大学毕业生必看：让梦想照进现实

爱思英语编者按：经常都听到毕业生说“其实不太喜欢现在的工作”、“我向现实妥协了”或者“先干着再说吧”……更糟糕的是很多人甚至不知道自己到底想要什么。于是就这么浑浑噩噩地开始工作，梦想在日复一日的枯燥工作中消失殆尽，等到醒悟、一切都晚了。年轻人到底应该重视什么？到底梦想是不是能照进现实？下面的文章也许能给你一点启发和思路。

Imagine a scenario where you actually loved getting up in the morning. I"m not just talking about those occasional weekends or days off where you actually have no plans (or only plans made and loved by you). I"m talking about every single day. Before you scoff at the ridiculousness of such a concept and flick on further down your reader just stop. Indulge me for a moment.

想象这样一个场景：你真正地爱上了在早晨起床。我并不是在说那些你的确没有计划的偶然的周末或假日(或是你有制定的喜欢的计划的日子)。我说的是每一天。读者们，在你嘲笑这个荒谬的想法，对此不屑一顾前，请停下来，暂且容忍我一下。

If I were a genie and could grant you anything you wanted, don"t tell me you wouldn"t be interested in finding a pastime (career, hobby, part-time adventure) that not only paid the bills but actually made you feel - what"s that word? - good. And I"m talking gooooooood. Like so darn happy you smile at strangers on the street, walk with a little bounce in your step, constantly update Facebook with perky little notes, and basically just spend every day feeling like a kid does on Christmas.

如果我是一个精灵，能够给你任何你想要的东西，你肯定会想要一段消遣娱乐的时光(事业、兴趣、过去的奇遇)。在那时光中，你不仅能得到充分享受，并且能使你感觉——那个词是什么来着？——非常好。我说的是如入天堂般的感觉。就像在街上对着陌生人微笑，走路时轻盈跳跃的步伐，在Facebook 上不断更新着活泼简短的状态，基本就像一个孩子过圣诞节般过着每一天。

Sounds annoying, doesn"t it? Unless it"s you of course.

是不是听起来特烦？当然，如果你自己就过着那样的生活，那就另当别论了。

So let"s assume for starters that you still need regular income. To start with we"re going to need this muse of yours (thank-you, Mr. Tim Ferriss ) to occupy only a set amount of time. Perhaps half an hour each day, with weekends off. That"s doable, isn"t it? Of course I"m talking about a solid 30 minutes committed to changing the way you live your life. All in one block.

假设你是一个需要固定收入的人。怎么开始呢？这就要用到你的理论了，Mr. Tim Ferriss(Tim Ferriss 是美国畅销书作者，著有The 4-Hour Workweek，大概是讲改变生活方式、时间管理一类)，每天只需花一点时间，也许是每天30分钟，除去周末。这个是可行的对吗？当然我说的是每天必须坚守的30分钟，用来改变你的生活方式。这样一切都可以搞定。更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

The idea of introducing part-time passion like this is that it eases you in to the next step. Which is to gradually move you to a point where you are making a living from doing what you love. Where your part-time passion has replaced your full-time job. Sounds good, doesn"t it? I managed to do this about 5 years ago. I was in a mid-level management position which I was kinda sick of. Ok, hated. And I was doing some part-time Personal Training before and after work. It took me a full year of being over that job to toss it in and have enough courage to try running a full-time Personal Training business. But at least I got there.

像这样引入“部分时间的激情”的概念是为了让你更容易进入下一步。在下一步，会让你逐渐转移到做自己喜爱的工作来谋生，并且让这部分的激情取代你的全职工作。是不是听起来很美好？我5年前就想这么做了。当时我是一个中等阶层的管理者，而且我讨厌这个职位。好吧，其实是憎恨。我在上班前后会去上一些业余的个人培训班。我用了整整一年时间去摆脱那份工作，并且有足够的勇气去经营一个全职的个人培训公司。但至少我走到了这一步。

Where would you like to be a year from now? What would you love to be doing?

一年之后你何去何从？你想做什么呢？

If you"re not at all sure what your passion might be, then I"d recommend taking some time to identify your strengths. Here are 3 easy ways to get started on that: Ask your friends what they"d consider your strengths/natural skills to be.

如果你不确定你的激情源自何方，那么我建议你花些时间来寻找自己的优势。这里有 3条简单的方法：问你的朋友他们觉得你的优点和技巧是什么。

Take an online personality or strength/weakness test. This one from Dr. Martin Seligman is world-renowned. You have to register, but that"s free.

做一份网上的性格或者优点/缺点测试。有份马丁•塞利格曼博士的测试卷闻名于世。你需要注册一下，但它是免费的。

Invest a little time in some daily journaling. Just let the pen roll as you envisage what your perfect day, then week, then year would look like. I don"t mean the down-time (although there"s plenty of people who"ve turned a passion for travel into a solid income).

每天花点时间写日记。动起笔来想象一下你完美的一天、然后是周、然后是年是怎样的。我并不是指非工作状态时间(虽然多数人会把对旅游的激情转变到有稳固收入的激情上)

By this point you should be starting to get a little excited. Even the act of thinking about how cool it would be to actually love what you do should get the motivational juices flowing. But if you"re still really not sure what you"d like to do - or perhaps you feel like there"s so many things to choose from - then try this.

此刻你应该会有点兴奋吧。就算是想到能做自己真正热爱的事情如此之棒，并且能够自由发挥你的激情，也会激动不已。但是如果你仍不知道你想做什么——或者是有那么多事情，不知如何选择——那么尝试下下面的方法。

Find a clean piece of paper and a pen. Write down the numbers 1-10. Think back over past weeks, months, even years - which events/activities stand out as being joyous or exciting for you? If you can"t think of anything, consider those events you reacted to in others with excitement, even jealousy. You might like to consider the following categories as a memory-jogger or just for ideas:

• Travel

• Creativity

• Social connection

• Helping others

• Making deals

• Re-selling goods

• Teaching

拿一张白纸和一支笔。写下数字1到10。回想一下在过去几周、几月，甚至几年的时间里，令你充满欢乐或兴奋的事情、活动等。如果你实在想不到任何事情，那么可以考虑那些别人跟你说的令你感到兴奋，甚至妒忌的事情。也许下面的这些目录能唤起你的记忆或是仅仅作为点子：

• 旅游

• 创造力

• 社交

• 帮助他人

• 做交易

• 货物再出售

• 教学

The long and short of it is that you want to highlight those times when you feel most alive. What makes you feel creative, happy, free, a sense of belonging?

这份清单的长短在于当你感觉充满生机的时候，你想要着重突出那些时光的程度。什么事情会让你感到有创造力、快乐、自由、并且有归属感呢？

Now that you have your passion in mind it"s time to start making it happen. This is actually the easiest part of the process so far. Remember back to the start of this article? You"ve already committed to setting aside 30 minutes per day to work on your passion, so set the timer and get started. Try not to worry too much about how you can turn it into money, just focus on action. And, if you have several possible passions in mind, then choose one and start with that. Commit to it for 21 days and then decide if you"d like to keep going or start afresh.

现在你已经有了将这些事情付诸于行动的激情。这是目前为止最简单的部分。还记得文章开头所说的吗？你已经每天腾出30分钟时间来引发你的激情，所以计时，开始吧。不要过于担心你要如何将此转为现金，先关注于行动上。而且，如果你脑子里有几个可能的激情点存在，那么选择一个并且着手行动。坚持21 天，然后决定你想继续还是开始一个新的激情点。

Here"s how you might fill that 30 minutes：

以下是你如何度过那30分钟的建议：

Write about your passion, what you like about it, what comes easy to you, where you"d like to improve your skills

写下你的激情，你喜欢它什么，什么会令你感觉简单，你哪里可以改进你的技能。

Research the work of others who are effectively using your passion in their lives

调查其他人是如何有效使用你选择的激情点的。

Teach it to someone else

教给他人

Read about it

理解它

Study different methods of doing it

学习用不同的方法去做

Create a vision board of what your life will look like when you"re doing it

当你着手做的时候想象一个你期望的生活的愿景板

Do this diligently and sooner or later you"ll feel ready to take the next step: offering a discounted version of your service, applying for a freelance position, sharing your knowledge with someone who can help you get ahead. This could be the moment when that part-time passion suddenly really does seem like something that might one day replace your full time income. Soon as you make that first measly dollar from it you"ll have the immediate excitement of knowing that if you can make $1, you can make $100, then $1,000. You get the idea. A year from now (or less if you"re not such a scaredy-cat like I was) you just might not be imagining that lovin" the morning scenario anymore. You"ll be living it.

坚持勤快地做，不久之后你会发觉你已经准备好进入下一阶段：降低你所做事情的标准，运用到一个自由职业者岗位上，与那些可以帮助你取得进步的人分享收获。在这个时刻，你那部分时间的激情就像某些事情，也许在未来某一天能够取代你的全职工作的收入。一旦你从中赚取了第一笔微不足道的收入，并且当你知道你会赚取1美元，100美元，1000美元时，你会激动不已。你已经领会了。一年之后(也许会更短，如果你不是像我一样的胆小鬼的话)，那种热爱在早晨起床的场景不会只是个幻想了。你每天都会那样生活。