Time Anxiety or the fear of wasting your time (is it too late to get started?) - YouTube

it's too late.

太晚了。这句话表达的意思是，现在已经过了合适的时间或错过了机会。

Hello everyone, if this is your first time on this channel, please make sure to subscribe and if you're not new here, welcome back. Have you ever had that voice in your head telling you that it's too late to learn how to play in guitar, too late to learn a new language, too late to start a blog or too late to start a business? This is called time anxiety and the amount of things we don't do because of it is crazy.

大家好，如果你是第一次来到这个频道，请务必订阅，如果你已经是老朋友了，欢迎回来。你有没有过这样的感觉，脑海里有个声音告诉你，学吉他已经太晚了，学一门新语言已经太晚了，开始写博客或者创业也已经太晚了？这就是所谓的时间焦虑，因为它而错过的机会真是太多了。

I'll give you a personal example. 10 years ago, I was working at Google and I was helping the YouTube team organize an event for YouTubers, which was called VidCon. Literally the biggest event for YouTubers and their fans. YouTubers there were giving talks, signing autographs and generally connecting with their audience. There was thousands of people under one roof, a celebration of YouTube as a platform and a community and I had a seat at the front row. I could see how exciting YouTube could be but I didn't start a YouTube channel. Why? Time anxiety.

我来给你举个个人例子。10年前，我在谷歌工作，那时我正在帮助YouTube团队组织一场名为VidCon的YouTuber活动。它是YouTuber和他们的粉丝最大规模的活动。YouTuber们在那里发表演讲，签名，与观众互动。在一个屋檐下聚集了成千上万的人们，共同庆祝YouTube作为一个平台和社群。而我就坐在前排，亲身感受到了YouTube的激动人心之处。但我为什么没有开始一个YouTube频道呢？因为我有时间焦虑。

I looked at all of these YouTubers. Most of them had started their channels when they were 14 or 15 or 16 and at the time I thought, well, this is too late. There's no point in starting now. This is how time anxiety works because we demand that the way we spend our time is meaningful. We decide to not start on projects when we think that we don't have enough time that it's too late or that we missed the boat.

我看了所有这些YouTuber的视频。其中大部分在14、15或16岁时开始了他们的频道，当时我想，这太晚了，现在开始已经没意义了。这就是时间焦虑的作用，因为我们要求我们所花费的时间是有意义的。当我们认为时间已经不够、太晚或者我们错过了机会时，我们决定不开始进行项目。

Well, as you can see today, I finally came around and realized that it was wrong and I started my YouTube channel but I lost 10 times in the process. The term time anxiety was coined by Dr. Alex Lickerman, who explained that it comes from following questions. Am I creating the greatest amount of value with my life that I can? Will I feel when it comes my time to die that I spend too much of my time frivolously?

嗯，正如你今天所看到的，我终于改变了想法，意识到之前的做法是错误的，我开始了我的YouTube频道，但在此过程中我失败了十次。时间焦虑一词由Alex Lickerman博士创造，他解释说这种焦虑来自以下几个问题。我是否能够充分地创造生命的最大价值？当我临终的时候，我会不会感到我浪费了太多的时间？

It's important to understand that time anxiety doesn't mean that you think there is a higher entity that is giving purpose to your life but the better it means that you are placing a lot of the meaning in your life into the value that you are producing. As a result, too late to start, I'd better not start at all. It may seem paradoxical but by trying to other optimize our lives in this way, we are actually reducing the amount of value and meaning that we can bring into our lives.

重要的是要了解，时间焦虑并不意味着你认为有一个更高的存在赋予你的生活目的，而是更好的意味着你把生活中的很多意义放在了你所创造的价值上。因此，如果已经太晚开始，我宁愿不开始。这看起来似乎矛盾，但是通过尝试在这种方式下优化我们的生活，我们实际上减少了我们可以带入生活中的价值和意义的数量。

Beating time anxiety means expanding your perception of possible. It means stopping having all of these artificial barriers that you're creating for yourself and remembering that as long as you're alive today, there is literally no reason not to start something new. Instead of focusing on the outcomes, like, yeah, having one million YouTube subscribers, that does take a long time or having a massive newsletter or being completely fluent in the language, it's about focusing on your input, publishing your first video on YouTube, writing your first blog post, learning your first few words in this language that you want to learn.

战胜时间焦虑意味着扩大你对可能性的认知。它意味着停止为自己设定这些人为障碍，记住只要你今天还活着，就没有理由不去开始一些新的事物。与其专注于结果，比如说拥有一百万的YouTube订阅者，这需要很长时间，或者拥有一个庞大的通讯录，或者完全流利地掌握一门语言，而是要专注于你的付出，比如在YouTube上发布你的第一个视频，写下你的第一篇博客文章，学习你想要学习的语言的前几个单词。

Everyone you're looking at is more advanced than you are had to start from scratch at some point. It's the same for everyone and it doesn't mean that because someone today is more advanced than you and their journey, you can't start your own journey as well. They say that all good things come in threes. Well, time anxiety is not that good but it also comes in three different forms.

你看到的每个人在某一时刻都是从零开始的，比你更先进。对每个人来说都是如此，这并不意味着因为某个人今天比你更先进和他们的旅程，你就不能开始自己的旅程。人们说好事都是成群结队的。好吧，时间焦虑虽然不是好事，但也有三种不同形式存在。

The first one is current time anxiety. It's the daily feeling of being rushed, of not having enough time to complete all of your tasks, which sometimes makes you feel a little bit panicky. Lots of people who struggle with current time anxiety also sometimes have panic attacks.

第一个是"当前时间焦虑"。这是一种每天都感到匆忙，无法完成所有任务而有时会感到有些恐慌的感觉。许多与当前时间焦虑斗争的人有时也会发生惊恐发作。

The second one is future time anxiety. This is all of the what if questions that you have about the future. It's a lot of worrying about what will happen tomorrow or in one year or in five years. We worry so much about the future that we don't have enough mental space left to think about the present.

第二种是对未来的焦虑。它包含了你对未来存在的所有「如果」问题。你会很担心明天、一年后或五年后会发生什么事情。我们对未来过度忧虑，以至于没有足够的心智空间去思考现在。

And finally, existential time anxiety probably the hardest to deal with because it's about having the sensation of seeing time float away to never come back again. It's very common to have existential time anxiety when we think about death.

最后，存在性时间焦虑可能是最难应对的，因为它是指感觉时间在流逝中从未再度回来的焦虑。当我们想到死亡时，存在性时间焦虑是非常普遍的。

So how do you manage time anxiety? Well, the first thing is to remember what is the nature of time. Time moves forward, never backwards. There's nothing you can do about that. And it's the same for absolutely everyone, at least in our universe. This feels like a basic truth, but we are constantly trying to run away from it, accepting that time moves forward, never backwards, and that you're never going to get it back, is the first step in dealing with time anxiety.

那么，你如何管理时间焦虑呢？好的，首先要记住时间的本质。时间只能向前流逝，无法倒流。对此你无能为力。在我们的宇宙中，所有人都面临同样的情况。这似乎是一个基本的真理，但我们却不断试图逃避它。接受时间只能向前流逝，无法倒流，并且永远无法回到过去，是应对时间焦虑的第一步。

I'm sure you're like, well, this is really negative. How is that helping me? Well, it's really important to internalize that idea because this way, you will really know that everything that has happened as happened. That's fine. What will happen, the only time you're in control is the present and it's the decisions you're taking today that will influence where you are in the future. So you have to act today as a gift to your future self.

我确定你可能会觉得，这太消极了。这对我有什么帮助呢？嗯，重要的是要内化这个思想，因为这样你就会真正知道，过去发生的一切都已经发生了，这没关系。未来会发生什么，你只有在现在才能掌控，而且你今天所做的决定将会影响你将来的位置。所以你必须把今天的行动当作给未来自己的礼物。

This is all for you, if I was optical, so let's get to a bit more practical here. There are three things you can do to deal with time anxiety in a more practical way.

这一切都是为了你，如果我是个理性的人的话，那么我们来谈一些更加实际的事情吧。以下是三种你可以采取的更加务实的方法来处理时间焦虑。

First, you need to define what does time well spent means to you? By time well spent, I don't mean what is time that you can spend today in a meaningful way that is going to be helpful to future you. Adjustments, what are ways to spend your time there are enjoyable to you that gets you in the flow and that make you happy, regardless of the outcome. Instead of thinking about how big your YouTube channel could be, how big your blog could be, or how violent goal it could be in a few years, think about how enjoyable the process of learning and growing and creating is. Don't think about how happy you would make you if you were to publish a book. Ask yourself, do I really enjoy writing? Don't think about how you're going to be so proud of completing a marathon. Ask yourself, do I really like running? Try to be as honest as possible with yourself.

首先，你需要定义“好好利用时间”对你来说意味着什么？所谓好好利用时间，并不是指你今天能以对未来有利的有意义的方式度过的时间。调整一下，想一想如何以让你愉悦且充满活力的方式度过时间，无论结果如何，这样做会让你快乐。与其考虑你的YouTube频道有多大，你的博客有多大，或者未来几年你的目标有多大，不如考虑学习、成长和创作的过程有多么有趣。不要想着如果出版一本书会让你多么幸福，而是问问自己，我真的喜欢写作吗？不要想着完成一场马拉松会让你多么自豪，而是问问自己，我真的喜欢跑步吗？尽量对自己保持诚实。

Now that you've defined what time well spent means to you, the second step is to actually make time for these moments. Just go to your calendar, open it, look at it, and again be honest with yourself. Is there enough time during the week to dedicate to these activities that intrinsically make you happy? As you go about your week, it's okay if sometimes life happens and you just don't have as much time as you expected to dedicate to these activities, but it's really about trying, about being conscious and aware of your schedule and the way you spend your time in general. As the perfect writer Maria Edwards said, if you take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.

现在你已经定义了对你而言的度过美好时光意味着什么，第二步就是为这些时刻确实留出时间。只需打开你的日历，看看它，并再次对自己诚实。一周里是否有足够的时间来专注于那些本质上使你快乐的活动？在你忙碌的一周中，如果有时生活发生，你没有像预期那样有足够的时间用于这些活动，那也没关系，关键是要试着努力，意识并注意自己的日程安排和时间花费方式。正如完美的作家玛丽亚·爱德华兹所说，如果你照顾好每一刻，岁月自会照顾好自己。

Finally, try to cut out useless distractions. It's completely okay from time to time to be scrolling on Twitter or Instagram, but sometimes it can make time anxiety worse because you're looking back and thinking about all of this time that you wasted. Try to replace some of these useless distractions where things that are a bit more creative or make you happier. That could be just hanging up with friends, watching a really good movie, writing, learning how to design, learning in an instrument, a new language, it really doesn't matter. But try to make sure that you don't spend too much time on distracting activities. There are going to make you feel worse when it comes to your time anxiety.

最后，尽量削减无用的干扰。偶尔在Twitter或Instagram上浏览一下完全可以，但有时候这会加剧时间焦虑，因为你回头想着你浪费了那么多时间。试着用一些更有创意或让你快乐的方式替代这些无用的干扰。可以是和朋友出去玩，看一场很好的电影，写作，学习设计，学习一种乐器，或学习一门新语言，真的无所谓。但要确保你不会花太多时间在分散注意力的活动上。这些活动会让你的时间焦虑感变得更糟。

I just want to be honest here, I still struggle with time anxiety all the time. But being aware of what it is and how to manage it makes it a little bit easier to deal with. It's okay if you still feel that deep anxiety when you think about death, about the fact that time only moves forward and not backwards and that you're never going to get the minutes you spend today back. But instead of making it a depressing feeling, try to channel these ideas to make you act today to be more productive, more creative, spend more time with the people you love. The fact that we have so little time and that we can never get it back can actually be a driving factor to help us achieve more.

我只是想在这里诚实一点，我仍然时常与时间焦虑斗争。但是意识到它是什么，并学会如何管理它，让处理起来稍微容易一些。如果当你思考死亡、时间只会前进而不能逆转以及你无法收回今天所度过的时间时，你仍然感到深深的焦虑，没关系。但是，与其让这种感觉变得沮丧，不如试着将这些想法引导到今天的行动中，使自己更加高效、更富创造力，多花时间与你爱的人在一起。我们时间如此有限，并且无法拥有回头的机会这一事实，实际上可以成为推动我们更上一层楼的因素。