跟着英播客学英语-第一期:你没有迟到，人生随时可以重新开始

📖 本期导读本期播客聊聊当代年轻人普遍的「时间焦虑」：为什么我们总觉得自己来不及了？视频从代际比较、社交媒体、选择过剩三个原因切入，借 Sylvia Plath 的「无花果树」比喻展开思考，最后落在一个温暖的结论——你没有迟到，人生随时可以重新开始。建议先盲听一遍视频，再对照下方双语精读文本学习 ✍️

一、开场：你是不是也觉得自己快没时间了

If you feel like you're running out of time and other people are moving at a much faster rate than you, and people are building more than you and becoming more successful than you, then I think you need to watch this video.

如果你觉得自己快没时间了，而别人都比你跑得快，别人比你做得多、比你更成功，那我觉得你需要看看这个视频。

Honestly, I think a lot of young people these days feel like they don't have much time left and they need to become successful as soon as possible. Otherwise, there's no other chance left for them in this world, and I totally understand that. I also feel that way sometimes. It feels overwhelming and you feel like you have to accomplish so much at one time.

说实话，我觉得现在很多年轻人都觉得自己没剩多少时间了，必须尽快成功，否则这世上就再没有别的机会了。我完全理解这种感觉，有时候我自己也会这样想。那种感觉让人喘不过气，你会觉得必须一下子完成那么多事。

二、原因之一：总在和过去的几代人比较

Personally, I think there are a few reasons why people in our generation feel this way, and one of them is that we're constantly comparing ourselves and our generation to past generations, but it doesn't really work that way.

我个人认为，我们这一代人会有这种感觉，有几个原因。其中之一就是我们总在拿自己、拿我们这一代和过去的几代人比较，但这种比较其实并不成立。

You might think back then, when people were like 25 or 21, maybe they already had a house, they already had a kid or two kids, and it seems like they were very successful at a very young age. But that was in the past. We live in the modern age and we might have different goals, and it's not exactly possible to do the same things that our parents or our grandparents did. And that's okay. We just have to accept that.

你可能会想，过去的人二十五岁或者二十一岁，可能就已经有了房子，已经有了一两个孩子，看起来年纪轻轻就很成功了。但那是过去。我们生活在现代，我们的目标可能不一样，我们不可能完全做到父母或祖父母做过的事。这没关系，我们只需要接受这一点。

三、原因之二：社交媒体带来的焦虑

And it's not only this comparison of past generations. There are other problems as well. For me, I think one of these huge problems is social media.

而且问题不只是和过去几代人比较，还有别的问题。对我来说，其中一个很大的问题就是社交媒体。

When you go on social media, it can seem like everyone is constantly achieving something. You might see someone super young starting their own business and everything is going really smoothly. They're really successful. Or maybe someone bought a house really young and it looks beautiful, it looks huge, and it seems like their life is super amazing. And when you see this every single day, it starts to affect the way that you think about yourself.

当你刷社交媒体时，会觉得好像每个人都在不停地有所成就。你可能会看到某个特别年轻的人自己创业，一切都很顺利，他们真的很成功。或者有人年纪轻轻就买了房，房子又漂亮又大，他们的生活看起来棒极了。当你每天看到这些，它就会开始影响你对自己的看法。

You think, why don't I have those things? Or what's wrong with me? Everyone else is doing so well but I just feel like I'm stuck where I am. But I don't think you have to feel that way. The stuff online is not real life. It's literally just an edited version of someone else's life, and you can't compare that with yours.

你会想：为什么我没有那些东西？我是不是哪里有问题？别人都做得那么好，而我却感觉自己被困在原地。但我觉得你没必要这样想。网上的东西不是真实生活，那只是别人生活被剪辑过的版本，你不能拿它和你自己的生活比。

四、原因之三：选择太多，反而让人瘫痪

I think there is another problem that leads us to feel like we're running out of time, which is that we have so many choices. I mean, if you really think about it, there are a lot of choices in life. You get to choose what you wear every day and what you eat every day, and you also get to choose what you do in your free time.

我觉得还有另一个问题会让我们觉得自己没时间了，那就是我们的选择实在太多了。如果你认真想想，生活里真的有太多选择。你每天可以选择穿什么、吃什么，也可以选择空闲时间做什么。

You get to choose what you spend your time on, what you learn and what you study, and maybe what you want to do in the future. There are so many careers, there are different cities you can move to. Anything is possible. There are so many choices. But personally, I feel like when we have so many choices, it can actually cause us to freeze up, because you feel indecisive.

你可以选择把时间花在哪里、学什么、将来想做什么。有那么多的职业，有那么多个可以搬去的城市，一切皆有可能。选择实在太多了。但就我个人而言，我觉得当我们有这么多选择时，反而会让我们僵住，因为你会变得优柔寡断。

I mean, for me I also feel very indecisive sometimes. Like sometimes it's hard to even choose what to eat for dinner. I'm sure some of you maybe feel the same thing. It's really hard to make decisions. So when you're bombarded by so many decisions every single day, some big, some small, it can really be exhausting.

比如我自己有时候也特别纠结。有时候连晚饭吃什么都很难决定。我相信你们中有些人也有同样的感觉，做决定真的很难。所以当你每天被那么多大大小小的决定轰炸时，真的会让人精疲力竭。

五、无花果树的困境（Sylvia Plath）

And there is this very famous quote by Sylvia Plath, where she's talking about this fig tree. It's literally a fig tree, but she's imagining all of these figs as different versions of herself. You know, one is a doctor, one is an artist, one is a scientist, one is a poet — one fig is one possible lifetime.

西尔维娅·普拉斯（Sylvia Plath）有一句非常有名的引用，她谈到一棵无花果树。那确实是一棵无花果树，但她把树上所有的无花果都想象成不同版本的自己。你看，一颗是医生，一颗是艺术家，一颗是科学家，一颗是诗人——每一颗无花果都代表一种可能的人生。

And she's sitting at the bottom of this tree and thinking about all of the possible versions of herself. But the problem is, while she's sitting there and thinking and contemplating, the figs start to rot. She starts to lose the choices that she thought that she had. So in the end, you basically end up with nothing, because you didn't make a decision when you should have.

她坐在这棵树下，想着自己所有可能的版本。但问题是，当她坐在那里思考、沉思的时候，无花果开始腐烂了。她开始失去那些她以为自己拥有的选择。所以最终，你基本上什么也没得到，因为你没在该做决定的时候做决定。

But another fear is that when you choose one, you lose the others. By choosing one fig and one lifetime, that means you're saying no to the other possibilities. You're giving up on everything else. And that's this fig tree dilemma.

但另一种恐惧是：当你选择了其中一个，你就会失去其他的。选择一颗无花果、一种人生，就意味着你对其他可能性说了「不」，你放弃了其他一切。这就是无花果树的两难。

六、换个角度：你自己就是那棵树

I mean, this is kind of depressing if you really think about it for too long, but I think we can see this in a more positive light as well. Because yes, I can totally relate. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the possibilities in life and it's hard to make these decisions.

说实话，如果你一直想下去，这确实有点丧。但我觉得我们也可以从更积极的角度来看。因为我完全能感同身受，有时候我也会被生活里那些可能性压得喘不过气，做这些决定真的很难。

I think another way to look at this is not as the person sitting next to the tree and looking at all of these possibilities fade away and rot basically in front of you. I think another way to think of this is as yourself as the tree. You are the tree, which means you contain multitudes.

我觉得另一种看待方式是：不要把自己当成那个坐在树旁、眼睁睁看着所有可能性在眼前凋零腐烂的人。我觉得另一种思路是，把你自己当成那棵树。你就是那棵树，也就是说，你「包罗万象」。

Right now you have all of these beautiful ripe figs, but that doesn't mean you're never going to have any more. You know, this season the figs might rot, but that's okay, because there will be a next season. You will have other chances.

现在你拥有所有这些美丽、成熟的无花果，但这并不意味着你以后就再也不会有了。这一季的无花果可能会腐烂，但那没关系，因为还会有下一季。你还会有别的机会。

I personally don't believe that you have to make certain decisions by a certain age. I think you can start over at any time as long as you're still alive. As long as you are capable, I think you can change your life at any moment. Some people start over at 30. Some people become a CEO at 50. I think the possibilities are endless, so I don't think you should feel like you're running out of time. There will be more chances. There will be more versions of yourself to meet in the future, and there will be more figs.

我个人不相信你必须在一定年龄之前做出某些决定。我觉得只要你还活着，任何时候都可以重新开始。只要你有能力，我觉得你在任何时刻都可以改变人生。有些人在30岁重新开始，有些人在50岁当上CEO。我觉得可能性是无限的，所以你不该觉得自己快没时间了。还会有更多机会，未来还会遇到更多版本的自己，还会有更多无花果。

七、我自己的故事：那位30岁的同学

At the end of the day, your life is your own and you can do whatever you want with it. You don't have to listen to what other people are doing. Just because you see something online, it doesn't mean that you should be doing the same things. That's just someone else sharing their own life, and it might not even be really authentic to what their real life is like.

归根结底，你的人生是你自己的，你想怎么过就怎么过。你不必在意别人在做什么。仅仅因为你在网上看到了某样东西，并不意味着你就该去做同样的事。那只是别人在分享他们自己的生活，而且那甚至未必和他们真实的生活相符。

And honestly, from my own experience, I think life feels better and more enjoyable when you learn to accept who you are and you learn to take life at your own pace. So I really think it's great to continue to grow, to learn new things, build more skills. But I also think that sometimes you just need to do nothing, and sometimes you need to enjoy the life that you're living and focus on the present.

而且说实话，从我的亲身经历来看，我觉得当你学会接纳自己、学会按自己的节奏生活时，人生会变得更美好、更快乐。所以我觉得不断成长、学习新东西、提升技能固然很好，但我也认为，有时候你只需要什么都不做，有时候你需要享受当下正在过的生活，专注于现在。

Because if you're always so focused on improving yourself for a better future, then you're constantly thinking about the future. But what about yourself right now? Does doing this make you happy? Is getting this result really going to change your life? Is that what is going to make life worth living?

因为如果你总是一门心思为了更好的未来而提升自己，那你就会一直想着未来。可是，现在的你自己呢？做这件事让你快乐吗？得到这个结果真的会改变你的人生吗？那真的就是让人生值得过的东西吗？

I think those are just some things to consider, because also you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know if you will get the outcome that you wanted. But if you're okay with your life at the present, then no matter what happens in the future — if you get that job or not, if you get accepted into the school or not — you're still going to be okay with yourself.

我觉得这些都是值得思考的问题，因为你也无法预知未来会发生什么。你不知道自己能否得到想要的结果。但如果你对现在的生活感到满意，那么无论未来发生什么——能不能得到那份工作、能不能被那所学校录取——你都依然能接纳自己。

Honestly, I think I started to think more about this when I was getting my bachelor's degree. At that time I had just graduated high school, I was like 18 years old, in my linguistics major getting my degree. And one of my very good friends — well, she was my classmate at the time, we became very good friends — she was 30 years old and she had a six-year-old little boy, and she had a lot of friends and a really full and amazing life.

说实话，我大概是在读本科的时候开始更多地思考这件事。那时我刚高中毕业，18岁，读语言学专业。我有一个非常好的朋友——当时她是我的同学，我们成了很好的朋友——她30岁，有一个6岁的小儿子，她有很多朋友，生活充实而精彩。

But on paper, it might seem like she was a bit late. Like she was getting her degree at 30, and to most people that might seem like, you know, late, not on the right path. But honestly, she was super happy with her decisions. She was always smiling, always laughing. She was such a great friend, she was fun to be around. And it honestly made me change my perspective on life as well, because I was also struggling in my major.

但从纸面上看，她好像有点「晚」了。她30岁才拿到学位，对大多数人来说，这可能显得有点迟、不太「在正轨上」。但说实话，她对自己的选择非常满意。她总是笑着，总是开开心心的。她是个特别好的朋友，和她在一起很有意思。这真的让我也改变了对人生的看法，因为那时我在自己的专业上也过得很挣扎。

Like I said, I was learning linguistics, and at that time people were telling me that it wasn't the best major to choose. There are not a lot of job opportunities, you're going to struggle after you graduate. And that's true, that's totally valid. But I just wanted to do something that I was passionate about, and that's what it was. So I persisted, and eventually things turned out okay.

就像我说的，我学的是语言学，那时别人告诉我这不是最好的专业选择：工作机会不多，毕业后会很艰难。这没错，完全有道理。但我只是想做一件自己真正热爱的事，而语言学就是。所以我坚持了下来，最终结果还不错。

八、结尾：你没有迟到

But I really just think you shouldn't do something because other people expect it from you. You can do everything at your own pace. Nobody's life is exactly the same, and there's no one correct way to live a life.

但我真的觉得，你不应该因为别人期望你那样做，就去做某件事。你可以按自己的节奏做任何事。没有谁的人生是完全一样的，也没有唯一正确的生活方式。

You don't have to have this imaginary timeline of your whole entire life. That's just not how things work, because you never know what's going to happen. There might be some surprises, or a new path is revealed that you have never even thought about before.

你不必给自己的一辈子设定一条想象中的时间线。事情根本不是那样运作的，因为你永远不知道会发生什么。也许会有惊喜，也许会出现一条你从没想过的新路。

"So you're not running out of time.You are not late,and don't let anyone else make you believe that you are."

所以，你没有来不及。你没有迟到，别让任何人让你相信你迟到了。

附：重点词汇与表达