Seri: 365 Days with self - Discipline

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Day 10: On buiding your story

Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe.

 —Stephen King 10

 Writing a novel is a daunting task if you’ve never written one before. It’s hard to write even a single paragraph, let alone write two or three hundred pages that will capture the attention of the reader and keep them reading until the last page. What’s worse, after all this effort, you’ll probably realize that your novel, when compared to a widely-acclaimed bestselling novel, is only good for kindling.

 What you fail to see is that the author of that bestselling novel most likely has spent a decade or more mastering their craft. They started with words, which then became sentences, paragraphs, and eventually stories. Their first attempts — like those of everybody else — were unsuccessful. It took them hundreds of thousands of words’ worth of practice to finally write a masterpiece.

 Building self-discipline is similar to writing a novel. You might consider a disciplined person who always wakes up at four in the morning, is physically active every day, eats a healthy diet, is super productive, and is capable of balancing it all with their social life and family obligations as a superhuman. But in reality, this person, like the bestselling novelist, probably started with one simple change and kept building on top of it.

 Whenever you get discouraged, or feel tired by how far you still have to go to accomplish your goals, remind yourself that everybody who has built self-discipline had to go through the same process — starting with little changes which then turned into habits, which then led to big lifestyle changes and identity shifts, and eventually, into successes.

Vocabulary

daunting /ˈdɔːntɪŋ/

making somebody feel nervous and less confident about doing something; likely to make somebody feel this way

SYNONYM intimidating

She has the daunting task of cooking for 20 people every day.

Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.

eventually /ɪˈventʃuəli/

at the end of a period of time or a series of events

Our flight eventually left five hours late.

I'll get round to mending it eventually.

She hopes eventually to attend medical school and become a doctor.

masterpiece /ˈmɑːstəpiːs/

a work of art such as a painting, film, book, etc. that is an excellent, or the best, example of the artist’s work

The museum houses several of his Cubist masterpieces.

Her work is a masterpiece of (= an excellent example of) simplicity.

capable /ˈkeɪpəbl/

having the ability or qualities necessary for doing something

 capable of something You are capable of better work than this.

 capable of doing something He's quite capable of lying to get out of trouble.

I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself, thank you.

He is more than capable of playing at an international level.

He is still capable of doing the job.

obligation /ˌɒblɪˈɡeɪʃn/

[uncountable] the state of being forced to do something because it is your duty, or because of a law, etc.

 obligation to do something You are under no obligation to buy anything.

 under any/no obligation She did not feel under any obligation to tell him the truth.

I don't want people coming to see me out of a sense of obligation.

 without obligation We will send you an estimate for the work without obligation (= you do not have to accept it).

discourage /dɪsˈkʌrɪdʒ/

to try to prevent something or to prevent somebody from doing something, especially by making it difficult to do or by showing that you do not approve of it

 discourage (doing) something a campaign to discourage smoking among teenagers

 discourage somebody I leave a light on when I'm out to discourage burglars.

 discourage somebody from doing something His parents tried to discourage him from being an actor.

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Translate

Writing a novel is a làm nảng lòng/ˈdɔːntɪŋ/ task if you’ve never written one before. It’s hard to write even a single paragraph, let alone write two or three hundred pages that will capture the attention of the reader and keep them reading until the last page. What’s worse, after all this effort, you’ll probably realize that your novel, when compared to a widely-acclaimed bestselling novel, is only good for kindling.

 What you fail to see is that the author of that bestselling novel most likely has spent a decade or more mastering their craft. They started with words, which then became sentences, paragraphs, and sau cùng/ɪˈventʃuəli/ stories. Their first attempts — like those of everybody else — were unsuccessful. It took them hundreds of thousands of words’ worth of practice to finally write a kiệt tác/ˈmɑːstəpiːs/.

 Building self-discipline is similar to writing a novel. You might consider a disciplined person who always wakes up at four in the morning, is physically active every day, eats a healthy diet, is super productive, and is có khả năng/ˈkeɪpəbl/ of balancing it all with their social life and family obligations as a superhuman. But in reality, this person, like the bestselling novelist, probably started with one simple change and kept building on top of it.

 Whenever you get nản lòng/dɪsˈkʌrɪdʒd/, or feel tired by how far you still have to go to accomplish your goals, remind yourself that everybody who has built self-discipline had to go through the same process — starting with little changes which then turned into habits, which then led to big lifestyle changes and identity shifts, and eventually, into successes.

Writing a novel is a daunting task if you’ve never written one before. Viết một cuốn tiểu thuyết là một nhiệm vụ khó khăn nếu bạn chưa từng viết cuốn tiểu thuyết nào trước đây. It’s hard to write even a single paragraph, let alone write two or three hundred pages that will capture the attention of the reader and keep them reading until the last page. Thật khó để viết dù chỉ một đoạn văn, chưa nói đến việc viết hai hoặc ba trăm trang để thu hút sự chú ý của người đọc và giữ họ đọc cho đến trang cuối cùng.What’s worse, after all this effort, you’ll probably realize that your novel, when compared to a widely-acclaimed bestselling novel, is only good for kindling. Còn tệ hơn nữa, sau tất cả những nỗ lực này, bạn có thể sẽ nhận ra rằng tiểu thuyết của mình, khi được so sánh với một tiểu thuyết bán chạy được hoan nghênh rộng rãi, chỉ tốt cho việc phân loại.

 What you fail to see is that the author of that bestselling novel most likely has spent a decade or more mastering their craft. Những gì bạn không thấy là tác giả của cuốn tiểu thuyết bán chạy đó rất có thể đã dành một thập kỷ hoặc hơn để thành thạo nghề của họ.They started with words, which then became sentences, paragraphs, and eventually stories. Chúng bắt đầu bằng các từ, sau đó trở thành câu, đoạn văn và cuối cùng là câu chuyện. Their first attempts — like those of everybody else — were unsuccessful. Chúng bắt đầu bằng các từ, sau đó trở thành câu, đoạn văn và cuối cùng là câu chuyện. It took them hundreds of thousands of words’ worth of practice to finally write a masterpiece. Họ đã phải mất hàng trăm nghìn từ luyện tập để cuối cùng viết nên một kiệt tác.

 Building self-discipline is similar to writing a novel.Xây dựng kỷ luật bản thân tương tự như viết một cuốn tiểu thuyết. You might consider a disciplined person who always wakes up at four in the morning, is physically active every day, eats a healthy diet, is super productive, and is capable of balancing it all with their social life and family obligations as a superhuman.Bạn có thể coi một người có kỷ luật, luôn thức dậy lúc 4 giờ sáng, hoạt động thể chất hàng ngày, ăn uống lành mạnh, làm việc siêu năng suất và có khả năng cân bằng tất cả với cuộc sống xã hội và nghĩa vụ gia đình của họ như một siêu nhân. But in reality, this person, like the bestselling novelist, probably started with one simple change and kept building on top of it. Nhưng trên thực tế, người này, giống như tiểu thuyết gia bán chạy nhất, có lẽ bắt đầu bằng một thay đổi đơn giản và tiếp tục xây dựng trên đó.

 Whenever you get discouraged, or feel tired by how far you still have to go to accomplish your goals, remind yourself that everybody who has built self-discipline had to go through the same process — starting with little changes which then turned into habits, which then led to big lifestyle changes and identity shifts, and eventually, into successes. Bất cứ khi nào bạn nản lòng hoặc cảm thấy mệt mỏi vì còn phải đi bao xa để hoàn thành mục tiêu, hãy nhắc nhở bản thân rằng tất cả những ai đã xây dựng kỷ luật cho bản thân đều phải trải qua cùng một quá trình - bắt đầu với những thay đổi nhỏ sau đó biến thành thói quen, sau đó dẫn đến những thay đổi lớn về lối sống và thay đổi bản sắc, và cuối cùng, thành công.