2.7 【双语美文】工作越忙越要平衡生活，善待自己，做想做的事

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People are living busier and busier lives these days, taking on more and more with every passing month‒more work commitments, relationship commitments, family commitments, social commitments, the list goes on… therefore staying happy and relatively balanced seems a task of Sisyphus (the man in mythology who rolled a boulder up a mountain every day only for it to roll back down to the bottom at the end of the day), i.e. Impossible.

人们现今的生活愈加繁忙，每过去一个月就要面临更多的事务——更多的工作上、关系上、家庭中和社交上的承诺，而这个表单可以无限地延长……因此，保持幸福和相对平衡的状态就像西绪福斯艰巨的任务一样（神话当中一个每天推着巨石上山，只为一天结束时让其再滚下来的人），即，不可能的。

Is it impossible to be balanced and happy when you’ve got a hell of a workload? No. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a tricky tightrope act to master, but don’t worry‒plenty of people have their own ways for achieving everything they need to do and still have time for everything they want to do in life. This is the art of life-balance. Here are just seven of the best tips that I heartily recommend if you’re stuck looking for how to keep your balance and be happy at the same time.

当你工作量惊人时，想要保持平衡和幸福的状态是不可能的吗？不是。不要误解我，这确实是一项棘手的工作，但不要担心——很多人都有他们自己的方法来实现他们需要做的所有事情，还能有时间做完生活中他们想做的事情。这是平衡生活的艺术。这里有7个我诚心推荐的最好的建议，如果你也像我一样，陷入困境，想要寻找保持生活平衡和幸福的方法时，不妨看看。

1. Check your necessary needs.

   检查你的需求是否得到满足。

   
   

Let’s get down to basics–if you want to stay balanced and happy, you need to make sure all of your basic needs are being met. Anyone who has ever pulled an all-nighter finishing up work or a project can tell you that while the sense of accomplishment remains, you physically feel a wreck and you can barely keep your eyes open unless you have an intravenous drip of coffee somewhere about your position. 

让我们先把精力集中在基本要点上——如果你想要保持平衡和幸福的话，就需要保证自己的基本需求得以满足。任何通宵完成工作、或者项目的人都会告诉你，虽然你会保持拥有一份成就感，但是身体上会感到自己受到了摧残，除非在你身边正好可以打点滴，把咖啡注入你的静脉，否则你几乎不能保证自己的眼睛还可以睁开。

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You should make sure you get enough sleep every night, that your diet has plenty of healthy, balanced food, and that your work is not completely taking over your life to the point of exhaustion, both physically and mentally, and you should make sure that even when you’re busy, you stay balanced by making sure your basic human needs are being met. 

你得保证自己每天晚上都能睡足觉，你的饮食足够健康、营养均衡，你的工作没有完全占据你的生活，致使你在精神上和肉体上都疲惫不堪，还得保证即使自己繁忙时，也能通过满足自己的基本生命需求来保持生活的平衡。

2. Plan ahead as much as you can. 

尽可能地提前制定计划。

One way to ensure that you have everything under control, minimizing the chances for missing something and throwing your busy day off course, is to plan everything you possibly can. People can plan things however they want–there are plenty of to-do list and organization apps on every kind of smartphone platform possible, or a good old pen and paper works well too (I use both).

保证一切都处于控制之下，最小化错过某事并使你忙碌的一天偏离方向的一个方法是尽可能提前制定计划。人们可以完全按照自己的意愿来制定计划——任何一种智能手机平台上面都有许多待办事项和日常安排app，你还可以使用一只好用的旧钢笔和纸张进行日常安排（这两种我都用）。

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I mean, it’s impossible to control everything, but in the end, making sure you have a list of everything you need to do, obtain, and achieve by the end of the day will make sure that going about your day, no matter how busy, will give you a reminder of everything that not only you need to complete, but what you have already successful achieved. 

我知道，想要控制所有的事情是不可能的，但是到头来，保证你自己有一个列表上面写着所有你在一天结束之时需要做、获取、实现的事物，将会使你在不管多么忙的情况下，都得到提醒，保证自己不仅可以完成你需要完成的事项，并可以提醒自己你已经成功完成了哪些事项。

3. Stay fed and stay hydrated. 

吃饱饭，喝足水。

This all seems like such basic stuff, but one way to make sure you stay happy and balanced throughout every instance of being busy is to keep up a solid eating and drinking routine. That’s not to say you should only stick to the same thing day in, day out, or even that you shouldn’t indulge on a daily basis (in fact: go for it, but in moderation); rather, I am simply proposing making sure you have three decent meals a day.

这虽然看起来也像是基本要点，但是保证自己在每次忙碌起来时都可以保证开心和平衡的一个方式就是保持固定的饮食规律。这并不是说你日日夜夜都得吃相同的食物，更不是说你每天都不能放纵自己（事实上：想要放纵就放纵吧，但是要有节制）；相反，我仅仅是在提议，你需要保证自己每天都能吃三顿像样的饭菜。

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This is for the generation of people–myself included–who see something hot from Starbucks as a nutritious breakfast; coffee may motivate you for a little while, but then you’ll crash pretty damn hard. Make sure you drink plenty of water too; dehydration is the last thing you need on a busy day, and water also has the benefits of flushing out the kidneys and making the skin better, so that if an important meeting with a client is on your agenda, then looking your tip-top best is something we cannot help but advocate.

这是向我们这一代将来自星巴克的热品视为营养早餐的人的提议；咖啡确实可以在一段时间内为你提供动力，但是之后你就得十分崩溃。还得保证自己喝足够的水；脱水对于忙碌的一天而言，是你最不想面对的状况，并且水还能冲洗你的肾脏，把你的皮肤变好，因此如果你的日程上面有一个重要的会议的话，以你的最佳形象示人是我们不得不倡导的事情。

4. Keep an eye on your emotions. 

注意你的情绪。

There are some times when we’re running late or just generally having a bad day, when our emotions begin to spiral out of control. Anger escalates, stress skyrockets, anxiety soars. Our handle on our emotional experiences can drop and make us act extremely out of character, often to the detriment of our loved ones. We snap, we yell, and we lose our true selves when we’re under huge amounts of pressure.

有些时候，当我们工作到很晚，或者经历了糟糕的一天，这时候我们的情绪就会开始脱离控制。你的愤怒升级，压力飞升，焦虑猛增。这时我们对于情绪体验的控制就会降低，这会使我们做出与自己性格不相称的事情，通常会对我们心爱的人造成损害。在面临巨大的压力时，我们会厉声说话，叫喊，失去自我。

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So what can be done to change this? After all, it doesn’t do to be snapping at friends and family. So how about keeping an eye on your emotions throughout the day, say every half an hour. Stop, see how you’re feeling, and then see if something needs to be done. Maybe make a mental visual picture of traffic lights; if things are all okay, see green lights; if they’re not, then use amber or red, so that you can realize what’s happening and then regulate those emotions. Take deep breaths, centre yourself, and then move on with your day.

那么怎样做可以改变这一点呢？毕竟，对着朋友和家人大喊大叫并没有什么效用。那么，一整天，每隔半个小时就留意一下你的情绪怎么样呢？停下手中的事情，看看你自己的感受是什么样的，再看看你是不是需要做点什么。也许你可以在脑中想象交通灯的视觉画面；如果你的情绪还好，就让自己看到绿灯；如果不好，就用琥珀色或者红色，以此来告诉自己究竟在发生什么，之后调节那些情绪。之后做深呼吸，集中自己的精力，之后再继续你一天的工作。

5. Make time for yourself. 

为自己腾出时间。

No matter what you go through in your day-to-day life, one of the best ways to stay balanced and maintain a feeling of happiness is to schedule in plenty of pockets of ‘me time’. Rather than rushing around and then trying to gain some kind of peace and serenity at the end of the day, it is better to carve out segments of time throughout your working day.

不管你在你的日常生活当中经历如何，保持平衡和幸福感觉的最好的一个方法就是腾出“私人专属时间”。不同于整天忙忙碌碌，之后在一天结束之时试图获取某种意义上的平静祥和，更好的做法是在工作的间隔当中留出不同的时间段。

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Ensure that you actually take time with lunch and it’s not on the move or at your desk. Spend five minutes at the beginning of your day with some breathing exercises. Make sure you shower or bath regularly and that the end of the day is spent without mobile phones, email, or anything more taxing.  Listen, for example, to some relaxing music or read a good book. Make sure that you are treating yourself and ensuring yourself of some relaxation time are spread throughout the day at scheduled intervals–they’ll allow you some breathing room, a chance to clear your head and reassess the situations you’ve been in at work, and allow your mind to be at its best.

保证自己确实可以从容地吃午餐，而不是在路上或者桌上吃。每天开始之时花上五分钟进行呼吸训练。保证自己每天结束冲澡或者泡澡时不受手机、邮件，或者任何比令人放松的音乐或者一本好书更费力的事情的干扰。务必整天在计划好的不同时间段来让自己放个松，流出一些休息的时间——它们会让你有呼吸的空间，有机会清理你的思维，重新评估自己在工作当中所面临的局面，并且让你的思想保持最佳状况。

6. Don’t take on more than you can handle. 不要承担过多的任务。

In this modern age, we’re expected more and more to take on more and more–it doesn’t matter that we’re already juggling impossible expectations, work, dealing with pressures of family, friends and social media; we always seem to find more and more stuff piled on our proverbial plate. My advice, in order to keep your sanity, is to therefore keep your load to a minimum amount.

在这个现代社会，我们受到的期待越来越高，并需要完成越来越多的任务——不管我们是不是已经周旋于不可能的期待、工作、家人的压力、朋友和社交媒体之间；我们似乎总是能找到更多的东西堆积在我们的事项表上。我的建议是，为了保证你能头脑清醒，你需要将你的任务降低到最低水平。

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There are, obviously, going to be commitments that you will not be able to shed–work, family, friends–but don’t go signing yourself up for extra projects and events that will take up more time than you’re secretly okay with sacrificing. Saying no doesn’t mean you’re giving up, it means you’re selecting and dividing up boundaries, which is not a bad thing and will prove conducive to keeping your balance in check.

当然，有一些承诺是你不能够脱离的——工作、家庭和朋友——但是不要使自己承担过多的你私底下认为可以牺牲掉的任务和事件。拒绝并不代表你放弃了，而是说明你在选择

和划分界限，这并没有什么错，而且将会表明有利于控制你的平衡。

7. Learn your human limitations. 

了解你的能力限度。

This final tip works particularly well in the wake of the New Year where everyone is making big resolutions that usually fall flat by the end of the first month–but let’s be realistic, all of us. When you’ve got a big day ahead, one teeming with errands and possibilities and commitments, it will make you much happier and more balanced.

最后一个建议在新年结束之后最为奏效，这时每个人都在制定宏伟的计划，虽然这些计划一般在第一个结束时就搁浅——但是我们应该更实际一点，我们所有人都应该。当你面前摆着繁忙的一天，一个充满了差事、可能性和义务的一天，现实一点将会让你变得更幸福，更平衡。

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You’re not a superhuman. You cannot fit more hours into the day, and if you’re following all the tips I’m offering, you’ll be getting plenty of sleep and personal time anyway. You’re a flawed, fantastic human being, so going around like a thing possessed trying to get everything done in the span of a few hours is not only unrealistic, it also suggests that you need to sit down and reconsider what’s important in your life. Staying balanced and staying happy are not impossible when you happen to be living a busy life. Sure, they require a bit of planning and contemplating about your life and what’s important, but implementing these tips might be able to help add some centre to your life.

你并不是一个超人。你不可能让一天多出几个小时，而且如果你遵循了我提出的建议，你不管怎样都会获得更多的睡眠和个人时间的。你是一个出色的人，但也有缺陷，因此疯狂地想要在几个小时之内就完成所有的事情不仅是不现实的，同样还表明你需要坐下来，重新思索一下生活的重心。保持平衡和幸福的状态在你拥有一份忙碌的生活时，并不是不可能的。确实，这需要你进行计划，反思你的生活，思考什么最重要，但是实践这些建议也许可以帮助你为生活添加一些重心。