What first pops into your mind when you hear the word "midlife"? "Crisis," yes. The dreaded midlife crisis is the butt of all kinds of jokes, but it's also a serious matter. After I lost a few friends to midlife suicide, I decided to create an alternative narrative to the awful way we tend to think of our 40s, 50s and 60s, and I'm going to share that with you over the next three minutes.
聽到「中年」一詞時, 你首先想到什麼? 「危機」,是的。 可怕的中年危機是各種笑話的題材, 但它也是個嚴重的問題。 我失去了幾個朋友,他們中年自殺, 於是我決定要創造一種替代說法, 讓我們別再用糟糕的視角 來看待我們的四十、五十,和六十歲, 這就是我接下來三分鐘 要和大家分享的。
Midlife is one of the three life stages that sprouted in the 20th century. Adolescence didn't even exist until 1904, when society realized that just because you hit puberty didn't mean you were an adult. Retirement was popularized nearly a century ago, with pensions and social security, and then 25 years later, with the advent of AARP -- I hope you have your card -- and retirement communities. Those two life stages got a whole lot of love, but there's a life stage in the middle that didn't get much respect.
中年期是二十世紀才出現的 人生三階段之一。 1904 年之前根本沒有青少年期, 直到那年社會才意識到, 光是進入青春期 並不表示你就成年了。 退休期則是在近百年前才普及, 人們開始有退休金和社會保障, 再過 25 年,才出現 美國退休人員協會—— 希望你們有卡—— 以及退休社區。 這兩個人生階段都擁有滿滿的愛, 但中間有一個人生階段 就沒有得到多少尊重。
Midlife is the natural outgrowth of the three decades of additional longevity we were granted in the 20th century. But all it got was a bad brand, the “midlife crisis,” which was coined in 1965. Yet research on how happiness evolves as we age shows that from about age 22 or 23, all the way to 45 to 50, there is a long, slow decline in life satisfaction. It bottoms out around 45 to 50, although your mileage may vary.
在二十世紀,我們獲得了延長的 30 年壽命,自然就產生了中年期。 但它卻只得到了個不好的品牌形象, 「中年危機」, 這是 1965 年創造出來的詞。 但,關於幸福如何隨著我們 年齡的增長而改變的研究 顯示出 從大約二十二或二十三歲 一直到四十五到五十歲, 對生活的滿意度 出現又慢又長的下降趨勢。 谷底大約在四十五到五十歲間, 不過大家的哩程數可能不同。
(Laughs)
(笑)
On the other side of that, though, the good news is that, from age 50 on, we get happier and happier. It's called the U-curve of happiness. So maybe there's a new framework to think about midlife, one that we learned when we were kids. The magical metamorphosis of the caterpillar to the butterfly.
不過,另一方面, 好消息是,五十歲之後, 我們會越來越快樂, 這叫做幸福的 U 曲線。 因此,也許可以用 新的框架來看待中年期, 一個我們兒時學到的框架, 毛毛蟲成為蝴蝶的神奇蛻變。
Just as a caterpillar eats incessantly just before it's about to spin its chrysalis, so do we, as young adults, madly consume and produce. And then, the caterpillar decides to take its midlife break in its chrysalis, which is dark and gooey and solitary, but it's also where the transformation happens. On the other side of that, there's a chrysalis that cracks open, and this beautiful winged creature emerges that delights us all: the butterfly.
正如同毛毛蟲準備化成蛹之前 會不斷進食一樣, 我們還是青年人時, 也會瘋狂地消費和生產。 接著,毛毛蟲 在生命中期時決定喘口氣, 在蛹中休息一下, 這個黑暗、黏滑、孤單的地方, 也是轉變發生的地方。 之後,蛹破開了, 出現了一隻有翅膀的美麗生物, 為我們帶來喜悅:蝴蝶。
So to recap, the caterpillar consumes, the chrysalis transforms and the butterfly pollinates. What if we rethought midlife, such that it's not a crisis, it's a chrysalis. The midlife chrysalis. What if we thought of midlife as the dawning of a new age? An age where much of what we accumulated dissolves? Just as we're ready to transform, spread our wings and pollinate our wisdom to the world in our 50s and beyond.
總整一下: 毛毛蟲進食, 蛹發生轉變, 而蝴蝶傳授花粉。 如果我們重新思考中年期, 別把它視為危機, 而是個蛹呢? 中年期的蛹。 如果我們把中年期 視為新時代的黎明呢? 在這個新時代,我們 累積的東西大部分都消失了? 就如同我們準備好 進行蛻變,展開翅膀, 在五十歲之後的日子, 將我們的智慧傳授給世界。
Audience: Yeah. Chip Conley: Yes, yes.
觀眾:是啊。 講者:是的,是的。
If you look at life like that, it's maybe possible that it's cool to grow old.
如果你這樣看待人生, 也許變老也可以是件很酷的事。
Are we ready for pro-aging, not anti-aging products?
我們準備好迎接支持老化 而不是抗老化的產品了嗎? 觀眾:是的。
Audience: Yeah.
(Cheers and applause)
(歡呼和掌聲)
CC: Can we make aging aspirational? I sure hope so.
講者:我們能讓老化 變成大家夢寐以求的嗎? 我肯定希望如此。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Cheers and applause)
(歡呼和掌聲)