评论
打印
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is confusing happiness and feelings of happiness.
人们所犯的最大错误之一，是混淆了幸福和幸福的感觉。
Happiness is the feeling I get when I'm with the people that I love, or happiness is how I feel when I'm doing what I enjoy.
幸福是我和爱的人在一起时的感觉，幸福是我做自己喜欢的事情时的感觉。
And I say, "That's beautiful. That's great!"
我会说，“太美好了。太棒了！”
That's wrong. Happiness isn't a feeling.
这是错的。幸福并不是一种感觉。
Feelings are evidence of happiness- like the smell of your turkey is evidence of your Thanksgiving dinner, and that's incredibly good news for everybody because there's all kinds of reasons that you shouldn't just have happy feelings.
感觉就是幸福的证据——就像火鸡的味道证明了是感恩节一样，这对每个人来说都是好消息，因为各种原因，你不应该只是有幸福的感觉。
It's normal that you have negative emotions every single day.
你每天都有负面情绪是正常的。
And if you didn't, you'd probably be dead in about a week.
如果没有负面情绪，你可能会在大约一周内死去。
But if we really want to get at the phenomenon that's creating the feelings, we need to go underneath those emotions, and find out what's actually driving them in the first place.
但是，如果我们真的想要了解产生这些感觉的现象，就需要深入到情绪之下，找出驱动它们的根本原因。
I'm Arthur Brooks. I'm an author and a professor, and I specialize in the science of happiness.
我是亚瑟·布鲁克斯。我是一名作家，也是一名教授，我专门研究幸福科学。
People talk a lot about bad feelings and good feelings, and that's a complete misunderstanding of emotion itself.
人们经常谈论坏情绪和好情绪，这是对情绪本身彻底的误解。
Emotion is nothing more than information about the outside world.
情绪只不过是关于外部世界的信息。
When there's something outside of you that's a threat, we have negative emotions.
当外部世界对你构成威胁时，我们就会有负面情绪。
Fear, anger, sadness, disgust, and those are incredibly important.
恐惧、愤怒、悲伤、厌恶，这些都极其重要。
They keep us alive, they tell us there's a threat.
它们让我们活着，它们告诉我们有威胁存在。
And when there's something that's an opportunity for us, something that's lovely, something that we really want in our lives, then we have positive emotions of joy and interest or surprise.
当外部世界对我们来说是机会，是可爱的东西，是我们真正想要的东西，那我们就会产生喜悦、感兴趣或惊讶的积极情绪。
But we can't classify them as bad or good.
但我们不能用好或坏去给情绪分类。
We really could, I guess, classify them as all good because we need them all and they keep us alive.
我们其实可以把它们都归类为好的，因为我们需要它们，是它们让我们活着。
I've looked at data on millions of individuals who have the highest levels of well-being, and they all have three elements in common in their lives: Enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning.
我研究了数以百万计的拥有最高水平幸福感的人们的数据，他们的生活中都有三个共同的要素：享受、满足和意义。
Now, enjoyment is something that people think they understand, but often don't.
享受是指人们认为他们理解的东西，但往往其实并不理解。
They mistake it for pleasure. Pleasure is kind of an animal phenomenon.
他们混淆了享受和快乐。快乐是动物中存在的现象。
It's a signal like any other feeling that something can give you calories or mates that can help you survive and pass on your genes.
它是一种信号，就像其他任何感觉一样，可以给你提供卡路里，或提供伴侣，帮助你生存并延续基因。
It's not something that actually leads to happiness.
它并不是真正能带来幸福的东西。
Enjoyment is more complex than that, and it's experienced in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, the executive center of the brain.
享受比快乐更复杂，它是在大脑的前额叶皮层，即大脑的执行中心体验到的。
Enjoyment is pleasure, plus people, plus memory.
享受，是快乐加上人，再加上记忆。
That's the reason a beer company doesn't have a commercial with a guy pounding a 12-pack in his apartment by himself.
所以啤酒公司不会拍出一个男人独自在公寓里猛灌12罐啤酒这样的广告的原因。
The second macronutrient of happiness is satisfaction.
幸福的第二种营养素是满足感。
Satisfaction is a real mystery because it's the joy we get after we struggle for something.
满足感是一个真正的谜，它是我们为某事奋斗后所获得的快乐。
And if we don't struggle enough, it's not sweet.
如果我们付出的努力不够多，那这满足感就不够甜蜜。
My students, they could cheat to get an A on my exam, but if they did, it would give them no satisfaction.
我的学生们可以在我的考试中通过作弊获得A，但如果他们真这么做，也不会获得满足感。
Last but not least is meaning.
最后但也非常重要的一点是意义。
I can go a long time without satisfaction and even enjoyment, I'm a pretty self-disciplined person.
我可以长时间没有满足感，甚至没有享受感，我是一个非常自律的人。
But I can't go an hour without meaning and be happy and neither can you.
但如果没有意义，我连一小时都熬不过去，更不会快乐，你也一样。
"What's the meaning of life?"
“生命的意义是什么？”
That's a big question, and it's really three sub-questions: We call them coherence, significance, and purpose.
这是一个很宏大的问题，其实包括三个小问题：我们称之为连贯性、重要性和目的。
Coherence is "Why do things happen the way they do?"
连贯性是指“为什么事情会以这种方式发生？”
Significance is "Why does it matter that I'm alive?"
重要性是指“我活着为什么重要？”
And purpose is "What's the direction and goals involved in my life?"
而目的是指“我的人生所涉及的方向和目标是什么？”
And if you have answers to those questions, you have meaning.
如果你能回答这些问题，你就有了意义。
But if you don't have answers or you don't have good answers to your own satisfaction, that's what you need to go looking for.
但如果你没有答案，或者你没有让自己满意的好答案，那你就需要去寻找它们。
Ancient philosophers, really starting with Aristotle, but most importantly Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century, classified the worldly rewards that we crave so much into four categories.
古代哲学家，实际上是从亚里士多德开始的，但最重要的是13世纪的托马斯·阿奎那，将我们如饥似渴的世俗回报分为四类。
Money, power, pleasure, and fame.
金钱、权力、快乐和名誉。
There's a ton of scientific literature out there that says that Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle, and everybody else in-between, was spot on the money.
有大量的科学文献表明，托马斯·阿奎那和亚里士多德，以及介于他们之间的其他人，都是完全正确的。
If those are not the things that you should try to accumulate, what should you be going after?
如果这些都不是你应该努力积累的东西，那你还应该追求什么呢？
Not money, power, pleasure, and fame.
不是金钱、权力、快乐和名誉。
It's faith, family, friendship, and work that serves others.
而是信仰、家庭、友谊和为他人服务的工作。
Now, when I say faith, I have to be a little bit careful because people could misinterpret that.
说到信仰的时候，我得小心一点，因为可能会引起人们的误解。
They could think it's some specific religious faith.
他们可能认为我说的是某种特定的宗教信仰。
There are many ways where people can find the peace and perspective they need in life.
人们有很多种方法，去找到他们在生活中所需的平静和视角。
Philosophy or meditation, or walking in nature without devices, or studying the fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach, but you need to stand in awe of something bigger than you, and that's the first category.
哲学或冥想，或不带电子设备去大自然中散步，或研究约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫的赋格曲，但你需要对比你更伟大的事物怀有敬畏之心，这就是第一类。
Second is family life. We're evolved as a kin-based species.
第二是家庭生活。我们这个物种进化是以亲属关系为基础的。
We have to know our own and take care of them, even if we don't like them.
我们必须了解自己，并照顾好他们，即便我们不喜欢他们。
And if you pass on those relationships, if you neglect those relationships, if you create a schism in those relationships, you've sacrificed your happiness.
如果你放弃这些关系，忽视这些关系，如果你在亲属关系中制造分裂，就会牺牲自己的幸福。
Third is friendship. Real friendship takes time.
第三是友谊。真正的友谊需要时间。
People my age will say, "I don't have time to keep up with my high school buddies."
跟我同龄的人会觉得，“我没时间去跟高中的朋友保持联系。”
I'll say, "You can't afford not to, man."
我会说，“你承担不起不联系他们的后果，伙计。”
Now, that doesn't mean you have to have 100, but it means you have to have more than one and certainly more than your spouse.
并不是说你得跟100个高中朋友联系，但你得有一个以上的朋友，当然也不能只有你的配偶。
Last but not least is work.
最后但也最重要的就是工作。
And that does not mean over-indexing on work, and working all day and all night.
并不是说要一心扑在工作上，没日没夜地去工作。
It turns out there's only two things from work that bring true joy: Earned success and service to others.
事实证明，工作中只有两件事能带来真正的快乐：获得成功和为他人服务。
Earned success is creating value with your life for your hard work that's acknowledged and recognized.
获得成功是指你用生命去创造价值，并得到了认可和承认。
That's why merit is so important.
所以价值特别重要。
Second is serving others.
第二是服务他人。
Even if you're working in a workplace where you don't know the point of your work, but you're doing something that lessens the load for the person in the next cubicle, then it can be a source of real satisfaction for you.
即便你并不明白自己工作的意义，但你可以做些事情去减轻邻座的负担，这也能成为你获得满足感的源泉。
So those are the four- that's your happiness pension plan.
就是这四点——这就是你的幸福养老金计划。
Faith, family, friends, and work.
信仰，家庭，朋友，和工作。
Pursue those things and you're pursuing happiness.
追求那些东西，你就是在追求幸福。
And this is the big point: Happiness is not a destination. Happiness is a direction.
重点是：幸福不是终点。幸福只是个方向。
Getting happier requires knowledge and work. It requires changing your habits.
想要过得更幸福需要知识和努力。需要改变你的习惯。
And you can, and that's the good news.
好消息是，这些你都能做到。
