By time travelling, of course, I mean writing.

藉由時間旅行，當然，我指的是寫作。

Writing is thinking, and thinking is a form of mental time travel.

寫作是思考，而思考是心靈時間旅行的一種形式。

You're already pretty good at it.

你早就對思考相當上手了。

For example, Twinkle, twinkle, little _____.

舉例來說，一閃、一閃、小_____。

Most of you probably filled in my silence with the word “star”.

多數的各位大概會在這段無聲中填入「星星」這個字。

Your mind is always traveling through time to determine the most likely future that will come to be: this is called a prediction.

你的心思總會穿越時間去決定未來最有可能的樣子：這叫做預測。

Think about what it actually takes to catch a baseball.

思考一下接住棒球時需要做的事情。

You have to imagine the future position of the ball and make sure that your hand intersects with that position.

你必須想像球的位置並確保你的手與球相交叉。

If you can already time travel, why do you need to write?

如果你已經能夠時間旅行了，為什麼還需要寫作？

Our minds aren't perfect — they routinely predict futures that never happen.

我們的心思並非完美 — 他們會例行地預測未來不可能發生的事。

For example, I could have said, Twinkle, twinkle, little car, instead of star.

舉例來說，我可以說一閃、一閃、小車車，而非星星。

But based on your past experiences, you knew that the most likely future was the one where I said star.

但基於你的過往經驗，你知道這句最有可能的情況是填上星星這個單字。

This brings us to a very important point: your capacity to predict the future, or time travel effectively, is malleable.

這帶我們進到一個重點：你預測未來或有效地時間旅行這個能力是可鍛鍊的。

Prophecy is a skill that you can get better at, and I claim that writing is one of the best ways to do it.

預言是你可以增進的能力，而我斷言寫作是增進預言能力最好的方式。

There are an infinite amount of things you could write, but I don't want you to get overwhelmed by too much choice.

你可以寫下無盡的東西，但我不希望你被太多選擇給淹沒。

Instead, I'll share one simple practice with you: mood modelling.

取而代之的是，我會跟你分享一些基本的練習方式：情緒模擬。

Every morning, write down how you feel and what's going on at the moment.

每天早上，寫下你的感覺以及當下發生的事。

Record everything: your physical environment, your social environment, what you're eating or drinking, what you have planned for the day, so on and so forth.

記錄所有事情：你的實體環境、社會環境、你正在吃或喝什麼、你這天計畫了什麼等等。

As your start to collect more data, you should notice some patterns.

當你開始蒐集越多資料，你應該能找出某些模式。

Does the weather affect your mood?

天氣會影響你的情緒嗎？

What about certain foods or people?

還是特定的食物或人會影響你的情緒？

Do you feel better when you perform certain activities and feel worse when you do others?

你會不會在做特定活動的時候感到較舒適而對其他工作感到較不適？

As you hone in on what makes you feel better, you can actively start shaping your life to reproduce these moments more often.

當你花心思訓練那些讓你感覺更好的事，你就可以開始積極地打造你的人生以讓你更常重現這些開心的時刻。

Your time travelling skills will improve, and you'll become better at predicting the next move you should make in life.

你的時間旅行技巧將會進步，而你將會更擅長於預測人生的下一步該如何走。

Mood modelling is powerful because it utilizes the two principles of effective time travel: patterns & predictions.

情緒模擬非常強大因為他用到有效時間旅行的兩個原則：模式以及預測。

When you record notes on how you feel, where you are, and what's going on around you, you have a set of data.

當你記下你的感受、你在哪、身邊發生了什麼事的筆記，你將得到一連串的資料。

You can analyze this data and look for patterns.

你可以分析這些資料並尋找一些模式。

Patterns are just the relationship between causes and effects, or actions and outcomes.

這些模式只是因果或動作結果之間的關係。

You can use these patterns to make predictions about the future.

你可以用這些模式對未來做預測。

I might notice, for example, that on days that I play the piano, I feel good.

舉例來說，我可能會發現我在彈鋼琴的日子會感到開心。

Because of this, I might try to find more time to include playing the piano in my schedule, and I'll see if this makes me feel better.

因此，我可能會在我的計畫表上包含更多彈鋼琴的行程，接著觀察這樣的安排會不會感覺更好。

If it does, I know that there's a link between the pattern of playing the piano and my mood.

如果是的話，我知道在彈琴與我的心情這個模式之間有一個連結。

Writing is a good way to collect data, look for patterns, and make predictions on how certain actions can lead to specific outcomes.

寫作是收集資料、尋找模式以及預測特定的動作如何導致特定結果的一個好方法。

Knowing the right actions that lead to the right outcomes is the gift of prophecy.

了解通往正確結果的正確行為是預言給出的禮物。

When you can accurately predict the future, you become an effective time traveler.

當你可以準確地預測未來，你會成為一位有效的時間旅行者。

So, pick up the habit of writing because your future literally depends on it.

所以，請養成寫作的習慣，因為你的未來確實依賴在寫作之上。