Whether it's to score the winning touchdown of the Super Bowl or summit Mount Everest, most of us dream of one day doing something totally amazing. But there's a big difference between having a dream and living it. In some cases, realizing your life goals might be less an idle daydream and more a screaming nightmare.
不管是梦想在"超级碗"比赛中触地得分还是梦想登上了埃非勒斯峰的顶峰，我们大多数人都梦想着做一些不可思议的事情。但是现实和梦想之间总是有很大的差距，在某些情况下，与其说实现你的人生目标，不如说是在痴心妄想或者说是一个噩梦的开始。
10.Winning The Lottery Will Suck The Joy From Your Life
10.彩票中奖会夺走你生活中的乐趣
The lottery has such a low chance of winning that it's often called a tax on stupid people, yet millions of us still play, hoping for that golden ticket. But we've got some bad news for you. Getting that golden ticket could ruin your ability to get any pleasure from life.
彩票中奖率极低，它通常是为了呼吁一些愚蠢的人别忘了去交税。尽管如此，仍然还是有数以百万计的人怀着中大奖的美好寄托买着彩票。但你需要知道的是，彩票中奖可能会夺走你从生活中寻找乐趣的能力。
In a famous 1970s study, psychologists interviewed Illinois state lottery winners and non-winners and found that the winners were not significantly happier than the ordinary Joes. The winners found it hard to get pleasure from everyday things in life. According to the study, the winners "took significantly less pleasure" in things like chatting with a friend, getting a compliment, or reading a magazine. According to NBC, this may be because a big lottery win pushes up our baseline level of happiness. We need continuously bigger thrills to feel any pleasure at all. At the same time, when winning doesn't make us as happy as we expect it to, we feel depressed. However, it's not all doom and gloom. A separate Harvard study found that those who win an annual payout are much happier than those who win a single lump sum.
在19世纪70年代一个有名的研究里，心理学家对伊利诺斯洲的彩票中奖者和非中奖者进行了研究。值得注意的是，研究发现，彩票中奖者中奖后的生活并没有比原来更快乐。同时中奖者表示他们很难在日常生活中发现有趣的事情。研究结果显示，中奖者在一些事情上会比别人获得更少的乐趣，比如与朋友交谈，接受赞美，或是阅读杂志等方面。根据NBC的报道，这可能是因为大乐透的中奖提高了幸福基准水平，这使得我们只有通过源源不断的更大刺激才能感到高兴。同时当彩票中奖不如预料般的欢喜雀跃时，我们就会感到失落。然而，彩票带给我们的并不是只是无望和忧愁。哈佛大学一项单独的研究发现，每年能够中点小奖的人比一次性中大奖的人更快乐。
9.Becoming An Olympic Silver Medalist Will Make You Weirdly Unhappy
9.成为奥林匹克银牌得主会让你不开心
Winning an Olympic medal is the closest you can get to proving you are objectively better at something than everyone else on Earth. While most of us might dream of winning gold, we'd probably be equally ecstatic with silver or bronze, in that order. But actual winners would disagree. Far from proof of awesomeness, an Olympic silver medal is frequently seen as a sign of abject failure.
获得奥林匹克奖牌是最能客观的证明你在某一方面要强于其他人的方法。我们大多数人都梦想着获得金牌，又觉得当获得银牌和铜牌时我们会感到同样的喜悦。但事实上，获奖的运动员并不这样认为。很多可靠证据显示，获得奥运会银牌通常会被看作是失败的标志。
In 1992, researchers studied the reactions of winning athletes at the Barcelona Olympics. They then assigned each athlete a "happiness score" ranging from 1 (agony) to 10 (ecstasy). While the gold medal winners generally scored quite highly, the silver medal winners ranked appallingly. When the winners were announced, they scored an average of 4.8, compared to the bronze medalists' 7.1. This is thanks to our human trait of thinking counterfactually. Rather than accepting coming in second, the silver medalists tended to obsess over the tiny mistakes that kept them from winning gold. The bronze medalists, on the other hand, marveled over the tiny victories that kept them from being fourth. This boosted their self-esteem and made them measurably happier than the athlete who beat them.
1992年，研究人员研究了巴塞罗那奥运会上运动员的获奖反应。他们分配给运动员一个分数从1到10（1代表非常痛苦，10代表非常幸福）的"幸福感评分"的任务。金牌得主的分数都很高，而银牌得主的分数却让人很是吃惊。当宣布获胜者时，与铜牌得主的幸福感7.1分相比，银牌得主平均仅为4.8分。这是由于人们喜欢从反事实角度思考问题的本性造成的。银牌得主往往纠结于导致他们与金牌擦肩而过的小失误，而不愿意接受位居第二的事实。而另一方面，铜牌得主则是欣慰自己的一些小胜利让他们赢过第四名，这增强了他们的自尊心，使他们比银牌得主更开心。
8.Moving Abroad Can Ruin Your Family
8.移民可能会毁掉一个家庭
Unlike winning the lottery or becoming an Olympic athlete, moving abroad is a realistic dream. Millions of people each year migrate and call it the best decision of their lives. Just as many call it an utter nightmare.
不同于彩票中奖或者成为奥林匹克运动员，移居国外并不是一个不切实际的梦想。每年都有数百万人选择移民并认为这是他们一生中最正确的决定。然而也有许多人认为移民简直是一个彻头彻尾的噩梦。
Moving to a foreign culture can strain marriages. Such a move typically involves one partner becoming the breadwinner while the other stays home, stressing out the worker and making the homemaker feel useless. When young children are involved, things get even worse. A 1990 study found that 40 percent of all foreign assignments are cut short, usually because the family fails to adjust. Even when parents and young kids thrive abroad, older kids can have a hard time. A study into American teenagers living overseas found the adolescents had less self-confidence, greater insecurity about the future, and fewer interpersonal relationships than those who stayed in the US. It's not just Americans, either. A 2014 study found that northern Europeans who moved to sunny Spain were on average less happy than those who stayed put. Moving abroad might be a dream come true for some, but it's no guaranteed path to happiness.
移居到另一种文化环境中可能会导致婚姻关系的紧张。因为它牵涉到各方面的变动，使得伴侣中的一方因成为家庭的经济支柱而备受压力，另一方则因闲在家中而感觉自己一无所用。当涉及到孩子时，情况就更为糟糕了。1990年的一项研究发现，考虑到家庭无法马上适应新环境，公司将40％的外派任务时间都缩短了。即使父母和年幼的孩子能适应海外的生活，但对于年龄大一点的孩子来说，海外生活步履维艰。一项针对生活在海外的美国青少年的研究发现，相较于生活在美国本土的青少年，他们更缺乏自信，对未来更没有安全感，更缺少人际交往的能力。这种情况不仅仅局限于美国人身上。 2014年的一项研究发现，移居到阳光明媚的西班牙的北欧人，他们的平均幸福指数却低于留在原地的人。移居国外对于一些人来说或许已经梦想成真了，但这并不是一条保证通往幸福的路径。
7.Making Billions From Your Company Can Lead To Depression
7.赚得亿万也可导致抑郁
In the late 1990s, a striking number of dotcom billionaires reacted to their financial success by becoming incredibly depressed. Although there are many theories on why this might be, chief among them is the idea that humans need a sense of progress in their lives. Remove that forward momentum, and people start to feel useless and unhappy. And there's no better way to destroy someone's forward momentum than by having them achieve all their business goals and become rich before they finish their third decade. The technical name for this is wealth fatigue syndrome, and it translates to living your life in a permanent state of boredom and isolation. A huge number of people who become wealthy through business sink into inertia. They also find themselves socially isolated from everyone but their super-rich compatriots, separating themselves from former friends and family members.
20世纪90年代后期，很多互联网亿万富翁对于他们财务上的成功却表现得十分沮丧。虽然有很多理论是关于出现这种状况的原因，但其中最主流的观念还是人们需要生活中的进步感。如果没有前进的动力，人们就会觉得自己一无所用因而情绪低落。让一个人在三十岁前实现其所有的职业目标、发家致富，无疑是摧毁他前进动力的最佳方式。专业上称这种状态为财富疲劳综合症，它会使你活在永恒的厌倦感和孤立感之中。很大一部分人经商致富后都会陷入惰性。这些人还发现，除了超级富豪同胞外，他们几乎隔绝了所有人，疏远了家人和以前的朋友。
Instead, it's better to have your business do moderately well and then move yourself to your next goal rather than become an overnight billionaire.
相反，最好是让生意保持稳中求进，逐一实现自己的目标，而不是一夜暴富。
6.Becoming CEO Can Leave You Horribly Stressed
6.成为CEO将给你带来可怕的压力
Have you ever had one of those days where the policies of your company seemed so ridiculous that you knew you could do better? Have you ever wondered what would happen if you suddenly were promoted to CEO? If you were, you'd probably be more stressed than you could possibly handle.
你是否经历过那种你认为公司的政策方针很荒谬而觉得自己本可以做得更好的日子？你有没有想过，如果你突然被提拔为公司的CEO会发生什么？如果这些在你身上都发生过，那或许你现在所承受的压力已经超出你的承受范围了。
Many top CEOs lead lives of desperation. Although psychopathy is the most infamous trait a well-paid boss can have, others include white-hot anger, paralyzing fear, and depression. A study of data collected between 1957 and 2004 found that women in positions of authority were more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms than those in subordinate roles. CEOs of both sexes frequently feel incredibly isolated and under pressure, with the added bonus that corporate culture makes talking about these feelings a big no-no. The result, especially in the finance industries, can be burnout, overwhelming health problems, or even suicide. You might feel bored working in your cubicle, but get moved up to the top spot, and you could be facing a complete emotional collapse.
许多顶尖CEO们都生活在绝望之中。尽管心理变态是一个高薪老板最臭名昭著的特点，但除此之外，他们还有脾气火爆、让人畏惧、易患抑郁等特点。1957年至2004年间收集的数据发现，处于权威地位的女性相比较那些下属角色而言，更容易表现出抑郁症状。因为有额外的奖励，企业文化使得谈论自我感受成为一种禁忌，所以无论是男性还是女性CEO都经常感到身处孤立和压力之下。这样导致的结果往往是倦怠、严重的健康问题甚至是自杀——尤其在经融界。在自己的小隔间里工作，可能你仅仅是感到无聊，可一旦位居高管时，你将面临的可能是彻底的情绪崩溃。
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