Truly happy and successful people get that way by becoming the best, most genuine version of themselves they can be. Not on the outside--on the inside. It's not about a brand, a reputation, a persona. It's about reality. Who you really are.

　　Sounds simple, I know. It is a simple concept. The problem is, it's very hard to do, it takes a lot of work, and it can take a lifetime to figure it out.

　　Nothing worth doing in life is ever easy. If you want to do great work, it's going to take a lot of hard work to do it. And you're going to have to break out of your comfort zone and take some chances that will scare the crap out of you.

　　But you know, I can't think of a better way to spend your life. I mean, what's life for if not finding yourself and trying to become the best, most genuine version of you that you can be?

　　That's what Steve Jobs meant when he said this at a Stanford University commencement speech:

　　Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

　　You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

　　The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.

　　Now, let's for a moment be realistic about this. Insightful as that advice may be, it sounds a little too amorphous and challenging to resonate with today's quick-fix culture. These days, if you can't tell people exactly what to do and how to do it, it falls on deaf ears.

　　Not only that, but what Jobs was talking about, what I'm talking about, requires focus and discipline, two things that are very hard to come by these days. Why? Because, focus and discipline are hard. It's so much easier to give in to distraction and instant gratification. Easy and addictive.

　　To give you a little incentive to take on the challenge, to embark on the road to self-discovery, here are three huge benefits from working to become the best, most genuine version of yourself.

　　It will make you happy. Getting to know yourself will make you feel more comfortable in your own skin. It will reduce your stress and anxiety. It will make you a better spouse, a better parent, a better friend. It will make you a better person. Those are all pretty good reasons, if you ask me.

　　Besides, you really won't achieve anything significant in life until you know the real you. Not your brand, your LinkedIn profile, how you come across, or what anyone thinks of you. The genuine you. There's one simple reason why you shouldn't try to be something you're not, and it's that you can't. The real you will come out anyway. So forget your personal brand and start spending time on figuring out who you really are and trying to become the best version of that you can be.

　　You pay a huge price when you engage in mindless distraction. The only people that really care about you are your loved ones, your friends and family. Everyone else is too busy living his own little mini drama. To put it bluntly, your network couldn't care less about you.

　　That's why engaging yourself and others in mindless distraction isn't worth your time or theirs. More important, it will absolutely keep you from focusing on accomplishing whatever great things you might manage to achieve in life if you set your mind to it.

　　There's a business concept called opportunity cost. When you choose one course of action, you miss out on all the other opportunities you might have chosen to pursue but didn't. People rarely stop to consider that until it's too late.

　　It's the most exciting journey you will ever embark on. We're all enthralled by adventure. We love to read and watch movies about other people's journeys, real or imagined. The Hobbit. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Into Thin Air.

　　We love to take vacations, to travel to all sorts of places. And when we do, we revel in the natural beauty of Kauai's Na Pali Coast, the Grand Canyon, the Alps. We marvel at the great works of others: the art, the architecture, the Pyramids, Stonehenge.

　　And yet, the opportunity for adventure is right there in front of each and every one of us. Until you take it, you'll never know what you might achieve. What marvels you might create. What you might discover. All you have to do is start the journey.

　　真正快樂成功的人會長成最好最真實的自己——從內(nèi)心而非外表上。重要的不是品牌、名譽或者外表形象，而是真實的自我。

　　道理很簡單，講出來也很容易。但問題是，做起來就不簡單了：這需要付諸很多努力，甚或一輩子才能實現(xiàn)。

　　需要窮盡畢生精力的事情必定不容易。成大事者必先苦其心志。因此，你必須走出舒適區(qū)，去經(jīng)歷、去體驗?zāi)切屇愫ε碌臋C會。

　　況且，人這一輩子，若到頭來都認(rèn)不清自己、未能長成最好最真實的自己，還有什么意義呢?

　　正如史蒂夫-喬布斯在斯坦福大學(xué)的畢業(yè)典禮上所言：

　　時間寶貴，不要虛擲光陰過著他人的生活。不要讓周遭的聒噪言論蒙蔽你內(nèi)心的聲音。

　　你要相信，生活中的偶然冥冥中也能指引未來。你要心懷信念——相信你的直覺、命運、生活抑或因緣。這個方法一直給我力量，促使我過得卓然不同。

　　成大事的唯一途徑就是做自己喜歡的事情。若你還沒找到，那就繼續(xù)追尋吧，不要停下來。

　　現(xiàn)在我們來實際一點：建議或許很深刻，但聽完卻讓人無從著手，難以運用到當(dāng)今的快節(jié)奏文化中?，F(xiàn)如今，如果一個建議講不清具體做什么、該怎么做的話，那么說了也等于白說。

　　不僅如此，喬布斯的講話和我要說的話都需要集中和自制——這兩個品質(zhì)在當(dāng)今社會非常難能可貴。何以見得?因為集中和自制都不容易做到。人們很容易分散注意力、尋求即時快感——舒服且容易上癮。

　　為激勵你迎接挑戰(zhàn)、踏上尋求自我的旅途，我列出了成為最好最真實自己后的三大益處：

　　你會感到快樂。了解自己后會讓你更愉悅地接受自己，減輕你的壓力和焦慮，使你成為更好的伴侶、父母、朋友，讓你成為一個更美好的人。這些益處難道不夠說服你為之努力嗎?

　　而且，只有了解真實的自己方能成就大事。你需要了解那個真實的你，而不是你的品牌、名譽、LinkedlIn資料、你的過去抑或他人對你的看法。為什么你不應(yīng)該過他人的生活?很簡單，因為首先你不是“其他人”，你的本性總有一天會現(xiàn)形。所以，請放開你的品牌形象，努力發(fā)掘真實自我、努力把自己經(jīng)營成最好的自己吧。

　　盲目分心的代價很大。真正在乎你的只有你所愛的人、你的親人和朋友。而其他人都只圍著自己的小日子轉(zhuǎn)罷了。說穿了，社交關(guān)系中的人并不可靠。

　　所以，浪費時間盲目分心應(yīng)付自己或他人都沒有意義。更嚴(yán)重的是，當(dāng)你決心著手生活中的大計劃時，分心會有礙你集中完成目標(biāo)。

　　有一個商業(yè)術(shù)語叫“機會成本”。當(dāng)你選定某個行為時，你也會錯過其他原本可以選擇的機會。很少有人能意識到這一點，就算意識到也為時已晚。

　　這將是一段前所未有的有趣旅程。我們都樂于于冒險，熱愛閱讀和觀看有關(guān)他人或真實或虛構(gòu)的旅程電影，例如，《霍比特人》、《奪寶奇兵》或《走進空氣稀薄地帶》。

　　我們熱愛假期，喜歡到各地旅行。我們會驚嘆于考艾島上納波利海岸的自然風(fēng)光，迷上美國大峽谷、阿爾卑斯山。我們也會驚嘆于他人的杰作：藝術(shù)、建筑、金字塔、巨石陣等等。

　　而且，冒險之門向每個人敞開。打開這扇門之前，誰也不知道能獲得哪些收獲，會創(chuàng)造哪些奇跡，又將有什么新的發(fā)現(xiàn)……你所要做的，僅僅是啟程。