为什么我们要学会适当偷懒?

At times, perhaps without quite knowing why, we slip into a resolutely ‘lazy’ mood. We’re simply not able to write anything new or can’t face setting up more meetings. We don’t want to clean the fridge or go out to befriend prospective clients. All we have an appetite for, it seems, is to loll on the sofa and maybe dip randomly into a book, wander down to the shops and buy a packet of biscuits or spend an hour or so soaking in the bath. 

有时，也许我们并不十分清楚为什么我们会陷入一种固执的“懒惰”心境，我们只是无法写任何新东西，或者无法面对安排更多的会议，我们不想整理冰箱，也不想和潜在客户搞好关系。

We might, at an extreme, merely want to sit by the window and stare at the clouds. For a long time. In such states of mind, we’re rapidly liable to be stigmatized as profoundly (and incorrigibly) ‘lazy’ by friends or - more painfully - by our own conscience. Laziness feels like a sin against the bustling activity of modernity; it seems to bar us from living successfully or from thinking in any way well of ourselves.

我们唯一想做的，似乎就是懒洋洋地躺在沙发上，随便翻一本书，散步到商店去买一包饼干，或者花一个小时左右的时间泡在浴缸里，更极端的，我们可能只想坐在窗边，盯着云彩看，一直看，在这样的心境中，我们很快就会被被我们的朋友，或者更糟糕的被自己的良知指责为“懒人”。在现代社会繁忙的活动中，懒惰让人觉得是一种罪恶，它似乎是对我们成功生活，或者自我感觉良好的一种阻碍。

But, to consider the matter from another perspective, it might be that at points the real threat to our happiness and self-development lies not in our failure to be busy, but in the very opposite scenario: in our inability to be ‘lazy’ enough.

但是，从另一个角度来考虑这个问题，可能对我们的幸福和自我发展的真正威胁，并不在于我们没有忙起来，而是恰恰相反，因为我们没有足够的“懒惰”。

Outwardly idling does not have to mean that we are neglecting to be fruitful. It may look to the world as if we are accomplishing nothing at all but, below the surface, a lot may be going on that’s both important and in its own way very arduous. When we’re busy with routines and administration, we’re focused on those elements that sit at the front of our minds: we’re executing plans rather than reflecting on their value and ultimate purpose. 

表面上的懈怠并不意味着我们没有任何成效，在其他人看来，我们似乎什么也没做。但是，在这表面之下，很多事情可能正在进行，这些事情很重要也非常困难。当我们忙于日常事务和经营的时候，我们专注于那些摆在我们头脑前的元素，我们在执行计划，而不是反思它们的价值和最终目的。

But it is to the deeper, less accessible zones of our inner lives that we have to turn in order to understand the foundations of our problems and arrive at decisions and conclusions that can govern our overall path. Yet these only emerge - shyly and tentatively - when we are feeling brave enough to distance ourselves from immediate demands; when we can stare at clouds and do so-called nothing all afternoon while in fact wrestling with our most profound dilemmas.

但是我们必须转向，我们内心生活中更深层、更不易触及的领域才能理解我们问题的根源，并做出决定和结论，从而控制我们的人生道路。然而，只有当我们有足够的勇气，与当下的需求保持距离时，这些问题才会羞怯而又试探性地出现。当我们整个下午盯着云无所事事的时候，其实是在纠结我们最深刻的困境。

We need to distinguish between emotional and practical hard work. Someone who looks extremely active, whose diary is filled from morning till night, who is always running to answer messages and meet clients may appear the opposite of lazy. But secretly, there may be a lot of avoidance going on beneath the outward frenzy. Busy people evade a different order of undertaking. They are practically a hive of activity, yet they don’t get round to working out their real feelings. They constantly delay the investigation of their own lives.

我们需要区分情感上的努力和实际上的努力，一个看起来非常活跃的人，可能日记里从早到晚都写得很满，总是跑去回复信息和会见客户，可能看起来与懒惰完全不沾边，但私下里，在这种对外的狂热之下，可能也会有很多逃避，忙碌的人可以逃避其他的任务，他们实际上是一群活跃的人，但他们没有抽出时间来理清自己的真实感受，他们不断推迟认真了解自己生活这件事。

They are lazy when it comes to understanding particular emotions. Their busy-ness may be a subtle but powerful form of distraction. Our minds are in general a great deal readier to execute than to reflect. They can be rendered deeply uncomfortable by so-called large questions: What am I really trying to do? What do I actually enjoy and who am I trying to please? By contrast, the easy bit can be the running around, the never pausing to ask why, the repeatedly ensuring that there isn’t a moment to have doubts or feel sad or searching. Business can mask a vicious form of laziness.

当要涉及到理解某种情绪时，他们就会懒惰，他们的忙碌可能是一种微妙但强大的分心方式。总的来说，我们的大脑更愿意去执行，而不是去思考。当涉及到那种重大问题时就会感到不舒服，我到底想做什么?我真正喜欢什么，我想取悦谁呢?相比之下，最简单的部分可能是一直忙碌，从不停下来问为什么。反复确保自己没有一刻的时间去怀疑，去悲伤，去寻找。忙碌可以掩盖懒惰的一种更恶劣的形式。

The next time we feel extremely lazy, we should imagine that perhaps a deep part of us is preparing to give birth to a big thought. As with a pregnancy, there is no point hurrying the process. We need to lie still and let the idea gestate - sure that it may eventually prove its worth. We may need to risk being accused of gross laziness in order one day to put in motion projects and initiatives we can feel proud of. Our online shop has a range of books and gifts that address the most important and often neglected areas of life.

下次我们感到非常懒的时候，我们应该想象也许我们内心深处正准备孕育一个重大的想法，就像怀孕一样，没有必要着急催促这个过程，我们需要静静地躺着，让思想酝酿，确信它最终会证明它的价值。我们可能需要冒着被指责懒惰的风险，才能在某一天将我们为之感到自豪的项目和创举付诸实施。