英語學習:放棄還是不放棄 這是一個好問題

加拿大都市网

SOURCE都市报

Winners都懂得smart quitting

Quitter is a person who gives up easily or does not have the courage or determination to finish a task.

Courage是勇氣,determination是決心。或是缺乏勇氣,或是決心不足,遇上一點阻力或挫折,quitters就會做他們最常做的事:quitting——放棄、停止、辭職、退出、離開。Quitter就是經常半途而廢、虎頭蛇尾,輕易放棄工作或職務的人。

所以說:Winners never quit, and quitters never win.(成功的人永不言棄,虎頭蛇尾的人永不成功。)因此我們都不願做quitter,希望自己有persevering(堅持不懈)的能力。

「不浪費」原則

但凡事無絕對,有些情況最佳的選擇卻是quitting。Stephanie Lee在New York Times的文章”Sometimes you have to quit to get ahead”中就談及quit還是不quit的問題。文章的副題是:”Winners are just people who know when to quit – and do it often”(成功人士只不過是那些懂得什麼時候放手,且經常這樣做的人)。

她引述The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)的作者Seth Godin的話:”… winners are smart quitters who quit often, like when they realize their current path and decisions cannot get them any farther toward their goal. Cutting their losses allows winners to reallocate(重新分配)their time and energy to the things that do continue to move them forward, he said.”

Godin稱這些為smart quitters(聰明的放棄者)。這種”quitter”發覺正在走的路不能帶自己到達目標,就會放手。Cutting your losses解avoid losing any more money than you already have lost。Cut losses指的不只是金錢上的損失,也可以是時間、精力或情感上的損失,而且這類損失往往比金錢更嚴重,繼續走沒好處的路就不要再走,這就是smart quitting。
令我們不想放手的其中一個原因是所謂的”‘don’t waste’ rule”。排隊30分鐘,但不知仍要等多久,不想waste已經花了的30分鐘,但到最後可能浪費更多時間,繼續排隊或是離開,確是很矛盾的心情。

A paper in the American Psychological Association pegged it on our overgeneralization(過度應用) of the “don’t waste” rule. That is, we feel like we should put those 30 minutes to “good use.” But refusing to abandon(放棄) those investments can be costly. For every moment you double down(加註) on something that’s not working out, you are forgoing(放棄) other potentially valuable opportunities.

「放棄」怎麼取捨

Northwestern University的研究顯示︰”when we discard unrealistic goals(不切實際的目標) and switch to alternate(其他的、替代的) goals we’re happier, physically healthier and less stressed.”這是需要smart quitting的核心原因。

難處是分辨什麼時候quit,什麼時候堅持。Melanie Pinola在”How to know when it’s time to quit”提供的一個建議:

With any situation, you have to take the bad with the good. But if your experience is overwhelmingly(壓倒性地、無法抵抗地)negative for a long period of time, you have to consider leaving or some radical(基本的)change.

 

share to wechat

延伸阅读

share to wechat

延伸阅读

share to wechat

Tiger电饭煲10杯容量 打对折仅售80

消息人士:安省国际学生名额 96%分配给公立学院和大学

反季入新款!UGG $139.99抢新款雪地靴!

家中氡气超标会致癌!检测仪特价打折