … you just need to start. Most people are not good at this, and they think it’s because they have no willpower. No. They just haven’t practiced and mastered this skill of starting.

Noticing rationalizations. Our minds resist doing the habit, and come up with all kinds of rationalizations: It’s too hard, there’s no need to put yourself through this suffering, you’ll do it later, you deserve a break, just this once won’t hurt. We’ve all done this, many times. The skill to master is seeing this rationalization process in action. Be mindful of it. Expose it to the sunlight of attention. And then, come up with counterarguments for each rationalization.

Constant re-adjustment. This is one of the most important habit skills of all, but people fail to do it. They have a rigid idea of what their habit will be like, and when something doesn’t go according to plan, they feel like everything has failed. They feel guilt, and think they’re a failure. No. They just need to re-adjust, and have a flexible mindset. This is so important, and yet almost no one does it. Forget to do the habit? No problem! Adjust by coming up with reminders. Procrastinated by going on Facebook? No problem! Adjust by blocking Facebook until 5 p.m. No problem is a problem if you have the skill of re-adjustment.

If you’re not good at creating habits, you simply need to practice these four hidden skills. If you mess up, just practice some more. No one mastered anything on their first few attempts — it takes time to get good at anything.

But if you get good at this, you can unlock almost unlimited achievements. That makes it worth practicing.

译文：

四个隐藏的习惯技能

当你学习一个新的技能的时候，反馈是很重要的：当你从一辆自行车上面摔下来，你需要做一个调整以至于下次你不会再摔下来。

但是当人们在学习一个在创造新习惯的技能的时候，他们通常会错过这种反馈把这种反馈当做一个完全的失败。这是一个他们没有训练和纪律的标志。

事实上，这根本没什么。这只是意味着你需要去更多的训练这种技巧并且做出一个调整。

人们不知道的是养成一个习惯实际上是一个可以被学会和练习并且掌握的技能组。

并且这里有四个人们并没有意识到的并且不擅长的隐藏的习惯技巧：

1、承认去真正的开始。许多人认为，“我应该学一门语言。”或者“我将很快的开始运动...但是事实上并没有采取措施行动。那是因为他们没有真正的承认去开始。在我们的想法里，我们只有一半去一直承认。去掌握这个习惯的技巧需要我们完全的承诺。那就意味着去克服你内心的拒绝采取行动的那种想法并且说，“我正在做这个。我全神贯注，我今天就开始做。”然后开始做。如果你不擅长做这个的话，现在就开始练习：承诺去做一个小的习惯改进，从这一秒开始。

2、专注于开始。一旦你选择你的习惯，并且准备去开始。这个专注事实上就是在养成这个习惯。这就是当我们应该去养成一个新的习惯的时候我们多次面对的抗拒，并且我们拖延了，走进了一个坑，并且合理化。掌握这个技巧就是从现在开始。你并不必要运动半个小时...你只是需要从现在开始。许多人并不擅长这点，并且他们认为这是因为他们没有毅力。不。那只是因为他们并没有练习并且掌握开始的技巧。

3、注意合理化。我们的想法是很抗拒做这个习惯的，并且找来各种各样的东西去合理化：太困难了，没必要让你自己去遭遇这些困难，你将会等会儿再做，你值得这样一个间隙，就这一次也不会有很大的伤害。我们都这样做，很多很多次。去控制的技巧就是用实际行动去看清这个合理化过程。注意到它。让它暴露在阳光下。并且，为了每一个合理化去进行反驳。

4、不断地再调整。这是所有养成习惯的技巧当中最重要的一个，但是人们都通常做不到。他们对自己习惯的养成有一个很严格的想法，当有些事情一旦没有按照计划行事的话，他们就感觉所有的东西都失败了一样。他们感到很内疚，并且认为他们自己就是一个失败者 。不。他们只是需要再调整，并且有一个灵活的思考。这是很重要的，但是几乎没有人能够做得到。忘记去养成这个习惯吗？没问题！如果有人提醒的话再去调整。继续在脸书上面玩去拖延？没问题！到了下午5点再去停止玩脸书时再去调整吧。如果你懂得再调整的那种技巧没有什么问题将会是问题。

如果你不擅长养成习惯，你只需要去训练这四个技巧。如果你感到很迷惑，那就多练几次。没有任何人在他们前几次就得企图中就掌握了这些技巧--擅长于任何事情都需要时间。

但是如果你擅长做这个的话，你可以释放你前所未有的潜能。那就会值得你去练习。