If someone at a party asked what you did, and you said you were involved on a mission of some kind, people would look at you sort of strangely.

如果有人在聚會上問你在哪裡高就，而你說你潛心於某個使命中，人們可能會以奇怪的眼光看你，

But in truth, we'd all benefit from focusing in on the purpose of our lives, so that we can refer to them as missions of one kind or another.

但老實說，我們都從專注於人生目的上得利，所以我們可以將之稱做人生的某種使命。

When the entrepreneur Elon Musk was at university, he asked himself very explicitly what his mission in life would be.

當企業家 Elon‧Musk 大學時，他很明確地問自己他人生中的使命是什麼，

He began by wondering what the world needed most urgently, then he looked into himself to see what his talents were and that led him to a list of four possible missions:

他開始想知道這世界最迫切需要的是什麼，然後他審視自己的天賦是什麼，這讓他列出了四個可能的使命：

space exploration, electric transportation, Artificial Intelligence and rewriting the human genome.

太空探索、交通運輸電動化、人工智慧與改寫人類基因。

After a bit more thought, Elon Musk chose the first two.

最後，Elon Musk 選擇了前兩項，

Few of us will ever settle on missions as mighty as these, but the notion of having a mission rather than a mere job or a hobby, remains widely applicable.

我們之中很少人能夠立志達成 如此強大的使命，但擁有使命的這個概念，不僅僅是個工作或嗜好，仍能廣泛地運用。

How, then, can we learn to adopt the mission mindset? Here are some ideas.

那麼，我們如何學會找到自己的使命？提供你一些點子：

Firstly, what matters is to adopt a certain seriousness about one's life.

首先，重要的是認真的對待一個人的人生，

The working bit will only be, at best, 50 years.

工作最多也只會有 50 年。

So the challenge is around focus: how can one reduce the range of one's enthusiasms and see that having so many interests is half the problem.

所以挑戰就是要如何聚焦：一個人如何縮小他所熱忱的事物範圍，正視有太多興趣是個問題

Talk of a mission forces us to reduce what we care about down to just a few very big things: it privileges precision over breadth.

談論一個使命，迫使我們減少關心的事物，將其降至只有幾個大方向：這使你除去多餘雜務，以獲得更精確的使命。

You give yourself a specific target, aware of how much energy it will take to reach it.

你給自己一個明確的目標，明白自己需要花費多少精力才能達成。

Secondly, a mission is about having a plan; and reducing the amount of times that, because one has no clear goal, one gets swept along by the plans of others.

第二，一個使命也要有個計畫並降低嘗試的次數，因為你若沒有清楚的目標，你會被其他計畫影響。

Then again, a mission is different from an ambition.

話說回來，使命與野心不同，

An ambition starts with what you want. A mission centers around what others need.

野心起始於你想要什麼，使命的核心圍繞在其他人需要什麼，

People with missions may well end up making money and having status, but that isn't what led them to the mission in the first place.

有使命的人們最終可能也能賺到錢、擁有地位，但那並不是使他們擁有使命的首要原因，

Missions are about the intrinsic worth of tasks. They are about helping other people.

使命是關於任務本身的價值，關於幫助別人

The search for a mission requires you to ask: among all the problems facing humanity, what are the ones that properly interest me?

要探究自己的使命，你需要自問：在所有人類面臨的問題上，什麼是我感興趣的？

Be alive to the small-scale but authentic concerns you may have.

別忘了那些微小但真實的事物。

Having focused on a problem of humanity that feels right for you, you then need to take an honest look at your own aptitudes.

專注於那些你所適合也正是人類面臨的問題，然後你需要誠實地看看你自己的天賦，

What truly are your talents? What can you contribute?

你真正擁有的天賦是什麼？你能做出什麼貢獻？

That may require a lot of introspection, career counselling and experimentation.

那可能需要許多的自省、職涯諮詢與親身體驗。

Then, where your skills and aptitudes intersect with the needs of the world, that is your distinctive zone: that is where your mission lies

當你的技能、天賦與世界所需相符，那就是屬於你的領域：那就是你的使命所在。

A mission isn't a mission because it's grand, but because it's precise.

使命並非任務因為它更宏偉，因為它是嚴謹的。

Examples of modest but crucial missions might be:

以一些貼切但重要的使命為例：

a mission to improve the care that the elderly receive at the end of their lives,

改善年長者臨終前的照護環境

or a mission to teach children music in an engaging way,

或以寓教於樂的方式教孩子學音樂，

or a mission to get the best pizzas out to the customers of north Liverpool or downtown San Diego.

做出最好吃的披薩，給北利物浦或聖地牙哥市中心的顧客。

Conceiving of a mission requires us to throw off an attitude of inner serfdom, where we imagine that only other people have the right to plan their lives,

構思一個使命需要我們拋去內心卑微的態度，我們總是想像只有其他人才有權利計畫他們的人生。

and everyone else must just surrender to accidents and the random whims of employers.

其他人必須聽命於偶然或雇主臨時起意的念頭。

We can and should all have missions.

我們都可以，也都應該具有使命。

With a mission in hand, the next time you're at a party, you won't need to keep the conversation at the level of where you're employed,

當我們手握使命，下次你在聚會中，你不需要將對話侷限在你在哪裡工作，

you can answer with reference to the underlying logic of what you are up to.

你可以根據你的使命背後的邏輯來回答。

You can, with no space helmet to your name, legitimately announce that you're on this earth with a mission to carry out.

你可以，在沒有太空頭盔的情況下，合法地宣稱你在地球上有使命要達成。

Thank you for watching, liking and subscribing.

感謝你的收看、按讚與訂閱。

If you want more, why not visit us in person and attend a class?

如果你了解更多，何不親自與我們見面並參加課程？

Or take a look at our shop at the link on your screen now.

或是來我們的商店看看，連結就在你的螢幕上。