But this is the thing: What gets us to convert success into mastery?

问题来了：我们如何将一次成功转化为卓越的成就呢？
mastery

convert

This is a question I’ve long asked myself. I think it comes when we start to value the gift of a near win.

这个问题我已经问了自己很久。我想这个转换在于我们开始重视每一次 “差一点的成功”。

I started to understand this when I went on one cold May day to watch a set of varsity archers, all women as fate would have it, at the northern tip of Manhattan at Columbia’s Baker Athletics Complex.

我是这样开始理解这一点的：那是一个寒冷的五月天，我在曼哈顿的北角，哥伦比亚大学的贝克田径综合楼里，
观看校队弓箭手比赛，碰巧的是选手全是女性。
as fate would have it 命中注定的
a set of ……的比赛
fate

archers

varsity

I wanted to see what’s called archer’s paradox, the idea that in order to actually hit your target, you have to aim at something slightly skew from it.

我很想看看所谓的 “弓箭手悖论”，就是说，为了击中目标，你必须在瞄准时稍微偏离目标。
skew

slightly

actually

paradox

I stood and watched as the coach drove up these women in this gray van, and they exited with this kind of relaxed focus.

我站在那里，看到教练把那些女生用灰色的卡车送过去，然后她们离开，神情自若。
focus

One held a half-eaten ice cream cone in one hand and arrows in the left with yellow fletching.

有个人的右手还拿着一个 吃了一半的甜筒冰淇淋，左手拿着黄色箭羽的箭。
cone

arrows

fletching

And they passed me and smiled, but they sized me up as they made their way to the turf, and spoke to each other not with words but with numbers, degrees, I thought, positions for how they might plan to hit their target.

她们笑着从我身边走过，不过她们走向场地的时候打量了我一下，她们不出声地彼此交流，我猜是用数字、角度之类来谈论她们可能计划好的射击位置。

I stood behind one archer as her coach stood in between us to maybe assess who might need support, and watched her, and I didn’t understand how even one was going to hit the ten ring.

我当时站在一个弓箭手后面，她的教练站在我们中间，可能是看看谁需要支撑，还有照看她，我甚至不知道怎么样才能击中十环。
assess

The ten ring from the standard 75-yard distance, it looks as small as a matchstick tip held out at arm’s length.

十环在 75 码之外，看上去和一臂以外的火柴头一般大小。
matchstick

And this is while holding 50 pounds of draw weight on each shot.

而且每次发射都要发力 50 磅。