Day 348: On Using Your Strength

第348天：关于发挥自己的力量

Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the using of strength.

伟大并非取决于自身的强大，而在于力量的有效发挥。

—Henry Ward Beecher

I’ve never understood the point of going to the gym, lifting weights and then heading back home, sitting on your butt for the rest of the week and avoiding any kind of physical movement — never actually using your strength for anything besides lifting weights. Doesn’t one find the purpose for getting strong by actually using it for something besides training?

我一直不明白，去健身房举重，然后回家，在接下来的一周里静坐不动，避免任何形式的肢体活动——除了举重之外，从不切实发挥自身的力量去做任何其它事情——这有什么意义呢？

难道除了训练，把力量用在其它地方就找不到变强的意义了吗？

Throughout the book, I’ve listed numerous exercises you can use to boost your willpower and become a more self-disciplined person. Those exercises aren’t there for entertainment purposes; I’m sharing them with you so you can actually perform them and then apply the lessons and improvements that you gained through them to your goals.

在整本书中，我列出了许多练习，你可以用它们来提高自己的意志力，成为一个更加自律的人。

这些练习并不是为了娱乐而存在的，我与你分享它们，是为了让你真正去实践，然后将从中获得的经验和取得进步应用到自身的目标中去。

There’s little point in practicing self-control for the sake of practicing self-control. Of course, nothing prevents you from taking cold showers just because you’d like to test yourself or controlling your thoughts just because you’d like to get better at controlling your thoughts. However, remember that ultimately the intention of those exercises is to build strength, which you then use to make your life better.

为了练习自制力而练习自制力是没有什么意义的。

当然，没有什么能阻止你仅仅因为想考验自己而去洗冷水澡，或者仅仅因为想更好地控制自己的想法而去控制自己的思想。

但是，请记住，这些练习的最终目的是为了增强力量，然后凭借这种力量让自己的生活更美好。