Saving Yourself
自我救赎

Doctors won’t make you healthy.
医生无法使你健康。
Nutritionists won’t make you slim.
营养学家无法让你变苗条。
Teachers won’t make you smart.
老师无法让你变得聪慧。
Gurus won’t make you calm.
大师无法让你内心平静。
Mentors won’t make you rich.
导师无法让你致富。
Trainers won’t make you fit.
教练无法帮你塑造好身材。

Ultimately, you have to take responsibility.
最终，你得扛起责任。

Save yourself.
拯救自己。

Choosing to Be Yourself
选择做真实的自己

A lot of what goes on today is what many of you are doing right now—beating yourself up and scribbling notes and saying, “I need to do this, and I need to do that, and I need to do…” No, you don’t need to do anything.
如今很多人都在做的事，就像你们很多人此刻正在做的——自我苛责、匆忙记笔记，嘴里还念叨着：“我得做这个，我得做那个，我得做……” 不，你什么都不必做。

All you should do is what you want to do. If you stop trying to figure out how to do things the way other people want you to do them, you get to listen to the little voice inside your head that wants to do things a certain way. Then, you get to be you.
你只需做自己想做的事。要是不再琢磨如何按他人期望行事，你便能聆听内心那个渴望以特定方式做事的声音。如此，你就能做真实的自己。

I never met my greatest mentor. I wanted so much to be like him. But his message was the opposite: Be yourself, with passionate intensity.
我从未见过我最了不起的导师。我曾无比渴望成为他那样的人。然而，他传递的信息却截然不同：满怀热忱，做真实的自己。

No one in the world is going to beat you at being you. You’re never going to be as good at being me as I am. I’m never going to be as good at being you as you are. Certainly, listen and absorb, but don’t try to emulate. It’s a fool’s errand. Instead, each person is uniquely qualified at something. They have some specific knowledge, capability, and desire nobody else in the world does, purely from the combinatorics of human DNA and development.
这世上，没人能比你更擅长做自己。你永远无法像我一样做好我自己，我也永远无法像你一样做好你自己。当然，要倾听和汲取经验，但别一味模仿，那只是白费力气。实际上，每个人都在某方面独具天赋。从人类基因与成长历程的组合来看，每个人都拥有世上他人所没有的特定知识、能力与渴望。

The combinatorics of human DNA and experience are staggering. You will never meet any two humans who are substitutable for each other.
人类 DNA 与经历的组合方式纷繁复杂，数量惊人。你永远不会遇到两个完全相同、可以相互替代的人。

Your goal in life is to find the people, business, project, or art that needs you the most. There is something out there just for you. What you don’t want to do is build checklists and decision frameworks built on what other people are doing. You’re never going to be them. You’ll never be good at being somebody else. [4]
你人生的目标，是找到那些最需要你的人、事业、项目或艺术创作。世间总有专属于你的事物。不要依照他人的做法去制定清单和决策框架。你永远成不了他们，模仿别人你永远也做不好。[4]

To make an original contribution, you have to be irrationally obsessed with something.
要做出独创性的贡献，你得对某件事极度痴迷。

Choosing to Care for Yourself
选择照顾好自己

My number one priority in life, above my happiness, above my family, above my work, is my own health. It starts with my physical health. Second, it’s my mental health. Third, it’s my spiritual health. Then, it’s my family’s health. Then, it’s my family’s wellbeing. After that, I can go out and do whatever I need to do with the rest of the world. [4]
我人生的第一要务，高于个人幸福、家庭以及工作，是自身健康。首当其冲是身体健康，其次是心理健康，再者是精神健康。之后，才轮到关注家人的健康与幸福。唯有如此，我才能投身外界，做自己该做的事。[4]

Nothing like a health problem to turn up the contrast dial for the rest of life.
没有什么比健康问题，更能让人们看清余生的模样。

What about the modern world steers us away from the way humans are meant to live?
现代世界中，是什么让我们背离了人类本应有的生活方式？

There are many, many things.
有许许多多的东西。

There are a number on the physical side. We have diets we are not evolved to eat. A correct diet should probably look closer to a paleo diet, mostly eating vegetables with a small amount of meat and berries.
在身体层面存在一些问题。我们所采用的饮食并非是人类进化过程中适应的类型。合理的饮食或许应更贴近原始人饮食法，以蔬菜为主，搭配少量肉类和浆果。

In terms of exercise, we’re probably meant to play instead of running on a treadmill. We’re probably evolved to use all of our five senses equally as opposed to favoring the visual cortex. In modern society, almost all of our inputs and communication are visual. We’re not meant to walk in shoes. A lot of back and foot problems come from shoes. We’re not meant to have clothes keep us warm all of the time. We’re meant to have some cold exposure. It kickstarts your immune system.
在锻炼方面，我们或许更适合玩耍，而非在跑步机上跑步。人类进化至今，本应均衡运用五种感官，而非过度依赖视觉。在现代社会，几乎所有信息接收与交流都依赖视觉。我们其实并不适合总穿着鞋子行走，许多背部和脚部问题都由鞋子引发。此外，我们也不应时刻依靠衣物保暖，适当接触寒冷，能激发免疫系统。

We’re not evolved to live in a perfectly sterile and clean environment. It leads to allergies and an untrained immune system. This is known as the hygiene hypothesis. We’re evolved to live in much smaller tribes and to have more family around us. I partially grew up in India, and in India, everybody is in your business. There’s a cousin, an aunt, an uncle who is in your face, which makes it hard to be depressed, because you are never alone. (I’m not referring to people with chemical depression. I’m talking more about the existential angst and malaise teenagers seem to go through.) But on the other hand, you have no privacy, so you can’t be free. There are trade-offs.
我们生来并非要生活在完全无菌、洁净的环境里。这样的环境会引发过敏，还会导致免疫系统缺乏锻炼。这就是所谓的 “卫生假说”。我们生来更适应生活在规模小得多的部落中，身边围绕着更多亲人。我有一段童年时光是在印度度过的，在那里，每个人都爱对你的事指手画脚。总有表亲、姨妈、舅舅在你跟前，这让你很难陷入抑郁，因为你永远不会孤身一人。（我这里说的不是那些因生理原因患上抑郁症的人，而是青少年常有的那种存在主义的焦虑和迷茫。）但从另一方面来说，你毫无隐私可言，也就无法自由自在。这其中存在着利弊权衡。

We’re not meant to check our phone every five minutes. The constant mood swings of getting a “like” then an angry comment makes us into anxious creatures. We evolved for scarcity but live in abundance. There’s a constant struggle to say no when your genes always want to say yes. Yes to sugar. Yes to staying in this relationship. Yes to alcohol. Yes to drugs. Yes, yes, yes. Our bodies don’t know how to say no. [8]
我们本不该每隔五分钟就看一下手机。一会儿收到点赞，一会儿又收到愤怒的评论，这种情绪的频繁起伏，让我们变得焦虑不安。我们在物资匮乏的环境中进化而来，如今却生活在物质充裕的时代。基因总是驱使我们说“行”，而要拒绝却总是困难重重。对甜食说“行”，对维持这段关系说“行”，对喝酒说“行”，对吸毒说“行”。行行行。我们的身体根本不知道如何拒绝。[8]

When everyone is sick, we no longer consider it a disease.
当所有人都患病时，我们便不再将其视为疾病。

Diet
饮食

Outside of math, physics, and chemistry, there isn’t much “settled science.” We’re still arguing over what the optimal diet is.
除了数学、物理和化学领域，“定论性科学” 并不多见。我们还在争论究竟哪种饮食最为理想。

Do you have an opinion on the ketogenic diet?
你对生酮饮食有什么见解吗？

It seems really difficult to follow. It makes sense for the brain and the body to have a backup mechanism. For example, in the Ice Ages, humans evolved without many plants available. At the same time, we have been eating plants for thousands of years…I don’t think plants are bad for you, but something closer to the paleo diet is probably correct.
这似乎很难理解。大脑和身体有备用机制，这是有道理的。比如在冰河时期，人类进化过程中，可获取的植物并不多。但与此同时，我们食用植物已有数千年……我并非认为植物对人体有害，不过，或许更接近原始饮食法的方式才是正确的。

I think the interplay between sugar and fat is really interesting. Fat is what makes you satiated. Fatty foods make you feel full. The easiest way to feel full is to go on a ketogenic diet, where you’re eating tons of bacon all the time, and you’re going to feel almost nauseous and not want to look at fat anymore.
我觉得糖与脂肪之间的相互作用着实有趣。脂肪能让人产生饱腹感，高脂食物会让人觉得饱。要想快速获得饱腹感，最简单的办法就是采用生酮饮食，也就是顿顿吃大量培根，吃到最后你可能会觉得恶心，连看都不想再看一眼脂肪类食物。

Sugar makes you hungry. Sugar signals to your body, “There’s this incredible food resource in the environment we’re not evolved for,” so you rush out to get sugar. The problem is the sugar effect dominates the fat effect. If you eat a fatty meal and you throw some sugar in, the sugar is going to deliver hunger and fat is going to deliver the calories and you’re just going to binge. That’s why all desserts are large combinations of fat and carbs together.
糖会让人产生饥饿感。糖向身体发出信号：“周围环境中有我们身体尚未进化到能适应的绝佳食物资源。”于是，人们就会迫不及待地去摄取糖分。问题在于，糖的影响大于脂肪。如果吃了一顿高脂肪的饭，再摄入一些糖，糖会引发饥饿感，而脂肪会提供热量，这样一来人就会暴饮暴食。这就是为什么所有甜点都大量融合了脂肪和碳水化合物。

In nature, it’s very rare to find carbs and fat together. In nature, I find carbs and fat together in coconuts, in mangoes, maybe in bananas, but it’s basically tropical fruits. The combination of sugar and fat together is really deadly. You’ve got to watch out for that in your diet.
在自然界中，碳水化合物与脂肪很少同时存在。我发现，自然界里的椰子、芒果，可能还有香蕉中会同时含有碳水化合物和脂肪，但基本都是热带水果。糖脂搭配危害极大，日常饮食中一定要留意。

I’m not an expert, and the problem is diet and nutrition are like politics: everybody thinks they’re an expert. Their identity is wrapped up in it because what they’ve been eating or what they think they should be eating is obviously the correct answer. Everybody has a little religion—it’s just a really difficult topic to talk about. I will just say in general, any sensible diet avoids the combination of sugar and fat together. [2]
我不是这方面的专家，饮食营养问题就跟政治一样，人人都觉得自己是行家。这和他们的自我认知息息相关，毕竟他们当下的饮食习惯，或者自认为该有的饮食习惯，在他们看来显然就是正解。每个人都有自己笃信的一套，这话题实在太难讨论了。我只能泛泛说一句，任何合理的饮食都应避免糖脂同食。

Dietary fat drives satiety. Dietary sugar drives hunger. The sugar effect dominates. Control your appetite accordingly.
膳食中的脂肪能带来饱腹感，而糖分则会引发饥饿感，且糖分的影响更为显著。因此，你应据此控制自己的食欲。

Most fit and healthy people focus much more on what they eat than how much. Quality control is easier than (and leads to) quantity control. [11]
大多数身材健美、身体健康的人更注重饮食的内容，而非食量。把控饮食质量比控制食量更容易，而且前者会自然带来后者。[11]

Ironically, fasting (from a low-carb/paleo base) is easier than portion control. Once the body detects food, it overrides the brain. [11]
讽刺的是，（基于低碳水/原始饮食的）禁食比控制食量更容易。一旦身体感知到食物，就会不受大脑控制。[11]

What I wonder about Wonder Bread is how it can stay soft at room temperature for months. If bacteria won’t eat it, should you? [11]
我很好奇神奇面包（Wonder Bread）为何能在室温下数月都保持松软。要是连细菌都不吃它，那你还能吃吗？[11]

It has been five thousand years, and we’re still arguing over whether meat is poisonous or plants are poisonous. Ditch the extremists and any food invented in the last few hundred years. [11]
都过去五千年了，我们还在争论肉有毒还是植物有毒。别理会那些极端观点，以及近几百年才出现的食物。[11]

When it comes to medicine and nutrition, subtract before you add. [11]
谈及医学与营养，先做减法，再做加法。[11]

My trainer sends me photos of his meals, and it reminds me we are all flavor addicts. [11]
我的教练给我发他每餐吃的东西的照片，这让我意识到，我们都对美味毫无抵抗力。[11]

World’s simplest diet: The more processed the food, the less one should consume.
世界上最简单的饮食法则：食物加工程度越高，摄入量就应越少。

Exercise
练习

The harder the workout, the easier the day.
锻炼时越吃苦，一天里越轻松。

What habit would you say most positively impacts your life?
你觉得哪种习惯对自己的生活影响最为积极？

The daily morning workout. That has been a complete game-changer. It’s made me feel healthier, younger. It’s made me not go out late. It came from one simple thing, which is everybody says, “I don’t have time.” Basically, whenever you throw any so-called good habit at somebody, they’ll have an excuse for themselves. Usually the most common is “I don’t have time.” “I don’t have time” is just another way of saying “It’s not a priority.” What you really have to do is say whether it is a priority or not. If something is your number one priority, then you will do it. That’s just the way life works. If you’ve got a fuzzy basket of ten or fifteen different priorities, you’re going to end up getting none of them.
每日清晨的锻炼，彻底改变了我的生活。它让我感觉更健康、更年轻，也不再晚归。这一切都源于一件简单的事：大家总说“我没时间”。实际上，每当你跟别人说起某个好习惯，他们总会给自己找借口，最常见的就是这句“我没时间”。“我没时间”，说白了就是“这事儿不那么重要”。你真正要做的，是明确这件事到底重不重要。如果一件事对你来说是重中之重，那你自然会去做，生活就是如此。要是你有十来个模棱两可的“重要事项”，最后很可能一件都做不成。

What I did was decide my number one priority in life, above my happiness, above my family, above my work, is my own health. It starts with my physical health. [4] Because my physical health became my number one priority, then I could never say I don’t have time. In the morning, I work out, and however long it takes is how long it takes. I do not start my day until I’ve worked out. I don’t care if the world is imploding and melting down, it can wait another thirty minutes until I’m done working out.
我所做的，是把自身健康列为人生第一要务，优先级高于个人幸福、家庭乃至工作。而健康，首先关乎身体健康。[4] 正因为将身体健康视为重中之重，我便再也没有借口说自己没时间。每天早上，我都会去锻炼，无论耗时多久。不锻炼完，我就不会开启新的一天。哪怕天要塌了，也得等我锻炼完这半小时再说。

It’s pretty much every day. There are a few days where I’ve had to take a break because I’m traveling, or I’m injured or sick or something. I can count on one hand the number of breaks I take every year. [4]
差不多每天都是这样。偶尔会有几天，由于我在旅行、受伤、生病或其他情况，不得不休息一下。我每年休息的天数屈指可数。[4]

One month of consistent yoga and I feel 10 years younger. To stay flexible is to stay young.
坚持练了一个月瑜伽，我感觉自己年轻了十岁。保持身体柔韧，就能保持年轻态。

How you make a habit doesn’t matter. Do something every day. It almost doesn’t matter what you do. The people who are obsessing over whether to do weight training, tennis, Pilates, the high-intensity interval training method, “The Happy Body,” or whatever. They’re missing the point. The important thing is to do something every day. It doesn’t matter what it is. The best workout for you is one you’re excited enough to do every day. [4]
养成习惯的方式并不重要。重要的是每天都有所行动，具体做什么其实无关紧要。有些人总是纠结于到底该选力量训练、网球、普拉提、高强度间歇训练，还是“快乐塑身”之类的项目，他们其实没明白关键所在。关键在于每天都要做点事，做什么并不重要。对你而言，最好的锻炼方式，就是那种能让你兴致勃勃、每天都乐意去做的。[4]

Walking meetings:
步行会议：

• Brain works better
• 大脑运转更佳

• Exercise & sunlight
• 锻炼与晒太阳

• Shorter, less pleasantries
• 更简短，少些寒暄

• More dialogue, less monologue
• 多些对话，少些独白

• No slides
• 无幻灯片

• End easily by walking back
• 往回走就能轻松结束

Like everything in life, if you are willing to make the short-term sacrifice, you’ll have the long-term benefit. My physical trainer (Jerzy Gregorek) is a really wise, brilliant guy. He always says, “Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.”
如同生活中的万事万物，若你甘愿做出短期牺牲，便能收获长远益处。我的健身教练（耶日·格雷戈雷克）极为睿智且优秀。他常说：“选择轻松，人生艰难；选择艰难，人生轻松。”

Basically, if you are making the hard choices right now in what to eat, you’re not eating all the junk food you want, and making the hard choice to work out. So, your life long-term will be easy. You won’t be sick. You won’t be unhealthy. The same is true of values. The same is true of saving up for a rainy day. The same is true of how you approach your relationships. If you make the easy choices right now, your overall life will be a lot harder. [4]
基本上，要是你当下在饮食方面做出艰难抉择，不去吃那些想吃的垃圾食品，还下定决心坚持锻炼，那么从长远来看，你的生活就会轻松不少。你不会生病，身体也会健康。价值观方面是这样，未雨绸缪存钱也是如此，处理人际关系同样如此。要是你当下选择了轻松的路，那你的整个人生就会艰难得多。[4]

Meditation + Mental Strength
冥想与心理韧性

An emotion is our evolved biology predicting the future impact of a current event. In modern settings, it’s usually exaggerated or wrong.
情绪是我们经演化形成的生理机制，用于预测当前事件对未来的影响。在现代环境下，这种预测往往有所夸大，甚至是错误的。

Why is meditation so powerful?
为什么冥想有如此强大的力量？

Your breath is one of the few places where your autonomic nervous system meets your voluntary nervous system. It’s involuntary, but you can also control it.
呼吸是人体自主神经系统与随意神经系统为数不多的交汇之处。呼吸本是无意识的行为，但你也可以主动控制。

I think a lot of meditation practices put an emphasis on the breath because it is a gateway into your autonomic nervous system. There are many, many cases in the medical and spiritual literature of people controlling their bodies at levels that should be autonomous.
我觉得很多冥想练习都注重呼吸，因为呼吸是进入自主神经系统的入口。医学和心灵相关文献中有大量案例表明，人们能够控制那些本应自主运行的身体机能。

Your mind is such a powerful thing. What’s so unusual about your forebrain sending signals to your hindbrain and your hindbrain routing resources to your entire body?
人的大脑极为强大。前脑向后脑发送信号，后脑再将资源调配至全身，这一过程看似平常，实则蕴含着巨大的奥秘。

You can do it just by breathing. Relaxed breathing tells your body you’re safe. Then, your forebrain doesn’t need as many resources as it normally does. Now, the extra energy can be sent to your hindbrain, and it can reroute those resources to the rest of your body.
你只需通过呼吸就能做到这一点。放松地呼吸，身体就会感知到自身处于安全状态。这样一来，前脑就无需像平常那样消耗大量资源。此时，多余的能量会输送至后脑，后脑再将这些能量重新分配到身体其他部位。

I’m not saying you can beat whatever illness you have just because you activated your hindbrain. But you’re devoting most of the energy normally required to care about the external environment to the immune system.
我不是说，只要激活后脑，就能战胜任何疾病。而是说，你正把原本用于关注外部环境的大部分精力，都投入到免疫系统上。

I highly recommend listening to the Tim Ferriss’s podcast with Wim Hof. He is a walking miracle. Wim’s nickname is the Ice Man. He holds the world record for the longest time spent in an ice bath and swimming in freezing cold water. I was very inspired by him, not only because he’s capable of super-human physical feats, but because he does it while being incredibly kind and happy—which is not easy to accomplish.
我强烈推荐去听蒂姆·费里斯对维姆·霍夫的播客访谈。维姆堪称行走的奇迹，人称“冰人”。他保持着冰浴时长以及在冰水中游泳的世界纪录。他给了我很大启发，不仅因为他能做出超人般的身体壮举，还因为他在做到这些的同时，还能保持极度善良与快乐，这可不容易。

He advocates cold exposure, because he believes people are too separate from their natural environment. We’re constantly clothed, fed, and warm. Our bodies have lost touch with the cold. The cold is important because it can activate the immune system.
他倡导接触寒冷，因为他觉得人们与自然环境太过疏离。我们时刻都穿着衣物、衣食无忧且温暖有加。我们的身体已不再适应寒冷。寒冷之所以重要，是因为它能够激活免疫系统。

So, he advocates taking long ice baths. Being from the Indian subcontinent, I’m strongly against the idea of ice baths. But Wim inspired me to give cold showers a try. And I did so by using the Wim Hof breathing method. It involves hyperventilating to get more oxygen into your blood, which raises your core temperature. Then, you can go into the shower.
所以，他提倡长时间洗冰浴。我来自印度次大陆，对此强烈反对。但维姆（Wim）启发我尝试冷水淋浴。于是我用维姆·霍夫呼吸法试了试。这种方法是通过过度换气，让更多氧气进入血液，进而提高核心体温。然后就可以去冲冷水澡了。

The first few cold showers were hilarious because I’d slowly ease myself in, wincing the entire way. I started about four or five months ago. Now, I turn the shower on full-blast, and then I walk right in. I don’t give myself any time to hesitate. As soon as I hear the voice in my head telling me how cold it’s going to be, I know I have to walk in.
刚开始洗冷水澡那几次，特别有意思。我会一点点慢慢适应，全程都龇牙咧嘴的。我大概四五个月前开始洗冷水澡。现在，我直接把淋浴开到最大，然后就进去了，根本不给自己犹豫的机会。只要脑子里一冒出“水会有多冷”的念头，我就知道得赶紧进去。

I learned a very important lesson from this: most of our suffering comes from avoidance. Most of the suffering from a cold shower is the tip-toeing your way in. Once you’re in, you’re in. It’s not suffering. It’s just cold. Your body saying it’s cold is different than your mind saying it’s cold. Acknowledge your body saying it’s cold. Look at it. Deal with it. Accept it, but don’t mentally suffer over it. Taking a cold shower for two minutes isn’t going to kill you.
我从中汲取了极为重要的教训：我们的痛苦大多源于逃避。洗冷水澡时，大部分痛苦来自于你小心翼翼地慢慢进入。一旦进去了，也就那样。这并非痛苦，只是冷罢了。身体感知到冷与大脑认知到冷，两者截然不同。承认身体感觉到冷，正视它，应对它，接受它，别在心理上为此纠结。洗两分钟冷水澡，死不了人。

Having a cold shower helps you re-learn that lesson every morning. Now hot showers are just one less thing I need out of life. [2]
每天早上洗个冷水澡，能让你重新体会到这一点。如今，我生活中不再需要洗热水澡了。[2]

Meditation is intermittent fasting for the mind.
冥想就像是给大脑进行间歇性断食。

Too much sugar leads to a heavy body, and too many distractions lead to a heavy mind.
糖分摄入过多，身体易沉重；干扰过多，思绪易繁杂。

Time spent undistracted and alone, in self-examination, journaling, meditation, resolves the unresolved and takes us from mentally fat to fit.
花时间不受干扰地独自进行自我审视、写日记、冥想，能解决悬而未决的问题，使我们从精神上的臃肿变得清爽。

Do you have a current meditation practice?
你现在有冥想的习惯吗？

I think meditation is like dieting, where everyone is supposedly following a regimen. Everyone says they do it, but nobody actually does it. The real set of people who meditate on a regular basis, I’ve found, are pretty rare. I’ve identified and tried at least four different forms of meditation.
我觉得冥想就跟节食差不多，人人都声称自己在遵循某种养生之道，嘴上说在做，实则不然。我发现，真正能坚持定期冥想的人少之又少。我至少已经了解并尝试过四种不同的冥想方式。

The one I found works best for me is called Choiceless Awareness, or Nonjudgmental Awareness. As you’re going about your daily business (hopefully, there’s some nature) and you’re not talking to anybody else, you practice learning to accept the moment you’re in without making judgments. You don’t think, “Oh, there’s a homeless guy over there, better cross the street” or look at someone running by and say, “He’s out of shape, and I’m in better shape than him.”
我发现对我而言最有效的一种方法叫“无分别觉察”，或“无评判觉察”。当你在进行日常活动（最好周围有些自然景致），且未与他人交谈时，你要练习接纳当下，不做评判。你不会想：“哦，那边有个流浪汉，最好过马路躲开。” 也不会看到有人跑过就说：“他身材不好，我的身材比他好。”

If I saw a guy with a bad hair day, I would at first think “Haha, he has a bad hair day.” Well, why am I laughing at him to make me feel better about myself? And why am I trying to make me feel better about my own hair? Because I’m losing my hair, and I’m afraid it’s going to go away. What I find is 90 percent of thoughts I have are fear-based. The other 10 percent may be desire-based.
如果看到有人头发乱糟糟的，我一开始会想：“哈哈，这人头发咋这么乱。” 可我为啥要嘲笑人家，来让自己心里好受点呢？为啥非得让自己对自己的头发更自信呢？还不是因为我自己头发越来越少，担心哪天就秃了。我发现，自己 90%的念头都源于恐惧，另外 10%可能是出于欲望。

You don’t make any decisions. You don’t judge anything. You just accept everything. If I do that for ten or fifteen minutes while walking around, I end up in a very peaceful, grateful state. Choiceless Awareness works well for me. [6]
你无需做任何决定，也无需评判任何事，只需全盘接受。要是我在散步时，保持这样的状态十到十五分钟，内心就会变得格外平静且充满感恩。“无念觉察” 对我来说十分受用。[6]

You could also do transcendental meditation, which is where you’re using repetitive chanting to create a white noise in your head to bury your thoughts. Or, you can just very keenly and very alertly be aware of your thoughts as they happen. As you watch your thoughts, you realize how many of them are fear-based. The moment you recognize a fear, without even trying it goes away. After a while, your mind quiets.
你还可以尝试超觉冥想，也就是通过反复念诵，在脑海中制造一种白噪音，将思绪淹没。或者，当思绪涌现时，你只需敏锐且警觉地去觉察它们。在观察思绪的过程中，你会发现，很多念头都源于恐惧。一旦察觉到恐惧，甚至无需刻意驱赶，它便会自行消散。久而久之，内心就会归于平静。

When your mind quiets, you stop taking everything around you for granted. You start to notice the details. You think, “Wow, I live in such a beautiful place. It’s so great that I have clothes, and I can go to Starbucks and get a coffee anytime. Look at these people—each one has a perfectly valid and complete life going on in their own heads.”
当内心归于平静，你便不再对周遭事物习以为常。你开始留意到种种细节，不禁感叹：“哇，我生活的地方如此美丽。有衣可穿，还能随时去星巴克喝杯咖啡，这多美好啊。再瞧瞧这些人，每个人的内心世界，都有着独属于自己的完整且真实的生活。”

It pops us out of the story we’re constantly telling ourselves. If you stop talking to yourself for even ten minutes, if you stop obsessing over your own story, you’ll realize we are really far up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and life is pretty good. [6]
它使我们从一直自我讲述的故事中抽离出来。要是你哪怕十分钟不跟自己念叨，不再执着于自身的故事，就会意识到我们在马斯洛需求层次体系中所处位置已然颇高，生活其实相当不错。[6]

Life-hack: When in bed, meditate. Either you will have a deep meditation or fall asleep. Victory either way.
生活小妙招：躺在床上时不妨试试冥想。这样一来，要么能深度冥想，要么就直接入睡，怎么着都不亏。

Another method I’ve learned is to just sit there and you close your eyes for at least one hour a day. You surrender to whatever happens—don’t make any effort whatsoever. You make no effort for something, and you make no effort against anything. If there are thoughts running through your mind, you let the thoughts run.
我学到的另一种方法是，就坐在那儿，每天至少闭眼一小时。任由一切自然发生，什么都不用做。既不刻意为之，也不刻意抵制。要是脑海中有念头闪过，那就随它去。

For your entire life, things have been happening to you. Some good, some bad, most of which you have processed and dissolved, but a few stuck with you. Over time, more and more stuck with you, and they almost became like these barnacles stuck to you.
终其一生，各种事情在你身上不断上演。有好有坏，多数你已消化释怀，但也有几件事一直缠着你。久而久之，这样的事越来越多，就像藤壶一样，紧紧附着在你身上。

You lost your childhood sense of wonder and of being present and happy. You lost your inner happiness because you built up this personality of unresolved pain, errors, fears, and desires that glommed onto you like a bunch of barnacles.
你丧失了童年时那种对世界的惊奇感，也不再能感受当下、体会快乐。你内心的快乐不复存在，因为你逐渐形成了一种带着未解痛苦、过错、恐惧与欲望的性格，这些就像藤壶一样，紧紧缠附着你。

How do you get those barnacles off you? What happens in meditation is you’re sitting there and not resisting your mind. These things will start bubbling up. It’s like a giant inbox of unanswered emails, going back to your childhood. They will come out one by one, and you will be forced to deal with them.
要怎样才能摆脱这些烦心事呢？冥想时，你只需静坐着，不抗拒自己的思绪。这时，各种念头就会开始浮现。这就好比一个装满未读邮件的大收件箱，其中的邮件甚至可以追溯到你的童年时期。这些念头会逐一冒出来，你不得不去面对它们。

You will be forced to resolve them. Resolving them doesn’t take any work—you just observe them. Now you’re an adult with some distance, time, and space from previous events, and you can just resolve them. You can be much more objective about how you view them.
你将不得不去处理这些事。处理它们并不费力，你只需审视它们。如今你已成年，与过往之事有了一定的距离、时间和空间，便可以处理这些事了。你能更客观地看待它们。

Over time, you will resolve a lot of these deep-seated unresolved things you have in your mind. Once they’re resolved, there will come a day when you sit down to meditate, and you’ll hit a mental “inbox zero.” When you open your mental “email” and there are none, that is a pretty amazing feeling.
随着时间推移，你会解决内心许多根深蒂固的纠结。一旦解开这些心结，终有一天，当你坐下冥想时，会达到一种精神上的“收件箱清零”状态。当你打开内心的“邮箱”，发现里面空空如也，那种感觉相当美妙。

It’s a state of joy and bliss and peace. Once you have it, you don’t want to give it up. If you can get a free hour of bliss every morning just by sitting and closing your eyes, that is worth its weight in gold. It will change your life.
这是一种充满喜悦、幸福与安宁的状态。一旦拥有，你就不舍得放弃。要是每天清晨，仅仅通过静坐闭目，就能收获一小时的幸福时光，那可真是无比珍贵。这将改变你的人生。

I recommend meditating one hour each morning because anything less is not enough time to really get deep into it. I would recommend if you really want to try meditation, try sixty days of one hour a day, first thing in the morning. After about sixty days, you will be tired of listening to your own mind. You will have resolved a lot of issues, or you have heard them enough to see through those fears and issues.
我建议每天清晨冥想一小时，因为时间若少于此，很难真正进入状态。要是你真心想尝试冥想，不妨连续六十天，每天一早起来就冥想一小时。大约六十天后，你就会厌烦内心的杂念。许多问题会迎刃而解，或者你已对其习以为常，能够看穿那些恐惧与困扰。

Meditation isn’t hard. All you have to do is sit there and do nothing. Just sit down. Close your eyes and say, “I’m just going to give myself a break for an hour. This is my hour off from life. This is the hour I’m not going to do anything.
冥想并不难。你只需坐在那儿，什么都不做。坐下，闭上眼睛，然后告诉自己：“我要给自己一个小时放松一下。这一个小时，我暂且抛开生活琐事，什么都不做。”

“If thoughts come, thoughts come. I’m not going to fight them. I’m not going to embrace them. I’m not going to think harder about them. I’m not going to reject them. I’m just going to sit here for an hour with my eyes closed, and I’m going to do nothing.” How hard is that? Why can you not do anything for an hour? What’s so hard about giving yourself an hour-long break? [74]
“若思绪涌现，便任其涌现。我既不与之对抗，也不欣然接受；既不深入思索，也不刻意排斥。我只需闭眼静坐一小时，什么都不做。”这很难吗？为何你连一小时无所事事都做不到？给自己一小时的休息时间，究竟难在何处？[74]

Was there a moment you realized you could control how you interpreted things? I think one problem people have is not recognizing they can control how they interpret and respond to a situation.
有没有某个瞬间，你意识到自己能够掌控对事物的理解方式？我觉得人们常犯的一个错误，就是没意识到自己可以决定如何理解并应对某种情况。

I think everyone knows it’s possible. There’s a great Osho lecture, titled “The Attraction for Drugs Is Spiritual.” He talks about why do people do drugs (everything from alcohol to psychedelics to cannabis). They’re doing it to control their mental state. They’re doing it to control how they react. Some people drink because it helps them not care as much, or they’re potheads because they can zone out, or they do psychedelics to feel very present or connected to nature. The attraction of drugs is spiritual.
我想大家都知道这是有可能的。有一场精彩的奥修讲座，名为《毒品的精神诱惑》。他探讨了人们吸毒的原因（从酒精、迷幻剂到大麻等各类毒品）。人们吸毒是为了控制自身的精神状态，控制自己的反应。有些人喝酒，是因为这能让他们不那么在意琐事；有些人吸食大麻，是因为能借此放空思绪；还有些人服用迷幻剂，是为了感受专注当下或与自然融为一体的感觉。毒品的诱惑源于精神层面。

All of society does this to some extent. People chasing thrills in action sports or flow states or orgasms—any of these states people strive for are people trying to get out of their own heads. They’re trying to get away from the voice in their heads—the overdeveloped sense of self.
在一定程度上，整个社会都存在这种现象。人们通过参与极限运动、体验心流状态或追求性高潮来寻求刺激，这些人们所追求的状态，其实都是在尝试摆脱自身的思绪，摆脱脑海中那个过度强烈的自我意识。

At the very least, I do not want my sense of self to continue to develop and strengthen as I get older. I want it to be weaker and more muted so I can be more in present everyday reality, accept nature and the world for what it is, and appreciate it very much as a child would. [4]
至少，我不希望随着年龄增长，自我意识还在不断发展、愈发强烈。我希望它能弱化一些、平和一些，这样我就能更多地感受当下的日常，接受自然与世界的原貌，像孩子般满心欢喜地欣赏它们。[4]

The first thing to realize is you can observe your mental state. Meditation doesn’t mean you’re suddenly going to gain the superpower to control your internal state. The advantage of meditation is recognizing just how out of control your mind is. It is like a monkey flinging feces, running around the room, making trouble, shouting, and breaking things. It’s completely uncontrollable. It’s an out-of-control madperson.
首先要明白，你能够察觉到自己的精神状态。冥想并非意味着你能一下子获得掌控内心状态的超能力。冥想的优势在于，让你认识到自己的思维有多失控。思维就像一只猴子，到处乱扔粪便，在房间里上蹿下跳，惹是生非，大喊大叫，还搞破坏。完全不受控制，就像个发了疯的人。

You have to see this mad creature in operation before you feel a certain distaste toward it and start separating yourself from it. In that separation is liberation. You realize, “Oh, I don’t want to be that person. Why am I so out of control?” Awareness alone calms you down. [4]
你得亲眼看到这个疯狂的家伙行事，才会心生厌恶，进而与之保持距离。这种抽离，便是解脱。你会意识到：“哦，我不想成为那样的人。我怎么如此失控？” 仅仅是意识到这一点，就能让你平静下来。[4]

Insight meditation lets you run your brain in debug mode until you realize you’re just a subroutine in a larger program.
内观冥想能让你以调试模式运转大脑，直至你意识到自己不过是一个更大程序中的子程序。

I try to keep an eye on my internal monologue. It doesn’t always work. In the computer programming sense, I try to run my brain in “debugging mode” as much as possible. When I’m talking to someone, or when I’m engaged in a group activity, it’s almost impossible because your brain has too many things to handle. If I’m by myself, like just this morning, I’m brushing my teeth and I start thinking forward to a podcast. I started going through this little fantasy where I imagined Shane asking me a bunch of questions and I was fantasy- answering them. Then, I caught myself. I put my brain in debug mode and just watched every little instruction go by.
我试着留意自己内心的想法，不过这并非总能做到。从计算机编程的角度来讲，我尽可能让大脑处于 “调试模式”。当我和别人交谈，或者参加集体活动时，这几乎没法做到，因为大脑要处理的事情太多了。要是我独自一人，就像今天早上，我一边刷牙，一边开始畅想即将录制的播客。我开始幻想谢恩向我提出一堆问题，而我在脑海中回答这些问题。然后，我察觉到了自己的状态。我让大脑进入调试模式，留意每一个闪过的念头。

I said, “Why am I fantasy-future planning? Why can’t I just stand here and brush my teeth?” It’s the awareness my brain was running off in the future and planning some fantasy scenario out of ego. I was like, “Well, do I really care if I embarrass myself? Who cares? I’m going to die anyway. This is all going to go to zero, and I won’t remember anything, so this is pointless.”
我说：“我干嘛要畅想未来、做规划呢？就不能站在这儿好好刷牙吗？” 我意识到，自己的大脑正陷入对未来的幻想，出于自我意识编造一些虚幻的场景。我心想：“我真的在乎自己会不会出丑吗？管它呢！反正人终有一死，一切都会化为乌有，我什么都不会记得，想这些根本没意义。”

Then, I shut down, and I went back to brushing my teeth. I was noticing how good the toothbrush was and how good it felt. Then the next moment, I’m off to thinking something else. I have to look at my brain again and say, “Do I really need to solve this problem right now?”
接着，我停下思绪，继续刷牙。我留意到牙刷很好用，刷牙的感觉也很舒适。可转眼间，我的思绪又飘到别的事情上了。我只得再次审视自己的想法，自问：“我真的非得现在就解决这个问题吗？”

Ninety-five percent of what my brain runs off and tries to do, I don’t need to tackle in that exact moment. If the brain is like a muscle, I’ll be better off resting it, being at peace. When a particular problem arises, I’ll immerse myself in it.
我大脑运作并试图处理的事情，95%都无需我即刻应对。倘若大脑如同肌肉，那让它休息、保持平和状态，对我更有益。一旦某个具体问题出现，我便会全身心投入其中。

Right now as we’re talking, I’d rather dedicate myself to being completely lost in the conversation and to being 100 percent focused on this as opposed to thinking about “Oh, when I brushed my teeth, did I do it the right way?”
此刻我们交谈时，我更愿意全身心沉浸在对话中，百分百专注于此，而不是琢磨 “我刷牙的方式对不对呢？”

The ability to singularly focus is related to the ability to lose yourself and be present, happy, and (ironically) more effective. [4]
专注一事的能力，与沉浸自我、活在当下、感受快乐以及（说来奇怪）提升效率的能力息息相关。[4]

It’s almost like you’re taking yourself out of a certain frame and you’re watching things from a different perspective even though you’re in your own mind.
这就好像你跳出了某种既定框架，虽然仍在自己的思维里，却能换个角度看事情。

Buddhists talk about awareness versus the ego. They’re really talking about how you can think of your brain, your consciousness, as a multilayered mechanism. There’s a core-base, kernel-level OS running. Then, there are applications running on top. (I like to think of it as computer and geek speak.)
佛教徒谈及的是觉知与自我。他们真正探讨的是，如何把大脑和意识看作一种多层次的机制。存在一个核心底层，即内核级的操作系统在运行。随后，在其之上还有各种应用程序在运作。（我习惯用计算机和极客的说法来理解这个概念。）

I’m actually going back to my awareness level of OS, which is always calm, always peaceful, and generally happy and content. I’m trying to stay in awareness mode and not activate the monkey mind, which is always worried, frightened, and anxious. It serves incredible purpose, but I try not to activate the monkey mind until I need it. When I need it, I want to just focus on that. If I run it 24/7, I waste energy and the monkey mind becomes me. I am more than my monkey mind.
实际上，我正回归到对自我底层状态的觉察，这种状态始终平静、安宁，总体上快乐且满足。我试着保持觉察，不激活那总是担忧、恐惧和焦虑的 “杂念”。“杂念” 有其重要作用，但除非必要，我尽量不去激活它。需要时，我会专注应对。要是一直任由 “杂念” 活跃，就会消耗精力，甚至被它左右。我可不只是 “杂念” 的傀儡。

Another thing: spirituality, religion, Buddhism, or anything you follow will teach you over time you are more than just your mind. You are more than just your habits. You are more than just your preferences. You’re a level of awareness. You’re a body. Modern humans, we don’t live enough in our bodies. We don’t live enough in our awareness. We live too much in this internal monologue in our heads. All of which is just programmed into you by society and by the environment when you were younger.
还有一点：无论是灵性追求、宗教信仰、佛教理念，还是你所秉持的任何信念，久而久之，都会让你明白，你不只是你的思想，不只是你的习惯，也不只是你的喜好。你是一种意识层次，是一个实体。现代社会的人们，没有足够地去感知自己的身体，也没有充分地去体悟自己的意识，反而过度沉溺于脑海中的内心对话。而这些，不过是在你年少时，由社会和环境给你设定好的程序。

You are basically a bunch of DNA that reacted to environmental effects when you were younger. You recorded the good and bad experiences, and you use them to prejudge everything thrown against you. Then you’re using those experiences, constantly trying and predict and change the future.
本质上，你就是一堆 DNA，在年少时会受环境影响。你会记录下好坏经历，并用这些经历对遇到的一切进行预判。然后，你会依据这些经历，不断尝试预测并改变未来。

As you get older, the sum of preferences you’ve accumulated is very, very large. These habitual reactions end up as runaway freight trains controlling your mood. We should control our own moods. Why don’t we study how to control our moods? What a masterful thing it would be if you could say, “Right now I would like to be in the curious state,” and then you can genuinely get yourself into the curious state. Or say, “I want to be in a mourning state. I’m mourning a loved one, and I want to grieve for them. I really want to feel that. I don’t want to be distracted by a computer programming problem due tomorrow.”
随着年龄渐长，你积累的偏好越来越多。这些习惯性反应最终会像脱缰的货运列车，左右你的情绪。我们理应掌控自己的情绪。为何不研究一下如何控制情绪呢？要是你能说：“此刻我想保持好奇”，然后就能真的让自己心生好奇，那该多厉害。又或者说：“我想沉浸在悲痛中。我在悼念挚爱之人，想好好为他们哀伤。我真心想感受这份悲痛，不想被明天要交的计算机编程作业打扰。”

The mind itself is a muscle—it can be trained and conditioned. It has been haphazardly conditioned by society to be out of our control. If you look at your mind with awareness and intent (a 24/7 job you’re working at every moment) I think you can unpack your own mind, your emotions, thoughts, and reactions. Then you can start reconfiguring. You can start rewriting this program to what you want. [4]
大脑本身如同一块肌肉，是能够加以训练和塑造的。只是它被社会随意塑造，已不受我们掌控。倘若你带着觉察与意图审视自己的大脑（这可是一项你时刻都在进行的全天候任务），我觉得你能够剖析自身的思维、情绪、想法及反应。接着，你便可以着手重新调整，开始把这个程序改写为你期望的模样。[4]

Meditation is turning off society and listening to yourself.
冥想就是抛开外界纷扰，倾听内心的声音。

It only “works” when done for its own sake.
只有纯粹出于自身目的去做时，它才“奏效”。

Hiking is walking meditation.
徒步就像是一种行走中的冥想。

Journaling is writing meditation.
写日记是一种书写形式的冥想。

Praying is gratitude meditation.
祈祷就是感恩冥想。

Showering is accidental meditation.
洗澡是一种不经意间的冥想。

Sitting quietly is direct meditation.
静坐即直接的冥想。

Choosing to Build Yourself
选择自我塑造

The greatest superpower is the ability to change yourself.
最强大的超能力，是改变自我的能力。

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in your life and how did you recover?
你一生中犯下的最大错误是什么，又是如何从中走出来的？

I’ve made a class of mistakes I would summarize the same way. The mistakes were obvious only in hindsight through one exercise, which is asking yourself: when you’re thirty, what advice would you give your twenty-year-old self? And when you’re forty, what advice would you give your thirty-year-old self? (Maybe if you’re younger, you can do it by every five years.) Sit down and say, “Okay, 2007, what was I doing? How was I feeling? 2008, what was I doing? How was I feeling? 2009, what was I doing? How was I feeling?”
我犯过一类错误，我可以用同样的方式来总结。这些错误，只有事后通过一种方式反思才会一目了然，即问问自己：三十岁时，会给二十岁的自己什么建议？四十岁时，又会给三十岁的自己什么建议？（要是你更年轻，或许可以每五年回顾一次。）坐下来，想想：“2007 年，我在做什么？感受如何？2008 年呢？2009 年又如何？”

Life is going to play out the way it’s going to play out. There will be some good and some bad. Most of it is actually just up to your interpretation. You’re born, you have a set of sensory experiences, and then you die. How you choose to interpret those experiences is up to you, and different people interpret them in different ways.
生活自会按其固有轨迹发展，有顺境，也有逆境。事实上，这大多取决于你如何看待。人从出生到离世，会经历种种感知体验。至于如何解读这些经历，全在个人，不同人有不同的看法。

Really, I wish I had done all of the same things, but with less emotion and less anger. The most celebrated example would be when I was younger, I started a company. This company did well, but I didn’t do well, so I sued some of the people involved. It was a good outcome for me in the end, and everything worked out okay, but there was a lot of angst and a lot of anger.
说实话，我希望自己做同样这些事时，能少些情绪，少些愤怒。最典型的例子是，我年轻时创办了一家公司。公司发展得不错，但我个人却不太顺，于是起诉了一些相关人员。最终结果对我来说还挺好，一切都顺利解决了，但过程中我满心焦虑与愤怒。

Today, I wouldn’t have the angst and the anger. I would have just walked up to the people and said, “Look, this is what happened. This is what I’m going to do. This is how I’m going to do it. This is what’s fair. This is what’s not.”
如今，我不会再焦虑和生气。我会直接走到那些人面前说：“听着，事情是这样的。这是我要做的，这是我的做法。这是公平的，这是不公平的。”

I would have realized the anger and emotions are a huge, completely unnecessary consequence. Now, I’m trying to learn from that and do the same things I think are the right things to do but without anger and with a very long-term point of view. If you take a very long-term point of view and take the emotion out of it, I wouldn’t consider those things mistakes anymore. [4]
我本应意识到，愤怒和情绪带来的后果既严重又完全没必要。如今，我试着从中吸取教训，继续做自认为正确的事，但不再愤怒，而是着眼长远。要是能长远地看问题，并且不带情绪，我就不会再把那些事当作错误了。[4]

Again, habits are everything—everything we are. We are trained in habits from when we are children, including potty training, when to cry and when not to, how to smile and when not to. These things become habits—behaviors we learn and integrate into ourselves.
再次强调，习惯决定一切，我们的一切皆由习惯塑造。从孩童时期开始，我们就接受各种习惯培养，比如如厕训练，知道何时该哭、何时不该哭，学会如何微笑以及何时不宜微笑。这些都逐渐形成习惯，成为我们习得并融入自身的行为方式。

When we’re older, we’re a collection of thousands of habits constantly running subconsciously. We have a little bit of extra brainpower in our neocortex for solving new problems. You become your habits.
随着年龄增长，我们会形成数千种习惯，这些习惯在潜意识中持续运转。我们大脑新皮质仅存少量额外脑力，用于解决新问题。人会被习惯塑造。

This came to light for me when my trainer gave me a routine to do every single day. I had never worked out every single day before. It’s a light workout. It’s not tough on your body, but I did this workout every single day. I realized the incredible, astonishing transformation it had on me both physically and mentally.
我的教练给了我一套日常锻炼计划，要求我每天都做，这时我才明白了这一点。此前我从未坚持每天锻炼。这是一种轻松的锻炼方式，不会给身体造成太大负担，但我坚持每天都做。我发现，这让我的身心都发生了惊人的变化。

To have peace of mind, you have to have peace of body first.
要想内心安宁，首先得身体无恙。

This taught me the power of habits. I started realizing it’s all about habits. At any given time, I’m either trying to pick up a good habit or discard a previous bad habit. It takes time.
这让我领悟到习惯的力量。我开始意识到，一切皆关乎习惯。在任何时刻，我不是在努力培养一个好习惯，就是在改掉之前的坏习惯。这需要时间。

If someone says, “I want to be fit, I want to be healthy. Right now, I’m out of shape and I’m fat.” Well, nothing sustainable is going to work for you in three months. It’s going to be at least a ten-year journey. Every six months (depending on how fast you can do it), you’re going to break bad habits and pick up good habits. [6]
要是有人说：“我想塑形，想保持健康。可现在我身材走样，还胖。” 要知道，三个月内不可能有什么可持续的办法能帮到你。这至少得花十年时间。每隔半年（具体时间取决于你的适应速度），你就得改掉一些坏习惯，培养一些好习惯。[6]

One of the things Krishnamurti talks about is being in an internal state of revolution. You should always be internally ready for a complete change. Whenever we say we’re going to try to do something or try to form a habit, we’re wimping out.
克里希那穆提提及的一点，是要保持内心的革新状态。你得时刻在内心做好彻底改变的准备。每当我们说要试着做某事，或者试着养成某个习惯时，其实就是在畏缩不前。

We’re just saying to ourselves, “I’m going to buy myself some more time.” The reality is when our emotions want us to do something, we just do it. If you want to go approach a pretty girl, if you want to have a drink, if you really desire something, you just go do it.
我们不过是在心里念叨：“我得给自己多争取点时间。” 实际上，一旦情感上头，我们就会付诸行动。要是你想搭讪漂亮姑娘，想喝上一杯，或者对某样东西心心念念，那就会直接去做。

When you say, “I’m going to do this,” and “I’m going to be that,” you’re really putting it off. You’re giving yourself an out. At least if you’re self-aware, you can think, “‘I say I want to do this, but I don’t really because if I really wanted to do it, I would just do it.”
当你说“我打算做这个”“我打算成为那样的人”时，其实你是在拖延。你在给自己留退路。至少要是你有自知之明，就会想：“我说想做这个，但其实并不想，因为真想做的话，我早就动手了。”

Commit externally to enough people. For example, if you want to quit smoking, all you have to do is go to everybody you know and say, “I quit smoking. I did it. I give you my word.”
向足够多的人公开做出承诺。比如说，要是你想戒烟，只需告诉所有你认识的人：“我戒烟了，说到做到，我向你保证。”

That’s all you need to do. Go ahead, right? But most of us say we’re not quite ready. We know we don’t want to commit ourselves externally. It’s important to be honest with yourself and say, “Okay, I’m not ready to give up smoking. I like it too much, it is going to be too hard for me to give up.”
这就是你要做的全部。动手去做，对吧？但我们大多数人都说自己还没完全准备好。我们心里清楚，自己不想公开做出承诺。这时要坦诚面对自己，不妨说：“好吧，我还没准备好戒烟。我太喜欢抽烟了，戒烟对我来说太难了。”

Say instead, “I’ll set a more reasonable goal for myself; I’ll cut down to the following amount. I can commit to that externally. I’m going to work on that for three or six months. When I get there, I’ll take the next step, as opposed to beating myself up over it.”
不妨这样说：“我要给自己定个更合理的目标，减到这个量。我可以对外做出承诺。接下来三到六个月，我就朝着这个目标努力。达成目标后，再考虑下一步，没必要为此自责。”

When you really want to change, you just change. But most of us don’t really want to change—we don’t want to go through the pain just yet. At least recognize it, be aware of it, and give yourself a smaller change you can actually carry out. [6]
当你真心渴望改变，自然就能做出改变。然而，我们大多数人并非真心想改变，因为还不愿承受改变带来的痛苦。至少要认识到这一点，有所觉察，然后给自己设定一个切实可行的小改变。[6]

Impatience with actions, patience with results.
行动上要急切，结果上需耐心。

Anything you have to do, just get it done. Why wait? You’re not getting any younger. Your life is slipping away. You don’t want to spend it waiting in line. You don’t want to spend it traveling back and forth. You don’t want to spend it doing things you know ultimately aren’t part of your mission.
但凡你必须做的事，那就赶紧去做。何必等待？人只会越活越老，生命正在悄然流逝。你肯定不想把时间耗费在排队上，也不想在来回奔波中虚度，更不愿把时间花在那些你明知并非自己使命的事情上。

When you do them, you want to do them as quickly as you can while doing them well with your full attention. But then, you just have to be patient with the results because you’re dealing with complex systems and many people.
当你做这些事时，你会希望在全神贯注做好的同时，尽快完成。不过，由于你面对的是复杂系统和众多人员，所以对结果要有耐心。

It takes a long time for markets to adopt products. It takes time for people to get comfortable working with each other. It takes time for great products to emerge as you polish away, polish away, polish away. Impatience with actions, patience with results. As Nivi said, inspiration is perishable. When you have inspiration, act on it right then and there. [78]
市场接纳产品需要漫长的过程。人们彼此适应共事也需耗费时日。卓越的产品需经反复雕琢才能诞生。行动上要果敢，结果上要有耐心。就像尼维说的，灵感转瞬即逝。一旦有了灵感，就要立刻行动。[78]

Choosing to Grow Yourself
选择提升自我

I don’t believe in specific goals. Scott Adams famously said, “Set up systems, not goals.” Use your judgment to figure out what kinds of environments you can thrive in, and then create an environment around you so you’re statistically likely to succeed.
我不认同设立特定目标。斯科特·亚当斯有句名言：“要建立体系，而非设定目标。”你得运用自己的判断力，弄明白在什么样的环境中你能蓬勃发展，然后打造这样的环境，如此一来，从概率上讲你就更有可能取得成功。

The current environment programs the brain, but the clever brain can choose its upcoming environment.
当下的环境影响着大脑，但聪慧的大脑能够选择接下来所处的环境。

I’m not going to be the most successful person on the planet, nor do I want to be. I just want to be the most successful version of myself while working the least hard possible. I want to live in a way that if my life played out 1,000 times, Naval is successful 999 times. He’s not a billionaire, but he does pretty well each time. He may not have nailed life in every regard, but he sets up systems so he’s failed in very few places. [4]
我不会成为世界上最成功的人，也无意于此。我只想付出尽可能少的努力，成就最成功的自己。我希望能这样生活：倘若我的人生重演 1000 次，纳瓦尔 999 次都能成功。他虽不是亿万富翁，但每次都表现出色。他或许无法事事顺遂，但他构建了相应体系，因此鲜有败绩。[4]

Remember I started as a poor kid in India, right? If I can make it, anybody can, in that sense. Obviously, I had all my limbs, my mental faculties, and I did have an education. There are some prerequisites you can’t get past. But if you’re reading this book, you probably have the requisite means at your disposal, which is a functioning body and a functioning mind. [78]
记住，我出身于印度的一个贫困家庭，对吧？从这个角度讲，如果我能成功，那任何人都可以。显然，我四肢健全、头脑正常，也接受过教育。有些先决条件是无法回避的。但既然你在阅读这本书，或许就已具备了必要条件，即健康的体魄与正常的心智。[78]

If there’s something you want to do later, do it now. There is no “later.”
要是有想晚点做的事，那就现在做。根本没有“以后”。

How do you personally learn about new subjects?
你个人是如何学习新领域知识的？

Mostly, I just stay on the basics. Even when I learn physics or science, I stick to the basics. I read concepts for fun. I’m more likely to do something that has arithmetic in it than calculus. I won’t be a great physicist at this point. Maybe in the next lifetime or my kid will do it, but it’s too late for me. I have to stick to what I enjoy.
大多数时候，我就钻研基础知识。哪怕学物理或者科学，我也只学基础的部分。我读各种概念纯粹是为了好玩。比起微积分，我更愿意做些跟算术有关的事。就现在而言，我成不了伟大的物理学家。或许下辈子可以，又或者我的孩子能做到，但对我来说已经来不及了。我得坚持做自己喜欢的事。

Science is, to me, the study of truth. It is the only true discipline because it makes falsifiable predictions. It actually changes the world. Applied science becomes technology, and technology is what separates us from the animals and allows us to have things like cell phones, houses, cars, heat, and electricity.
在我看来，科学就是对真理的探索。它是唯一真正的学科，因为它能做出可证伪的预测，切实改变着世界。应用科学催生了技术，正是技术将人类与动物区分开来，让我们得以拥有手机、房屋、汽车、暖气和电力等。

Science, to me, is the study of truth and mathematics is the language of science and nature.
在我看来，科学是对真理的探索，而数学则是科学与自然的语言。

I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual. To me, that is the most devotional thing that I could do, to study the laws of the Universe. The same kick that someone might get out of being in Mecca or Medina and bowing to the prophet, I get the same feeling of awe and small sense of self when I study science. For me, it’s unparalleled and I’d rather stay at the basics. This is the beauty of reading. [4]
我不信奉宗教，但我注重精神层面的追求。对我而言，钻研宇宙法则，乃是我所能践行的最为虔诚之举。有些人置身麦加或麦地那，向先知鞠躬时会满怀激动，而我在探索科学之时，同样会心生敬畏，感受到自身的渺小。于我来说，这种体验无可比拟，我更愿意专注于基础内容的研究。这便是阅读的魅力所在。[4]

Do you agree with the idea “If you read what everybody else is reading, you’re going to think what everyone else is thinking”?
您是否同意“如果您阅读其他人正在阅读的内容，那么您就会思考其他人正在思考的内容”这一观点？

I think almost everything that people read these days is designed for social approval. [4]
我觉得如今人们读的东西，几乎都是为了得到社会认可。[4]

I know people who have read one hundred regurgitated books on evolution and they’ve never read Darwin. Think of the number of macroeconomists out there. I think most of them have read tons of treatises in economics but haven’t read any Adam Smith.
我认识一些人，他们读了上百本关于进化论的二手书，却从未读过达尔文的原著。再看看那些宏观经济学家，我觉得他们大多数人读了大量经济学论文，却没读过亚当·斯密的任何作品。

At some level, you’re doing it for social approval. You’re doing it to fit in with the other monkeys. You’re fitting in to get along with the herd. That’s not where the returns are in life. The returns in life are being out of the herd.
在某种程度上，你这么做是为了获得社会认可，为了融入周围的人群，为了随大流。但这并非人生的价值所在。人生的价值在于特立独行。

Social approval is inside the herd. If you want social approval, definitely go read what the herd is reading. It takes a level of contrarianism to say, “Nope. I’m just going to do my own thing. Regardless of the social outcome, I will learn anything I think is interesting.”
社会认可源自群体。若想获得社会认可，那就务必去读大众都在读的内容。然而，若要说“不，我就想做自己的事。无论社会反馈怎样，我都会去钻研任何我觉得有趣的事物”，这就需要具备一定的逆向思维了。

Do you think there’s some loss aversion there? Because once you diverge, you’re not sure if you’re diverging toward a positive outcome or a negative outcome?
你觉得这里面是不是存在一些损失厌恶心理呢？毕竟一旦出现分歧，你也不确定这一分歧最终会带来好结果还是坏结果

Absolutely. I think that’s why the smartest and the most successful people I know started out as losers. If you view yourself as a loser, as someone who was cast out by society and has no role in normal society, then you will do your own thing and you’re much more likely to find a winning path. It helps to start out by saying, “I’m never going to be popular. I’m never going to be accepted. I’m already a loser. I’m not going to get what all the other kids have. I’ve just got to be happy being me.”
绝对如此。我觉得这就是为何我认识的那些最聪慧、最成功之人，起初都曾是失败者。要是你将自己视作失败者，一个被社会摒弃、在常规社会中无立足之地的人，那你就会自行其是，也更有可能寻得成功之道。不妨从这样的自我认知起步：“我永远不会讨人喜欢，永远不会被接纳。我已然是个失败者，无法拥有其他孩子所拥有的一切。我只能做自己，自得其乐。”

For self-improvement without self-discipline, update your self-image.
若想在缺乏自律的情况下实现自我提升，那就重塑自我认知。

Everyone’s motivated at something. It just depends on the thing. Even the people that we say are unmotivated are suddenly really motivated when they’re playing video games. I think motivation is relative, so you just have to find the thing you’re into. [1]
每个人在某些事上都会有动力，只是因事而异。哪怕是我们眼中毫无干劲的人，玩起电子游戏来也会突然兴致勃勃。我觉得动力是相对而言的，所以你只需找到自己感兴趣的事就行。[1]

Grind and sweat, toil and bleed, face the abyss. It’s all part of becoming an overnight success.
历经磨砺、挥洒汗水，辛勤劳作、流血拼搏，直面绝境。这都是一朝成功的必经过程。

If you had to pass down to your kids one or two principles, what would they be?
要是你只能给孩子传授一两条人生原则，会选哪些呢？

Number one: read. Read everything you can. And not just the stuff that society tells you is good or even books that I tell you to read. Just read for its own sake. Develop a love for it. Even if you have to read romance novels or paperbacks or comic books. There’s no such thing as junk. Just read it all. Eventually, you’ll guide yourself to the things that you should and want to be reading.
第一：阅读。尽可能广泛地阅读。不局限于社会公认的好书，甚至也不局限于我推荐的书。纯粹为了阅读而阅读，培养阅读的热爱。哪怕是言情小说、平装书或者漫画，也无妨。没有什么书是毫无价值的，都读一读。最终，你会自然而然地找到那些你该读且想读的书。

Related to the skill of reading are the skills of mathematics and persuasion. Both skills help you to navigate through the real world.
与阅读能力相关的，还有数学能力和说服能力。这两种能力都有助于你在现实世界中顺利前行。

Having the skill of persuasion is important because if you can influence your fellow human beings, you can get a lot done. I think persuasion is an actual skill. So you can learn it, and it’s not that hard to do so.
具备说服能力至关重要，因为若能影响身边的人，就能做成许多事。我觉得说服是一种切实可学的技能，学起来也并非难事。

Mathematics helps with all the complex and difficult things in life. If you want to make money, if you want to do science, if you want to understand game theory or politics or economics or investments or computers, all of these things have mathematics at the core. It’s a foundational language of nature.
数学助力解决生活中各类复杂难题。无论是想赚钱、搞科研，还是理解博弈论、政治学、经济学、投资学或计算机科学，这些领域的核心皆为数学。数学是自然的基础语言。

Nature speaks in mathematics. Mathematics is us reverse engineering the language of nature, and we have only scratched the surface. The good news is you don’t have to know a lot of math. You just have to know basic statistics, arithmetic, etc. You should know statistics and probability forwards and backwards and inside out. [8]
大自然以数学语言发声。数学是我们对自然语言的逆向解析，而我们目前仅仅浅尝辄止。好消息是，你无需掌握太多数学知识，只需了解基础统计学、算术等内容。你应当对统计学和概率学做到透彻理解。[8]

Choosing to Free Yourself
选择让自己获得自由

The hardest thing is not doing what you want—it’s knowing what you want.
最难的不是做自己想做的事，而是弄清楚自己究竟想要什么。

Be aware there are no “adults.” Everyone makes it up as they go along. You have to find your own path, picking, choosing, and discarding as you see fit. Figure it out yourself, and do it. [71]
要知道，根本没有“成年人”这回事。大家都是边走边摸索。你得自己找到路，按自己的判断去挑选、取舍。自己想明白，然后去做。[71]

How have your values changed?
你的价值观有哪些变化？

When I was younger, I really, really valued freedom. Freedom was one of my core values. Ironically, it still is. It’s probably one of my top three values, but it’s now a different definition of freedom.
年轻时，我极其珍视自由，自由是我核心价值观之一。说来也巧，如今依旧如此。自由大概仍在我最重要的三大价值观之列，只是现在对自由的定义变了。

My old definition was “freedom to.” Freedom to do anything I want. Freedom to do whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like. Now, the freedom I’m looking for is internal freedom. It’s “freedom from.” Freedom from reaction. Freedom from feeling angry. Freedom from being sad. Freedom from being forced to do things. I’m looking for “freedom from,” internally and externally, whereas before I was looking for “freedom to.” [4]
我以前对自由的定义是“能够自由地去做……”。可以随心所欲，想做什么就做什么，想什么时候做就什么时候做。而现在，我追求的是内心的自由，也就是“摆脱……的自由”。摆脱应激反应，摆脱愤怒，摆脱悲伤，摆脱被迫行事。以前我追求的是“去做……的自由”，现在我追求的则是内在与外在的“摆脱……的自由”。[4]

Advice to my younger self: “Be exactly who you are.”
给年轻时的自己的建议：“做真正的自己。”

Holding back means staying in bad relationships and bad jobs for years instead of minutes.
退缩意味着在糟糕的人际关系和工作中一待就是数年，而不是短短几分钟。

Freedom from Expectations
摆脱期待

I don’t measure my effectiveness at all. I don’t believe in self-measurement. I feel like this is a form of self-discipline, self-punishment, and self-conflict. [1]
我完全不衡量自身成效，也不相信自我评估这一套。我觉得这无异于自律、自我惩罚和自我较劲。[1]

If you hurt other people because they have expectations of you, that’s their problem. If they have an agreement with you, it’s your problem. But, if they have an expectation of you, that’s completely their problem. It has nothing to do with you. They’re going to have lots of expectations out of life. The sooner you can dash their expectations, the better. [1]
要是因为别人对你有所期待，你就伤害了他们，那是他们的问题。要是他们和你达成了协议，那就是你的问题。但要是他们仅仅是对你有所期待，那完全是他们自己的事，和你毫无关系。他们对生活本就会抱有诸多期待。你越早打破他们的期待越好。[1]

Courage isn’t charging into a machine gun nest. Courage is not caring what other people think.
勇气并非是勇闯机枪阵地，而是不在意他人的看法。

Anyone who has known me for a long time knows my defining characteristic is a combination of being very impatient and willful. I don’t like to wait. I hate wasting time. I’m very famous for being rude at parties, events, dinners, where the moment I figure out it’s a waste of my time, I leave immediately.
但凡认识我很久的人都知道，我最大的特点就是性子急，还很任性。我不喜欢等待，讨厌浪费时间。我在聚会、活动、晚宴上出了名的没耐心，一旦觉得是浪费时间，我马上就走。

Value your time. It is all you have. It’s more important than your money. It’s more important than your friends. It is more important than anything. Your time is all you have. Do not waste your time.
珍视你的时间。时间是你仅有的一切，比金钱重要，比朋友重要，比任何事物都重要。你拥有的唯有时间，切勿浪费。

This doesn’t mean you can’t relax. As long as you’re doing what you want, it’s not a waste of your time. But if you’re not spending your time doing what you want, and you’re not earning, and you’re not learning—what the heck are you doing?
这并不意味着你不能放松。只要你在做自己想做的事，就不算虚度光阴。但要是你既没做自己想做的事，又没挣钱，还没学到东西，那你究竟在干啥呢？

Don’t spend your time making other people happy. Other people being happy is their problem. It’s not your problem. If you are happy, it makes other people happy. If you’re happy, other people will ask you how you became happy and they might learn from it, but you are not responsible for making other people happy. [10]
别把时间耗费在取悦他人上。他人能否开心，那是他们自己的事，与你无关。当你自己过得开心，自然会感染他人。倘若你心情愉悦，旁人或许会向你请教快乐的秘诀，并从中汲取经验，但让他人开心并非你的职责所在。[10]

Freedom from Anger
摆脱愤怒情绪

What is anger? Anger is a way to signal as strongly as you can to the other party you’re capable of violence. Anger is a precursor to violence.
什么是愤怒？愤怒是一种向对方强烈表明你具备暴力能力的方式。愤怒是暴力的前奏。

Observe when you’re angry—anger is a loss of control over the situation. Anger is a contract you make with yourself to be in physical and mental and emotional turmoil until reality changes. [1]
留意自己生气的时候——生气意味着对局面失去掌控。生气就像是你跟自己立下的约定，在现实改变之前，你会一直处于身心和情绪的混乱状态。[1]

Anger is its own punishment. An angry person trying to push your head below water is drowning at the same time.
愤怒是对自己的惩罚。一个愤怒的人试图将你的头按入水中，与此同时，他自己也在溺水。

Freedom from Employment
从受雇状态中解脱出来

People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles can’t fathom. [11]
那些生活开销远低于自身经济能力的人，享有一种忙于提升生活品质的人难以想象的自由。[11]

Once you’ve truly controlled your own fate, for better or for worse, you’ll never let anyone else tell you what to do. [11]
一旦你切实掌握了自己的命运，无论结果是好是坏，你都不会再听任他人对你指手画脚。[11]

A taste of freedom can make you unemployable.
体验过自由，可能会让你无法适应被雇佣的生活。

Freedom from Uncontrolled Thinking
摆脱不受控制的思考

A big habit I’m working on is trying to turn off my “monkey mind.” When we’re children, we’re pretty blank slates. We live very much in the moment. We essentially just react to our environment through our instincts. We live in what I would call the “real world.” Puberty is the onset of desire—the first time you really, really want something and you start long-range planning. You start thinking a lot, building an identity and an ego to get what you want.
我正在努力培养的一个重要习惯，就是试着让自己不再“胡思乱想”。我们小时候，思想基本一片空白。我们非常活在当下，本质上只是凭借本能对周围环境做出反应。我觉得我们那时生活在“现实世界”里。青春期是欲望的起点——你第一次极其渴望某样东西，并开始进行长远规划。你开始频繁思考，构建身份认同与自我意识，以获取自己想要的东西。

If you walk down the street and there are a thousand people in the street, all thousand are talking to themselves in their head at any given point. They’re constantly judging everything they see. They’re playing back movies of things that happened to them yesterday. They’re living in fantasy worlds of what’s going to happen tomorrow. They’re just pulled out of base reality. That can be good when you do long-range planning. It can be good when you solve problems. It’s good for us as survival-and-replication machines.
要是你走在街上，会发现街上哪怕有一千个人，在任何时候，这一千人都在心里自言自语。他们不停地评判着眼前的一切，脑海里还回放着昨天发生在自己身上的事，又或是沉浸在对明天的幻想中。他们脱离了现实世界。不过，在做长远规划或解决问题的时候，这样的状态倒也有用。毕竟，我们本就是为了生存和繁衍而存在的。

I think it’s actually very bad for your happiness. To me, the mind should be a servant and a tool, not a master. My monkey mind should not control and drive me 24/7.
我觉得这其实对幸福感极为不利。在我看来，头脑应是奴仆与工具，而非主宰。我不该任由内心杂念时刻掌控自己。

I want to break the habit of uncontrolled thinking, which is hard. [4]
我想改掉胡思乱想的习惯，这并非易事。[4]

A busy mind accelerates the passage of subjective time.
思绪纷扰会让人感觉时间过得更快。

There is no endpoint to self-awareness and self-discovery. It’s a lifelong process you hopefully keep getting better and better at. There is no one meaningful answer, and no one is going to fully solve it unless you’re one of these enlightened characters. Maybe some of us will get there, but I’m not likely to, given how involved I am in the rat race. The best case is I’m a rat who might be able to look up at the clouds once in a while.
自我认知与自我探索永无止境，这是个需要我们不断精进的终身课题。这个问题没有所谓确切答案，除非大彻大悟，否则无人能彻底参透。或许有人能达到这般境界，但像我这样深陷尘世纷争的人，怕是难以企及。我能做到的，也就是偶尔抬头看看云卷云舒了。

I think just being aware you’re a rat in a race is about as far as most of us are going to get. [8]
我觉得，意识到自己不过是在激烈竞争中疲于奔命，这大概就是我们大多数人能达到的认知极限了。[8]

The modern struggle:
现代社会的挣扎：

Lone individuals summoning inhuman willpower, fasting, meditating, and exercising…
孤独的人凭借超乎常人的意志力，禁食、冥想、锻炼…

Up against armies of scientists and statisticians weaponizing abundant food, screens, and medicine into junk food, clickbait news, infinite porn, endless games, and addictive drugs.
我们面临着众多科学家和统计学家的“攻势”，他们把充足的食物、电子屏幕以及医药资源，转化成了垃圾食品、博眼球的新闻、泛滥的色情内容、没完没了的游戏，还有让人成瘾的药物。