评论
打印
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and that's by the way how you say his name,
他叫Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
dedicates a big part of the book to this idea that,
他在这本书中用了很大一部分来阐述以下这个观点，
A person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening 'outside,'
不管外界发生了什么，一个人都可以让自己快乐或者痛苦，
just by changing the contents of consciousness.
只要改变意识内容，就可以使一个人控制自己的情绪。
And he goes on to quote Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, and Viktor Frankl...
他还引用了Epictetus、Marcus Aurelius以及Viktor Frankl等人的观点。
So this idea isn't something new, it's been around for millennia now,
所以这个观点并不是最新的，它已经存在了几千年了，
but recently we've been able to gather more data on it.
但是最近我们可以收集了更多的数据。
And I've talked about this idea ad nauseam now, so I won't go into detail with it.
我已经讲过这个想法，所以不打算细讲了。
I've talked about it in my videos about Meditations and Man's Search for Meaning, and many other videos,
在《冥想》和《人类对于意义的探寻》，以及很多其他的视频里我已经谈到过，
but to touch on it briefly...
但是简单的说一下…
People have this idea that if you just had a bigger house, you'd be happy.
人们认为如果你有一个大房子，就会高兴。
If you just had a nicer car, you'd be happy. If you just had a lot of money, you'd be happy.
如果有辆好车，就会高兴。如果有很多钱，也会高兴。
But that's just not how happiness works...
但幸福并不是那样的…
Here's a graph adjusted for inflation that shows a period of about half a century where personal income tripled,
这是一个关于通货膨胀的调整图，图片显示了在半个世纪里，人们的收入增至三倍，
but it didn't really affect how happy people were.
但是却没有影响人们的幸福程度。
After some basic point, where your basic needs have been met,
在你的基本需求得到满足后，
buying an even bigger house isn't the way to happiness. It's about changing the contents of your consciousness.
买一个更大的房子并不能使人感到幸福。这就涉及到意识内容的改变。
So how can we change the contents of our consciousness?
那么我们怎样改变意识内容呢？
One of the best ways to do this is to put ourselves in a state of optimal experience called flow.
最好的一个方式就是让我们进入一种叫做“意识流”的最佳经历状态中。
Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as, The state
Csikszentmihalyi是这样描述的，在这种状态下，
in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter.
人们集中于一项活动，不受任何其他事情的影响。
He goes on to say that, Concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over
他还说，注意力特别集中，以至于没有多余的精力
to think about anything irrelevant or to worry about problems.
去考虑任何无关的事情，或者担心一些问题。
Self-consciousness disappears, and the sense of time becomes distorted.
自我意识消失，时间观念就会扭曲。
And you've probably experienced this before, and it's absolutely one of the best feelings in the world.
你可能之前经历过，这绝对是世界上最好的一种感觉。
If you're working on your business, you might be so focused on what you're doing
如果你在研究生意，你可能特别专注于你所做的，
that 12 hours might pass and you have no idea...
可能过了12个小时，你依然毫无头绪…
All of a sudden, you look up and you realize you haven't even had any food,
突然，你抬起头意识到自己还没有吃任何东西，
you haven't thought about anything else, the only thing that you could focus on was your business.
你没有考虑其他的事情，你专注的唯一一件事就是你的生意。
And the same thing applies to so many other activities whether you're a rock climber focused on climing your new record
同样的事情也适用于其他很多活动，不管是攀岩者要刷新登山记录
or a master pianist composing your new masterpiece. It's an amazing feeling.
还是一位钢琴大师要创作新的作品。这是一种很棒的感觉。
You're so immersed into what you love doing, into what you're really good at,
你沉浸在你所热爱的，所擅长的事情中，
that your brain simply can't focus on other things.
以至于不可能再关注别的事情。
You're not worrying about stupid things. You're not regretting what you did yesterday
你不用担心那些愚蠢的事情，不用后悔昨天做了什么，
or stressing about what you'll do tomorrow.
或者强调明天要做什么。
It's absolutely one of the best feelings in the world.
这绝对是世上最好的感觉之一。
So if we look at the flow diagram, here's how you put yourself in the state of flow...
所以看一下流程图，这就是你怎样把自己放在意识流的状态中…
You don't want what you're doing to be too challenging, otherwise you'll have anxiety.
你不想做太有挑战性的事情，否则你会焦虑。
You don't want what you're doing to be too easy for your skills either, otherwise you'll be bored.
你不想做太简单的事情，否则你会觉得无聊。
But it's when you balance these two that you end up in the flow channel.
但是当你平衡这两者的时候，你就会进入意识流这一部分。
You're striving towards the upper right corner constantly.
你努力想要向右上方持续靠近。
You increase your challenge, you get better. You get better, you increase your challenge.
增加挑战，就会变得更好。变得更好，就会增加挑战。
And the more you move toward that direction, the more intense the state of flow gets.
你越朝那个方向靠近，意识流状态就会越强大。
So this is not really a how-to book, but our goal should be to find what it is that we love
所以这不是一本“怎样做”的书，但是我们的目标应该是找到我们的所爱。
and then keep getting better at it and keep making it more challenging.
然后变得更好，让它更有挑战性。
Or in other words, the main goal is to spend as much of your life as you possibly can in the state of flow
或者换句话说，主要目标就是尽可能用一生的时间来实践意识流状态。
because that is where you find this unbelievable ecstasy.
因为它给你带来了难以置信的喜悦。
And Csikszentmihalyi gives an example of the indians in the Shuswap region of Canada,
Csikszentmihalyi给出了一个加拿大舒斯瓦普地区印第安人的例子，
who would settle down in a place filled with resources,
他们会在一个资源丰富的地方定居，
and life was good, and they had everything they needed...
生活很好，而且也有他们所需要的一切…
They had all the food and fish where they were, but the elders would make sure that the entire village
他们拥有定居地所有食物和鱼，但是长辈要确保整个村落
would just pack up and move to a new location every 25 or 30 years.
每隔25到30年就整体移居到一个新的地方。
This way, they knew they would have new places to explore and hunt and fish and new challenges to overcome...
这样，他们就知道有新的地方去开发、打猎、捕鱼，还有新的挑战去克服…
And it's a great story to keep in mind when you think about
当你想到有那么多人余生都只想坐在电视机前的时候，
how most people just want to settle down in front of their TV for the rest of their lives...
你就会知道这个故事有多伟大。
And in a lot of my videos, I criticize being in front of the TV all night,
在我的很多视频里，我批判整晚看电视的这种行为，
or spending your entire day on your Facebook feed,
或者是把一整天都花在 Facebook上。
and I often get people who tell me, Well, what if that makes the person happy?
经常有人告诉我，如果那样会让人高兴呢？
And the answer is, Sitting on Facebook all day will not make anyone genuinely happy.
答案是，整天面对Facebook不会让任何人真正高兴起来。
If you pick a person who spends his entire day in front of the TV,
如果你选中一个在电视机前待了一整天的人，
he's probably not going to be the most exciting, happy, ecstatic person.
他可能不会成为最兴奋狂喜的人。
Let's take a look at the graph again...
我们再来看一下这个图表…
Looking at your facebook all day or watching TV puts you in the lowest left corner of the graph,
整天看facebook或者看电视，会导致你出现在图表的左下角，
which is known as the area of apathy.
这是一个没有情感起伏的区域。
There's no challenge involved, there's no skill involved, you're apathetic.
没有挑战，没有技能，你太无趣。
And when you're not completely apathetic, You're probably sitting there bored,
当你不是完全没有兴趣的时候，可能你就会感到无聊，
or worrying about everything there is to worry about.
或者会担心一切事情。
So move away from that... Move away from the boredom, apathy, and worry
所以从那里走出来吧…离开无聊，冷漠和担心，
and move towards ecstasy which is what you'll experience when you hit the state of optimal experience called flow.
奔向狂喜，这是一种当你遇上意识流最佳体验状态的时候才会有的经历。
