A motivational speech by Matthew McConaughey: 美国知名演员马修麦康纳的励志演讲

Iconic Texan accent: 标志性的得克萨斯州口音

Southern twang, nasal: 南方鼻音

第一段：

I’m going to talk to you about some things that I’ve learned in my journey. Most from experience; some of them I heard in passing. Many of them I’m still practicing, but all of them I do believe are true: 我要跟你们谈谈我在人生旅途中学到的一些东西。其中大部分是经验之谈，也有一些是顺便听来的。其中很多我还在实践，但我相信它们都是真的

Life is not easy. It is not. Don’t try to make it that way：生活不易，这是事实。你也不要试图让它变得容易

Life’s not fair, it never was, it isn’t now and it won’t ever be. Do not fall into the trap, the entitlement trap, a feeling like you’re a victim. You are not; get over it and get on with it: 生活不公平，以前不公平，现在不公平，将来也不会公平。不要掉进陷阱、那个觉得自己理应拥有一切的陷阱，不要觉得自己是受害者。你不是；接受现实、继续往前

So the question that we gotta ask ourselves is: what success is to us? What success is to you? 所以，我们要问自己的问题是：成功对我们来说意味着什么？什么是你定义的成功？

Is it more money? That’s fine. I got nothing against money：是拥有更多财富吗？那也行。我并不是跟钱过不去

Maybe it’s a healthy family. Maybe it’s a happy marriage. Maybe it’s to help others to be famous, to be spiritually sound: 也许是一个健康的家庭。也许是幸福的婚姻。也许是帮助他人功成名就，也许是自己心灵健康

Leave the world a little bit better place than you found it. Continue to ask yourself that question: 让世界变得比你来之前更好一些。你要继续问自己这个问题

Now your answer may change over time and that’s fine but do yourself this favor. Whatever your answer is, don’t choose anything that will jeopardize yourself：你的答案可能会随着时间的推移而改变，这没关系。但请帮你自己一个忙。无论你的答案是什么，都不要选择任何会伤害你自己的东西

Prioritize who you are, who you want to be and don’t spend time with anything that antagonizes your character：优先考虑 “你是谁”、“你想成为谁”，不要把时间花在任何与你的性格相悖的事情上

第二段：

Be brave, take the hill, but first answer that question: What’s my hill?：勇往直前，勇攀高峰。但是先问自己，哪座才是你的山峰？

So first we have to define success for ourselves. And then we have to put in the work to maintain it. Make that daily tally. Tend to our garden. Keep the things that are important to us in good shape: 因此，首先要为自己定义成功。然后，必须付出努力来保持成功。每天思索、照料自己的花园、好好照顾对你而言重要的事情

Where you are not is as important as where you are. And it’s just as important where we are not as it is where we are: 你不在哪里与你在哪里同样重要。我们不在的地方与我们在的地方同样重要

Look, the first step that leads to our identity in life is usually not: I know who I am. I know who I am; that’s not the first step: 通往我们人生身份认同的第一步通常不是 “我知道我是谁”。这往往不是第一步

The first step is usually I know who I am not. Process of elimination（排除法）. Defining ourselves by what we are not is the first step that leads us to really knowing who we are: 第一步通常是我知道我不是谁。然后通过排除法，用 “我不是谁 ”来帮你定义你是谁。这是帮助我们真正认识自己的第一步

You know that group of friends that you hang out with that really might not bring out the best in you? You know, they gossip too much, or they kind of shady. They really aren’t going to be there for you in a pinch:你知道和你一起出去玩的那群朋友，但他们可能真的不是最好的影响。也许他们太八卦，或者他们有点阴暗。在紧要关头，他们也真的不会支持你

Or how about that bar that we keep going to, that we always seem to have the worst hangover from? Or that computer screen right? The computer screen that keeps giving us an excuse not to get out of the house and engage with the world and get some real human interaction: 或者是我们经常去的那个酒吧，似乎总是在那里喝得烂醉？手机屏幕呢？它一直在给我们借口，让我们无法走出家门，与世界接触，获得一些真正的人际互动

Or how about that food that would keep eating stuff that taste so good going down, but makes us feel like crap the next week. We feel lethargic, we keep putting on weight：还有那些吃的时候味道很好，但之后却让你感觉糟透了的食物。我们感到昏昏欲睡，体重不断增加

Well, those people, those places, those things — stop giving them your time and energy. Just don’t go there. I mean put them down：总之，那些人、那些地方、那些事--别再给他们你的时间和精力。不要再去寻求那些，而是把它们放下

And when you do this, when you do put them down, when you quit going there. When you quit giving them your time you inadvertently find yourself spending more time and in more places that are healthy for you that bring you more joy: 当你这样做的时候，当你放下它们的时候，你就会不经意发现自己能花更多时间、去更多对你有益的地方，也给你带来了更多的快乐

Why? Because you’ve just eliminated the whos, the wheres, the whats and the whens that were keeping you from your identity: 为什么？因为你排除了那些让你无法活出自己的人、事、物

第三段：

Trust me, too many options. I promise that too many options will make a tyrant of us all. So get rid of the excess the wasted time: 相信我，过多的选择会腐化你。所以，不要花多余时间、浪费你的时间在这些选择上

Decrease your options. If you do this you will have accidentally, almost innocently, put in front of you, what is important: 减少你的选择。如果你能这么做，你就会无意中，几乎是不自知地把重要的东西放在自己面前

By process of elimination, knowing who we are is hard, It’s hard, Give yourself a break, Eliminate who you are not first, And you’ll find yourself where you need to be: 通过排除法。知道我们是谁很难，很不容易。所以，让自己休息一下，先排除你不是谁，你就会发现自己在你需要在的地方

Instead of creating outcomes to take from us, let’s create more outcomes that pay us back. Fill us up. Keep your fire lit, turn you on, for the most amount of time in your future: 与其创造会让你受损的结果，不如创造会给你更多回报的结果，会让我们觉得饱满、有养分。在未来的长河里，保持你心中的火焰，保持你的热情

We try our best, we don’t always do our best. Our architecture is a verb as well. Since we are the architects of our own lives, let’s study the habits, the practices, the routines that we have that lead to and feed our success, our joy, our honest pain, our laughter, our earned tears; let’s dissect that, and give thanks for those things：我们总是尝试做到最好，而不是真正做到最好。既然我们是自己人生的建筑师，那就来研究一下自己的习惯、做法和常规，什么会成就我们、会让我们快乐、什么会让我们痛苦、我们欢笑、我们哭泣；花时间来剖析这些，并为这些东西而感恩

And when we do that, guess what happens? We get better at them. And we have more to dissect. Be discerning, choose it because you want it, do it because you want to:当我们这样做的时候，你猜会发生什么？我们会做得更好。并且你会有更多的东西可以剖析。要有辨别力，当你选择一件事时，是因为你真想要它、真想要这么做

We’re going to make mistakes. You’ve got to own them. Then you got to make amends. And then you got to move on. Guilt and regret kills many a man before their time: 我们都会犯错误，你必须承担责任，然后去弥。然后继续向前。内疚和悔恨会废掉很多人

So turn the page, get off the ride. You are the author of the book of your life: 所以，翻过这一页，下这趟车。你是你人生这本书的作者

关注公众号【开言英语OpenLanguage】，可获得每期精美笔记。