快乐工作的秘密

When I was seven years old and my sister was just five years old, we were playing on top of a bunk bed. I was two years older than my sister at the time -- I mean, I'm two years older than her now -- but at the time it meant she had to do everything that I wanted to do, and I wanted to play war.

我七岁的时候我妹妹才五岁。我们当时在一个双层床的上铺玩那时候我比她大两岁当然，我现在也比她大两岁但是在当时这意味着她必须全都听我的我想玩战争游戏

So we were up on top of our bunk beds. And on one side of the bunk bed, I had put out all of my G.I. Joe soldiers and weaponry. And on the other side were all my sister's My Little Ponies ready for a cavalry charge. There are differing accounts of what actually happened that afternoon,

于是我们爬到了双层床的上铺在床的一侧我放上了我所有的玩具大兵和武器另一边则是我妹妹的小马玩偶时刻准备着进行一场骑兵突击后来我们对那天下午发生的事情有不同的说法但是既然我妹妹今天不在场

but since my sister is not here with us today, let me tell you the true story -- (Laughter) which is my sister's a little on the clumsy side. Somehow, without any help or push from her older brother at all, Amy disappeared off of the top of the bunk bed and landed with this crash on the floor.

我就跟你们说说到底发生了什么（笑声）事实就是我妹妹有点笨手笨脚的不知道怎么回事，我这个做哥哥的既没碰她也没推她，我妹妹艾米突然就从上铺掉下去了狠狠地摔到了地上

I nervously peered over the side of the bed to see what had befallen my fallen sister and saw that she had landed painfully on her hands and knees on all fours on the ground. I was nervous because my parents had charged me with making sure that my sister and I played as safely and as quietly as possible.

我万分紧张地从床的一侧往下瞄想知道发生了什么事然后发现她痛苦地趴在地上四脚着地我特别紧张，因为父母已经叮嘱过我一定要保证妹妹和我玩耍的时候注意安全，不要太闹腾

And seeing as how I had accidentally broken Amy's arm just one week before -- (Laughter) (Laughter ends) heroically pushing her out of the way of an oncoming imaginary sniper bullet,

这时候我突然想起来一星期之前我才不小心弄破了艾米的胳膊（笑声）我颇具英雄气概地把她从一个假想的扑面而来的狙击手子弹中推开

(Laughter) for which I have yet to be thanked, I was trying as hard as I could -- she didn't even see it coming -- I was trying hard to be on my best behavior. And I saw my sister's face, this wail of pain and suffering and surprise threatening to erupt from her mouth and wake my parents

（笑声）到现在她都还没有谢我呢我当时可是拼了命的她甚至都没看到那子弹迎面扑来我可是拼命展示了我最厉害的一面然后我看到我妹妹的脸她满脸痛苦、惊讶的表情马上就要哭出来了，极有可能吵醒

from the long winter's nap for which they had settled. So I did the only thing my frantic seven year-old brain could think to do to avert this tragedy（悲剧）. And if you have children, you've seen this hundreds of times. I said, "Amy, wait. Don't cry. Did you see how you landed?

习惯在漫长冬季午睡的父母所以我做了一件一个手忙脚乱的七岁小孩唯一能想到的事，来扭转悲剧如果你有孩子的话，你肯定见过好几百次了我说，“艾米，艾米，好了，别哭了，别哭了你看到你是怎么落地的么？

No human lands on all fours like that. Amy, I think this means you're a unicorn." (Laughter) Now, that was cheating, because there was nothing she would want more than not to be Amy the hurt five year-old little sister,

人类是不会那样四脚朝地落下去的艾米，我觉得这意味着你就是传说中的独角兽。”（笑声）很明显这是骗她的，因为我妹妹现在最不想做的就是那个受伤的五岁小妹妹艾米，想做的是超级独角兽艾米

but Amy the special unicorn. Of course, this option was open to her brain at no point in the past. And you could see how my poor, manipulated sister faced conflict, as her little brain attempted to devote resources to feeling the pain and suffering and surprise she just experienced, or contemplating her new-found identity as a unicorn.

当然，以前她是完全没有做独角兽这个想法的于是就看到我那可怜的、被我控制了的妹妹如何纠结她的小脑袋正在决定究竟是继续回味刚才经历的那些疼痛、折磨和惊讶还是仔细考虑她作为独角兽的新身份

And the latter won. Instead of crying or ceasing our play, instead of waking my parents, with all the negative consequences for me, a smile spread across her face and she scrambled back up onto the bunk bed with all the grace of a baby unicorn -- (Laughter)

后者胜出了于是她没哭，也没有停止游戏更没有吵醒我们的父母这些负面的影响都没有产生她脸上划过一丝微笑重新爬回到双层床的上铺，带着作为一只小独角兽的荣耀（笑声）

with one broken leg. What we stumbled across at this tender age of just five and seven -- we had no idea at the time -- was was going be at the vanguard of a scientific revolution（革命） occurring two decades later in the way that we look at the human brain.

还有一条受伤的腿我们在五岁或七岁无意间发现的道理其实是当然当时我们并不知情后来一个科学革命的先锋观点发生在二十年后，主要研究人脑的问题我们当时的发现叫做积极心理学

We had stumbled across something called positive psychology（心理学）, which is the reason I'm here today and the reason that I wake up every morning. When I started talking about this research outside of academia, with companies and schools, the first thing they said to never do is to start with a graph. The first thing I want to do is start with a graph.

这也是我今天站在这里的原因同时也是我每天早晨醒来的原因当我刚开始在学术圈外谈论这个研究时在公司以及学校他们强调的第一件事就是永远不要以图表开始你的谈话我在这里想做的第一件事恰恰就是用图表开始我的演讲

This graph looks boring, but it is the reason I get excited and wake up every morning. And this graph doesn't even mean anything; it's fake data. What we found is -- (Laughter) If I got this data studying you, I would be thrilled,

这个图表看起来很枯燥但是它恰恰就是我每天保持兴奋并醒来的原因而且这个表什么也不是，它是一个假数据我们从这些数据中发现——（笑声）如果我用这些数据来研究在座的各位，估计我会很兴奋

because there's a trend there, and that means that I can get published, which is all that really matters. There is one weird red dot above the curve, there's one weirdo in the room -- I know who you are, I saw you earlier -- that's no problem.

因为很明显这里有一个趋势这意味着我可以将这个出版了这才是最关键的事实是这个曲线上方有一个奇怪的红点就是说在座有一个古怪的人我知道是哪位，刚才我看到你了这个不是问题

That's no problem, as most of you know, because I can just delete that dot. I can delete that dot because that's clearly a measurement error. And we know that's a measurement error because it's messing up my data. (Laughter) So one of the first things we teach people in economics, statistics, business and psychology（心理学） courses

你们都知道，这并不是问题因为我完全可以删除这个点我能删掉它是因为这明显是一个测量错误我们都知道它是一个测量错误因为它把我的数据弄乱了所以通常经济学、统计学、商务学以及心理学课程都会教大家的一件事

is how, in a statistically valid way, do we eliminate the weirdos. How do we eliminate the outliers so we can find the line of best fit? Which is fantastic if I'm trying to find out how many Advil the average person should be taking -- two. But if I'm interested in your potential（潜力）,

是为保持数据的有效性，我们如何删除奇怪的数据我们如何通过删除异常值来找出最合适的曲线呢？令人惊讶的是，当我试图研究每个人应该服用的雅维（解热镇痛药）数量时，我发现应该是两粒但是如果我对可能性感兴趣，如果我对你的潜力

or for happiness or productivity or energy or creativity（创造力）, we're creating the cult of the average with science. If I asked a question like, "How fast can a child learn how to read in a classroom?" scientists change the answer to "How fast does the average child learn how to read in that classroom?"

或者快乐、生产力或者精力、创造力感兴趣，我们现在所做的就是对科学里的平均概念的迷信如果我问一个问题，比如说“一个孩子在教室里学习阅读能有多快？”科学家们会把问题变成“孩子在教室学习阅读的平均速度是多少？”

and we tailor the class towards the average. If you fall below the average, then psychologists get thrilled, because that means you're depressed or have a disorder, or hopefully both. We're hoping for both because our business model is, if you come into a therapy session with one problem,

然后我们会把教室里的孩子都设想成平均水平如果你低于这个平均线心理学家就会感到很惊讶因为这意味着你要么有抑郁症要么有身心障碍或者很可能二者兼具我们希望你二者兼具，因为我们的商业模式是如果你因为一个毛病来进行治疗

we want to make sure you leave knowing you have ten, so you keep coming back. We'll go back into your childhood if necessary, but eventually we want to make you normal again. But normal is merely average. And positive psychology（心理学） posits that if we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average.

我们希望你离开的时候知道自己其实是有10个毛病的这样你就会一遍又一遍地来进行治疗如果必要的话我们会追溯到你的童年但是最后我们想做的是使你变得正常但是正常这个概念只是指的平均水平我以及积极心理学家们假设的是如果我们只研究平均水平我们就会一直停留在平均水平上

Then instead of deleting those positive outliers, what I intentionally do is come into a population like this one and say, why? Why are some of you high above the curve in terms of intellectual（智力的）, athletic, musical ability, creativity（创造力）, energy levels, resiliency in the face of challenge, sense of humor?

因此我们不会删除那些积极的异常值我想做的是研究这些异常值的人群然后探究其中的原因为什么你们中有些人远远高于这个平均曲线？包括你的智商、运动能力、音乐才能创造力、精力面对挑战的弹性以及幽默感？

Whatever it is, instead of deleting you, what I want to do is study you. Because maybe we can glean information, not just how to move people up to the average, but move the entire average up in our companies and schools worldwide. The reason this graph is important to me is, on the news, the majority of the information is not positive.

不管是哪方面，我不会删除你，而是去研究你因为或许我们可以收集信息不仅仅是把平均值下面的人提高到平均曲线上去而是如何将整个平均曲线提高无论是在全世界范围内的公司还是学校都是如此这个图表对我很重要因为每当我打开新闻频道时，似乎大部分的信息

in fact it's negative. Most of it's about murder, corruption, diseases, natural disasters. And very quickly, my brain starts to think that's the accurate ratio of negative to positive in the world. This creates "the medical school syndrome." During the first year of medical training,

都不是积极的，事实上是消极的大部分都是关于谋杀、腐败、疾病、自然灾害我立即想到这才是世界上真正的消极和积极所占的比例这其实造成了一种叫做医学院综合症的东西如果你认识读过医学院的人

as you read through a list of all the symptoms and diseases, suddenly you realize you have all of them. (Laughter) I have a brother in-law named Bobo, which is a whole other story. Bobo married Amy the unicorn. Bobo called me on the phone -- (Laughter)

你就会知道在医学院一年级的时候当你读完一份关于所有可能发生的疾病和相关症状的列表你马上就会感觉好像所有这些症状和疾病自己都有我有一个妹夫叫波波，这是另一件事了波波和我那个“独角兽艾米”妹妹结婚了有一天他从耶鲁医学院

from Yale Medical School, and Bobo said, "Shawn, I have leprosy." (Laughter) Which, even at Yale, is extraordinarily rare. But I had no idea how to console poor Bobo because he had just gotten over an entire week of menopause.

给我打来电话他说，“肖恩，我得麻风病了”（笑声）这个病，在耶鲁都是其极罕见的但是我不知道怎么来安慰可怜的波波因为过去的整整一礼拜他一直在克服自己的更年期问题

(Laughter) We're finding it's not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. And if we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time.

（笑声）所以我们发现并不一定是现实世界造就我们而是我们大脑用来看世界的那个镜片造就了我们的现实世界如果我们换一副镜片，我们不仅可以改变自己的快乐程度同时还能改变每一个教育或者商业结果当年申请哈佛的时候，我完全是放手一试的

I applied to Harvard on a dare. I didn't expect to get in, and my family had no money for college. When I got a military scholarship two weeks later, they let me go. Something that wasn't even a possibility（可能性） became a reality. I assumed everyone there would see it as a privilege（特权） as well, that they'd be excited to be there.

我并没有期望能被录取，家里也没有钱供我去读大学两周后我拿到了军事奖学金，哈佛录取我了突然，一个连“可能”都谈不上的事情变成现实了当我到了哈佛，我以为其他人也都跟我一样把来这里读书当做一个荣耀他们到这里来肯定都特别兴奋即使你坐在一个满是比你聪明的人的教室里

Even in a classroom full of people smarter than you, I felt you'd be happy just to be in that classroom. But what I found is, while some people experience that, when I graduated after my four years and then spent the next eight years living in the dorms with the students -- Harvard asked me to; I wasn't that guy.

你也会很高兴，只是仅仅坐在那个教室就很快乐，这是我当时的感觉但是我发现同时其他人也有类似体会四年之后我从哈佛毕业然后在学生宿舍和他们住了八年这可是哈佛邀请我去的，我可不是那种八年毕不了业的人（笑声）

(Laughter) I was an officer to counsel students through the difficult four years. And in my research and my teaching, I found that these students, no matter how happy they were with their original success（成功） of getting into the school, two weeks later their brains were focused, not on the privilege（特权） of being there,

我作为哈佛的咨询师帮助学生们在四年大学时光进行心理咨询在我的研究和教学中我发现，无论这些学生入学之前取得的成功让他们多么快乐两周之后他们的注意力就不在作为一名哈佛学子的荣耀感了

nor on their philosophy（哲学） or physics, but on the competition, the workload, the hassles, stresses, complaints. When I first went in there, I walked into the freshmen dining hall, which is where my friends from Waco, Texas, which is where I grew up -- I know some of you know this.

也不在哲学或者物理学上面他们的注意力集中在竞争、作业、各种烦恼、压力和抱怨上面当我第一次开始工作的时候，我走进了新生食堂我的来自德克萨斯州瓦克市的朋友在那里等我，我就是在瓦克市长大的我知道你们可能有人听说过这个地方他们来看望我，并在食堂里四处参观

When they'd visit, they'd look around, and say, "This dining hall looks like something out of Hogwart's." It does, because that was Hogwart's and that's Harvard. And when they see this, they say, "Why do you waste your time studying happiness at Harvard? What does a Harvard student possibly have to be unhappy about?"

他们说，“这个新生食堂看起来有点像电影哈利·波特里面霍格瓦茨魔法学校的食堂。”的确那个食堂是挺像的这边的是电影哈利·波特里面霍格瓦茨魔法学校的食堂，另一边是哈佛的食堂当他们看到这些时，他们说，“肖恩，你为什么浪费时间在哈佛研究快乐这个问题呢？说真的，哈佛大学的学生有什么感到不快乐的理由么？”

Embedded within that question is the key to understanding the science of happiness. Because what that question assumes is that our external world is predictive of our happiness levels, when in reality, if I know everything about your external world, I can only predict 10% of your long-term happiness.

这个问题恰恰包含了理解快乐这门科学的关键因为这个问题假设通过外部条件是可以预测我们的快乐程度的但实际上，如果我了解你所有的外部条件我只能预测你长期快乐程度的10%。剩下的90%

90 percent of your long-term happiness is predicted not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world. And if we change it, if we change our formula for happiness and success（成功）, we can change the way that we can then affect reality. What we found is that only 25% of job successes are predicted by IQ,

都不是靠外部条件可以预测的而是取决于你的大脑如何理解这个世界如果我们做一点改变改变我们关于快乐和成功的定义准则我们需要改变自己影响现实的方式我们发现只有25%的职业成功

75 percent of job successes are predicted by your optimism（乐观） levels, your social support and your ability to see stress（压力） as a challenge instead of as a threat. I talked to a New England boarding school, probably the most prestigious one, and they said, "We already know that.

是由IQ决定的其余75%是由你的积极程度、人脉以及把压力视为挑战而不是威胁的能力决定的我跟新英格兰一个寄宿学校谈起这个问题，这个学校应该是最著名的寄宿学校他们说，“我们知道这个问题，

So every year, instead of just teaching our students, we have a wellness week. And we're so excited. Monday night we have the world's leading expert will speak about adolescent depression（抑郁）. Tuesday night it's school violence and bullying. Wednesday night is eating disorders. Thursday night is illicit drug use.

所以每年，我们不仅教学，我们还有一周健康课。这个事情让我们都很兴奋。周一晚上请世界著名专家来讲青少年抑郁问题周二晚上讲校园暴力和恃强欺弱问题周三晚上是饮食紊乱问题周四晚上是吸毒问题周五晚上我们正在讨论危险的性行为与快乐之间的抉择

And Friday night we're trying to decide between risky sex or happiness." (Laughter) I said, "That's most people's Friday nights." (Laughter) (Applause) Which I'm glad you liked, but they did not like that at all.

（笑声）我说，“大多数人周五晚都考虑这个”（笑声）（掌声）很高兴你们喜欢这个回答，但是他们似乎一点都不喜欢

Silence on the phone. And into the silence, I said, "I'd be happy to speak at your school, but that's not a wellness week, that's a sickness week. You've outlined all the negative things that can happen, but not talked about the positive." The absence of disease is not health. Here's how we get to health:

电话里一阵沉默为了打破沉默，我说“我很乐意在贵校做演讲，但是你们也知道，这其实不是健康周，而是疾病周你们列出了可能发生的消极事情却没有提到积极的方面。”没有疾病并不代表健康我们应该这样获得健康：

We need to reverse the formula for happiness and success（成功）. In the last three years, I've traveled to 45 countries, working with schools and companies in the midst of an economic downturn. And I found that most companies and schools follow a formula for success, which is this: If I work harder, I'll be more successful.

我们需要重新定义健康和成功的概念过去的三年里，我到过45个国家和那里的学校、公司合作在这个经济危机时期我发现大部分公司和学校有这样一个成功的准则，就是如果我更努力，我就会更成功

And if I'm more successful, then I'll be happier. That undergirds most of our parenting and managing styles, the way that we motivate our behavior. And the problem is it's scientifically broken and backwards for two reasons. Every time your brain has a success（成功）, you just changed the goalpost of what success looked like.

如果我更成功，我就会更快乐这符合我们大多数父母的教育方式，以及公司的管理方式也符合我们行为激励的原则但问题是从科学角度说这个观点是不成立的，是落后的，有两点原因第一，每次你觉得成功的时候你就会对成功重新进行定义

You got good grades, now you have to get better grades, you got into a good school and after you get into a better one, you got a good job, now you have to get a better job, you hit your sales target, we're going to change it. And if happiness is on the opposite side of success（成功）, your brain never gets there.

比如你取得了好成绩，接下来你必须取得更好的成绩你进了一所好学校，接下来你必须进入更好的学校你找到了一个好工作，下一步你得找到一个更好的工作你达到了销售目标，下一步必须制定更多的销售目标如果说快乐在成功的相反面，你永远不会得到快乐我们所做的是把成功抬高到了社会的认知层面以外

We've pushed happiness over the cognitive（认知的） horizon, as a society. And that's because we think we have to be successful, then we'll be happier. But our brains work in the opposite order. If you can raise somebody's level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what we now call a happiness advantage,

这是因为我们觉得我们必须成功这样才会快乐但真正的问题是我们的大脑却在相反的方向运行如果你现在可以提高某个人的积极心理程度那么他的大脑就会经历我们称为快乐优势论的过程这时你的大脑在积极方面的表现

which is your brain at positive performs significantly better than at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence（智力） rises, your creativity（创造力） rises, your energy levels rise. In fact, we've found that every single business outcome improves. Your brain at positive is 31% more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed.

明显优于它在消极、中立或者沮丧方面的表现你的智商提高、创造力提高、精力也提高了事实上，我们发现每件事的结果都改善了处于积极状态的大脑的生产力比处于消极、中立或者沮丧状态下高31%

You're 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19 percent faster, more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed. Which means we can reverse the formula. If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more successfully

你的销售额能提高37%医生得出正确诊断的速度和准确率也提高了19%当他的大脑处于积极状态而不是消极、中立或沮丧状态下这意味着我们可以彻底改变这个准则如果现在我们可以找到一种使自己变得积极的方法那么大脑运转会更成功

as we're able to work harder, faster and more intelligently. We need to be able to reverse this formula so we can start to see what our brains are actually capable of. Because dopamine（多巴胺）, which floods into your system when you're positive, has two functions. Not only does it make you happier,

我们会工作得更努力、更快速、更聪明。我们需要改变这个准则，所以我们现在就来看看大脑究竟有多大能力当你有积极的心态时，多巴胺就会进入你的大脑系统它有两个作用多巴胺不仅可以使你更快乐

it turns on all of the learning centers in your brain allowing you to adapt to the world in a different way. We've found there are ways that you can train your brain to be able to become more positive. In just a two-minute span of time done for 21 days in a row, we can actually rewire your brain,

同时还可以打开大脑中所有的学习中心让你以另一种方式来适应这个世界我们发现你可以通过训练自己的大脑来使自己更加积极在一个连续21天进行的每次持续两分钟的实验里我们可以重新连接你的大脑线路使你的大脑可以变得

allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully. We've done these things in research now in every company that I've worked with, getting them to write down three new things that they're grateful for for 21 days in a row, three new things each day. And at the end of that,

更积极、更成功我们现在正在做这些研究在我合作过的每一个公司让他们写下三件他们要感谢的事情连续21天，每天三件新的事情这个实验结束的时候他们的大脑会形成一种模式

their brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world not for the negative, but for the positive first. Journaling about one positive experience you've had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it. Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters. We find that meditation（冥想） allows your brain

首先会以积极的心态看待这个世界，而不是消极的回顾过去24小时你经历的一件积极的事情会让你的大脑重新经历一遍那件事情实践告诉人们你的行为是很重要的我们发现冥想可以使你克服文化多动症

to get over the cultural ADHD that we've been creating by trying to do multiple tasks at once and allows our brains to focus on the task at hand. And finally, random acts of kindness are conscious acts of kindness. We get people, when they open up their inbox, to write one positive email praising or thanking somebody in their support network.

这个多动症是由于我们同时做不同的事情造成的冥想可以让你的大脑集中精力在手头的一项工作中最后，看似随机的善举其实是有意识的善举当人们打开收件箱时，我们让他们写一封积极的邮件表扬或者感谢他们社交网中的某个人通过这些行为

And by doing these activities and by training your brain just like we train our bodies, what we've found is we can reverse the formula for happiness and success（成功）, and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity, but a real revolution（革命）. Thank you very much. (Applause)

就像训练身体一样训练大脑我们发现我们可以彻底改变快乐和成功的准则通过这些事情，我们不仅可以创造出积极的影响力还可以创造一个真正的革命非常感谢（掌声）