雙語故事:讓夢想照進現實
Take an online personality or strength/weakness test. This one from Dr. Martin Seligman is world-renowned. You have to register, but that's free。
做一份網上的性格或者優點/缺點測試。有份馬丁•塞利格曼博士的測試卷聞名於世。你需要註冊一下，但它是免費的。
Invest a little time in some daily journaling. Just let the pen roll as you envisage what your perfect day, then week, then year would look like. I don't mean the down-time (although there's plenty of people who've turned a passion for travel into a solid income)。
每天花點時間寫日記。動起筆來想象一下你完美的一天、然後是周、然後是年是怎樣的。我並不是指非工作狀態時間(雖然多數人會把對旅遊的激情轉變到有穩固收入的激情上)
By this point you should be starting to get a little excited. Even the act of thinking about how cool it would be to actually love what you do should get the motivational juices flowing. But if you're still really not sure what you'd like to do - or perhaps you feel like there's so many things to choose from - then try this。
此刻你應該會有點興奮吧。就算是想到能做自己真正熱愛的事情如此之棒，並且能夠自由發揮你的激情，也會激動不已。但是如果你仍不知道你想做什麼——或者是有那麼多事情，不知如何選擇——那麼嘗試下下面的方法。
Find a clean piece of paper and a pen. Write down the numbers 1-10. Think back over past weeks, months, even years - which events/activities stand out as being joyous or exciting for you? If you can't think of anything, consider those events you reacted to in others with excitement, even jealousy. You might like to consider the following categories as a memory-jogger or just for ideas:
• Travel
• Creativity
• Social connection
• Helping others
• Making deals
• Re-selling goods
• Teaching
拿一張白紙和一支筆。寫下數字1到10。回想一下在過去幾周、幾月，甚至幾年的時間裏，令你充滿歡樂或興奮的事情、活動等。如果你實在想不到任何事情，那麼可以考慮那些別人跟你說的令你感到興奮，甚至妒忌的事情。也許下面的這些目錄能喚起你的記憶或是僅僅作爲點子：
• 旅遊
• 創造力
• 社交
• 幫助他人
• 做交易
• 貨物再出售
• 教學
The long and short of it is that you want to highlight those times when you feel most alive. What makes you feel creative, happy, free, a sense of belonging?
這份清單的長短在於當你感覺充滿生機的時候，你想要着重突出那些時光的程度。什麼事情會讓你感到有創造力、快樂、自由、並且有歸屬感呢？
Now that you have your passion in mind it's time to start making it happen. This is actually the easiest part of the process so far. Remember back to the start of this article? You've already committed to setting aside 30 minutes per day to work on your passion, so set the timer and get started. Try not to worry too much about how you can turn it into money, just focus on action. And, if you have several possible passions in mind, then choose one and start with that. Commit to it for 21 days and then decide if you'd like to keep going or start afresh。
現在你已經有了將這些事情付諸於行動的激情。這是目前爲止最簡單的部分。還記得文章開頭所說的嗎？你已經每天騰出30分鐘時間來引發你的激情，所以計時，開始吧。不要過於擔心你要如何將此轉爲現金，先關注於行動上。而且，如果你腦子裏有幾個可能的激情點存在，那麼選擇一個並且着手行動。堅持21天，然後決定你想繼續還是開始一個新的激情點。
Here's how you might fill that 30 minutes：
以下是你如何度過那30分鐘的建議：
Write about your passion, what you like about it, what comes easy to you, where you'd like to improve your skills
寫下你的激情，你喜歡它什麼，什麼會令你感覺簡單，你哪裏可以改進你的技能。
Research the work of others who are effectively using your passion in their lives
調查其他人是如何有效使用你選擇的激情點的。
Teach it to someone else
教給他人
Read about it
理解它
Study different methods of doing it
學習用不同的方法去做
Create a vision board of what your life will look like when you're doing it
當你着手做的時候想象一個你期望的生活的願景板
Do this diligently and sooner or later you'll feel ready to take the next step: offering a discounted version of your service, applying for a freelance position, sharing your knowledge with someone who can help you get ahead. This could be the moment when that part-time passion suddenly really does seem like something that might one day replace your full time income. Soon as you make that first measly dollar from it you'll have the immediate excitement of knowing that if you can make $1, you can make $100, then $1,000. You get the idea. A year from now (or less if you're not such a scaredy-cat like I was) you just might not be imagining that lovin' the morning scenario anymore. You'll be living it。
堅持勤快地做，不久之後你會發覺你已經準備好進入下一階段：降低你所做事情的標準，運用到一個自由職業者崗位上，與那些可以幫助你取得進步的人分享收穫。在這個時刻，你那部分時間的激情就像某些事情，也許在未來某一天能夠取代你的全職工作的收入。一旦你從中賺取了第一筆微不足道的收入，並且當你知道你會賺取1美元，100美元，1000美元時，你會激動不已。你已經領會了。一年之後(也許會更短，如果你不是像我一樣的膽小鬼的話)，那種熱愛在早晨起牀的場景不會只是個幻想了。你每天都會那樣生活。
