英语故事:让梦想照进现实

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。
　　做一份网上的性格或者优点/缺点测试。有份马丁•塞利格曼博士的测试卷闻名于世。你需要注册一下，但它是免费的。

　　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)。
　　每天花点时间写日记。动起笔来想象一下你完美的一天、然后是周、然后是年是怎样的。我并不是指非工作状态时间(虽然多数人会把对旅游的激情转变到有稳固收入的激情上)

　　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。
　　此刻你应该会有点兴奋吧。就算是想到能做自己真正热爱的事情如此之棒，并且能够自由发挥你的激情，也会激动不已。但是如果你仍不知道你想做什么——或者是有那么多事情，不知如何选择——那么尝试下下面的方法。

　　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

　　拿一张白纸和一支笔。写下数字1到10。回想一下在过去几周、几月，甚至几年的时间里，令你充满欢乐或兴奋的事情、活动等。如果你实在想不到任何事情，那么可以考虑那些别人跟你说的令你感到兴奋，甚至妒忌的事情。也许下面的这些目录能唤起你的记忆或是仅仅作为点子：

　　• 旅游

　　• 创造力

　　• 社交

　　• 帮助他人

　　• 做交易

　　• 货物再出售

　　• 教学

　　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?
　　这份清单的长短在于当你感觉充满生机的时候，你想要着重突出那些时光的程度。什么事情会让你感到有创造力、快乐、自由、并且有归属感呢？

　　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。
　　现在你已经有了将这些事情付诸于行动的激情。这是目前为止最简单的部分。还记得文章开头所说的吗？你已经每天腾出30分钟时间来引发你的激情，所以计时，开始吧。不要过于担心你要如何将此转为现金，先关注于行动上。而且，如果你脑子里有几个可能的激情点存在，那么选择一个并且着手行动。坚持21天，然后决定你想继续还是开始一个新的激情点。

　　Here\'s how you might fill that 30 minutes：
　　以下是你如何度过那30分钟的建议：

　　Write about your passion, what you like about it, what comes easy to you, where you\'d like to improve your skills
　　写下你的激情，你喜欢它什么，什么会令你感觉简单，你哪里可以改进你的技能。

　　Research the work of others who are effectively using your passion in their lives
　　调查其他人是如何有效使用你选择的激情点的。

　　Teach it to someone else
　　教给他人

　　Read about it
　　理解它

　　Study different methods of doing it
　　学习用不同的方法去做

　　Create a vision board of what your life will look like when you\'re doing it
　　当你着手做的时候想象一个你期望的生活的愿景板

　　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。
　　坚持勤快地做，不久之后你会发觉你已经准备好进入下一阶段：降低你所做事情的标准，运用到一个自由职业者岗位上，与那些可以帮助你取得进步的人分享收获。在这个时刻，你那部分时间的激情就像某些事情，也许在未来某一天能够取代你的全职工作的收入。一旦你从中赚取了第一笔微不足道的收入，并且当你知道你会赚取1美元，100美元，1000美元时，你会激动不已。你已经领会了。一年之后(也许会更短，如果你不是像我一样的胆小鬼的话)，那种热爱在早晨起床的场景不会只是个幻想了。你每天都会那样生活。