I made sure my lifting routine and nutrition were pretty much perfect, but I couldn't understand why I wasn't progressing.

我的訓練時間排程和營養規劃都相當完美，但我就是不懂為什麼自己沒有進步。

I would lift my personal record one week, then perfectly stick to my routine and nutrition, and I would come back one or two weeks later and guess what, lift the same weight or even less.

在一個星期內，我會舉個人最高紀錄的重量，完全按照先前計畫的訓練時間排程及營養規劃，接著一到兩週後再回來訓練。結果你猜怎麼了？我舉的重量沒變，甚至還變得更輕了。

This literally discouraged me to a point, where often I would completely disregard the gym for a few weeks because I felt like I needed to change everything about my diet and routine.

我氣餒到完全沒去健身房好幾個星期，並覺得我應該從頭重新調整訓練時間排程和營養計畫 。

And then I read Mastery by George Leonard, one of my biggest role models and a person who knew a thing or two about Mastery.

後來我看了喬治．倫納德的書《精益求精》，他是我的模範之一，也是瞭解如何精通門一門技術的專家。

And he said, “Look, the reason you feel that way is because of what you've been taught.”

他說：「你會這樣想，都是因為別人是這樣教你你的。」

My mommy told me, “Hey, just work hard, you'll get better and better every day.”

我媽曾告訴我：「嘿，認真做，你就會比昨天更厲害了。」

And I bought into that so the mastery curve in my head looked like this.

我一直如此堅信著，所以我想像中的進步曲線看起來像是這樣。

I thought over time, I would see constant progress.

我以為隨著時間進展，我就會持續進步。

And Leonard said, “That’s the stupidest, most unrealistic thing you could expect on your path.”

而倫納德卻說：「這是對成長曲線的期許中，最愚蠢而不切實際的想法。」

Your path is actually going to look something like this, and here you have the most important idea of a "plateau."

你的成長曲線應該像這樣。其中，有一個最重要的概念稱為「高原」。

Most of your journey on your path to mastery is spent on that plateau.

大部分邁向精通的時間都花在「高原」上面。

And it is after dedicated time on this plateau that you see progress and possibly even slight regress afterwards, but the big idea is that the new plateau is higher than your previous one.

在「高原」區塊努力一陣子後，就會看到進步，即使也許進步後還會退一些，但這個概念的重點是，你的「高原」仍然比上一個還高一層。

And that is how real growth happens.

這才是真正的進步過程。

So I've literally used this idea with everything ever since I first read Leonard.

自從看過這本書後，我把這種想法套在任何事上面。

Do you think I look at how my channel is doing today compared to yesterday or a week ago?

你覺得我會觀察今天的影片，和頻道中昨天或是上週的影片有甚麼差別嗎？

Why, why would I do that? I look at… Is my routine and nutrition optimized?

為什麼？為什麼我要這樣做？我觀察的是... 我的訓練時間排程和營養規劃有沒有達到最佳化？

Or in this case, am I offering as much value as I possibly can and am I constantly trying to improve my content for my viewers?

或是以經營頻道為例，我有沒有在自己能力之內，創造出最有價值的內容？以及我是否持續為我的觀眾提升內容品質？

And the answer is “yes.” So there is no reason for me to lose motivation when my channel isn't doing better than it was, I don't know, yesterday or a week ago, because I know that in six months my channel will be kicking ass compared to today.

而答案是：「有。」。所以，我對於頻道進步的追求永遠不會因為與昨天或一周前的表現相比而失去動力，但我知道六個月後再回頭看，我的頻道會比今天更棒。

And I will be on yet another plateau, diligently putting in the work to get to the next one.

我會來到另一塊「高原」上，接著再努力爬上另一塊「高原」。