A typical lion tamer in people’s mind is an entertainer holding a whip and a chair. The whip gets all of the attention, but it’s mostly for show. In reality, it’s the chair that does the important work. When a lion tamer holds a chair in front of the lion’s face, the lion tries to focus on all four legs of the chair at the same time. With its focus divided, the lion becomes confused and is unsure about what to do next. When faced with so many options, the lion chooses to freeze and wait instead of attacking the man holding the chair.
在人们的心目中，驯狮师通常是一位拿着鞭子和一把椅子的艺人。鞭子吸引了所有的注意力，但它主要是为了作秀。实际上是椅子扮演了重要角色。当驯狮师将一把椅子放在狮子面前时，狮子想同时关心椅子的四条腿。由于注意力分散，狮子变得困惑，不知道下一步该怎么办。当面对如此多的选择时，狮子选择静静地等待，而不是攻击拿着椅子的人。

How often do you find yourself in the same position as the lion? How often do you have something you want to achieve (e.g. lose weight, start a business, travel more) — only to end up confused by all of the options in front of you and never make progress?
你是否经常会发现自己与狮子处境相同？你是否经常会有一些想要实现的目标（例如减肥、创业、旅行等）——结果却困惑于眼前的所有选择，永远无法取得进展？

This upsets me to no end because while all the experts are busy debating about which option is best, the people who want to improve their lives are left confused by all of the conflicting information. The end result is that we feel like we can’t focus or that we’re focused on the wrong things, and so we take less action, make less progress, and stay the same when we could be improving.
这让我非常不安，因为当所有的专家都在忙着讨论哪种选择最好的时候，那些想要改善生活的人却被所有相互矛盾的信息弄糊涂了。最终的结果是，我们觉得我们不能集中精力，或者我们把精力放在了错误的事情上，因此我们更少采取行动，取得的进步更少，并且在我们可以改进的时候保持不变。

It doesn’t have to be that way. Anytime you find the world waving a chair in your face, remember this: All you need to do is focus on one thing. You just need to get started. Starting before you feel ready is one of the habits of successful people. If you have somewhere you want to go, something you want to accomplish, someone you want to become … take immediate action. If you’re clear about where you want to go, the rest of the world will either help you get there or get out of the way.
不一定要这样。每当你发现这个世界在你面前挥舞着一把椅子，记住这一点：你所需要做的就是专注于一件事，你只需要开始。在你准备好之前就开始是成功人士的习惯之一。如果你有你想去的地方，你想完成的事情，你想成为的人……立即采取行动。如果你清楚自己想去哪里，世界上的其他人要么会帮你到达那里，要么会让路。