Unexpected Benefits to Shifting Your Mindset About Time改变时间观念的意外好处

Embracing long-term thinking can transform your career and business.

运用长期思维可改变你的职业和事业。

It’s human nature to want fast results. Couple that with the constant barrage of social media （more！ faster！ now！） and navigating a global pandemic， and most of us haven’t exactly been in the mood to cultivate our long-term thinking.

追求速成是人的天性。再加上社交媒体持续不断的狂轰滥炸（更多！更快！现在！）以及要应对全球疫情，我们大多数人根本没有心情去培养长期思维。

But for the past several years， that’s exactly what I’ve been researching， because resetting the way we think about time， and consciously embracing long-term thinking， can transform our businesses and careers in surprising ways.

但在过去几年里，这正是我一直在研究的课题，因为换种方式看待时间，并有意识地采用长期思维，能让我们的职业和事业发生惊人的改变。

In my new book The Long Game： How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World1， I share three unexpected reasons long-term thinking can be so powerful. Here’s how to leverage their value in your own life：

在我的新书《长期游戏：如何在短效世界成为长期思维者》中，我分享了长期思维何以如此强大的三个意想不到的原因。下文将介绍如何在生活中发挥它们的价值。

Long-term thinking gives you courage

长期思维给人勇气

Plenty of well-known companies have stumbled on social issues in recent years， from climate change to race to marriage equality. But as my friend， branding expert Martin Lindstrom notes， “Through my career， I’ve come to know hundreds of CEOs， and not one of them—I mean， zero—has ever disagreed with the concept of equality.” These leaders’ flat-footed2 responses are due to the fear of short-term consequences， whether it’s taking a hit to their share price or their annual bonus.

近年来，许多知名企业在气候变化、种族、婚姻平等等社会问题上栽了跟头。但正如我的朋友、品牌推广专家马丁·林德斯特伦所指出的，“在职业生涯中，我结识了数百名首席执行官，其中没有人——我是说一个也没有——不认同平等的观念。”这些领导人手足无措的回应是出于对短期后果的担忧，无论这后果是股价受挫还是年终奖受影响。

Re-orienting your point of view to the long-term （In 20 years， will I be proud of my actions？） enables you to resist pressure in the moment and make the right decisions based on values and ethics， not immediate gain or loss.

将视角调远（20年后，我会为自己的行为感到骄傲吗？）可使人抵抗当前压力，并基于价值观念和道德规范而非眼前得失做出正确决策。

A longer time frame lets you accomplish more meaningful goals

更长的时间范围有助于完成更有意义的目标

My friend Jonathan Brill， an innovation expert who’s the author of the book Rogue Waves3， identifies one of the worst hidden risks for companies： “You hire smart people who know how to win，” he says， “and you tell them to win at the wrong thing.” If the incentives are focused on short-term revenue gains， that’s where all the attention goes—and as Jonathan says， “The result of that is that you can lose by winning.”

我的朋友乔纳森·布里尔是一位创新专家，著有《疯狗浪》。他指出了企业最严重的潜在风险之一。“你雇用了知道如何去赢的聪明人，”他说，“而你让他们在错误的事情上去赢。”如果激励机制关注的是短期回报，所有注意力都集中于此，那么，如乔纳森所说，“其结果就是，你可能因赢而输。”

Instead of focusing on transformative projects that can reshape your industry or revitalize your company， these very smart people focus on what’s known as “feature innovation”： small， somewhat meaningless changes like what color a button should be. The benefits （if any） are small， marginal4， and ephemeral5.

这些非常聪明的人没有关注那些可以重塑产业或重振公司的变革性项目，却专注于所谓的“特色创新”：微小而无甚意义的改变，比如某个按钮该用什么颜色。这种改变的好处即使有，也是微乎其微，昙花一现。

The problem—and the reason so many companies， and leaders， are averse to taking on substantive projects—is that they simply take longer to ramp up6. “It takes typically five or six years for a product or a business to get to scale，” says Jonathan. Even if the benefits would be substantial once the product or service is established， a lot of companies just don’t want to wait that long. “What you’re looking for is profit，” he says， “That happens on the decade scale. That doesn’t happen on the quarterly scale.”

问题在于——以及这么多企业和领导人不愿承担实质性项目的原因在于——这类项目需要更长时间才会有起色。“一件产品或一项业务通常需要五六年才能形成规模。”乔纳森表示。即使当产品或业务建立起来时利润相当可观，许多公司也不愿等那么久。“你追求的是利润。”他说，“利润产生要以十年为尺度。十年时间会有利润产生，一个季度不会有。”

So if you buck the trend7 and embrace a long-term perspective， and if you’re willing to wait out those early days of getting established， you can enshrine a long-term competitive advantage （and their concomitant8 profits）， because very few of your competitors will even make the attempt.

所以，如果你逆势而为，放远眼光，并且愿意等到创业初期结束，你就能获得长期竞争优势（以及相应的利润），因为极少有竞争者会做此尝试。

As Jeff Bezos observed， “If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon， then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon， you’re now competing against a fraction of those people， because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon， you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue.”

正如杰夫·贝索斯所说，“如果你做每件事都以三年为期，那么你的竞争对手就会有很多;但如果你愿意以七年为期，你的竞争对手就只有其中的一小部分，因为极少有公司愿意这么做。仅仅通过拉长时间期限，你就可以致力于原本不可能做的事情。”

Long-term thinking helps you not be so hard on yourself

长期思维使人不苛求自己

Almost everyone began the pandemic with lofty goals， from learning Italian to mastering sourdough to finishing that novel. （I took on the challenge of latte art9.） And plenty of us failed. It’s like vowing to read 10 reports on a cross-country flight， and discovering upon landing that all you’ve done is nap. It’s frustrating， but also： You needed a nap.