????正如我們從倫敦奧運健兒的人生經歷，還有許多《財富》500強企業首席執行官的簡歷中都可以看出的那樣，打造一個世界級的職業生涯需要超凡的獻身精神、堅持不懈和天賦。

????那些在體育和商業領域獲得奧運級別成功的人還有另一個共同點：因為連續數年，甚至數十年一心一意地追求同一個目標，這兩種人在人生的其他方面都付出了巨大的代價。

????“如果不在個人生活方面做出某種犧牲，成為一位奧運冠軍或在職場上獲得驕人成就就是一件難于上青天的事情，”芝加哥阿凡達人力資源管理顧問公司（Avatar HR Solutions）高級副總裁、《打造富有磁性的文化》（Building a Magnetic Culture）一書作者凱文?謝里登說。

????眼下，人們還在討論《大西洋月刊》（the Atlantic）近期一篇名為《大辯論：女性能內外兼顧嗎》（Why Women Still Can't Have It All）的封面文章，同時，雅虎公司（Yahoo）新任CEO瑪麗莎?梅耶爾（梅耶爾的第一個孩子將誕生在她接掌雅虎僅僅幾個月之后）也引來媒體熱議。這個時候，這樣一個問題就浮現出來：企業的最高領導人究竟需要為成功付出什么代價？但在這樣一個時刻處于工作模式的文化中，難以平衡職業目標和個人責任并不僅僅是一個唯有女性才面對的困境。

????《新官上任百日行動計劃》（New Leader's 100 Day Action Plan）一書的作者、咨詢師喬治?布拉特指出，表面看來，一些男性高管似乎可以毫無牽絆地出差，一門心思地工作，但他們以后也要付出與配偶和子女關系緊張的代價。無論男女，每個人都需要一定量的睡眠、鍛煉和休息時間，唯如此，方能擁有真正健康的生活方式。

????“在大公司里，我見到過許多為躋身高層而付出全部身心的人，”布拉特說。“這中間存在明確的取舍和隱含的權衡，但每個人都要面對一個無法逾越的障礙，那就是時間。時間是無法延長的。”

????如今的商業世界競爭激烈，以至于那些登上頂峰的人必須付出“全心全意的”專注度，否則就會被對手橫掃出局，這與奧運會熱門選手面臨的境地大致相同。如果以剛過世不久的作家斯蒂芬?科維確認的四個人生領域——身體、社會/情感、心智和精神——來觀察，企業高管在心智方面花費了不成比例的時間，而運動員則花費過多的時間來發展身體技能。

????BPI集團近期針對CEO進行的一項調查中，許多高管表示，他們難以實現工作與生活的平衡，覺得自己的人際關系和健康被忽略了。“我的確認為這反映出美國工商界當下的真實狀態，”芝加哥一家人才管理咨詢公司的執行董事鄧肯?弗格森說。“有時候，人需要做出某些犧牲。”奧運會運動員早在童年時期就意識到了這種取舍。《177個世界級的心理堅韌的秘密》（177 Mental Toughness Secrets of The World Class）一書的作者史蒂夫?西博爾德回憶稱，小時候，由于緊密的網球訓練安排，他甚至沒空跟鄰居的小伙伴們一起騎自行車閑逛。

????作為一位接受訓練的奧運會選手，“你不得不放棄有規律的生活，無法像正常人那樣生活，”西博爾德說。“這是一種非常極端化的生活。”

????他指出，理解訓練紀律的重要性，共享運動員目標的親朋好友成為了一道保護他或她的時間和精神狀態免受外部影響的屏障，它的作用非常類似于頂級CEO的核心圈子。

????但如果運動員的家人并不是打心眼里認可他們夢想，并且還憎惡訓練奪去了家庭生活時間，這就有可能導致家庭破裂。西博爾德說：“我見過有過這種經歷的家庭，夫妻反目，子女憤怒。”。

????解決之策是：你需要意識到你正在要求你的家人付出代價，同時還要利用每一個機會去加強被你忽視的生活領域，無論這個領域是人際關系還是健康。確認并致力于那些真正必須做的優先事項，但當工作不緊迫時，要有勇氣把它擱置一旁。可以效仿Facebook公司首席運營官謝麗爾?桑德伯格，每天下午5點半下班，與家人共進午餐；或者如美國排球運動員克里?沃爾什那樣，帶上你的小孩一起參加奧運備戰訓練。

????實際上，隨著越來越多的頂級高管承認增加家庭生活時間的必要性，并且意識到偶爾放下工作的好處，職場文化或許會變得更加靈活。但在這一天真正來臨之前，為最高職位孜孜奮斗的企業高管們仍然需要努力與家人達成某種程度的理解，同時竭盡全力地恢復自身的活力。

????奧運會游泳項目金牌和銅牌得主溫迪?博格利奧利覺得自己非常幸運，因為丈夫支持她的奧運夢想，而且經常會在她似乎不可能進行晨練的時候，把她趕下床。

????“要是我的生活沒有他的話，我想我是不可能入選美國奧運代表隊的，”現任蓋恩沃斯金融公司（Genworth Financial）發言人的博格利奧利說。“作為一位奧運運動員，你不得不放棄很多東西。在如何花費自己的時間方面，運動員必須變得極其自私。”

????譯者：任文科

????Building a world-class career requires superhuman dedication, persistence, and raw talent, as we can see in the life stories of athletes gathered for the London Olympics -- and in the resumes of many Fortune 100 chief executives.

????Those who reach Olympic levels of success in sports and in business share one other common quality: both groups of people have paid a major price in other parts of their lives for pursuing one aim with a single-minded focus for years or even decades.

????"It's really, really difficult to be an Olympic champion or a super-achiever in the workplace without some kind of sacrifice on the personal front," says Kevin Sheridan, author of Building a Magnetic Culture and a senior vice president at Avatar HR Solutions in Chicago.

????The question of what price top leaders pay for success arose in the discussion of a recent Atlantic Magazine cover story titled "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" as well as the coverage of new Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer, whose first baby is due just months after she takes the helm. But it's not just women who struggle to balance their career goals and personal responsibilities in our always-on work culture.

????Some male executives may appear to be free to travel and devote themselves to work exclusively, but later pay a price in their crumbling relationships with spouses and children, notes George Bradt, a consultant and author of The New Leader's 100 Day Action Plan. And regardless of your gender, every human being requires a certain amount of sleep, exercise, and downtime to have a truly healthy lifestyle.

????"In the big companies, the people that I've seen absolutely devoted their lives to get to the top," Bradt says. "There are the explicit tradeoffs and the implicit tradeoffs, but the gate on everybody is time. You cannot expand the time."

????Today's business world is so competitive that those who reach the very top must focus "all-in" or lose out to their rivals, much in the same way as Olympic hopefuls. If you think of the four areas of life identified by the recently deceased author Stephen R. Covey -- physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual -- business executives spend a disproportionate amount of time on the mental, just as athletes overly develop their physical skills.

????In a recent BPI Group CEO survey, executives said they struggled to achieve work-life balance and felt both their relationships and health were neglected. "I do see this as a reflection on what's going on in corporate America these days," says Duncan Ferguson, a managing director at the Chicago talent management consulting firm. "There are sometimes things you need to sacrifice."

????Olympic athletes recognize the tradeoffs as early as childhood. Steve Siebold, author of 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of The World Class, remembers when his tennis training schedule kept him from joining the neighborhood kids tooling around on their bikes.

????"You give up a regular life. You're not going to live like a normal person" as an Olympian-in-training, Siebold says. " It's an extreme life."

????Close friends and family members who understand the importance of discipline and share the athlete's goals become a cocoon protecting his or her time and mental state from outside influences, he notes, much like the inner circle of a top-level CEO.

????But if the athlete's family members don't truly share the dream, and resent the time that training takes away from family life, it can lead to broken homes. "I've seen it work really well with families and I've seen people get divorced and the kids are angry," Siebold says.

????The solution: recognizing that you're asking your family to pay a price and taking every opportunity to bolster the neglected areas of your life, whether it's relationships or health. Identify and commit to those work priorities that are truly mandatory, but have the courage to put work on the shelf when it's not urgent. Maybe that's a decision to leave work every day at 5:30 p.m. for a family dinner, like Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg does, or to bring your kids along for Olympic training, like U.S. volleyball player Keri Walsh.

????Indeed, as more top-level executives acknowledge the need for family time and the benefit of occasionally turning off work, workplace culture may grow more flexible. But until and unless that day comes, business executives who reach for the top would do well to build some level of understanding with their family members and rejuvenate themselves however they can.

????Wendy Boglioli, an Olympic gold and bronze medalist in swimming, feels fortunate that her husband supported her Olympic goal -- and was often the one to kick her out of bed when early morning practices seemed impossible.

????"If I hadn't had him in my life, I don't think I would've made the Olympic team," says Boglioli, now a spokesperson for Genworth Financial. "As an Olympic athlete, you give up an awful lot…. You have to be pretty darn selfish about how you spend your time."