Now, some of you might be thinking, "Hold on a minute.
在座的有些人现在一定可能在想,“得了吧。
She doesn't look very much like an ocean rower.
她长得一点也不像个横渡大洋者。
Isn't she meant to be about this tall and about this wide and maybe look a bit more like these guys?"
她是不是长得这么高,或者这么强壮,是不是和这些家伙们有那么一点相似呢?”
You'll notice, they've all got something that I don't.
大家看得出他们具备的一些东西我的确没有。
Well, I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm talking about the beards.
我不知道大家心里想的是什么,我是指我没有他们那样的胡子。
And no matter how long I've spent on the ocean, I haven't yet managed to muster a decent beard, and I hope that it remains that way.
无论我在大洋上渡过多长时间,我依然无法让自己拥有他们那样的漂亮胡子,我希望还是保持原状吧。
For a long time, I didn't believe that I could have a big adventure.
在很长一段时间里,我都无法相信自己可以去冒险。
The story that I told myself was that adventurers looked like this. I didn't look the part.
我所认为的冒险,就是这些人所做的。看上去我不适合这样的冒险。
I thought there were them and there were us, and I was not one of them.
我曾经觉得我们和他们是两种人,而我不能成为他们中的一员。
So for 11 years, I conformed. I did what people from my kind of background were supposed to do.
所以在11年里,我默守陈规,我完成了我这个背景的人应该做的事情。
I was working in an office in London as a management consultant.
我以前在伦敦的一间办公室里,作管理顾问的工作。
And I think I knew from day one that it wasn't the right job for me.
我想我从工作的第一天就知道这份工作并不对我的心思。
But that kind of conditioning just kept me there for so many years,
但是那份工作的丰厚待遇还是让我从事了多年,
until I reached my mid-30s and I thought, "You know, I'm not getting any younger. "
一直到我三十四、五岁的时候,我意识到,“是啊,我已经不再年轻。”
I feel like I've got a purpose in this life, and I don't know what it is,
我知道我的人生当中还有追求,但我不知道是什么,
but I'm pretty certain that management consultancy is not it.
我十分确定的是,管理顾问工作绝不是我追求的目标。
So, fast forward a few years. I'd gone through some changes.
几年的时间转瞬即逝。我也经历了一些改变。
To try and answer that question of, "What am I supposed to be doing with my life?"
我认真思考回答了这个问题,“在我的人生里,我到底最想做什么?”
I sat down one day and wrote two versions of my own obituary, the one that I wanted, a life of adventure,
终于有一天,我坐下来为自己写了两种不同的讣告,一个是我想要的,是充满了冒险经历的一生,
and the one that I was actually heading for which was a nice, normal, pleasant life,
而另一个则是按照我现在的生活轨迹所能达到的,一个享受正常、安逸、舒适生活的一生,
but it wasn't where I wanted to be by the end of my life.
而在我生命终结时,后者并不是我想要达到的目标。
I wanted to live a life that I could be proud of.
我希望拥有一个我为之自豪的一生。