TED-2-拖延症患者的大脑

文章：

Now, the Dark Playground is a place that all of you procrastinators out there know very well. It's where leisure activities happen at times when leisure activities are not supposed to be happening. The fun you have in Dark Playground isn't actually fun, because it's completely unearned, and the air is filled with guilt, dread, anxiety, self-hatred-all of those good procrastinator feelings. And the question is, in this situation, with the Monkey behind the wheel, how does the procrastinator ever get himself over here to this blue zone, a less pleasant place, but where really important things happen?

黑暗的操场是一个所有拖延症者都很了解的地方。这里是在本不应该休闲的时候的休闲娱乐的活动场所。在黑暗的操场得到的快乐其实并不是快乐，因为它完全是不劳而获的，这会带来内疚、恐惧、焦虑、自我憎恨这是所有拖延症者的感受。而且问题是，在这种情况下，由猴子掌控着方向盘，怎么能让拖延症者把自己带去蓝色区域那边呢，那边虽然没有那么舒适，但是有很多重要的事情要做。

Well, turns out the procrastinator has a guardian angel, someone who's always looking down on him and watching over him in his darkest moments -- someone called the Panic Monster.

其实拖延着有个守护天使，总是看不起他并且看守着他，在那些最黑暗的时刻它被称为恐慌怪兽。

Now, the panic monster is dormant most of the time, but he suddenly wakes up anytime a deadline gets too close or there's danger of public embarrassment, a career disaster or some other scary consequence. And importantly, he's the only thing the Monkey is terrified of.

 恐慌怪兽大部分时间都在冬眠，但是截止期很靠近的时候或者处于在公众面前出丑的危险中时，或者面临事业灾难时，或者有其他可怕的后果时，它就会突然醒来。而且重要的是，他是猴子唯一害怕的东西。

Now, he became very relevant in my life pretty recently, because the people of TED reached out to me about six months ago and invited me to do a TED talk.

最近在我的生活中，恐慌怪兽变得相当重要，因为TED的工作人员6个月之前联络我，邀请我做一次演讲。

Now, of course, I said yes. It's always been a dream of mine to have done a TED talk in the past.

当然，我答应啦。我以前一直梦想着可以做一次TED演讲。

But in the middle of all this excitement, the Rational Decision-Maker seemmed to have something else on his mind. He was saying, "Are we clear on what we just accepted? Do we get what's going to be now happening one day in the future? We need to sit down and work on this right now." And the Monkey said, "Totally agree, but let's just open Google Earth and zoom in to the bottom of India, like 200 feet above the ground, and scroll up for two and a half hours till we get to the top of the country, so we can get a better feel for India."

但是在这总兴奋中，梨形的决策定制者似乎在想别的事。他会说：“我们清楚刚才答应了什么吗？我们现在具有完成将来那个任务所需的能力吗？我们得坐下来开始干活。”而猴子说：“完全同意，但是让我们打开谷歌地球把镜头推进到印度地下200尺然后花两个半小时向上滚动到这个国家的地标，让我们更好地感受一下印度。”

So that's what we did that day.

那天我就是这么做的。

As six months turned four and then two and then one, the people of TED decided to release the speakers. And I opened up to website, and there was my face staring right back at me. And guess who woke up?

当6个月变成4个月，然后2个月，然后1个月时，TED工作人员开始发布演讲者。我打开网站看到自己的脸盯着自己看。你猜这个时候谁醒了？

So, the Panic Monster starts losing his mind, and a few seconds later, the whole system's in mayhem.

于是恐慌怪兽开始发疯，几秒钟之后，整个系统一篇混乱。

And the Monkey -- remember, he's terrified of the Panic Monster -- boom, he's up the tree! And finally, finally, the Rational Decision-Maker can take the wheel and I can start working on the talk.

而猴子，还记得吗？他害怕恐慌怪兽蹦的医生，他爬到梳上去了！于是终于，理性的决策制定者终于可以操控方向盘，我可以开始准备这次演讲。

Well, it turns out that there's two kinds of procrastination. Everything I've talked about today, the examples I've given,  they all have dealines. And when there's dealines, the effects of procrastination are contained to the sort term because the Painc Monster gets involved. But there's a second kind of procrastination that happens in situations when there is no deadline. So if you wanted a career where you're a self-starter-entrepreneurial -- there 's no deadlines on those things at first, because nothing's happening, not until you've gone out and done the hard work to get momentum, get things going. there's also all kinds of important things outside of your career that don't involve any deadlines,like seeing your family or exercising and taking care of your health, working on your relationship or getting out of a relationship that isn't working.

结果我发现原来有两种拖延症。我今天谈到的，上面驹过的例子都有截止期。有截止期的时候，拖延的影响被限制在一个较短的期限内因为恐慌怪兽会介入。但是对于第二种拖延来说它发生在没有截止期的情况下。比如你想自己创业或是从事艺术类工作，期初并没有截止期，因为在你还没有努力开始干活之前不会有任何事情发生没有产生推进力让事情继续进行。除了事业之外那些重要的事情也没有截止期，比如看望你的家庭，或者锻炼身体保持健康，努力改善恋人关系或者离开一段不满意的关系。

Now if the procrastinator's only mechanism of doing these hard things is the Panic Monster, that's a problem, because in all of these non-deadline situations, the Panic Monster doesn't show up. He has nothing to wake up for, so the effects of procrastination, they're not contained; they just extend outward forever. And it's this long-term kind of procrastination that's much less visible and much less talked about than the funnier, short-term deadline-based kind. It's usually suffered quietly and privately, And it can be the source of a huge amount of long-term unhappiness, and regrets. And I thought, that's why those people are emailing, and that's why they're in such a bad place. It's not that they're cramming for some project. It's that long-term procrastination has made them feel like a spectator, at times, in their own lives. The frustration is not that they couldn't achieve their dreams; It's that they weren't even able to start chasing them.

如果拖延者做这些困难的事只有一种机制即恐慌怪兽，那么问题来了，因为在这些没有截止期的情况下，恐慌怪兽根本不会出现。他没有需要醒来的时候，于是拖延的后果是不受限制的，他们只会无限延期。而这种长期的拖延比起更有趣、更短期、基于截止期的那种拖延来说，不那么明显，也不经常被谈论。 它通常是安静地、悄悄地影响我们。它可能是大量长期不快乐、内疚的来源。我觉得，这才是那些人发来邮件的原因，这才是他们处于如此糟糕状况的原因。不是因为他们为了某个项目狂赶，而是这种长期拖延使他们感觉在他们自己的生活中有时好像只是一个旁观者。他们的沮丧不是因为他们无法实现自己的梦想；而是他们甚至无法开始去追逐自己的梦想。

 

语法点：

1、behind the wheel： 掌管

His father's death left him behind the wheel of the firm.

2、Google Earth：谷歌地球，是一款谷歌公司开发的虚拟地球软件，他把卫星照片、航空照相和GIS布置在一个地球的三维模型上。

3、zoom in：用变焦距镜头使景物放大，即将景物推近

     zoom out：用变焦距镜头使景物缩小，即将景物拉远

     scroll up：电脑屏幕由下到上的滚动。

4、mayhem：an extremely confused situation in which people are very frightened or excited.

5、cram school：补习班