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Here's a question I'm sure you've never thought about before:
这是一个我确信你从未想过的问题：
What is the meaning of life?
生命的意义是什么？
And even more specifically, what is the meaning of your life?
更具体地说，你活着的意义是什么？
That might sound like an empty platitude — the stuff of fortune cookies and bad self-help books.
这听起来像是空洞的陈词滥调，像是幸运饼干和糟糕的自助书籍。
But research has found that having a purpose is incredibly important for almost every aspect of someone's life.
但是研究发现，拥有目标对生活几乎每个方面都极其重要。
So if you feel like you know what your purpose is, awesome.
所以，如果你觉得你知道自己的目的是什么，那就太棒了。
And if not, well, not all hope is lost:
如果你还不知道，并不是说所有的希望都没了：
Researchers have also figured out ways to find one.
研究人员也找到了一种方法。
Welcome to SciShow Psych.
欢迎收看心理科学秀。
We're going deep today.
我们今天要做深入探讨。
First, a disclaimer: There are a lot of ways to think about purpose, and many of them are rooted in religious or philosophical beliefs.
首先是免责声明：关于目的有很多种思考方式，其中许多都植根于宗教或哲学信仰。
If you have questions about that kind of stuff, this episode can't answer them for you.
如果你对这类事情存有疑问，本集节目不能为你答疑。
What we can tell you, though, is how psychologists think about purpose.
不过，我们可以告诉你的是，心理学家如何看待目的。
When they use that word, they're referring to the feeling that your life has meaning and direction and that you're living up to your potential — or at least, you feel that it's possible to reach your potential.
当他们使用这个词时，指的是你的生活有意义、有方向的感觉，你正在实现自己的潜能。或者至少，你觉得有可能达到你的潜能。
They study this in a few ways, but the one we're going to focus on is the eudaimonic view, since that's probably what most people think of when they consider purpose.
他们从几个方面研究这个问题，但我们要关注的是实现论的观点，因为这可能是大多数人考虑目标时的想法。
This is actually an idea from philosophy, and it says that true well-being is found not when you're only seeking out pleasure, but when you're doing what's worth doing.
这实际上是哲学的一个观点，它说的是真正的幸福不是在你追求快乐时发现的，而是在你做值得做的事情时发现的。
You can probably relate to this if you've ever finished a degree or raised a child.
如果你已经完成了一个学位或是抚养了一个孩子，你可能会和这有关。
Those things aren't always pleasant — and they're sometimes downright stressful — but there's a deep satisfaction in knowing that your efforts are going toward something greater than the task at hand.
这些事情并不总是令人愉快，有时甚至是极度的压力。但是，当你知道你的努力将要走向比手头的任务更大的事情时，你会感到非常满意。
And pursuing those things isn't just a motivator to get you up in the morning.
追求这些东西不仅是让你早上起床的动力。
Studies have found that eudaimonic well-being is linked to good mental and physical health, too.
研究发现，实现论的幸福感也与良好的心理和身体健康有关。
Several studies have found that elderly people with the strongest feelings of purpose in life had the lowest risk of death.
几项研究发现，生活中有强烈目标感的老年人死亡风险最低。
That is, people who felt their life had purpose were less likely to die during the study period from any cause.
也就是说，那些认为自己的生活有目的的人在研究期间不太可能因任何原因死亡。
People with a greater sense of purpose have also been shown to get better sleep, have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their saliva, and have more HDL, or so-called "good" cholesterol.
研究表明，更有目标感的人睡眠也更好，唾液中的应激激素皮质醇水平更低，高密度脂蛋白也更多，也就是所谓的“好”胆固醇。
A 2013 study of more than 1500 people with coronary heart disease even found that those with a greater purpose in life were less likely to have a heart attack during the two-year study period.
2013年对1500多名冠心病患者进行的一项研究甚至发现，在为期两年的研究期间，那些生活目标更高的人不太可能出现心脏病发作。
That being said, scientists aren't totally clear on which direction this goes.
尽管如此，科学家们并不完全清楚这是朝哪个方向发展。
In other words, it's not clear if meaning in life gives you good health, or if good health makes you feel like life has meaning.
换句话说，不清楚生活中的意义是否给你带来健康，还是健康能让你觉得生活有意义。
Alternatively, the relationship between these things could just be correlational — meaning that one doesn't cause the other.
或者，这些事物之间的关系可能只是相关——这意味着一个事物不会导致另一个事物。
Still, it does seem like when you feel your life has worth, you might be more likely to take care of yourself.
尽管如此，当你觉得生活有价值时，你可能更愿意照顾自己。
And even when your health isn't so great, meaning does appear to be useful.
即使你的健康状况不太好，生活意义似乎也很有用。
For example, a 2015 study from the Journal of Clinical Oncology examined group therapy for more than 250 cancer patients.
例如，《临床肿瘤学期刊》2015年的一项研究对250多名癌症患者进行了分组治疗。
It found a greater boost in well-being when that therapy focused on developing a sense of meaning than when it simply offered emotional support.
当疗法专注于培养意义感时，它比单纯提供情感支持更能增强幸福感。
Purpose also has other benefits, though.
不过，目的还有其他好处。
Take a study published in 2014, where researchers had 338 ninth-graders complete a roughly 30-minute computer lesson.
以2014年发表的一项研究为例，研究人员让338名九年级学生完成大约30分钟的计算机课程。
For the control group, that lesson was about how high school and middle school are different.
对于控制组的被试，这节课的内容是关于高中和初中的差异。
But for the experimental group, the lesson helped them reflect on their purpose and meaning in education.
但对于实验组的被试来说，这节课帮助他们反思了他们在教育中的目的和意义。
Like, one question introduced the idea that many students want to do well in school so they can make the world a better place.
例如，有一个问题提出了这样一个观点：许多学生希望在学校里表现出色，这样他们就能使世界变得更好。
Then, the prompt asked students to explain their own academic motivation.
然后，提示要求学生解释自己的学习动机。
Over the next few months, the students in that group significantly boosted their GPAs in math and science — two typically tedious subjects.
在接下来的几个月里，这个小组学生的数学和科学平均成绩都显著提高，这两门课通常都很乏味。
So, all that to say, purpose does seem to mean something.
所以，尽管如此，目的似乎确实意味着什么。
And when it comes to actually finding your purpose in life, well, that's easier said than done.
要在生活中找到自己的目标，说起来容易做起来难。
Thankfully, researchers haven't left us hanging.
谢天谢地，研究人员并没有让我们绞尽脑汁。
They've looked into this, too, and they've found some reliable ways to make it happen.
他们也研究过这个问题，并且找到了一些可靠的方法来实现它。
First, they suggest shifting your mindset.
首先，他们建议改变你的思维方式。
A 2013 study found that a greater sense of meaning was associated with thinking about the future or the past, but not the present.
2013年的一项研究发现，更大的意义感与对未来或过去的思考有关，但与现在无关。
The idea is that thinking about the past makes you realize where your life has led you, and that when you think about the future, you consider where it's going.
这种观念是，对过去的思考会让你意识到生活如何引导你，而当你思考未来时，你会考虑它将走向何方。
Both of those things seem to add more meaning to the present.
这两件事似乎给现在增添了更多的意义。
Studies also suggest that reading can help you forge a sense of meaning, and that's especially true of poetry and fiction.
研究还表明，阅读有助于你建立一种意义感，尤其是诗歌和小说。
Reading about others finding meaning may help you find it in yourself.
阅读别人的发现可能会帮助你从自身找到意义感。
Now, it is worth noting that "meaning" isn't exactly the same as "purpose", but it is a part of it.
现在，值得注意的是，“意义”与“目的”并不完全相同，但它是其中的一部分。
So finding more meaning in life is a good first step toward figuring out purpose, too.
因此，在生活中找到更多的意义也是找到目标的良好开端。
Finally, a tried-and-true path to help you with all of this is helping others and expressing gratitude.
最后，一条真正帮助你的途径就是帮助他人，表达感激之情。
In a study published in 2015, researchers found that people who reported engaging in more altruistic behaviors like volunteering and giving to charity also reported greater meaning in their lives.
在2015年发表的一项研究中，研究人员发现，那些报告参与更多利他主义行为的人，如志愿服务和捐赠慈善事业等，他们的生活也具有更大的意义。
In another experiment, they had 84 people write notes — and those who wrote notes expressing gratitude reported a significantly greater sense of meaning than the other groups.
在另一项实验中，他们让84人写笔记，那些在笔记中表达感激的人比其他小组的人体会到更大的意义感。
So, if you're like most of us and are still searching for your life's purpose, you could try reading a book, volunteering for something you believe in, or starting a gratitude journal.
所以，如果你和我们大多数人一样，仍然在寻找自己的人生目标，你可以试着读一本书，志愿去做你相信的一些事情，或者写一本感恩日记。
You'll hopefully start to see a little more meaning in the world around you — and your sense of purpose might not be far behind.
但愿你能在周围的世界里看到更多的意义——你的目标感可能就不远了。
This episode of SciShow Psych is brought to you by our patrons on Patreon!
这一集的心理科学秀是由我们在Patreon上的赞助人带来的！
Thanks to all of you who support SciShow!
感谢所有支持本节目的观众！
We hope that helping bring free educational content to the Internet gives your life at least a little purpose.
我们希望帮助把免费的教育内容带到互联网上，能够给你的生活至少带来一点目的感。
If you want to help us keep exploring topics like this, your support would mean a lot to us.
如果你想帮助我们继续探索这样的主题，你的支持对我们来说意义重大。
You can learn more over at patreon.com/scishow.
你可以在patreon.com/scishow了解更多信息。
