We take stock of just how much has gone wrong:

我們忖度著有多少事情搞砸了：

how many errors there have been; how many unfulfilled plans and frustrated dreams we’ve had.

有多少的錯誤；有多少未完的計畫以及未能實現夢想。

We may feel like the distraught, damned Macbeth who, on

我們如同跌入深淵、心煩意亂的馬克白，

learning of his wife’s death, exclaims at a pitch of agony that man is a cursed creature

在得知妻子的死訊後，以悲痛無比的聲音叫嚷著人類就是個受詛咒的生物：

who: …struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more.

於特定的時間昂首跨步於舞台上，下台後再也無人聽聞。

Life is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

人生是一個白痴講述的故事，喧嚷而憤怒，沒有半點意義。

No life can avoid an intermittently high degree of ‘sound and fury.’

沒有人可以避免偶爾的喧嘩與騷動。

The question is whether it must also, ultimately, signify nothing.

問題在於這些喧嘩與騷動也終歸毫無意義。

As Macbeth’s lines hint, this will depend on who is telling it.

據馬克白的意思，這要看說是誰在說這個故事。

In the hands of Shakespeare’s (bracingly termed) ‘idiot’, the story of a life may well turn into unintelligible and dispiriting gibberish.

在沙士比亞(不停強調)的「傻瓜」中，生命的故事或許會成為晦澀難解又讓人失望的瞎扯。

But with sufficient compassion and insight, we may equally be able to make something different and a great deal more meaningful and redemptive out of the same material.

但有了足夠的同情心與洞見，我們有同等的能力可以從一樣的生命事件中做出一些改變，與一個更加有意義且有救贖的故事。

The difference between despair and hope is just a different way of telling stories from the same set of facts.

絕望與希望之間的差異不過是由不同的角度述說同樣的一串事實。

Only a small number of us ever self-consciously write our autobiographies.

只有少數的人們曾經有意識地寫下自身的自傳。

It is a task we associate with celebrities and the very old – but it is, in the background, a universal activity.

那是個讓我們容易聯想到名人與高齡者的差事－但它卻是在生命背景中，一個無時無刻的活動。

We may not be publishing our stories, but we are writing them in our minds nevertheless.

我們或許不會出版我們的故事，但是我們仍在腦中書寫著。

Every day finds us weaving a story about who we are, where we are going and why events happened as they did.

我們每天編織著關於我們是什麼人，要去哪兒，以及為什麼事情如此發展的故事。

Many of us are strikingly harsh narrators of these life stories.

我們當中許多人是這些故事極為嚴厲的敘述者。

We hint to ourselves that we’ve been morons from the beginning.

我們暗示自己，從最初我們就是笨蛋。

We’ve stuffed up big time. It’s been one disaster after another.

我們大部分時間都在說廢話。一件又一件的災難接續不斷。

That’s how we go about narrating, especially late at night, when our reserves of optimism run dry and the demons return.

這就是我們如何自述，尤其深夜時分，我們餘下的樂觀消逝，心中小惡魔再度找上我們。

Yet there is nothing necessary about our self-flagellating methods of narration.

然而，自我講述的方法並沒有限制。

There could always be ways of telling very different, far kinder, and more balanced stories from the very same sets of facts.

總是有方法，由完全相同的一串事實中，敘述非常不同，更加溫和，且更平衡的故事。

You could give your life story to Dostoevsky, Proust or Jesus and come out with a rather bearable, moving, tender and noble story.

你可以把你的生命故事交託給杜斯妥也夫斯基、蒲魯斯特、或是耶穌，然後得到一個更能被承受，更能感動，更溫柔高貴的故事。

Good – by which is meant fair-minded and judicious – narrators know that lives can be meaningful even when they involve a lot of failure and humiliation.

好的－亦即公正、明智而審慎的－敘述者，知道生命可以是充滿意義的，既使它有許多的失敗與恥辱。

Mistakes do not have to be absurd; they can be signs of how little information we have on which to base the most consequential decisions.

錯誤不須是荒誕的；它們也可以是我們對於做出最關鍵性的決定的資訊有多麼缺乏的徵象。

Messing up isn’t a sign of evil; it’s evidence of what we’re up against.

搞砸並不是一個邪惡的象徵；它是我們起身對抗某件事情的證據。

Not all the disasters were wasted anyway.

並非所有的災難都是平白耗費的。

Maybe we spent a decade not quite knowing what we wanted to do with ourselves professionally.

或許我們花上十年都不知道我們想要以什麼為志業。

Maybe we went through a succession of failed relationships that left us confused and hurt a lot of people.

或許我們歷經了一連串失敗的關係，徒留許多受傷害的人與困惑的我們。

But these experiences weren’t meaningless because they were necessary to later development and maturity.

但是這些經驗並非毫無意義的。因為他們是往後發展與更臻成熟所必要的養分。

We needed the career crisis to understand our working identities; we had to fail at love to fathom our hearts.

我們需要那些職涯危機才得以理解我們的工作腳色；我們必須在愛中失去才能摸著自己的心。

No one gets anywhere important in one go. We can forgive ourselves the horrors of our first drafts.

沒有人能一帆風順的成為大人物。我們得原諒自己第一次嘗試事務的慘狀。

The good storyteller recognises – contrary to certain impressions – that the central character of the story isn’t always responsible for every calamity or triumph.

一個好的敘述者了解－相對於既定印象－故事中的核心人物並非總是得為每件苦難或勝利負責。

We are never the sole authors of anything that happens to us.

我們永遠不是所有發生在我們身上的唯一原因。

Sometimes, it really will be the economy, our parents, the government, our enemies or simply the tragic dimensions of human existence.

有時候，真的就是起因於經濟，我們的父母，政府，我們的敵人，或純粹是人類存在於世上伴隨的不幸。

Good narrators don’t over-personalise. Every day, we are induced to narrate a bit our life story to ourselves:

好的敘述者不會過度個人化。每天，我們傾向跟自己講述自身的故事：

we explain why there was pain, why we forgot to seize a chance and why we’re in an unhappy situation.

我們解釋為什麼會感到心痛，為什麼我們忘記抓住一個機會，以及為什麼我們處於不開心的處境。

It does not need to be a tale told by an idiot signifying nothing. It can be a tale told by a kind, intelligent soul signifying rather a lot:

但這些都不需由一個傻瓜來講述且毫無意義。它可以是由一個和藹睿智的靈魂講述，揭示出許多許多的東西：

like almost every life story, it is in truth a tale of a well-intentioned, flawed, partially blind, self-deceived

就像幾乎每一個生命故事，事實上它是一個出於善意的，有缺陷的，部分被蒙蔽的，自我欺騙的，

but ultimately dignified and good human struggling against enormous odds and, sometimes, on a good day, succeeding just a little in a few areas.

但是最終重返尊貴之姿而且還不錯的好人，在極小的勝算中拼命，並且在一個走運的日子中，於一點點地方取得些微的成功。

At The School of Life we believe in developing emotional intelligence.

在人生學校中，我們相信情商發展。

To that end we have also created a whole range of products to support that growth.

為了達到這個目標，我們也製造各種產品，在成長的路上幫助你。

Find out more at the link on your screen now.

點擊下方連結了解更多資訊。