I know you all have long to-do lists, but I hate wasting time so much that I have a to-don't list. Don't scroll on social media, don't check my phone in bed and don't turn on the TV unless I already know what I want to watch. But last year I found myself breaking all of those rules. I was staying up way past midnight, doomscrolling, playing endless games of online Scrabble and bingeing entire seasons of TV shows that weren't even good. The next morning I'd wake up in a daze and swear, "Tonight in bed by 10:00." But it kept happening night after night for weeks. What was I thinking?
我知道你們的待辦事項清單都很長, 但我很討厭浪費時間, 討厭到我還有一張「別做事項」清單。 別滑手機看社群媒體、 別在床上看手機、 除非已經知道想要看什麼, 否則就別開電視。 但去年,我發現 我把上述這些規則都打破了。 我熬夜到超過半夜許久, 一直滑手機看悲慘新聞, 玩永無止境的線上拼字遊戲, 追完每一季影集, 而且那些戲根本沒有多好看。 隔天早上起床時我精神很差,發誓: 「今天晚上十點上床。」 但我每晚重蹈覆轍,持續了數週。 我在想什麼啊?
As an organizational psychologist, I have spent my whole career studying motivation, so it really bothers me when I can't explain my own behavior. I wasn't depressed. I still had hope. Wasn't burned out, had energy. Wasn't lonely, I was with my family. I just felt a little bit aimless and a little bit joyless. Eventually, I remembered there's a name for that feeling: languishing. Languishing as a sense of emptiness, stagnation and ennui. It was coined by a sociologist Corey Keyes and immortalized by a philosopher, Mariah Carey.
身為組織心理學家, 我的整個職涯都在研究動機, 所以,無法解釋自己的行為讓我很煩, 我沒有憂鬱,我仍然有希望。 沒有倦怠,還有能量。 我不孤獨,身邊還有家人。 我只是覺得有點沒目標、 有點不快樂。 最後,我想起這種感覺有個名稱: 萎靡。 萎靡是一種空虛、 停滯、倦怠的感覺。 社會學家科瑞凱斯創造了這個詞, 哲學家瑪麗亞凱莉讓它變得不朽。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
When you're languishing, it just feels like you're muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. So I'm curious how many of you have felt like that over the past few months. OK, those of you who didn't have the energy to raise your hands --
當你萎靡時,感覺就是你在混日子。 透過霧朦朦的擋風玻璃看你的人生。 我很好奇,在座有多少人 在過去幾個月有過這種感覺? 好,那些已經沒精力 把手舉起來的人——
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
you might be languishing right now. And you over here who didn't laugh, you're definitely languishing. Strangely enough --
你們現在可能就在萎靡。 還有這邊都沒有笑的人, 你們肯定是在萎靡。 很奇怪——
[How are you feeling today? Meh. Meh. Meh.]
〔你今天感覺如何?〕 〔咩。咩。咩。〕(笑聲)
(Laughter)
有些人通過測驗了。
Some of you passed the quiz. Strangely enough, what rescued me from that feeling was playing Mario Kart. But let's back up for a second.
很奇怪,把我從這種感覺拯救出來的 竟是玩瑪利歐賽車。 但,咱們先倒帶一下。
In the early days of covid, a lot of us were struggling with fear, grief and isolation. But as the pandemic dragged on with no end in sight, our acute anguish gave way to chronic languish. We were all living in “Groundhog Day.” It felt like the whole world was stagnating. So I wrote an article to put languishing on the map. I called it "the neglected middle child of mental health" and I suggested it might be the dominant emotion of our time. And soon it was everywhere. I was seeing it all over the media, being discussed by celebrities, by royalty. I've never seen people so excited to talk about their utter lack of excitement.
在新冠肺炎剛開始時,許多人苦於 恐懼、悲傷,和孤獨。 但隨著疫情一拖再拖,看不到盡頭, 我們的急性痛苦屈服於慢性萎靡。 我們都生活在《今天暫時停止》。 感覺全世界都停滯了。 於是我寫了一篇文章, 讓大家意識到萎靡。 我稱之為「被忽視的心理健康 老二(排行中間的孩子)」, 我認為在我們這個時代, 它會是主要的情緒。 沒多久,它就無所不在。 媒體上都可以看到它, 名人、皇室都在討論它。 我從來沒有見過大家會這麼興奮地 談論他們完全缺乏興奮。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And -- I think -- I think that naming languishing helped people make sense of some puzzling experiences. Why even after getting vaccinated people were having trouble looking forward to the rest of the year. Why when "National Treasure" came on TV, my wife already knew all the words by heart. And why I was staying up way too late, falling victim to what's known as revenge bedtime procrastination.
且—— 我認為—— 我認為,給萎靡一個名稱, 能協助大家將一些 困惑的經歷合理化。 為什麼就連打了疫苗之後, 大家仍然很難對今年 剩下的日子抱有期望? 為什麼當電視播放《國家寶藏》時, 我太太已經能背出所有台詞? 為什麼我熬夜熬太晚, 成為所謂報復性睡前拖延症的受害者?
(Laughter)
(笑聲) 〔哇!現在才 11 點!我還有時間 可以熬夜上網閒晃,然後搞砸明天〕
We were looking for bliss in a blah day and purpose in a perpetual pandemic. But languishing is not unique to a pandemic. It's part of the human condition. Two decades of research show that languishing can disrupt your focus and dampen your motivation. It's also a risk factor for depression because languishing often lurks below the surface. You might not notice when your drive is dwindling or your delight is dulling You’re indifferent to your own indifference, which means you don't seek help and you might not even do anything to help yourself. Meh. Languishing isn't just hard to spot, though. In many cultures, it's hard to talk about, too. When people ask, "How are you?," you're expected to say, "Great!" or "Living my best life." That's called toxic positivity.
因為我們想在乏味的 日子中找到極樂, 在無止境的疫情中找到目的。 但不只有疫情會造成萎靡。 它是人類境況的一部分。 二十年的研究顯示, 萎靡可能會打斷你的專注, 讓你比較沒有動力。 它也是憂鬱的危險因子之一, 因為萎靡通常會潛伏在表面底下。 你可能不會注意到越來越沒有動力, 或是平常喜歡的事越來越無趣。 你對你自己的冷漠很冷漠, 那就表示,你不會求助, 你可能甚至不會 做任何事來協助你自己。 咩。 不過,萎靡不僅很難發現, 在許多文化中,還很難去談論它。 當別人問:「你好嗎?」 他們預期你說「很好!」 或者「好到不能再好」。 那叫做有害的正向態度。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
It's the pressure that we face to be optimistic and upbeat at all times. If you say, "You know, I'm just OK," then people might encourage you to look on the bright side or count your blessings, which isn't just annoying. It can actually be bad advice.
那是我們面臨的壓力, 要時時刻刻保持樂觀、歡快。 如果你說「我還好」, 別人可能會鼓勵你要看光明面, 或者幫你列出你有多少福氣。 這不只很惱人, 還可能是不好的建議。
Can I get two volunteers? I will cold-call if I have to, don't all jump at once. OK, right over here. You can come up to a mic and can I get another volunteer right over there, up to this mic, please. A round of applause for our two volunteers.
有沒有兩位觀眾自願上臺? 沒人我就只好自己挑, 別突然全部跳出來。好,這邊這位。 請上來到麥克風這裡, 我還需要一位, 那邊那位,請上來用這個麥克風。 請為這兩位自願者鼓掌。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Hi, what's your name?
嗨,你叫什麼名字? 馬丁:馬丁。
Martin: Martin.
亞當:馬丁,謝謝你。 請告訴我們你人生中的三件好事。
Adam Grant: Thank you. Can you tell us three good things about your life, please?
Martin: I’m married and I’m healthy and I’m happy.
馬丁:我結婚了,我很健康, 我很快樂。
AG: All right, I’m glad the marriage came in first. Well done. OK, over here. What’s your name?
亞當:好,很高興結婚擺在第一。 好,另外這位,你叫什麼名字? 李:李。
Lee: Lee.
亞當:李,請告訴我們 你人生中的四十二件好事。
AG: Lee, can you tell us 42 good things about your life?
Lee: My cat Titchypoo, my dog Enzo. And so my wife, Jazz.
我的貓提奇普、我的狗安佐。 我的太太,潔茲。
AG: Third behind the dog and the cat.
亞當:排名第三, 在貓狗後面。(笑聲)
(Laughter)
幹得好。
Well played.
我的孩子,印迪歐和華特、 曼徹斯特聯足球俱樂部、
Lee: My children, Indio and Walter, Manchester United Football Club, my friends, TED.
我的朋友、TED。
AG: TED coming in at ringing eighth.
亞當:TED 在第八位登場。 李:TED 排很高,非常高。
Lee: TED is very high, TED is very high. The poetry of C.S. Lewis, E.E. Cummings, Dylan Thomas.
C.S. 路易斯、E.E. 卡明斯、 狄蘭湯瑪斯的詩。
AG: You want to name all the poets you’ve ever heard of? Alright, Lee, thank you. We’re going to pause you there. Round of applause. Thank you both.
亞當:你要把你聽過的 詩人都列出來嗎? 好了,李,謝謝。 得請你停下來了。拍拍手。 謝謝兩位。(掌聲)
(Applause)
So for a long time, I assumed that people in Lee's position were going to be happier than Martin. But when I ran the experiment, I found the exact opposite. That people who are randomly assigned to count more blessings, are actually, on average, less happy because you start to run out of things to be optimistic about. And if you don't know that many poets ...
長久以來,我都假設像李這樣的人 會比馬丁更快樂。 但我做完實驗才發現事實完全相反。 被隨機指派要列出比較多福氣的人 其實,平均而言,比較不快樂, 因為你開始數完 你能樂觀看待的事物了。 且,如果你不認識那麼多詩人……
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
The harder it is to find good things about your life, the more you feel like, well, maybe my life isn't that good.
當你越難找到人生中的美好, 你就越會覺得,嗯, 也許我的人生沒有那麼好。
In the early days of the pandemic, researchers found that the best predictor of well-being was not optimism. It was flow. Flow is that feeling of being in the zone, coined by the psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. It's that state of total absorption in an activity. For you, it might be cooking or running or gardening where you lose track of time and you might even lose your sense of self. Flow is the appeal of a Netflix binge because you get transported into a different world and immersed in a story. But bingeing is a temporary escape from languishing, not a cure. At best, it leaves you with a bunch of asymmetric relationships. You might love hanging out with your friends: Chandler, Arya, Dwight, Buffy -- Buffy, anyone? --
在疫情爆發初期, 研究者發現, 最能用來預測幸福的變數 不是樂觀。 是心流。 心流是一種神馳的感受, 這個概念來自心理學家 米哈里.契克森米哈伊。 這是一種完全沉浸在 活動當中的狀態, 對各位來說可能是 烹飪、跑步,或園藝, 你會忘了時間, 你可能還會忘我。 心流就是網飛追劇的吸引力, 因為你會被傳送到不同的世界, 埋首於故事當中。 但追劇只是暫時逃離萎靡, 不是解藥。 最好的狀況就是追劇讓你 有一堆不對稱的關係。 你可能會很喜歡 和你的朋友混在一起: 錢德(六人行)、 艾莉亞(冰與火之歌)、 杜懷特(我們的辦公室), 巴菲(吸血鬼獵人), 有嗎?(笑聲)
(Laughter)
異國喬(養虎奇人)、
Joe Exotic, Peppa Pig. (Whispers) But they don't know you exist. Bingeing is passive engagement in a fictional world, peak flow depends on active participation in the real world, which is why I was so surprised to find my flow while driving a cartoon car in a Nintendo game. When the pandemic first started, all three of our kids were at home in online school, and that lasted for a full year. It was not easy. One day we found this on our six-year-old's report card.
粉紅豬小妹(卡通)。 (低語)但他們不知道你的存在。 追劇是以被動的方式 參與虛構的世界, 最高的心流靠的是主動參與 真實的世界。 這就是為什麼我很驚訝 我找到心流的契機竟然是 在任天堂遊戲中開卡通車。 疫情剛爆發時,我家 三個孩子都在家線上學習, 這個狀況持續了一整年。 一點也不輕鬆。 有一天,我們在六歲孩子的 成績單上發現這個。
[can independently mute and unmute himself when requested to do so]
〔被要求時,就能自行 將自己靜音和解除靜音。〕
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
You know, I know some adults who still haven't figured that out yet, not just online, but in real life, too. So I guess we had that to celebrate.
我知道有些成人都還沒 搞懂那要怎麼做, 不只是線上,在真實人生中也是。 我想我們還有那一點可以慶祝。
But like many of you, we were isolated from extended family. My sister was halfway across the country. And one day we were reminiscing about how much we love playing Mario Kart as we were kids. And she said, "Well, we could all play together online now." Why don't we start a family game? And soon we were playing every day with a video call running at the same time. And after a couple of weeks I stopped feeling so blah. I was living zen in the art of Mario Kart.
但和在座許多人一樣, 我們也和大家庭的家人分離。 我姐姐住在大半個國家之外, 有一天,我們在回憶 小時候有多愛玩瑪利歐賽車。 她說:「我們現在 可以一起在線上玩。」 為什麼不來一場家庭賽? 沒多久,我們就天天都在玩, 同時打開視訊通話。 幾週之後,我不再覺得那麼無聊了。 我過著瑪利歐賽車式的禪意生活。 (笑聲)
(Laughter)
早上,我們的孩子才起床,
In the morning our kids were waking up, asking what time we would play. They were excited. And they loved it when I would gloat about an impending victory, only to be bombed by a flying blue shell and then just sit there watching all three of our kids drive past me to the finish line in tiny go-carts. We had so much fun that we started a new Saturday night tradition after the kids were asleep. Adult Mario Kart.
就會問我們何時要玩。他們好興奮。 他們很愛看我本來快贏時洋洋得意, 卻被飛過來的藍色龜殼炸到, 後來只能坐在那裡, 看著我們的三個孩子 開著小卡丁車從我旁邊 呼嘯而過衝向終點線。 我們玩得太開心,因此在星期六 晚上孩子睡覺後展開了新傳統: 成人瑪利歐賽車。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So after reflecting on that experience, I'm proud to present to you for the first time my Mario Kart theory of peak flow. It has three conditions: mastery, mindfulness and mattering.
反思了那段經歷之後, 我很驕傲能在各位面前初次呈獻 我的最高心流瑪利歐賽車理論。 它有三項條件:精通、 全心專注、找到重要性。
Let's start with mastery. Mastery is something a lot of us have been having a hard time finding lately.
咱們從精通談起。 最近,很多人都會覺得 很難精通一件事。 (笑聲)
(Laughter)
心理學家發現,在工作上,
Psychologists find that at work the strongest factor in daily motivation and joy is a sense of progress. We find that our happiness depends in Western cultures more on how our projects are going today than how they went yesterday. That's why Nike says, "Just do it." I guess if Nike had been started in a more past-focused country like China, their slogan would be, "Just did it." If languishing is stagnation, flow involves momentum. But mastery does not have to be a big accomplishment, it can be small wins. Small wins explain why I was drawn to online Scrabble for the rush of playing a seven-letter word. Small wins makes sense of why so many people were thrilled to bake their first loaf of sourdough bread. And small wins explain why one engineer spent an entire afternoon mastering the art of stacking M&M's on top of each other. Take a look.
促成日常動力和喜悅的最強因素 是進步感。 我們發現,在西方文化中, 我們的快樂仰賴 今天專案順不順, 而不是昨天專案順不順。 那就是為什麼 Nike 說 「Just do it(做就是了)」。 我想,如果 Nike 在比較著重 過去的國家發跡,如中國, 標語會變成「Just did it (剛做過了)」。 如果萎靡是一種停滯, 那心流就和動能有關。 但精通不見得要是大成就, 也可以是小勝利。 小勝利說明了為什麼 我會被線上拼字遊戲吸引, 因為急著想去玩七個字母的單字。 小勝利可以合理說明為何這麼多人 初次烤出酸種麵包就會好興奮。 小勝利也能解釋為何工程師 會花一個下午的時間, 去精通把 M&M’s 巧克力 一個一個疊起來的藝術。 咱們來看看。
(Video) This is going to be harder than I thought. Oh! Oh! Five M&Ms! Five M&Ms!
(影片)這比我預期的還困難。 噢! 喔! 五顆 M&M’s!五顆 M&M’s!
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
AG: Turns out that was a world record.
亞當:結果發現那是世界紀錄。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
That kind of mastery depends on a second condition for flow, mindfulness. Focusing your full attention on a single task, not something a lot of us are doing that much these days.
那樣的精通,要仰賴 心流的第二個條件: 全心專注。 把所有的注意力放到 單一工作任務上, 最近大部分人都很少做到這一點。
[Are you OK? You’re barely paying attention to your book, phone, show ... ] [ ... laptop and the crossword you started ten minutes ago.]
〔你還好嗎?你幾乎沒有在 注意你的書、手機、節目、 筆電,和你十分鐘前 開始玩的填字遊戲。〕
There's evidence that on average, people are checking emails 74 times a day, switching tasks every 10 minutes, and that creates what's been called time confetti, where we take what could be meaningful moments of our lives and we shred them into increasingly tiny, useless pieces. Time confetti is an enemy of both energy and of excellence. If we want to find flow, we need better boundaries.
證據顯示, 平均來說,人每天 會檢查電子郵件 74 次。 每十分鐘換做另一件事情, 造就了所謂的「碎片時間」, 我們把人生中本來 可能很有意義的時刻 切碎成為越來越小、 越來越無用的碎片。 碎片時間是能量和卓越之敵。 如果我們想要找到心流, 就需要更好的界線。
[It keeps me from looking at my phone every two seconds.]
〔這東西能避免我每兩秒鐘 就去看一下手機。〕
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
When I think about boundaries, I think of an experiment by organizational scholar Leslie Perlow. She went to a Fortune 500 company and she tested a quiet time policy. No interruptions three mornings a week before noon. On average, engineers spiked in productivity. 47 percent of them were more productive than usual. But the best part is that when the company made quiet time official policy, they had 65 percent above average productivity. I don't think there's anything magical about Tuesday, Thursday, Friday before noon. The lesson here is that we need to treat uninterrupted blocks of time as treasures to guard.
說到界線時, 我會想到組織學者 萊絲莉.普羅做的實驗。 她到一間《財星》五百大企業 檢驗安靜時段政策。 一週有三個早上 不會有人打斷你做事。 平均而言,工程師的產能大大提升。 47% 的工程師比平常更有生產力。 最棒的是,當該公司 把安靜時段訂為官方政策時, 生產力會比平均高 65%。 我想,星期二、星期四、星期五 中午以前的時段沒什麼神奇的。 這裡的教訓是,我們應該 要把能不被打斷的時段 當作寶藏來守護。
Now, mastery and mindfulness will get you to flow, but there's a third condition that turns it into a peak experience. Mattering. Knowing that you make a difference to other people. Early in my career, I was studying fundraising callers who were trying to bring in alumni donations to a university, and I knew they were languishing when I saw this sign posted on their wall.
精通和全心專注能讓你達到心流, 但有第三個條件能把心流 變成最棒的體驗。 找到重要性。 知道你能為他人改善境況。 職涯初期時我研究過 負責打電話募款的人, 他們要請校友捐錢給大學, 當我看到他們牆壁上張貼的標語, 我就知道他們在萎靡了。
[Doing a good job here is like wetting your pants in a dark suit] [You get a warm feeling but no one else notices]
〔在這裡把工作做好, 就像是尿在深色褲子上, 你會有暖暖的感覺, 但沒人會注意到。〕
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I wanted to study how to show them that their work mattered. So I designed a series of experiments and over the next month, one group of callers on average more than doubled in weekly time on the phone and nearly tripled in weekly revenue. What moved the needle was randomly assigning them to meet one student whose scholarship had been funded by their work. Now, instead of focusing on the monotonous process of making calls, they were absorbed in a meaningful purpose of helping to fund tuition. So think about the people who would be worse off if your job didn't exist. Those are the people who make your work matter. You need to know their names, their faces and their stories, and you can find flow in projects that benefit them.
我想要研究,如何讓他們 知道他們的工作有重要性。 於是我設計了一系列的實驗, 結果次月有一組人平均每週 花在電話上的時間變成兩倍多, 每週收益則變成近三倍。 會有這樣的改變,是因為他們 被隨機指派和一名學生見面, 該學生的獎學金 來自他們工作募得的捐款。 現在他們不會把焦點 放在單調的打電話過程, 反而全神貫注在有意義的目的上: 協助募集學費。 想想看如果你的工作不存在 會讓哪些人的境況變糟。 那些人會讓你的工作有重要性。 你得要知道他們的 名字、面孔、故事, 你就能在對他們有益的 專案計畫中找到心流。
This all explains why Mario Kart was such a great experience for me. It gave me a feeling of mastery, the sweet satisfaction of a perfectly placed banana peel for my sister to slip on. It required mindfulness too. My brother-in-law was the best player. Beating him demanded total concentration, especially when my kids were ganging up with him against me. And it wasn't just a game. It mattered. Over the past year, we've all felt helpless in one way or another. I felt helpless to fix covid. I couldn't even do that much to make online school better. And I'm a teacher. But in Mario Kart, I felt helpful. I was able to give my kids something to look forward to when we couldn't go anywhere. I was able to keep my family close when we were far apart. We normally think of flow as an individual experience. But playing Nintendo, we were all immersed together. And although we don't play daily anymore, I feel closer to my sister and my brother-in-law than I ever had before. I learned that love is not the frequency of communication, it's the depth of connections. I also realized that the antidote to languishing does not have to be something productive, it can be something joyful. Our peak moments of flow are having fun with the people we love, which is now a daily task on my to-do list.
這完全解釋了為什麼瑪利歐賽車 對我而言是這麼棒的體驗。 它給了我精通的感覺, 和甜美的滿足感 ──把香蕉皮放在完美的位子, 等著讓我姐姐打滑。 這遊戲也需要全心專注。 我姐夫是最強的玩家。 要打敗他就需要完全專注, 特別是我的孩子 還跟他聯手來對付我。 而且這件事不只是個遊戲, 還有它的重要性。 在過去一年,我們都感到某種無助。 對改善疫情我感到無助。 我甚至沒辦法做什麼 讓線上學習變更好。 我還是個老師。 但在瑪利歐賽車裡, 我覺得我能助人。 在我們無法出門時, 我還能給孩子一些期待。 當家人分隔各地時, 我能讓全家緊密連結。 我們通常認為心流是個人的經歷。 但在玩任天堂時, 我們都沉浸在一起。 雖然我們不再每天玩了, 我覺得我和姐姐及姐夫 比以前更親近了。 我學到,愛的重點 並不是溝通的頻率, 是連結的深度。 我也了解到,萎靡的解藥 不見得要是有生產力的事物, 也可以是好玩的事物。 心流最高峰的時刻,就是 和我們愛的人一同享樂的時刻, 這一點現在已經被我納入 我的每日待辦事項清單了。
So what's your version of Mario Kart? Where do you find mastery and mindfulness with the people who matter to you? I think we need to rethink our understanding of mental health and well-being. Not depressed doesn't mean you're not struggling. Not burned out doesn't mean you're fired up. When someone says, "How are you?," it's OK to say, "Honestly, I'm languishing." Or if you can only muster one syllable, "Meh."
所以,你的瑪利歐賽車是什麼? 你在哪裡能找到精通和全心專注, 並和對你重要的人在一起? 我認為我們要重新思考 我們對於心理健康及幸福的了解。 不憂鬱,並不表示你沒有掙扎。 沒有筋疲力竭, 不表示你就充滿熱情。 當別人問:「你好嗎?」 你可以說:「老實說,我很萎靡。」 或者,如果你只能發出一個音, 就說「咩」。(笑聲)
(Laughter)
當你準備好,就可以開始尋找心流,
And when you're ready, you can start finding the flow that lights a path out of the void.
照亮脫離空虛的路。 謝謝。
Thank you.
(Applause)
(掌聲)