冰山殿下的绝色萝莉:泼妇归来：更年期的女人伤不起

作者：乔纳森·米德（Jonathan Mead）

When we create, we come alive; we’re making love to life. We use our unique talents, perception and skills and make the intangible tangible. Most of us generally know what we want in life. For every person, the answer to what brings us joy will be unique. For some it’s playing guitar or dancing. For others it’s writing, hiking, spending time with family, photography, or drawing.

创造，使人重生；我们往生活中注入爱。凭借特有的才质、认知和技能，我们化无形为有形。多数人都熟知自己想从生活中得到什么。什么东西能带给我们快乐呢？你我答案必不相同，也不会有两个相同的答案。对有些人来说，快乐是弹吉他或者跳舞。对另一些人而言，快乐又可能是写文章、远足、家人团聚、摄影或者画画。

So if we know what makes us feel alive, why do we resist it? Why do we avoid doing what we love to do?

因此，倘若我们已经知晓自己快乐的源泉，那为什么还要据它于千里之外呢？为什么还不去做自己热衷的事情呢？

I think there’s a number of reasons that can help us explain this elusive phenomenon. Hopefully in discovering the blocks toward pursuing what is dearest to us, we can overcome them.

这种难以理解的现象之所以产生，我认为有一系列的原因。通过分析这些原因，我希望能够找到阻碍我们追求最爱的绊脚石，只有如此我们才能踏过它。

So why do we resist?

那么，我们为什么如此抗拒呢？

1. The inability to accept imperfections. Do you think that Mona Lisa was Da Vinci’s first painting? We think, if it’s not perfect, why bother? But when we pursue the creative act, it’s crucial that we suspend judgment. After all, you can always cull the fluff and ridiculous later.

1. 过于追求完美，无法容忍残缺。你是不是认为《蒙娜丽莎》是达芬奇画过的第一幅油画呢？我们总是想，既然事情不可能完美，那还有什么必要去做呢？但是，当我们在进行一种创造性行为时，延迟判断是至关重要的。毕竟以后你总会慢慢去除那些不足和荒谬的地方。

What to do instead? Resist your temptation to have everything figured out before you start. Failure is fundamental to the creative process. If you don’t fail, you’ll never improve. Suspend your judgment and remember that whatever you don’t like, you can always take out or re-do.

那应该怎么做呢？你不要在开始之前就想洞悉始末，要抵制住这种想法的诱惑。在创造活动中，失败是不可少的。如果没有失败过，你就永远不会有进步。请延迟你的判断吧，记住无论你喜不喜欢，你总会开始或者从头再来的。

2. Not respecting the gestation of improvement. Say you have a passion for dancing. The only problem is, you’d make a blind man cry. Remember that mastery of any art or skill takes time. No one starts out being a natural Michael Jackson. And anyway, look what fame did to him. Are you sure you want that?

2. 不够尊重孕育进步的过程。比如你非常喜欢跳舞。唯一的问题是，你想使盲人也能因之流泪。你须谨记任何技术技能的掌握都是需要时间的。没有谁能一开始就成为迈克尔·杰克逊那样的人。话又说回来，看看名气又给杰克逊带来了什么。你确定你想要那样的生活吗？

What’s a poor Napoleon Dynamite to do? Respect the fact that mastering any skill takes time. Instead of thinking about all the things that aren’t right, think about what you can do now to improve.

拿破伦·戴纳麦特，这个并非大人物的可怜的小人物是怎么做的呢？尊重这样一个事实吧，那就是任何技能都需要时间才能获得。不妨把思考问题的角度从那些错误的事情上转到现在该做些什么去改善现状上来。

3. Not accepting your creative identity. All great artists, poets, musicians and creators, excelled by accepting their artistic identity. The truth is, we are all artists. We’re creating the story of our life in each moment. We’re not just humans living, we’re artists shaping a story. Accepting your identity as an artist is accepting your creative nature.

3. 不认同自身所具有的创造能力。所有出色的艺术家、诗人、音乐家和创造者们，都因认同自身所具有的艺术天分而出众。事实上，每个人都是艺术家。我们每时每刻都在编织着自己的人生故事。我们不仅作为人而活着，还以艺术家的身份创造着故事。一个人只有把自己当成艺术家，他才会认同自身所具有的创造性。

So how can we gain the confidence to accept out creative identity? The biggest block toward your acceptance of your creative nature is probably due to self-judgment. How can you possibly accept that you are a writer when you haven’t hit the bestseller list? While external affirmations are important, the approval of your heart is equally important. If you feel in your heart that you are born to be an athlete, but don’t have Magic Johnson’s skills, that’s okay. What matters is that you feel deeply in your heart that is what you want. It makes you come alive.

那么，我们怎样才能获得这种认同的自信呢？这种认同感形成的最大障碍很可能来自自我判断。如果你的作品不在畅销书之列，你又怎么可能承认自己是个作家呢？然而外界的认可固然重要，自己内心的肯定也同等重要。如果你从心底觉得自己天生就是一个运动健儿，即使没有迈克尔·杰克逊的那些技巧，也没有关系啊。真正重要的是你内心深处的想法。只有这个想法才能使你重生。

4. We’ve turned our passion into work. Anytime you feel that you must do something, you lose inspiration. You lose your sense of excitement. In our society and in general, we have a clearly separate work and play. “Work hard, play hard!” is a common motto people tell others to make them feel a little better about their drudgery. We don’t have to dread work, it’s a choice. That’s the problem when our passion has also become our work. We tend to think it’s our passion has become something we must do. There’s no fun in that.

4. 热情被转移到工作上。每当你感觉必须做点什么的时候，你没了主意。你找不到那种兴奋的感觉。一般来说，在现在这个社会上，我们把工作和娱乐分得太清楚了。人们常常彼此说“努力工作，拼命玩耍！”，这样来使自己单调枯燥的生活好过一点。我们无需惧怕工作，它只不过是个选择。但如果我们热爱的东西恰好是我们工作的内容。这样，我们便会逐渐把这种爱好当成一种不得不做的事。那就毫无乐趣可言了。

What can we do to re-ignite our passion? We need to get our heart back in it. Spend 15 minutes just visualizing what you want to create. Think about how it makes you feel. How does it make your body feel? What excites you about it? Think about all the reasons you wanted to do it in the first place. If you feel the urge to start working on it, hold yourself back until the 15 minutes are over.

怎样才能使我们的热情重新燃起呢？我们需要让心回归。拿出15分钟时间，想像一下你想创造什么东西。想一下这种你创造的东西让你感觉如何。它是怎样让你的肢体有感觉的？又是什么刺激你想到了它？思考一下你想最先完成这一创造的各种原因。如果你迫切地想马上开始干这件事，要控制住自己，直到这15分钟结束。

This a great tool for realigning yourself and remember the reason you started in the first place. Sometimes our mind tends to overpower the heart. It’s our logical faculty after all right? Using this exercise helps us re-align ourselves.

这种方法对于自我调整非常重要，并且要记住你最先做那件事的原因。有时候，意念的力量可以超越内心，我们的逻辑思维都是对的吗？运用这种练习，能帮我们调整自己。

Lost in Space

空间迷失

The truth is, we’re often the most productive when what we’re doing has absolutely no purpose. We come alive when we’ve lost track of time, doing what we love.

事实上，当我们毫无目的地去做一件事的时候，我们常常是高效率的。当我们遗忘了时间去做那些所爱的事时，我们就得到重生。

Perhaps it‘s not our weakness, but our greatness that we fear the most.

或许这不是我们的弱点，但我们最害怕的却往往是我们最擅长的东西。