英語美文朗讀 第525期 The trapping of the ego

Isn't it interesting how our sense of self can get agitated when we witness something that, I guess reflects or mirrors something within ourselves that we feel like we want to let out, but we haven't been able to yet? It's a trapping of the ego when the fact that someone else shines feels like it impedes upon our own capacity to shine?

 

我們看到別人做成了一件事，而這件事是我們一直想做的，這種時候，我們就會變得不安，就像我們內(nèi)心一直有一種沖動，但還沒能將它釋放出來一樣，這是一個挺有趣的現(xiàn)象。其實，這是因為，我們的自我被限制住了，當我們看到別人成功，就會覺得，這阻礙了我們成功。

 

It's almost like we come from a scarcity mindset and we think that there is no room for two people to shine. Like, well, that guy's excellence somehow diminishes the space in which I can stand. And I've experienced that as well. Like I've experienced that feeling. I know that disquiet, you know, it's somehow the existence of another negates my own.

我們認為，東西都是有限的，兩個人不可能同時成功。我們認為，別人的優(yōu)秀會阻礙我們變得優(yōu)秀。我也有過這樣的經(jīng)歷，我也有過這樣的感覺。我理解那種不安，不知怎么的，別人的存在，會讓我自己顯得更渺小。

 

But they can't be true. It's not true. That is a trapping of the ego, that is also a trapping of comparison. I think comparison is only healthy if it inspires you to want to do better. Not if it makes you vain and bitter, which it can do to all of us. The people that you're around, they're going to influence you in a terrifying way because you're just around them. So you don't think to look beyond them. They're the people that you encounter.

但是，這些感覺不可能是真的，它們不是真的。這只是因為你的自我被困住了，因為你總是在拿自己跟別人作對比。我認為，如果與別人比較能讓你做得更好，這個比較才是有益的。如果它讓你變得虛榮，感到痛苦，那么它就不是有益的，我們都可能會深受其害。你周圍的人，會極大地影響你，這僅僅是因為你在他們周圍。所以，你要多多注意他們，他們才是你遇到的人。

 

And this is why I think people have to be so careful with who they follow online, how they cultivate their online world, because it used to be you couldn't get too freaked out because there were only so many like incredible people around you. But now it's like you can curate this feed of people who are extraordinary at the very thing that you want to be extraordinary at.

所以，我認為，我們在網(wǎng)上關(guān)注什么人，我們?nèi)绾谓ㄔO我們自己的網(wǎng)絡世界，這是需要小心對待的。以前，你周圍有很多優(yōu)秀的人，所以你感覺很崩潰。然而，現(xiàn)在，看到別人很擅長做你想做的事，你就可以從他們身上吸取經(jīng)驗，讓自己在這方面做得更好。

 

They are better than you. They're further ahead and you can convince yourself that you can get there. And it becomes like this, where you're in this weird thing where you're inspired by them, but like you said, it's also diminishing their sense of self. It's very interesting, right? Because they say, you know, on a small scale you become the people that you hang out with because of the mutual mental mirroring that occurs when you interface with other humans.

他們比你優(yōu)秀，他們走在你的前面，你就可以告訴自己，你也能做到。然后，很奇怪的事情是，一方面，他們鼓勵你前進，另一方面，就像你剛剛說的，他們也讓你感覺很渺小。很有意思，對吧？他們說，在一定程度上，你會變成經(jīng)常和你在一起的人，因為人們在互動的過程中，會不知不覺地模仿對方。

 

You can't help, the process of osmosis by which you mirror and, or acquire the qualities of that what you surround yourself with, including the people you surround yourself with. But what can also happen is you can compare yourself to the people that you're around. But then what happens now with people like us, like you were saying, okay, so now you're not surrounded necessarily just by the physical people that are around you, which is again, as a constraint, limited size. Now you're also surrounded by the feeds you follow. You're surrounded by the Instagrammers that you follow.

你會模仿他人，你身邊的人和事是什么樣的，你就會變成什么樣的，這發(fā)生在你生活的每一方面，這是不可避免的。但是，很有可能，你會把自己跟周圍的人作對比，然后，就像你剛才說的，像我們這樣的人，我們身邊不僅有些人，他們在一定程度上限制了我們，與此同時，我們身邊還有那些我們關(guān)注的事，比如我們在Instagram上關(guān)注的人。

 

And so every time you scroll, you become what you behold, but you also compare yourself with, and it can give you the illusion that the world and the marketplace is smaller than it actually is. And so it's like, that guy's got a million followers. He's eclipsing my capacity to have a voice. Or that guy has got 500 million likes. He somehow eclipsing the integrity of the work I'm putting out. But that's also an illusion.

所以，每次你瀏覽屏幕，你就成為了你正在關(guān)注的人，但你也會拿自己來與他們比較，這會讓你產(chǎn)生一種幻覺，你會覺得這個世界很小，舞臺很小，但事實并非如此。比如，你會覺得，那個人有一百萬粉絲，他讓我的聲音變得很渺小，或者，那個人得了五億個贊，他讓我的努力黯然失色。然而，這也是幻覺。