Name: 【TED】艾蜜莉·霍布尼克: 為何某些人沒有一個真正的天職 (Why some of us don't have one true calling | Emilie Wapnick)
Uploaded: 2015-12-27T22:00:00.000Z
Duration: 12 min 27 s

Raise your hand if you've ever been asked the question

被問過以下問題的人，請舉手：

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

第二類條件句型

how old would you say you were when you were first asked this question?

你們第一次被問到這個問題時是幾歲？

三歲。五歲。三歲。五歲。五歲。好。

現在，如果「你長大後要做什麼？」

I'm someone who's never been able to answer the question

「你長大後要做什麼」這種問題的人。

See, the problem wasn't that I didn't have any interests --

告訴你，問題不是因為我沒有任何興趣，

In high school, I liked English and math and art and I built websites

高中時期，我喜歡英文、數學和藝術，我還架設網站、

and I played guitar in a punk band called Frustrated Telephone Operator.

在一個叫做《挫折的電話接線生》 的龐克樂團擔任吉他手。

and at a certain point, I began to notice this pattern in myself

在某個時候，我開始注意到自己有這種行為模式：

where I would become interested in an area

and I would dive in, become all-consumed,

無論是什麼，我都會深入鑽研、全心投入，

and I'd get to be pretty good at whatever it was,

and then I would hit this point where I'd start to get bored.

但到這個程度後，我會開始感到無聊。

And usually I would try and persist anyway,

通常我會試著無論如何堅持下去，

because I had already devoted so much time and energy

畢竟我已經投入這麼多時間和心力，

this feeling of, like, yeah, I got this, this isn't challenging anymore --

這種「是啊，這我已經會了，不再有什麼挑戰了」的感覺

But then I would become interested in something else,

但此時我會開始對其他東西產生興趣，

something totally unrelated, and I would dive into that,

和之前完全不相關的東西，然後又開始深入鑽研、

and become all-consumed, and I'd be like, "Yes! I found my thing,"

全心投入，然後我會覺得： 「太好了，找到我的目標了！」

and then I would hit this point again where I'd start to get bored.

但到這個時候， 我又會開始感到無聊，

But then I would discover something new and totally different,

但在這之後，我又會發現全然不同的新東西，

這種行為模式讓我感到很焦慮，

how I was going to turn any of this into a career.

要怎麼把這些興趣轉換成我的職涯。

I thought that I would eventually have to pick one thing,

我認為我最終必須選擇其中一項，

The other reason it caused me so much anxiety

I worried that there was something wrong with this,

and something wrong with me for being unable to stick with anything.

是不是我自己有問題，無法專注於任何事情。

I worried that I was afraid of commitment,

or that I was scattered, or that I was self-sabotaging,

或是太散亂、或是有自我破壞傾向，

If you can relate to my story and to these feelings,

如果各位能對我的故事和這些感覺產生共鳴，

我希望各位能問自己一個問題，

that I wish I had asked myself back then.

一個我但願過去的我 也能問自己的問題。

Ask yourself where you learned to assign the meaning of wrong or abnormal

問問你們自己：你是從何處得到同時做很多事情是不對或是不正常的

我來告訴各位這個觀念從何而來：

We are first asked the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

我們被問 「你長大後要做什麼？」這個問題，

And the truth is that no one really cares what you say when you're that age.

而事實上在那個年紀，沒有人真的在意你怎麼回答。

posed to little kids to elicit cute replies,

純粹為了誘出小孩們可愛的回應。

like, "I want to be an astronaut," or "I want to be a ballerina,"

例如：「我想要當太空人」或是「我想當芭蕾舞演員」

可以自行代入各式萬聖節戲服。

But this question gets asked of us again and again as we get older

但這個問題就連我們逐漸長大後也一次又一次地出現，

in various forms -- for instance, high school students might get asked

只是用其他不同的形式── 舉例來說，高中生可能被問

what major they're going to pick in college.

goes from being the cute exercise it once was

變成讓我們晚上睡不著的夢靨。

See, while this question inspires kids to dream about what they could be,

告訴各位，這個問題雖然鼓勵孩子夢想著自己未來能做的事，

it does not inspire them to dream about all that they could be.

卻沒有鼓勵他們思考所有可能的夢想。

because when someone asks you what you want to be,

因為當有人問你未來要做什麼的時候，

you can't reply with 20 different things,

你無法給他們20個不同的答案，

though well-meaning adults will likely chuckle and be like,

雖然善意的大人很有可能會笑著說：

"Oh, how cute, but you can't be a violin maker and a psychologist.

「喔！真可愛，不過你無法同時當提琴製作師和心理學家，

And this is Amy Ng, a magazine editor turned illustrator, entrepreneur,

這是艾米吳，從雜誌編輯轉為插畫家，

同時還是企業家、老師和創意總監。

But most kids don't hear about people like this.

但大部分的孩子沒有聽過這樣的人。

這種將人生狹隘地專注在某件事上的觀念，

It's this idea of destiny or the one true calling,

就是那種每個人命中注定擁有某種天職的想法，

the idea that we each have one great thing

那種我們每個人都有一件擅長的、

we are meant to do during our time on this earth,