Name: 你永遠無法逃避生活中的問題。為什麼這實際上是一種解放？ (You’ll never escape life's problems. Why that’s actually liberating | Oliver Burkeman for BT+)
Uploaded: 2025-10-30T18:36:21.000Z
Duration: 9 min 8 s

I'm an author and a recovering productivity geek.

我是一位作家，也是一位正在康復中的 productivity geek。

過去簡單式

And I wrote the book Meditations for four weeks.

我寫了這本 Meditations，花了四個星期。

To embrace your limitations and make time for what counts.

擁抱你的限制，並為重要的事情騰出時間。

I think when it comes to problems, just, you know, the ordinary annoying problems that fill so much of life, we make things a lot worse for ourselves because we have a sort of dual objection to them, right?

我認為，當我們遇到問題時，你知道的，生活中那些普通又煩人的問題，我們會讓自己變得更糟，因為我們對它們有一種 dual objection，對吧？

So on the one hand, when you're dealing with a problem, there's whatever the problem is, and

所以一方面，當你處理一個問題時，有那個問題本身，

it's something you've got to grapple with.

But there's also this background sense a lot of the time that we somehow shouldn't be facing problems at all.

但很多時候，我們還有一種背景感知，覺得我們根本不應該面對問題。

That we thought we would have got to the stage in our lives by now where we didn't have to deal with problems, that we could do our jobs really well if only there weren't all these problems or that family life would be so great if only we didn't have to deal with.

我們以為我們現在的人生階段應該已經不用面對問題了，如果沒有這些問題，我們就能把工作做得很好，或者如果不用面對這些問題，家庭生活就會很美好。

So we actually make it worse for ourselves because we're dealing both with a problem and with this sort of indignation that there should even be problems in our lives.

所以一方面，我們其實讓情況變得更糟，因為我們同時要應對問題，還有這種覺得生命中根本不該有問題的憤慨。

I think it really helps if you can develop a taste for having problems in life.

我認為如果你能培養對生命中擁有問題的興趣，那會非常有幫助。

And what I mean by that is to start really just with the recognition that this inner demand to get to the place with no problems is sort of absurd on its face.

我這麼說的意思是，從認知開始，這種內在要求要達到沒有問題的狀態，本身就是顯而易見的荒謬。

There are definitely specific problems that one would hope to avoid that one would never wish on anybody.

當然，有些特定的問題，你會希望避免，也不會希望發生在任何人身上。

But if you think about what a problem is at the most general level, it's just like some area where your limited capacities are running up against reality in some way.

但如果你從最廣泛的層面來思考問題是什麼，它就只是你有限的能力在某種程度上與現實發生衝突的區域。

And as a result there's something you have to address yourself to.

結果就是，有些事情是你必須著手處理的。

Like that's another word for that or another phrase for that is meaningful activity in life.

就像這是另一個說法，或者另一種說法是生命中有意義的活動。

A life without any problems, I think would be a life that had lost what the German social theorist Hartmut Rose calls its resonance.

我認為，一個沒有任何問題的生活，將會是失去德國社會理論家 Hartmut Rose 所說的「共鳴」的生活。

There would be something very, very empty and meaningless about this sort of life with no problems.

這種沒有問題的生活，會非常、非常空虛且毫無意義。

A friend of mine describes the epiphany she had when she realized that she spent a lot of time thinking how well she could do her job if she didn't have to deal with all these problems.

我的一位朋友描述了她的頓悟，當時她意識到自己花了很多時間想著，如果不用處理所有這些問題，她就能把工作做得多好。

And then realizing that actually, in a very profound sense, the problems were the job.

然後她意識到，從某個深刻的意義上來說，這些問題本身就是工作。

The reason she was in that position was her creative and energetic ability to deal with unforeseen things and find resolutions to them.

她之所以處於那個位置，是因為她有創造力和精力充沛的能力來應對意想不到的事情並找到解決方案。

And apart from anything else, you know, if your job didn't feature any of those creative challenges, if it could be Completely reduced to an absolutely predictable set of steps.

而且，你知道，如果你的工作沒有任何這些創造性的挑戰，如果它完全可以簡化為一套絕對可預測的步驟。

It would also be extremely prey to being automated away entirely.

它也會極容易被完全自動化取代。

So one of the things that absolutely gets in the way of our just doing the things we think we want to do with our lives and living and working meaningfully is avoidance is the sense that there are certain tasks or areas of life that trigger so much kind of things, fear or intimidation, that you just sort of don't go there.

所以，阻礙我們去做我們認為想做的事情、過有意義的生活和工作的其中一件事，就是逃避，就是覺得有些任務或生活領域會引發太多的恐懼或壓力，讓你乾脆不去碰。

You're worried you might not have enough money in your checking account, so you don't even check the balance, or you're worried that some physical pain could be the sign of something serious, so you don't get it looked into.

你擔心支票帳戶裡的錢不夠，所以你甚至不去檢查餘額；或者你擔心某種身體疼痛可能是嚴重疾病的徵兆，所以你乾脆不去檢查。

Very common and sort of very understandable human behavior to just not do things.

這是非常常見且可以理解的人類行為，就是不去面對事情。

You just ignore the garage because there's just too much junk in there and you can't bear the thought of trying to.

你只是忽略了車庫，因為裡面有太多雜物了，你無法想像去整理它們。

There's a Dutch Zen monk called Paul Lumens who's written very eloquently on this phenomenon, and

有位荷蘭的禪宗僧侶，名叫 Paul Lumens，他對這種現象有非常精闢的論述，

he talks about these things that we avoid all the time as gnawing rats that kind of, you know, in the middle of the night you'll remember them and you'll feel bad about them, they'll be gnawing at you.

他說我們一直逃避的這些事情，就像是啃咬我們的老鼠，你知道的，半夜你會想起它們，你會覺得很糟糕，它們會一直啃咬你。

But basically you spend your life just sort of trying to get out of their way.

但基本上，你整個人生都在試圖避開它們。

And he suggests that what we need to do is, is actually to sort of befriend our gnawing rats.

他建議我們應該做的，其實是試著和這些啃咬我們的事情做朋友。

The path towards doing something about them.

And in his imagery, transforming them from gnawing rats into fluffy white sheep that just sort of very docile and don't cause the same problems.

在他的比喻中，就是把牠們從啃咬的老鼠，變成溫順的白色綿羊，牠們很乖巧，不會造成同樣的問題。

The key step is to just sort of turn towards our gnawing rats.

關鍵的一步就是轉向這些啃咬我們的事情。

In other words, you just need to do something to consciously build a psychological relationship with that task.

換句話說，你只需要做些什麼，有意識地與那個任務建立心理上的連結。

If you've got a whole, like, shed full of junk that needs to be sorted out and you can't bear to go in to deal with it, it might just be a question of going in to that space and sort of psychologically letting it into your world.

如果你家裡有個滿滿都是需要整理的雜物間，而你根本不想進去面對，也許你只需要走進那個空間，然後在心理上允許它進入你的世界。

No longer sort of actively trying to keep it at arm's length, it might be a question of just visualizing how you would undertake the first two or three steps of a big project that you've been avoiding out of fear.

不再積極地想把它推開，也許只是想像一下，你會如何著手處理一個因為恐懼而一直逃避的大計畫的前兩三個步驟。

It could be writing down what would be involved in the initial steps.

可以是寫下初步步驟會涉及哪些內容。

Anything like that will have the effect of bringing that project or task or domain of life back into your sort of acknowledged reality.

任何這樣做都會有效果，讓那個計畫、任務或生活領域重新回到你所認可的現實中。

it's been my experience, fairly soon after that, probably the time will arise when it just does seem like the right moment to take the first step on that activity.

這也是我的經驗，在那之後不久，很可能時機就會出現，讓你覺得是時候踏出那項活動的第一步了。

But there's got to be this conscious process of kind of bringing it back, having a relationship with it, not pretending, not putting all this energy into pretending that it doesn't exist and isn't a part of your life when it.

但必須有一個有意識的過程，把牠帶回來，與牠建立關係，而不是假裝，不是把所有精力都花在假裝牠不存在、不是你生活的一部分，但事實上牠卻是。

I think there are two things to remember when it comes to moving forwards with things that feel awkward because they are new and because they represent some kind of growth, something that's being challenged inside you.

我覺得有兩件事，在處理那些因為新奇、因為挑戰了你內在的某些部分而讓你覺得有點彆扭的事情時，我們需要記住。

The first, absolutely, is just to remember this, right?

首先，絕對要記住這點，對吧？

Just to remember that the feelings of discomfort and awkwardness are not signs that something is wrong.

只要記住，那些不舒服和彆扭的感覺，並不是事情出了錯的跡象。

They could very well be signs that something is right.

它們很有可能恰恰是事情正確的跡象。

If something, some change you're making feels uncomfortable, that's a sign that it is challenging, fairly deeply conditioned things inside you, and

如果某件事、你正在做的某個改變讓你感到不舒服，這就表示它正在挑戰你內在一些根深蒂固的習性，而且

你應該預期它會感覺有點彆扭。

The second thing is to be willing to work in incredibly tiny increments.

第二件事是願意以極小的增量來工作。

One question that I think could be very useful to ask yourself is just how much of something or what version of something you're willing to do in this moment?

我認為一個很有用的問題是，在這個時刻，你願意做多少，或者做哪個版本的這件事？

So maybe it makes you feel awkward to put yourself into sort of social context where you're performing or where you're on show or something like that.

所以，也許讓你覺得彆扭的是，讓自己進入那種需要表演、需要被關注的社交場合，或是類似的狀況。

And in every case, it's a question of saying, well, okay, maybe it's not speaking in front of an audience of a thousand people that I'm working to here, but

在任何情況下，這都是一個問題，問問自己，好吧，也許我現在努力的不是在面對一千人的觀眾演講，而是

sort of gradually lowering that boundary.

And maybe it is some very, very small version of that activity where you will actually find once you.

也許是那個活動的一個非常非常小的版本，一旦你開始做了。

I could go into that setting and talk to that number of people.

我可以進入那個場合，跟那麼多人說話。

There almost always is some level at which you're willing to.

幾乎總是有一個程度，是你願意去做的。

You just have to be okay with it being a very, very, very low and introductory level.

你只需要接受它是一個非常、非常、非常基礎的入門等級。

I think just speaking personally, there's a sort of related phenomenon where certain kinds of advice and certain kinds of personal development philosophies make you, Or I should say, make me want to kind of cringe.

我想就我個人來說，有一種相關的現象，就是某些建議和某些個人成長的哲學會讓你，或者我應該說，讓我有點想退縮。

They're sort of so corny or cheesy, whatever the word you want to use, and

它們有點太老套或太俗氣了，隨你怎麼說，

感覺就像，哦，我不想做那個。

Like, I don't want to read about self compassion, because that seems kind of like, yucky.

像是，我不想讀關於自我同情，因為那聽起來有點，嗯，噁心。

That is a sign that you're onto something.

This is something I've learned after too long in this sort of personal development space.

這是關於個人成長這個領域，我學到的一件事。

Is that that feeling of oh, I don't want to go there.

就是那種「哦，我不想去那裡」的感覺。

That's not my kind of thing is very often a defense mechanism against the fact that this material has touched something vulnerable in you, and

「那不是我的菜」這種感覺，往往是一種防禦機制，用來對抗這些材料觸碰到你內心脆弱的部分，而

you think that by being sort of sardonic and funny and dismissing it as cringe, you're going to protect yourself from it.

你覺得透過有點諷刺、搞笑，然後把它當成很遜，你就能保護自己不受影響。

So I've reluctantly come to this conclusion, but

所以，我雖然不太情願，但還是得出了這個結論，

I'm pretty confident it's the right one to watch the full class Become a member@bigfink.com membership.

但我很有信心這是正確的，觀看完整課程請成為會員@bigfink.com。