本文选自Fast Company《快公司》2019年2月16号的一篇文章 We Need to Stop Striving for Work-life Balance. Here’s Why.(我们应该停止追求工作与生活平衡。原因如下)其中第一段陈述观点:“工作与学习的平衡”这一概念会局限我们的思想和行动;第二、三段说明原因,最后一段总结全文并提出建议。
v 阅读原文
The work-life balance is dead. By this, I'm not advocating that you should give up your pursuit of having a fulfilling career and a thriving personal life, and I'm definitely not saying that you have to give up one to have the other. I also acknowledge that we have a work-life problem, but I'm arguing that the concept of balance has never been helpful, because it's too limiting. You see, our language makes a difference, and how we refer to things matters because it affects our thinking and therefore our actions.
At the minimum, most of us work because we want to be able to support ourselves, our families,and the people around us. In the ideal world, we're all doing work that we're proud of and that provides meaning and purpose to us. But even if your job doesn't give you shivers of joy each new day, working is a part of what each of us does and the contribution we make to society. When you separate work and life, it's a lttle bit harder to make that connection. But when you think of work as part of a full life and a complete experience, it becomes easier to see that success in one aspect often supports another.
Losing your balance and falling isn't pleasant. A goal to balance suggests that things could quickly get off balance, and that causes terible outcomes. It's more constructive to think of solutions that continue to evolve over shifts in life and work. Rather than falling or failing, you may have good days or better days or not-so-good days. These variations are normal, and it's more useful to think of life as something that is ever evolving and changing, rather than a high-risk enterprise where things could go wrong with one misstep.
How we talk to ourselves matters, and how we talk about issues makes a difference. Let's bury “work-life balance”and think bigger and better about work-life fulfllment to do a little less balancing and a lot more living.
v 单词积累
1. advocate v. 支持、提倡
2. pursuit n. 追求;动词为pursue
3. thrive v. 繁荣;兴旺发达
4. fulfilling adj. 使人满足的。令人愉快的
5. acknowledge v. 承认、供认
6. make a difference 有重大影响
7. minimum n. 最小值
8. ideal v. 完美的,理想的
9. shiver v. 颤抖,战栗
10. constructive adj. 建设性的
11. evolve v. 进化、演变
12. enterprise n. 事业;事业心
13. vary v. 变化
v 全文参考翻译
工作与生活的平衡已经过时。我这么说并不是在提倡你放弃追求有成就感的事业和蓬勃发展的个人生活。我也绝对不是说你必须放弃一个才能拥有另一个。我也承认我们存在工作和生活的平衡问题,但我认为“平衡”的概念从来都没有用,因为它太局限了。要知道,我们的语言起着重要作用,而我们如何指称事物也很重要,因为它会影响我们的思维以及行为。
至少,我们大多数人之所以工作,是因为我们希望能够养活自己,家人和周围的人。在理想情况下,我们都做着我们引以为傲的工作,这给我们提供了意义和目标。但是,即使你的工作不能每一天都让你高兴得发抖,工作仍然是我们每个人所做的事情以及我们对社会的贡献的一部分。当你将工作与生活分开时,建立这种联系就会有点困难。但是,当你将工作视为充实生活和完整体验的一部分时,你会很容易看到,一方面的成功往往会支持另一方面的成功。
失去平衡而跌落是不愉快的。以平衡为目标意味着事情可能会很快失去平衡,并导致可怕的结果。找到随着生活和工作的变化而不断发展的解决方案更具建设性。你不会跌倒或失败,而是可能会过上美好的一天或更美好的一天,或者不是那么美好的一天,。这些变化是正常现象,将生活视为不断变化的事物,而不是一步走错就会酿成大祸的高风险的企业,这将更为有用。
我们如何与自己交流很重要,以及我们如何谈论问题也很重要。让我们抛开“工作与生活的平衡”,把目光放得更高更远,实现工作与生活的充实,少做平衡,多多生活。