TED英语演讲稿：改善工作的快乐之道

1、TED英语演讲稿：改善工作的快乐之道When I was seven years ld and my sister was just five years ld, we were playing n tp f a bunk bed. I was tw years lder than my sister at the time - I mean, Im tw years lder than her nw - but at the time it meant she had t d everything that I wanted t d, and I wanted t play war. S w

2、e were up n tp f ur bunk beds. And n ne side f the bunk bed, I had put ut all f my G.I. Je sldiers and weapnry. And n the ther side were all my sisters My Little Pnies ready fr a cavalry charge.There are differing accunts f what actually happened that afternn, but since my sister is nt here with us

3、tday, let me tell yu the true stry - (Laughter) - which is my sisters a little bit n the clumsy side. Smehw, withut any help r push frm her lder brther at all, suddenly Amy disappeared ff f the tp f the bunk bed and landed with this crash n the flr. Nw I nervusly peered ver the side f the bed t see

4、what had befallen my fallen sister and saw that she had landed painfully n her hands and knees n all furs n the grund.I was nervus because my parents had charged me with making sure that my sister and I played as safely and as quietly as pssible. And seeing as hw I had accidentally brken Amys arm ju

5、st ne week befre . (Laughter) . herically pushing her ut f the way f an ncming imaginary sniper bullet, (Laughter) fr which I have yet t be thanked, I was trying as hard as I culd - she didnt even see it cming - I was trying as hard as I culd t be n my best behavir.And I saw my sisters face, this wa

6、il f pain and suffering and surprise threatening t erupt frm her muth and threatening t wake my parents frm the lng winters nap fr which they had settled. S I did the nly thing my little frantic seven year-ld brain culd think t d t avert this tragedy. And if yu have children, yuve seen this hundreds

7、 f times befre. I said, Amy, Amy, wait. Dnt cry. Dnt cry. Did yu see hw yu landed? N human lands n all furs like that. Amy, I think this means yure a unicrn.(Laughter)Nw that was cheating, because there was nthing in the wrld my sister wuld want mre than nt t be Amy the hurt five year-ld little sist

8、er, but Amy the special unicrn. f curse, this was an ptin that was pen t her brain at n pint in the past. And yu culd see hw my pr, manipulated sister faced cnflict, as her little brain attempted t devte resurces t feeling the pain and suffering and surprise she just eperienced, r cntemplating her n

9、ew-fund identity as a unicrn. And the latter wn ut. Instead f crying, instead f ceasing ur play, instead f waking my parents, with all the negative cnsequences that wuld have ensued fr me, instead a smile spread acrss her face and she scrambled right back up nt the bunk bed with all the grace f a ba

10、by unicrn . (Laughter) . with ne brken leg.What we stumbled acrss at this tender age f just five and seven - we had n idea at the time - was smething that was ging be at the vanguard f a scientific revlutin ccurring tw decades later in the way that we lk at the human brain. What we had stumbled acrs

11、s is smething called psitive psychlgy, which is the reasn that Im here tday and the reasn that I wake up every mrning.When I first started talking abut this research utside f academia, ut with cmpanies and schls, the very first thing they said t never d is t start yur talk with a graph. The very fir

12、st thing I want t d is start my talk with a graph. This graph lks bring, but this graph is the reasn I get ecited and wake up every mrning. And this graph desnt even mean anything; its fake data. What we fund is -(Laughter)If I gt this data back studying yu here in the rm, I wuld be thrilled, becaus

13、e theres very clearly a trend thats ging n there, and that means that I can get published, which is all that really matters. The fact that theres ne weird red dt thats up abve the curve, theres ne weird in the rm - I knw wh yu are, I saw yu earlier - thats n prblem. Thats n prblem, as mst f yu knw,

14、because I can just delete that dt. I can delete that dt because thats clearly a measurement errr. And we knw thats a measurement errr because its messingne f the very first things we teach peple in ecnmics and statistics and business urses is hw, in a statistically valid way, d we eliminate the weir

15、ds. Hw d we eliminate the utliers s we can find the line f best fit? Which is fantastic if Im trying t find ut hw many Advil the average persn shuld be taking - tw. But if Im interested in ptential, if Im interested in yur ptential, r fr happiness r prductivity r energy r creativity, what were ding

16、is were creating the cult f the average with science.If I asked a questin like, Hw fast can a child learn hw t read in a classrm? scientists change the answer t Hw fast des the average child learn hw t read in that classrm? and then we tailr the class right twards the average. Nw if yu fall belw the

17、 average n this curve, then psychlgists get thrilled, because that means yure either depressed r yu have a disrder, r hpefully bth. Were hping fr bth because ur business mdel is, if yu cme int a therapy sessin with ne prblem, we want t make sure yu leave knwing yu have 10, s yu keep cming back ver a

18、nd ver again. Well g back int yur childhd if necessary, but eventually what we want t d is make yu nrmal again. But nrmal is merely average.And what I psit and what psitive psychlgy psits is that if we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average. Then instead f deleting thse psitive

19、utliers, what I intentinally d is cme int a ppulatin like this ne and say, why? Why is it that sme f yu are s high abve the curve in terms f yur intellectual ability, athletic ability, musical ability, creativity, energy levels, yur resiliency in the face f challenge, yur sense f humr? Whatever it i

20、s, instead f deleting yu, what I want t d is study yu. Because maybe we can glean infrmatin - nt just hw t mve peple up t the average, but hw we can mve the entire average up in ur cmpanies and schls wrldwide.The reasn this graph is imprtant t me is, when I turn n the news, it seems like the majrity

21、 f the infrmatin is nt psitive, in fact its negative. Mst f its abut murder, crruptin, diseases, natural disasters. And very quickly, my brain starts t think thats the accurate rati f negative t psitive in the wrld. What thats ding is creating smething called the medical schl syndrme - which, if yu

22、knw peple whve been t medical schl, during the first year f medical training, as yu read thrugh a list f all the symptms and diseases that culd happen, suddenly yu realize yu have all f them.I have a brther in-law named Bb - which is a whle ther stry. Bb married Amy the unicrn. Bb called me n the ph

23、ne frm Yale Medical Schl, and Bb said, Shawn, I have leprsy. (Laughter) Which, even at Yale, is etrardinarily rare. But I had n idea hw t cnsle pr Bb because he had just gtten ver an entire week f menpause.(Laughter)See what were finding is its nt necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens

24、 thrugh which yur brain views the wrld that shapes yur reality. And if we can change the lens, nt nly can we change yur happiness, we can change every single educatinal and business utcme at the same time.When I applied t Harvard, I applied n a dare. I didnt epect t get in, and my family had n mney

25、fr cllege. When I gt a military schlarship tw weeks later, they allwed me t g. Suddenly, smething that wasnt even a pssibility became a reality. When I went there, I assumed everyne else wuld see it as a privilege as well, that theyd be ecited t be there. Even if yure in a classrm full f peple smart

26、er than yu, yud be happy just t be in that classrm, which is what I felt. But what I fund there is, while sme peple eperience that, when I graduated after my fur years and then spent the net eight years living in the drms with the students - Harvard asked me t; I wasnt that guy. (Laughter) I was an

27、fficer f Harvard t cunsel students thrugh the difficult fur years. And what I fund in my research and my teaching is that these students, n matter hw happy they were with their riginal success f getting int the schl, tw weeks later their brains were fcused, nt n the privilege f being there, nr n the

28、ir philsphy r their physics. Their brain was fcused n the cmpetitin, the wrklad, the hassles, the stresses, the cmplaints.When I first went in there, I walked int the freshmen dining hall, which is where my friends frm Wac, Teas, which is where I grew up - I knw sme f yu have heard f it.e t visit me

29、, theyd lk arund, theyd say, This freshman dining hall lks like smething ut f Hgwarts frm the mvie Harry Ptter, which it des. This is Hgwarts frm the mvie Harry Ptter and thats Harvard. And when they see this, they say, Shawn, why d yu waste yur time studying happiness at Harvard? Seriusly, what des

30、 a Harvard student pssibly have t be unhappy abut?Embedded within that questin is the key t understanding the science f happiness. Because what that questin assumes is that ur eternal wrld is predictive f ur happiness levels, when in reality, if I knw everything abut yur eternal wrld, I can nly pred

31、ict 10 percent f yur lng-term happiness. 90 percent f yur lng-term happiness is predicted nt by the eternal wrld, but by the way yur brain prcesses the wrld. And if we change it, if we change ur frmula fr happiness and success, what we can d is change the way that we can then affect reality. What we

32、 fund is that nly 25 percent f jb successes are predicted by I.Q. 75 percent f jb successes are predicted by yur ptimism levels, yur scial supprt and yur ability t see stress as a challenge instead f as a threat.I talked t a barding schl up in New England, prbably the mst prestigius barding schl, an

33、d they said, We already knw that. S every year, instead f just teaching ur students, we als have a wellness week. And were s ecited. Mnday night we have the wrlds leading epert cming in t speak abut adlescent depressin. Tuesday night its schl vilence and bullying. Wednesday night is eating disrders.

34、 Thursday night is elicit drug use. And Friday night were trying t decide between risky se r happiness. (Laughter) I said, Thats mst peples Friday nights. (Laughter) (Applause) Which Im glad yu liked, but they did nt like that at all. Silence n the phne. And int the silence, I said, Id be happy t sp

35、eak at yur schl, but just s yu knw, thats nt a wellness week, thats a sickness week. What yuve dne is yuve utlined all the negative things that can happen, but nt talked abut the psitive.The absence f disease is nt health. Heres hw we get t health: We need t reverse the frmula fr happiness and succe

36、ss. In the last three years, Ive traveled t 45 different cuntries, wrking with schls and cmpanies in the midst f an ecnmic dwnturn. And what I fund is that mst cmpanies and schls fllw a frmula fr success, which is this: If I wrk harder, Ill be mre successful. And if Im mre successful, then Ill be ha

37、ppier. That undergirds mst f ur parenting styles, ur managing styles, the way that we mtivate ur behavir.And the prblem is its scientifically brken and backwards fr tw reasns. First, every time yur brain has a success, yu just changed the galpst f what success lked like. Yu gt gd grades, nw yu have

38、t get better grades, yu gt int a gd schl and after yu get int a better schl, yu gt a gd jb, nw yu have t get a better jb, yu hit yur sales target, were ging t change yur sales target. And if happiness is n the ppsite side f success, yur brain never gets there. What weve dne is weve pushed happiness

39、ver the cgnitive hrizn as a sciety. And thats because we think we have t be successful, then well be happier.But the real prblem is ur brains wrk in the ppsite rder. If yu can raise smebdys level f psitivity in the present, then their brain eperiences what we nw call a happiness advantage, which is

40、yur brain at psitive perfrms significantly better than it des at negative, neutral r stressed. Yur intelligence rises, yur creativity rises, yur energy levels rise. In fact, what weve fund is that every single business utcme imprves. Yur brain at psitive is 31 percent mre prductive than yur brain at

41、 negative, neutral r stressed. Yure 37 percent better at sales. Dctrs are 19 percent faster, mre accurate at cming up with the crrect diagnsis when psitive instead f negative, neutral r stressed. Which means we can reverse the frmula. If we can find a way f becming psitive in the present, then ur br

42、ains wrk even mre successfully as were able t wrk harder, faster and mre intelligently.What we need t be able t d is t reverse this frmula s we can start t see what ur brains are actually capable f. Because dpamine, which flds int yur system when yure psitive, has tw functins. Nt nly des it make yu happier, it turns n all f the lear