评论
打印
It might seem - at first glance - as though the people we term high-achievers could not possibly require our sympathy or compassion.
乍一看，似乎我们称之为高成就的人不可能需要我们的理解或同情。
After all, they are the ones who did exceptionally well in exams,
毕竟，他们是那些在考试中表现异常出色的人，
whom the teachers admired, who won places at the best universities,
老师们钦佩他们，他们赢得了最好的大学的名额，
who graduated with honours, who got into law and medical schools,
他们以优异的成绩毕业，他们进入了法律和医学院，
who founded thriving businesses, who live in the wealthiest parts of town,
他们创办了蓬勃发展的企业，他们生活在镇上最富裕的地区，
who are up early in the morning preparing themselves healthy breakfasts before a day of important meetings.
他们一大早就起床为自己准备健康的早餐，然后再参加一天的重要会议。
Surely we can’t suggest that these might be victims, except, of course, that it would rarely occur to anyone, who did not harbour a high degree of self-suspicion, to undertake so many outsize efforts to impress and to make a mark upon the world.
当然，我们不能暗示这些人可能是受害者，除非，没有高度自我怀疑的人很少会想到，为了给世界留下深刻印象并在世界上留下印记，他们付出了如此巨大的努力。
The high achievers, for all their accomplishments, cannot trust in a basic idea: that it might be acceptable to be themselves, outside of any acclaim, notice or distinction.
高成就的人，尽管取得了种种成就，却不能相信一个基本的观念:不受任何称赞、注意或区别的影响，做自己是可以接受的。
Simply being is never enough, their right to exist can only be assured by constant doing.
仅仅存在是远远不够的，只有通过不断的行动才能确保他们的生存权。
Their frantic activity masks an underlying unquenchable doubt as to their acceptability.
他们疯狂的活动掩盖了一种潜在的不可抑制的怀疑，即他们是否能被接受。
It may have been many years since they enjoyed a day without commitments.
他们可能已经很多年没有享受过没有承诺的日子了。
The moment that they are at a loose end, anxiety arises: what are they meant to be doing?
一旦他们无所事事，焦虑就会油然而生:他们应该做什么?
What have they forgotten to take care of ? Do they have the right to be still?
他们忘了照顾什么? 他们有权利保持安静吗?
No one can doubt what we owe to the high-achievers.
没有人能怀疑我们对这些高成就者的感激。
They are the ones who build the skyscrapers, who explore distant planets, who drive the stock market to new heights, who start businesses and write films and books.
他们是建造摩天大楼的人，是探索遥远星球的人，是把股市推向新高度的人，是创业的人，是写电影和书籍的人。
We would all be the poorer without them.
没有他们，我们都会变得更贫穷。
But our respect shouldn't rob us of our ability to appraise the costs that their ways of life exact.
但是我们的尊重不应该剥夺我们评估他们生活方式所付出的代价的能力。
The wealth of nations is built upon the troubles of the individual psyche.
国家的财富建立在个人心灵的烦恼之上。
The high achievers have been driven to act not simply from talent or creativity, energy and skill (though these are no doubt present as well)
高成就的人被驱使采取行动，不仅仅是出于天赋或创造力、精力和技能(尽管这些无疑也是存在的)，
but from a primordial sense that there is something shameful about them in their basic state, and that they must hence clothe themselves in the garments of success to escape the humiliation of their true selves.
而是出于一种原始的感觉，即他们的基本状态存在一些可耻的东西，因此他们必须穿上成功的外衣，以逃避真实自我的羞辱。
No wonder that their efforts are so often self-defeating.
难怪他们的努力经常弄巧成拙。
It may for a long time seem as if they were after money, power, acclaim and distinction but these are merely substitutes for their fundamental, but unknown goal: a sense of basic adequacy.
在很长一段时间里，他们似乎在追求金钱、权力、赞誉和声望，但这些只不过是他们根本但未知的目标的替代品：一种基本的充足感。
The disjuncture explains the curious sadness that may accompany high achievers at some of their moments of greatest triumph.
这种脱节解释了高成就者在他们最伟大的胜利时刻可能伴随着的奇怪的悲伤。
- Finally they have sold the company. - At last they have won an international prize.
-最终，他们出售了公司。-他们最终赢得了国际大奖。
But they are likely to feel hollow in the days and years that follow, as they confusedly recognise that every possible achievement has been gained but that none of it has, somehow, been sufficient to quell the pain and restlessness within.
但在接下来的日子里，他们可能会感到空虚，因为他们迷惑地认识到，所有可能的成就都已经取得，但不知何故，这些成就都不足以平息内心的痛苦和不安。
It can be counted as close to good fortune if high achievers stumble and fail somewhere along their journey, if they are tripped up by an unexpected bankruptcy, scandal or economic downturn.
如果高成就者在旅途中跌倒并在某个地方失败，如果他们被意想不到的破产、丑闻或经济低迷绊倒，这可以被视为近乎好运。
The reversal may prompt a mental breakdown and a period of rest, in which there is a sliver of hope,
这种逆转可能会导致精神崩溃和一段时间的休息，在这段时间里还有一线希望，
for it contains a chance to see that their manic pursuit of success was all along masking a terror about unloveability, which now has a chance to be quelled in more realistic and effective ways.
因为它包含了一个机会，让我们看到他们狂热的追求成功一直掩盖着对不可爱的恐惧，现在有机会以更现实、更有效的方式平息这种恐惧。
There is an opportunity to acknowledge that one has been playing the wrong game all along
现在有机会承认，一个人一直在玩错误的游戏
- and that the true problem never had anything to do with a lack of prizes, and everything to do with a burning conviction that one might need so many of them.
-真正的问题从来不是缺乏奖品，而是与一种强烈的信念有关，即一个人可能需要这么多奖品。
It is a measure of our collective delusion that we are so ready to be proud of high achievers and so slow to detect the wound that powers them on.
这是我们集体的一种错觉，我们如此乐于为成就卓著的人感到骄傲，却如此缓慢地察觉到他们身上的创伤。
It would be a less gilded world, but also a far happier one, in which we were readier to reassure the self-hating titans of success that they were worthy of love all along.
这将是一个不那么镀金的世界，但也是一个幸福得多的世界，在这个世界里，我们更愿意让那些自我憎恨的成功巨人放心，他们永远值得被爱。
