雅思课外读物--Is life miserable without passion?

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今天，易伯华雅思君要和大家分享的这篇文章叫做“The problem with following your passion 满怀激情带来的问题”。满怀激情地工作和生活，长久以来都被看做人生成功的先决条件。然而，激情是什么?没有激情，人生是不是就真没有意义了?也许，我们应该重新建构“激情”的意义了，一起看看文章怎么说的吧！

The problem with following your passion

满怀激情带来的问题

In a recent biography of Elon Musk, Bloomberg technology writer Ashlee Vance

documents how the entrepreneur(企业家) transformed the electric car industry,

launched rockets into space, developed solar technology and devised plans to

colonize Mars. Vance emphasizes Musk’s diligence and unwavering(不动摇的) zeal(热情),

not just his intelligence and eccentricities(奇思妙想，怪异). Like Steve Jobs, Musk is

a mercurial(反复无常的)perfectionist, prone to moments of rage, spurred by passion.

(与Steve Jobs一样，Musk也是一个追求完美的人，性格反复无常，容易着急上火，激情四溢。)

It’s tempting to read about someone like Elon Musk and conclude that passion

is a prerequisite(前提)for success. And months from now, it’s likely that a suite

of commencement(毕业典礼)speakers will stand in front of class after class of new

graduates, remarking that “the only way to do great work is to love what you

do,” as Steve Jobs told the Stanford class of 2005.

But is passion really an essential condition for leading a successful life?

That idea has come under attack in the last few years. Passion is increasingly

labeled as mere post hoc(事后的) storytelling, an empty cliché(老生常谈)that makes for

a good narrative(激情越来越被标签为事后归因的故事，是为了讲出好故事而说的空洞套话。). Cal Newport, an assistant

professor at Georgetown University and author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You,

insists the passion mantra(颂歌) is not just unoriginal but misleading. The goal

shouldn’t be to find your passion—as if it has been there, undiscovered, from

the beginning—but to create one.

Recently, a team of psychologists led by Patricia Chen, a graduate student at

the University of Michigan, published research that gives us new insights into

the relationship between passion and work. The team polled 794 people and found

that about 70 percent believed passion is about matching an

intrinsically(内在地)rewarding skill with a certain line of work—what Chen calls

the fit

theory.(该研究团队调查了794个人后发现，大约70%的人都相信，所谓激情就是一种内在的激励技能与某种工作相匹配了——陈将其称为“匹配理论”。Under

this paradigm(模式), it’s easy to explain people like Musk and Jobs: They

persevered because their work tapped(开发)into a fundamental joy of theirs.

The other 30 percent of participants in the study indicated that passion for

work is developed and cultivated over time—what Chen calls the develop

theory.(另外30%的受调查者认为，工作激情是在时间中培养出来的——陈将其称为“培养理论”。)According to this view, which

is similar to what Newport endorses, we should think of our skills and

proclivities(倾向)as malleable(可以塑造的)instead of fixed. Passion is the result of

persistent and deliberate practice.

Across four studies, the psychologists found that those who think passion can

be developed were just as likely to be satisfied with their job in the long run

as those who searched for a perfect fit.

(在所有4项研究中，心理学家们发现，那些认为激情是可以培养的人与那些寻求最佳匹配的人，从长远看，同样可能从工作中获得满足。)These findings

suggest, Chen and her team note, that people can “achieve similar levels of

well-being at work by endorsing(赞同)either the fit or develop theory.”

This piece of research helps psychologists better understand the nature of

passion, yet it still pivots off a very narrow definition, in which to be

passionate about something is essentially to enjoy particular challenges that

would otherwise be grueling(痛苦的).

(这项研究帮助心理学家们更好地理解激情的性质，然而该研究仍基于一个非常狭窄的定义，即，对某事充满激情本质上就是喜欢某些原本令人痛苦的挑战。)Moreover,

it assumes such passion is the basis for a rewarding professional life.

We’d like to introduce two more concepts to broaden what we mean when we talk

about passion. Psychological research shows that life satisfaction correlates

with the ability to assess something from multiple viewpoints.

(心理学研究表明，人生的满足感与多角度评价事物的能力相关。)And so by widening the meaning of passion, we also

allow ourselves more opportunities to find meaning and satisfaction in the lives

we lead.

In German, the word for passion is Leidenschaft, which literally means the

ability to endure adversity(不利情况，逆境). It is a much less rosy word, not the

graduation bromide(溴化物;老套的安慰话) its English counterpart(对等物;对应物)has become. If

you’re passionate about something in Germanic cultures, you don’t necessarily

enjoy it. Leidenschaft is about knowing the pursuit will be unpleasant but

tolerating it because the outcome is worth the cost. Critically, Germans can be

passionate about an activity without feeling the need to pursue it as a

profession or worry about higher ideals. From this view, work is a means to an

end, enabling the pursuit of passion during non-work time.

In Eastern Europe, passion can also be understood as cierpienie (which

roughly translates to “suffering” in Polish). It’s a word that describes having

a calling, but without any implications of deriving pleasure. You have no choice

but to endure it, even when the outcome is not necessarily positive.

A good example is Phil Hansen, an artist who developed permanent nerve damage

in his hand from spending years practicing pointillism(点画派)—a drawing and

painting technique in which small dots are used to create a larger image.

Because of his jittery hand, Hansen could no longer draw straight lines; his

previously round dots began to look like “tadpoles.” He eventually dropped out

of art school and gave up art completely.