Keep Your Goals to Yourself
噓...別說出你的個人目標
Everyone, please think of your biggest personal goal. Okay? For real—you can take a second. You gotta feel this to learn it. Take a few seconds and think of your personal biggest goal, okay?
各位，請想一想你最大的個人目標。好嗎？認真的——你可以花一點時間思考。你必須得想想才能知道。花幾秒鐘然后想想你個人最大的目標，好？
Imagine deciding right now that you're going to do it. Imagine telling someone that you meet today what you're going to do. Imagine their congratulations and their high image of you. Doesn't it feel good to say it out loud? Don't you feel one step closer already, like it's already becoming part of your identity? Well, bad news: You should've kept your mouth shut, because that good feeling now will make you less likely to do it.
想像一下現(xiàn)在就決定你要去實踐了。想像一下跟某個你今天見到的人說你要做的事。想像一下他們的祝賀和對你產(chǎn)生的好印象。大聲說出來感覺很棒對吧？你難道不覺得離目標已經(jīng)更近一步，像是那已經(jīng)成為你這個人的一部分？這個嘛，壞消息：你應(yīng)該保持沉默的，因為那美妙的感覺現(xiàn)在會讓你比較不可能去實踐目標了。
The repeated psychology tests have proven that telling someone your goal makes it less likely to happen. Anytime you have a goal, there are some steps that need to be done, some work that needs to be done, in order to achieve it. Ideally, you would not be satisfied until you'd actually done the work. But when you tell someone your goal and they acknowledge it, psychologists have found that it's called a "social reality." The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it's already done. And then, because you felt that satisfaction, you're less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary. So this goes against the conventional wisdom that we should tell our friends our goals—right?—so they hold us to it. So, let's look at the proof.
一再進行的心理試驗證實，告訴某人你的目標使之較不可能實現(xiàn)。每當你有個目標時，會有一些步驟需要完成、一些工作需要做，以達到那目標。一般來說，你在沒真正完成工作前是不會感到滿足的。不過當你告訴某人你的目標且他們認同時，心理學家發(fā)現(xiàn)這叫做“社會真實”。大腦有點像被誘騙產(chǎn)生目標已達成的感覺。接著，因為你感受到那種滿足，你就比較沒動力去做實際需要下的困難功夫。所以這和一般看法認為我們應(yīng)該要告訴朋友自己的目標相悖——對吧？——這樣朋友才能使我們信守承諾。那么，我們來看看實驗證明。
1926: Kurt Lewin, founder of social psychology, called this "substitution." 1933: Wera Mahler found when it was acknowledged by others, it felt real in the mind. 1982: Peter Gollwitzer wrote a whole book about this, and in 2009, he did some new tests that were published.
1926 年：Kurt Lewin，社會心理學的創(chuàng)始人，稱之“替代”。1933 年：Wera Mahler 發(fā)現(xiàn)當目標被其他人認可時，心理感覺就像成真了。1982 年：Peter Gollwitzer 就此寫了一整本書，而在 2009 年，他做了些新實驗并被發(fā)表于世。
It goes like this: 163 people across four separate tests, everyone wrote down their personal goal; then half of them announced their commitment to this goal to the room, and half didn't. And then everyone was given 45 minutes of work that would directly lead them towards their goal, but they were told that they could stop at any time. Now, those who kept their mouths shut worked the entire 45 minutes, on average, and when asked afterwards, said that they felt that they had a long way to go still to achieve their goal. But those who had announced it quit after only 33 minutes, on average, and when asked afterwards, said that they felt much closer to achieving their goal.
那實驗是像這樣：四個不同實驗的 163 人，每人寫下他們的個人目標；接著其中半數(shù)人向屋內(nèi)的人宣布他們對此目標的決心，而半數(shù)人則未。接著所有人被分配 45 分鐘的作業(yè)，那會直接將他們導向自己的目標，不過實驗對象被告知能隨時停止。現(xiàn)在，那些沒說出目標的人平均上都工作了整整45分鐘，之后被詢問時，他們說覺得自己離達成目標還有很長一段路。不過那些已經(jīng)宣告的人平均來說僅過 33 分鐘就不干了，而在事后被詢問時，他們說覺得離達成目標靠近許多。
So, if this is true, what can we do? Well, you could resist the temptation to announce your goal. You can delay the gratification that the social acknowledgment brings. And you can understand that your mind mistakes the talking for the doing. But if you do need to talk about something, you can state it in a way that gives you no satisfaction, such as, "I really wanna run this marathon, so I need to train five times a week. And kick my ass if I don't, okay?"
所以，如果這是真的，我們可以做什么？嗯，你可以對抗想昭告自己目標的誘惑。你可以緩緩社會認同所帶來的那種滿足感。還有你可以了解你的大腦會誤將出一張嘴當成真正做事。不過如果你真的必須說些什么，你可以用一種不會給你任何滿足感的方式說，例如：“我真的很想跑這場馬拉松，所以我需要一星期訓練五次。如果我沒做到就教訓我，好嗎？”
So, audience, next time you're tempted to tell someone your goal, what will you say? Exactly! Well done.
所以，觀眾們，下次你很想要告訴某人你的目標時，你會說什么？沒錯!干得好。
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