? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ——選自The Guardian 網(wǎng)站（吉瑪譯）
Perpetual bliss?would completely undermine our will to accomplish anything at all – that’s why perfect contentment has probably been?evolvedout of us.
永恒的幸福會漸漸的破壞我們完成任何事情的意志——這就是為什么我們不知足的原因。
In the 1990s, a psychologist named Martin Seligman led the positive psychology movement, which placed the study of human happiness squarely at the center of psychology research and theory. It continued a trend that began in the 1960s with humanistic and existential psychology, which emphasized the importance of reaching one’s innate potential and creating meaning in one’s life, respectively.
20世紀(jì)90年代，心理學(xué)家馬丁·塞利格曼領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了積極心理學(xué)運動，將研究人類幸福作為心理學(xué)研究和理論的中心思想。自20世紀(jì)60年代，它成為了人文主義和存在主義心理學(xué)的一種趨勢，分別強(qiáng)調(diào)了實現(xiàn)人類內(nèi)在潛能和創(chuàng)造生命意義的重要性。
Since then, thousands of studies?and hundreds of books?have been published with the goal of increasing wellbeing and helping people lead more satisfying lives.
從那以后，以提高福利，幫助人們過上令人滿意生活為目的，成千上萬的研究和數(shù)以百計的書籍出版了。
So why aren’t we happier? Why have self-reported measures of happiness stayed stagnant?for over 40 years?
那么，為什么我們沒有更快樂呢?為什么過去的40年里自我幸福指標(biāo)一直停滯不前?
Perversely, such efforts to improve happiness could be a futile attempt to swim against the tide, as we may actually be programmed to be dissatisfied most of the time.
反常的是，改善幸福所做的努力可能是逆流而行的徒勞徒勞無功，因為我們在大多數(shù)情況下都是不滿足。
Part of the problem is that happiness isn’t just one thing.
問題的關(guān)鍵在于，幸福不是一件事。
Jennifer Hecht is a philosopher who studies the history of happiness. In her book The Happiness Myth, Hecht proposes that we all experience different types of happiness, but these aren’t necessarily complementary. Some types of happiness may even conflict with one another. In other words, having too much of one type of happiness may undermine our ability to have enough of the others – so it’s impossible for us to simultaneously have all types of happiness in great quantities.
詹妮弗·赫克特是一位研究幸福的哲學(xué)家。她在《幸福神話》一書中提出，我們都經(jīng)歷過不同類型的幸福，但他們并不一定是互補(bǔ)的。有些類型的幸福甚至?xí)舜藳_突。換句話說，擁有過多類型的幸?？赡軙魅跷覀儞碛衅渌腋５哪芰Α晕覀儾豢赡芡瑫r擁有所有類型的幸福。
For example, a satisfying life built on a successful career and a good marriage is something that unfolds over a long period of time. It takes a lot of work, and it often requires avoiding hedonistic pleasures like partying or going on spur-of-the-moment trips. It also means you can’t while away too much of your time spending one pleasant lazy day after another in the company of good friends.
例如，令人滿意的生活是建立在成功的事業(yè)和美滿的婚姻的基礎(chǔ)上，需要長時間才能展現(xiàn)出來。需要下功夫，通常需要避免沉溺在參加聚會或者是心血來潮的旅行的快感中。這也意味著你不能把太多的時間浪費在一個又一個愉快慵懶的日子里。
On the other hand, keeping your nose to the grindstone demands that you cut back on many of life’s pleasures. Relaxing days and friendships may fall by the wayside.
另一方面，埋頭苦干需要減少許多生活樂趣。輕松的時光和友誼會稍縱即逝。
As happiness in one area of life increases, it’ll often decline in another.
隨著生活中的某一領(lǐng)域幸福感的增強(qiáng)，其他領(lǐng)域的幸福感會下降。
This dilemma is further confounded by the way our brains process the experience of happiness.
大腦處理幸福經(jīng)歷的方式會進(jìn)一步混淆面臨的困境。
?By way of illustration, consider the following examples.
舉例說明。
We’ve all started a sentence with the phrase “Won’t it be great when…” (I go to college, fall in love, have kids, etc). Similarly, we often hear older people start sentences with this phrase “Wasn’t it great when…”.
我們都以“將來...就好了”開始一句話(上大學(xué),戀愛,有了孩子,等)。同樣的,我們經(jīng)常聽到老人都以“當(dāng)初…就好了”開始一句話。
Think about how seldom you hear anyone say: “Isn’t this great, right now?”
想想，你應(yīng)該很少聽到有人說:“現(xiàn)在，這不是很棒嗎?”
Surely, our past and future aren’t always better than the present. Yet we continue to think that this is the case.
當(dāng)然，我們的過去和未來并不總是比現(xiàn)在好。然而，我們?nèi)匀徽J(rèn)為現(xiàn)在不好。
These are the bricks that wall off harsh reality from the part of our mind that thinks about past and future happiness. Entire religions have been constructed from them. Whether we’re talking about our ancestral Garden of Eden (when things were great!) or the promise of unfathomable future happiness in Heaven, Valhalla, Jannah?or Vaikuntha, eternal happiness is always the carrot dangling from the end of the divine stick.
就像是一堵墻，將殘酷的現(xiàn)實從我們頭腦中對過去和未來幸?；貞浿懈綦x出來。他們創(chuàng)造了一種宗教信仰。無論我們談及到的祖?zhèn)鞯囊恋閳@(當(dāng)一切都很美好的時候)，還是對未來在在天堂、瓦爾哈拉殿堂、天國或無憂世界的幸福承諾，永恒的幸福是總懸掛神圣的棍子的末端誘餌。
There’s evidence for why our brains operate this way: most of us possess something called the optimistic bias, which is the tendency to think that our future will be better than our present.
證據(jù)表明我們的大腦運作的方式:大多數(shù)人都會有一種叫做樂觀偏見的東西，引領(lǐng)我們認(rèn)為我們的未來會比現(xiàn)在更好。
To demonstrate this phenomenon to my classes, at the beginning of a new term I’ll tell my students the average grade received by all students in my class over the past three years. I then ask them to anonymously report the grade that they expect to receive. The demonstration works like a charm: without fail, the expected grades are far higher than one would reasonably expect, given the evidence at hand.
在我的課堂上證明這一現(xiàn)象，在新學(xué)期開始時，我告訴班上所有學(xué)生過去三年里平均成績。然后我讓他們匿名提交他們的期望成績。這個驗證就像個魔法:無疑，證據(jù)在握，期望成績要遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高于合理的預(yù)期。
And yet, we believe.
然而,我們相信。
Cognitive psychologists have also identified something called the Pollyanna principle. It means that we process, rehearse and remember pleasant information from the past more than unpleasant information. (An exception to this occurs?in depressed individuals who often fixate on past failures and disappointments.)
認(rèn)知心理學(xué)家也發(fā)現(xiàn)了所謂的“樂觀原則”。這意味著我們要處理、排練和回憶過去令人愉快的信息，而不是令人不快的信息。(那些經(jīng)常糾結(jié)于過去的失敗和失望的沮喪的人是個例外。)
For most of us, however, the reason that the good old days seem so good is that we focus on the pleasant stuff and tend to forget the day-to-day unpleasantness.
然而，對大多數(shù)人來說，過去美好的日子之所以如此美好，是因為我們專注于愉快的事情，往往忘記了日復(fù)一日的不愉快。
These delusions about the past and the future could be an adaptive part of the human psyche, with innocent self-deceptions actually enabling us to keep striving. If our past is great and our future can be even better, then we can work our way out of the unpleasant – or at least, mundane – present.這些關(guān)于過去和未來的錯覺可能是人類心理的一種適應(yīng)性機(jī)制，用無辜的自我欺騙使我們能夠在現(xiàn)實中繼續(xù)奮斗。如果我們的過去是美好的，我們的未來會更好，那么我們就可以走出不愉快的——或者至少擺脫平凡的現(xiàn)在。
All of this tells us something about the fleeting nature of happiness. Emotion researchers have long known about something called the hedonic treadmill. We work very hard to reach a goal, anticipating the happiness it will bring. Unfortunately, after a brief fix we quickly slide back to our baseline, ordinary way of being and start chasing the next thing we believe will almost certainly – and finally – make us happy.
所有這些都告訴我們幸福的短暫本質(zhì)。情感研究人員早就知道所謂的享樂適應(yīng)癥。我們努力工作以達(dá)到一個目標(biāo)，期待它帶來的幸福。不幸的是，在短暫的準(zhǔn)備后，我們很快回到了我們的底線，回到普通的生活方式，開始追逐下一件我們相信的最后肯定可以讓我們快樂的事情。
My students absolutely hate hearing about this; they get bummed out when I imply that however happy they are right now, it’s probably about how happy they will be 20 years from now. (Next time, perhaps I will reassure them that in the future they’ll remember being very happy in college!)
我的學(xué)生非常討厭聽到這個;他們會很沮喪，當(dāng)我暗示他們現(xiàn)在很幸福時，這可能是他們20年后的幸福程度。(下一次，也許我會讓他們相信，在未來他們會記得在大學(xué)時里的歡樂!)
Nevertheless, studies of lottery winners and other individuals at the top of their game?– those who seem to have it all – regularly throw cold water on the dream that getting what we really want will change our lives and make us happier. These studies found that positive events like winning a million bucks and unfortunate events such as being paralyzed in an accident do not significantly affect an individual’s long-term level of happiness.
盡管如此，對彩票中獎?wù)吆推渌螒虻馁哌M(jìn)行研究——他們似乎擁有一切——經(jīng)常潑冷水，我們真正想要的東西會改變我們的生活，讓我們更快樂。這些研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，像贏得100萬美元這樣的積極事件，以及在意外事故中癱瘓等不幸事件，并不會顯著影響個人的長期幸福水平。
Assistant professors who dream of attaining tenure and lawyers who dream of making partner often find themselves wondering why they were in such a hurry. After finally publishing a book, it was depressing for me to realize how quickly my attitude went from “I’m a guy who wrote a book!” to “I’m a guy who’s only written one book”.
希望獲得終身教職的助理教授和那些夢想成為合伙人的律師經(jīng)常會想自己為什么如此匆忙。在出版了一本書后，我很沮喪地意識到我的態(tài)度很快從“我是寫書的人!”轉(zhuǎn)變成“我是一個只寫了一本書的人”。
But this is how it should be, at least from an evolutionary perspective. Dissatisfaction with the present and dreams of the future are what keep us motivated, while warm fuzzy memories of the past reassure us that the feelings we seek can be had. In fact, perpetual bliss would completely undermine our will to accomplish anything at all; among our earliest ancestors, those who were perfectly content may have been left in the dust.
但至少從進(jìn)化的角度來看，這就是事實。對現(xiàn)實的不滿和對未來的憧憬讓我們充滿動力，而對過去溫暖模糊的回憶讓我們確信，我們可以實現(xiàn)我們所追求的。事實上，永恒的幸福會漸漸的破壞我們完成任何事情的意志;?最早的祖先中，那些滿足的人可能已經(jīng)消失在塵埃中。
This shouldn’t be depressing – quite the contrary. Recognizing that happiness exists, and that it’s a delightful visitor that never overstays its welcome, may help us appreciate it more when it arrives.
這并不令人沮喪——恰恰相反。認(rèn)識到幸福是存在的，它是一個令人愉快的訪客，沒有逾期逗留的歡迎，當(dāng)它到來的時候，我們會更加感激。
Furthermore, understanding that it’s impossible to have happiness in all aspects of life can help you enjoy the happiness that has touched you.
此外，要明白不可能在生活的各個方面都擁有幸福，這能幫助你享受你所擁有的幸福。
Recognizing that no one “has it all” can cut down on the one thing psychologists know impedes happiness: envy.
心理學(xué)家認(rèn)為阻礙幸福的因素是:嫉妒。我們要知道到?jīng)]有人可以“擁有一切”來減少嫉妒。
