Q: How can I figure out what I really want to do with my life?

问：怎样才能明白自己究竟想要做啥？

Answered by Oliver Emberton

Oliver Emberton的回复：

Time to grow up and give yourself a better childhood. Let me explain, via Bill Gates the Potato Farmer.

是时候告别孩子气，给自己一个更好的童年了。容我解释一下，先假设比尔盖茨是一个种土豆的农夫。

You know how anyone can be anything they want, right? Well, they can't.

你觉得人可以成为任何一个自己想成为的人，对么？嗯，其实不行。

Had Bill Gates been born in a different time – or just a different town – he might have spent his days as an illiterate peasant scooping up potatoes with his hands.

如果比尔·盖茨出生在一个不同的时代，或者哪怕只是出生在另一个小镇——他可能就仅仅是个每天用手舀土豆，目不识丁的农民。

Your circumstances matter. Bill's real childhood had what mattered most: the opportunity to stumble upon what he was born to do, and to go completely bananas doing it.

环境举足轻重。真实的比尔盖茨的童年有着至关重要的那个因素：他偶然发现了适合自己天性的事情，并满怀激情地投入其中。

Few are so lucky, but there's still hope for the rest of us.

很少有人如此幸运，但我们仍有希望。

Kids are geniuses

孩子是天才

We rarely prize people for acting like a child. The world is forever telling us to “grow up” and “take responsibility”, as if anything else is a bug in the system. On the contrary – childish behaviour can be quite brilliant.

我们甚少表扬成人孩子气的举动。这个世界永远只会告诉我们“要成长”、“要有担当”，似乎除此之外的表现就像系统故障一样不可接受。但事实却恰恰相反——孩子气的举动蕴藏着大智慧。

Kids try many things. Stupid things, like eating soil or rollerskating on ice. But they're fearless and relentless.

孩子们会尝试很多事情。好比吃土、在冰上滑旱冰之类的蠢事。但他们却无畏又锲而不舍。

Kids don't know what they don't know. So they question everything.

孩子们不知道自己不知道什么，所以他们会质疑一切。

Kids are easily bored. They live in fantasy worlds because present reality is limiting.

孩子们很容易厌倦。由于现实有种种限制，他们生活在幻想世界里。

Such behaviour is spectacularly good at figuring out the world and your part in it. Acting like a kid is a brilliant way to explore your boundaries and deduce your strengths. Ideally, your childhood is when you stumble upon your passions, leaving your adult years to focus on them.

这样的行为对于探索这个世界、找准自我定位极为有效。孩子气的行为不失为一种寻找自我界限，挖掘自身潜能的绝佳方法。在理想情况下，童年时你不断探索这个世界，会偶然发觉自己的兴趣所在，从而在成年以后可以专注于自己的兴趣。

Unfortunately many of us – like Bill the Potato Farmer – aren't so lucky. The good news is, modern life gives you more chances than ever to fix that.

可惜我们中的许多人和种土豆的农夫比尔一样，并没有那么好的运气。但不幸中的万幸，相比过去，现代生活会给你更多机会去修正自己。

Grown-up children

大孩子

Childlike behaviour is generally frowned upon as an adult.

成年人孩子气的行为通常是不被认可的。

The great advantage of being an adult is you can direct yourself. Children don't have the freedom or the awareness to steer their own development. Maybe your childhood wasn't what it could have been – but you can fix it now:

做大人的最大好处就是你可以掌管自己的生活。孩子们没有这种自由和掌控自己发展方式的意识。也许你的童年本不该如此——但现在你可以修正它：

Play. The first time baby John Lennon picked up a guitar, I doubt he seriously ran a cost benefit analysis. If you're trying something out, don't be in too much of a hurry to take it seriously. Aim to simply enjoy. The effort will come if the passion is there.

尽情玩耍。约翰·列农小时候第一次拿起吉他时，我想他未必认真做过成本效益分析。如果你正在尝试什么，不要急着去把它当做什么大不了的事，享受过程便好。如果你持续保持激情，自然会投入更多。

Get reckless. If you really don't know what you want to do, you're going to have to try things you haven't done yet. And you're going to fail – a lot – trying many different things, most of which won't work. Kids find this a lot easier because they don't worry about consequences. I encourage you to do the same. If it helps, make it a proud part of your identity: you're making a point out of fearlessly trying as many things as possible, you sexy roguish daredevil you.

不计后果。如果你真得不知道自己想做什么，那就去尝试一下你从没有做过的事情吧！在尝试各种不同的东西时，你会经常受挫，大多数的事情你都做不来。但尝试种种事物对孩子们而言容易得多，因为他们并不在乎结果。我鼓励你们也别太计较得失。如果成功了，让它成为你的骄傲吧：你无畏地去尽可能多地尝试各种事情，展现了自己性感、坏坏的、敢于冒险的那一面。

Question everything. You know how everyone knew the world was flat until it wasn't? You have similarly limiting beliefs in your head right now – probably things like “artists can't earn a living” or “I'm not smart enough to do this”. Maybe, but have you checked? Have you tried – really tried, like a gun is pointed at your kneecaps – to find an alternative? Most really successful people didn't just find a way, they created one.

质疑一切。你知道在有人证明地球是圆的之前，人们一直被认为地球是平的吗？现在你脑海中就会有许多类似的局限性观点，譬如“艺术家养不活自己”，“我做不到”之类的。也许真是这样，但是你有确认过吗？你试过吗，真的试过码？就像有人用枪指着你的膝盖一样去努力尝试出路？大部分真正成功的人，不仅找到了出路，而且开辟了出路。

Ignore reality. You know how kids always dream of becoming astronauts, pop stars and giant transforming robots? Barriers don't apply when you're five years old. And whilst that seems like a stupid habit that you'd be wise to grow out of, if you're not sure what you want to do, don't be in such a hurry to shut your dreams down. Explore the impossible. Often it doesn't lead to exactly what you're after (say walking on the moon) but it finds something else instead (like a love of science that starts a whole career). You can't know this in advance. Just dare to follow where your heart takes you.

忘掉现实。你知道孩子们总是幻想成为宇航员、歌手或是变形金刚吗？当你只有5岁时，你并不知道什么是障碍。尽管做梦看上去是一个愚蠢的习惯，所以要快快长大放弃幻想，但如果你还不明确你想做的是什么，不要急于将你的梦想拒之门外，去探索这些不可能。通常你不会达到和你所追求一模一样的目标（如登上月球），但却可以得到一些其它的收获（如对科学的热爱让你开始全新的职业生涯）。你不会预先知道结果，尽管大胆地去追随你内心的召唤吧。

Chances are, even if you don't know what you want, that your childhood at least left you some hints. Are there things you think of fondly, but never find the time for? Start there.

就算你不知道自己到底想要什么，你的童年至少也可能会给你一些提示。有没有你感兴趣却从来没有时间去做的事情？就从那里开始吧！

The great solace you have is that – by virtue of reading this – you automatically have better options than potato farmer Bill. Access to the entirety of human knowledge (The Google) for one. Better economics for another. And more freedom than most of your grandparents could ever conceive of.

读到这里，足可让你聊以自慰的是，至少你的条件比种土豆的比尔盖茨强很多；譬如，通过Google就可以去获取全人类的知识；再譬如更好的经济环境；当然还有大部分祖辈难以想象的自由空间。

Now get outside and play.

现在就出去玩儿去吧！