Quora精選：如何才能弄清自己到底想做什么？

Q: How can I figure out what I really want to do with my life?

問：怎樣才能明白自己究竟想要做啥？

Answered by Oliver Emberton

Oliver Emberton的回復：

Time to grow up and give yourself a better childhood. Let me explain, via Bill Gates the Potato Farmer.

是時候告別孩子氣，給自己一個更好的童年了。容我解釋一下，先假設比爾蓋茨是一個種土豆的農夫。

You know how anyone can be anything they want, right? Well, they can't.

你覺得人可以成為任何一個自己想成為的人，對么？嗯，其實不行。

Had Bill Gates been born in a different time – or just a different town – he might have spent his days as an illiterate peasant scooping up potatoes with his hands.

如果比爾·蓋茨出生在一個不同的時代，或者哪怕只是出生在另一個小鎮(zhèn)——他可能就僅僅是個每天用手舀土豆，目不識丁的農民。

Your circumstances matter. Bill's real childhood had what mattered most: the opportunity to stumble upon what he was born to do, and to go completely bananas doing it.

環(huán)境舉足輕重。真實的比爾蓋茨的童年有著至關重要的那個因素：他偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了適合自己天性的事情，并滿懷激情地投入其中。

Few are so lucky, but there's still hope for the rest of us.

很少有人如此幸運，但我們仍有希望。

Kids are geniuses

孩子是天才

We rarely prize people for acting like a child. The world is forever telling us to “grow up” and “take responsibility”, as if anything else is a bug in the system. On the contrary – childish behaviour can be quite brilliant.

我們甚少表揚成人孩子氣的舉動。這個世界永遠只會告訴我們“要成長”、“要有擔當”，似乎除此之外的表現(xiàn)就像系統(tǒng)故障一樣不可接受。但事實卻恰恰相反——孩子氣的舉動蘊藏著大智慧。

Kids try many things. Stupid things, like eating soil or rollerskating on ice. But they're fearless and relentless.

孩子們會嘗試很多事情。好比吃土、在冰上滑旱冰之類的蠢事。但他們卻無畏又鍥而不舍。

Kids don't know what they don't know. So they question everything.

孩子們不知道自己不知道什么，所以他們會質疑一切。

Kids are easily bored. They live in fantasy worlds because present reality is limiting.

孩子們很容易厭倦。由于現(xiàn)實有種種限制，他們生活在幻想世界里。

Such behaviour is spectacularly good at figuring out the world and your part in it. Acting like a kid is a brilliant way to explore your boundaries and deduce your strengths. Ideally, your childhood is when you stumble upon your passions, leaving your adult years to focus on them.

這樣的行為對于探索這個世界、找準自我定位極為有效。孩子氣的行為不失為一種尋找自我界限，挖掘自身潛能的絕佳方法。在理想情況下，童年時你不斷探索這個世界，會偶然發(fā)覺自己的興趣所在，從而在成年以后可以專注于自己的興趣。

Unfortunately many of us – like Bill the Potato Farmer – aren't so lucky. The good news is, modern life gives you more chances than ever to fix that.

可惜我們中的許多人和種土豆的農夫比爾一樣，并沒有那么好的運氣。但不幸中的萬幸，相比過去，現(xiàn)代生活會給你更多機會去修正自己。

Grown-up children

大孩子

Childlike behaviour is generally frowned upon as an adult.

成年人孩子氣的行為通常是不被認可的。

The great advantage of being an adult is you can direct yourself. Children don't have the freedom or the awareness to steer their own development. Maybe your childhood wasn't what it could have been – but you can fix it now:

做大人的最大好處就是你可以掌管自己的生活。孩子們沒有這種自由和掌控自己發(fā)展方式的意識。也許你的童年本不該如此——但現(xiàn)在你可以修正它：

Play. The first time baby John Lennon picked up a guitar, I doubt he seriously ran a cost benefit analysis. If you're trying something out, don't be in too much of a hurry to take it seriously. Aim to simply enjoy. The effort will come if the passion is there.

盡情玩耍。約翰·列農小時候第一次拿起吉他時，我想他未必認真做過成本效益分析。如果你正在嘗試什么，不要急著去把它當做什么大不了的事，享受過程便好。如果你持續(xù)保持激情，自然會投入更多。

Get reckless. If you really don't know what you want to do, you're going to have to try things you haven't done yet. And you're going to fail – a lot – trying many different things, most of which won't work. Kids find this a lot easier because they don't worry about consequences. I encourage you to do the same. If it helps, make it a proud part of your identity: you're making a point out of fearlessly trying as many things as possible, you sexy roguish daredevil you.

不計后果。如果你真得不知道自己想做什么，那就去嘗試一下你從沒有做過的事情吧！在嘗試各種不同的東西時，你會經常受挫，大多數(shù)的事情你都做不來。但嘗試種種事物對孩子們而言容易得多，因為他們并不在乎結果。我鼓勵你們也別太計較得失。如果成功了，讓它成為你的驕傲吧：你無畏地去盡可能多地嘗試各種事情，展現(xiàn)了自己性感、壞壞的、敢于冒險的那一面。

Question everything. You know how everyone knew the world was flat until it wasn't? You have similarly limiting beliefs in your head right now – probably things like “artists can't earn a living” or “I'm not smart enough to do this”. Maybe, but have you checked? Have you tried – really tried, like a gun is pointed at your kneecaps – to find an alternative? Most really successful people didn't just find a way, they created one.

質疑一切。你知道在有人證明地球是圓的之前，人們一直被認為地球是平的嗎？現(xiàn)在你腦海中就會有許多類似的局限性觀點，譬如“藝術家養(yǎng)不活自己”，“我做不到”之類的。也許真是這樣，但是你有確認過嗎？你試過嗎，真的試過碼？就像有人用槍指著你的膝蓋一樣去努力嘗試出路？大部分真正成功的人，不僅找到了出路，而且開辟了出路。

Ignore reality. You know how kids always dream of becoming astronauts, pop stars and giant transforming robots? Barriers don't apply when you're five years old. And whilst that seems like a stupid habit that you'd be wise to grow out of, if you're not sure what you want to do, don't be in such a hurry to shut your dreams down. Explore the impossible. Often it doesn't lead to exactly what you're after (say walking on the moon) but it finds something else instead (like a love of science that starts a whole career). You can't know this in advance. Just dare to follow where your heart takes you.

忘掉現(xiàn)實。你知道孩子們總是幻想成為宇航員、歌手或是變形金剛嗎？當你只有5歲時，你并不知道什么是障礙。盡管做夢看上去是一個愚蠢的習慣，所以要快快長大放棄幻想，但如果你還不明確你想做的是什么，不要急于將你的夢想拒之門外，去探索這些不可能。通常你不會達到和你所追求一模一樣的目標（如登上月球），但卻可以得到一些其它的收獲（如對科學的熱愛讓你開始全新的職業(yè)生涯）。你不會預先知道結果，盡管大膽地去追隨你內心的召喚吧。

Chances are, even if you don't know what you want, that your childhood at least left you some hints. Are there things you think of fondly, but never find the time for? Start there.

就算你不知道自己到底想要什么，你的童年至少也可能會給你一些提示。有沒有你感興趣卻從來沒有時間去做的事情？就從那里開始吧！

The great solace you have is that – by virtue of reading this – you automatically have better options than potato farmer Bill. Access to the entirety of human knowledge (The Google) for one. Better economics for another. And more freedom than most of your grandparents could ever conceive of.

讀到這里，足可讓你聊以自慰的是，至少你的條件比種土豆的比爾蓋茨強很多；譬如，通過Google就可以去獲取全人類的知識；再譬如更好的經濟環(huán)境；當然還有大部分祖輩難以想象的自由空間。

Now get outside and play.

現(xiàn)在就出去玩兒去吧！