Deep Dive
What is the main message of Matthew McConaughey's speech?
The main message is that life is not easy or fair, and one should avoid falling into the entitlement trap of feeling like a victim. Instead, individuals should define their own success, prioritize their values, and take responsibility for their lives by eliminating negative influences and focusing on what truly matters to them.
What does Matthew McConaughey mean by the 'entitlement trap'?
The 'entitlement trap' refers to the mindset where individuals believe they deserve more than they are getting, leading them to feel like victims. McConaughey advises against this, emphasizing the importance of taking responsibility for one's life and moving forward instead of dwelling on perceived injustices.
How does Matthew McConaughey suggest defining success?
McConaughey suggests that individuals should ask themselves what success means to them personally. It could be financial wealth, a healthy family, a happy marriage, helping others, or leaving the world a better place. He emphasizes that the definition of success may change over time, but it is crucial to prioritize one's values and avoid choices that jeopardize one's character.
What advice does Matthew McConaughey give about overcoming challenges?
McConaughey advises being brave and taking on challenges, but first, individuals must identify their own 'hill'—what truly matters to them. He encourages using the process of elimination to remove negative influences, such as toxic relationships or habits, which can inadvertently lead to discovering one's true identity and passions.
What does Matthew McConaughey say about making mistakes?
McConaughey acknowledges that everyone makes mistakes and emphasizes the importance of owning them. He advises taking responsibility for one's mistakes, making amends, and moving forward. He warns against letting guilt and regret consume one's life, urging individuals to turn the page and continue writing their own life story.
What metaphor does Matthew McConaughey use to describe life?
McConaughey uses the metaphor of being the 'architect' and 'author' of one's own life. He encourages individuals to design their lives with intention, study their habits and routines, and make choices that align with their values and goals. He emphasizes the importance of being discerning and taking ownership of one's life story.
- 人生不易，不公平
- 不要陷入“应得”的陷阱
- 重新定义成功
- 保护自身价值观
Shownotes Transcript
大家好，我是 Jenny，欢迎你又一次回来收听潘吉 Jenny 告诉你。Hey everyone, I'm Jason and welcome to today's very inspiring end of the year episode. 对，我们真的很需要啊，因为年底的时候嘛，又回顾自己快要过去的一年，展望新的一年，都需要一些鼓舞，都需要一些鼓励。Yeah, get us ready for the next year, right? Get us pumped up for the coming year. 太棒了。
对，那今天呢，你们会听到一段来自美国非常有名的一个大帅哥男演员马修·麦康纳的一段非常 inspiring 的演讲。That's right, this actor has a pretty tough to spell last name, but it's Matthew McConaughey is his name. 对，然后呢，他的这个口音也是非常有代表性，他是德州人是吧，德克萨斯人。
That's right. He's from Texas, so he's a Texan and he has a southern Texan accent. Yeah, it's very nasally, right? It's, hey, my name is Matthew McConaughey. I'm from Texas. It kind of has this, we call it a southern drawl or a southern twang. And yeah, it's usually very nasally.
OK，那谢谢 Jason，非常精彩的演绎。那我们现在可以来听欧吉，好吧，听本尊。然后这一段演讲呢，在 YouTube 上面，因为它一共五分钟，然后它就叫，Five minutes to change the next 50 years of your life. 那有没有那么 powerful 呢？我们先听这里面其中第一小段。All right.
我将要和你们谈谈我在我的人生旅程中学到的一些事情。大多数来自经验，有些是我偶然听到的。许多我仍在实践中，但我相信所有这些都是真实的。生活不容易。确实不容易。别试图让它变得容易。生活是不公平的。它从来都不是公平的。现在不是，将来也不会是。不要落入陷阱，权利陷阱，感觉自己像个受害者。你不是。克服它，继续前进。
所以我们必须问自己的问题是，什么对我们来说是成功？什么对你来说是成功？是更多钱吗？很好。我不反对钱。也许是一个健康的家庭。也许是一段幸福的婚姻。也许是帮助他人，成名，精神健全，让世界比你发现它的时候稍微好一点。继续问自己这个问题。你的答案可能会随着时间的推移而改变，这很好。但是请你这样做一个善意的举动。无论你的答案是什么，
不要选择任何会危及你自身的事情。优先考虑你是谁，你想成为什么样的人，不要把时间花在任何会与你的品格相冲突的事情上。Okay, Matthew McConaughey means business. 他一开始的时候就跟我们说到，人生很不容易，人生也很不公平，and don't try to make it that way.
没错，他说生活不容易。别试图让它变得容易。生活是不公平的，对吧？所以他的整个演讲基本上围绕着这个主题。不要认为你的生活会越来越顺利，因为如果这样想，你会非常失望。相反，你必须变得坚强。
是的，如果你认为生活总是会公平的，而它不是，那么你就会落入陷阱，他说，权利陷阱。
哦，对，这我们可以看一下，trap 是一个陷阱，那当你掉进一个陷阱的时候就是 fall into a trap，然后这里具体说的这个叫 entitlement trap，这是什么意思呢？Entitlement is when you think you deserve something, when you think you're owed something. So the entitlement trap here he's talking about is this idea that you think you just deserve more than you're getting, you're owed more than you're getting.
就是你会说人生很不容易啊，人生很不公平，你觉得人生欠你的，right？
And he's saying that's just an entitlement trap. 这样会让你老是觉得自己是一个 victim，是一个受害者。Yeah, you end up thinking that you're the victim in your story and you're not taking any responsibility for improving your life. You're just a victim. Oh, it's so bad. Why is life so bad to me? 好，那这里他有一个建议是什么呢？
get over it and get on with it. 对，我非常喜欢这种都是很简单的口语啊，但是它特别的地道，而且它特别的有冲击力。So get over it，就是你就不要觉得自己很可怜，you need to get over it. Yeah, you can't keep thinking about it all the time, how unfair life is. Get over it, and then of course, get on with it, keep moving.
So get on with something，就是 you need to start，you need to start doing it. Yeah, not only are you getting over it, you're going to continue moving forward and get on with it. 对，然后呢他又提到说，你如何定义成功非常重要，所以一定要问自己这个问题。And once again, he uses a very colloquial，非常口语的说法，
That's right. So he says the question that we got to ask ourselves is what success is to us? What does it mean to you? 这里的这个 gotta，gotta 就是 you have to，right？You've got to do something. Yeah, it's just a really colloquial spoken way to say have to or must. Right.
嗯，那当然对于我们很多人来说，其实金钱财富是衡量成功的一个很重要的标准。然后他说这也没关系，他说我没有跟钱过不去。Yeah, he's like, I got nothing against money. 对，又是一个特别地道的口语说法。If you've got nothing against something or someone，意思就是你跟他没有问题，你没有跟他过不去。
Yeah, and usually you're saying this in the context of when you're saying something else that might sound like you have something against it, that you don't like money, but he's saying, hey, I got nothing against money. 他就说，不要认为我是那种好像我已经什么都有了，然后我就跟人家说钱不重要了，什么什么特别超脱。最讨厌的。I'm not like that.
对，对，I've got nothing against money，you've got nothing against something or someone. 然后呢，他又说到了两点非常重要的就是，无论如何，你要好好地保护你自己，你要好好地保护，维持你的价值观，你的人品个性这些。
Yeah, so he says don't choose anything that will jeopardize yourself and prioritize who you are, who you want to be, and don't spend time with anything that antagonizes your character. OK，这里有两个蛮难的词，蛮高阶的，一个是 jeopardize，还有一个是 antagonize，稍微有点像。
Yeah, they're very similar, but they have a little bit of a subtle difference. 对，jeopardize 的意思是会危害到，对吧？So don't choose anything that would jeopardize yourself or jeopardize your future. 不要因为一时的所得做一些可能危害你未来的事情。
Yeah, jeopardize is usually something that kind of ruins the potential outcome. So maybe it's not directly bad for you, but it makes your potential outcome less likely. It's not going to happen because of this thing.
对对对，就会在以后带来危害啊。那那个 antagonize 呢，就有点像敌人是吧，敌对。Yeah, exactly, like 敌对，right？It is going against you. It's almost like it's attacking you kind of. It's not good for you, right？
嗯，very good advice. 好，那我们接下来听第二段他的讲演。好。Be brave, take the hill, but first answer that question, what's my hill? 嗯。
所以首先，我们必须为自己定义成功。然后我们必须努力去维持它。每天都这样做。耕耘我们的花园。保持对我们来说重要的事情处于良好的状态。你不在哪里和你在哪里一样重要。我们不在哪里和我们在哪里一样重要。看，通往我们人生认同的第一步通常不是成功。
我知道我是谁。我知道我是谁。那不是第一步。第一步通常是，我知道我不是谁。排除法。通过我们不是什么来定义自己，是让我们真正了解自己是谁的第一步。你知道你经常和那一群朋友一起出去玩，他们可能并不能激发出你最好的一面吗？你知道，他们说太多闲话，或者他们有点阴暗。他们在关键时刻真的不会在你身边。或者那个酒吧怎么样？
我们一直去的那家酒吧，我们似乎总是从那里喝得最烂醉。或者那个电脑屏幕，对吧？那个电脑屏幕总是给我们找借口，让我们不出门，不与世界接触，不进行真正的互动。我们一直吃的那些食物怎么样？那些吃起来味道很好的东西，让我们下周感觉很糟糕。我们感到昏昏欲睡，体重也一直在增加。好吧，那些人，那些地方，那些事情，停止把你的时间和精力花在他们身上。
别去那里。我的意思是，放下它们。当你这样做的时候，当你放下它们的时候，当你停止去那里，停止把时间花在他们身上的时候，你会无意中发现自己花更多的时间在对你有益、给你带来更多快乐的地方。为什么？因为你刚刚排除了那些阻碍你认清自我的人、事、物和时间。
好的，我们刚刚听到了这部分，它总是关于排除法，排除，排除法。但在我们详细研究这个之前，马修·麦康纳鼓励我们勇敢，翻越高山，翻越山丘。是的，他在这里告诉我们要勇敢，要征服山丘。但首先，要回答这个问题，我的山丘是什么？
嗯，OK，这就让我想到，诶，你知道李宗盛吗？不知道诶。你一定听过他写的歌，比如说有一首就叫山丘，所以我听到这句话就非常 remind me of his song，这里面就是说人生是一座一座的山丘，越过山丘，但这个 McConaghy 就说，越过山丘克服困难很好的。
但是先问你自己哪一座才是你的山丘，不要因为别人都去爬这座山，那你觉得我也一定要去爬这座山。Maybe it's not your hill.
这是一个很酷的想法。就像有很多选择。你有选择，选择适合你的山丘，对吧？对，我想他是说可能大家现在都在做这一件事，都勇去做，因为觉得这个很有前途啊，这个可以成功啊什么的，但也许这不适合你。Yeah, or maybe your parents have this expectation that you're going to be a doctor or something, and that's not your hill, that's not your passion, right？但是呢，finding your hill，finding your passion 也不适合你。
也不容易哦，or even like really knowing who you are，不容易。那这里呢，他就给了一个建议，我觉得挺反直觉的，就有点 counterintuitive。他说你要明白自己是谁，你基本上要先明白你不是谁。Ah, yes, so the first step is to know who I am not.
对，然后呢这个就是说到排除法。Ah yes, the process of elimination. OK，所以 elimination 或者动词 to eliminate 就是 remove，一一的排除。
Yeah, that's right. So the process of elimination just means get rid of all those things that you know are not the right ones. 好，那他这里是说 through the process of elimination 你排除了很多你不喜欢做的事情 不喜欢在一起共处的人 你觉得 that's not who you are 最后你可能不经意的就发现了 你是谁，你的 passion 所以不经意怎么说呢？不经意 is inadvertently
Oh, okay, inadvertently. 对，因为这个前面看到像 ing 啊，and 啊这样的前缀通常它就是一个反义，对吧？So if you advertently do something，就是你故意的，刻意的，但是呢，inadvertently 就是翻译词。Yeah, this means you weren't trying to do it, but it happened anyway, so without trying, right？
嗯，对。好，那在我们听今天最后一段的 speech 之前呢，这里还有一个特别好的用法要跟大家 highlight 一下，就是在 who，where，what，when 后面我们可以加 s。Ah, yes, he says, because you've eliminated the who's, the where's, the what's, and the when's.
这个后面加 s 的意思就是，it's more than one，right？因为有可能你有很多不想去的地方，你有很多不想做的事情，你有很多不能付的约，so that's why we add an s.
That's right. Yeah, he's talking about there could be all kinds of yous you could create in your life. There's all kinds of places you could go and things you could do and when you could do them. But you need to eliminate those. Yes, and hopefully inadvertently you find yourself in the process. 好，那我们现在就听今天最后的一段演说。Trust me, too many options. I promise you, too many options will make a tyrant of us all.
所以去掉多余的东西，浪费的时间。减少你的选择。如果你这样做，你会无意中，几乎是无辜地，把你面前重要的东西摆在你面前。通过排除法。知道我们是谁很难。给自己一个休息的机会。首先排除掉你不是谁。你会发现自己身处你需要的地方。
与其创造那些从我们这里夺走东西的结果，不如让我们创造更多回报我们的结果，充实我们，保持你的热情，让你在未来的大部分时间里都充满活力。我们尽力而为。我们并不总是尽力而为。建筑也是一个动词。
既然我们是自身生活的建筑师，让我们研究一下我们拥有的那些导致并滋养我们成功、快乐、诚实的痛苦、欢笑、应得的泪水的习惯、实践和常规。让我们剖析一下，并感谢这些事情。当我们这样做的时候，猜猜会发生什么？我们变得更擅长它们，我们有更多的东西可以剖析。要有辨别力。选择它是因为你想要它。做它是因为你想要做。
我们会犯错。你必须承担它们。然后你必须弥补。然后你必须继续前进。内疚和后悔在他们该死之前就杀死了很多人。所以翻过这一页。下车吧。你是你人生这本书的作者。
好，那刚刚这一段呢，wraps up Matthew McConaughey's very inspiring speech. 听得还蛮意犹未尽的。Yeah, it's very realistic, but still very inspiring, right？Like he says, we try our best and we don't always do our best.
对，这就是问题，是吧？因为我们经常就是想要得到一些鼓励或者给别人鼓励就是 just try your best，你不要担心后果，你不要怎么怎么样。然后呢他就说，但是你一天到晚只是 try your best，不 do your best 就也没用。
Yeah, just because you don't do your best doesn't mean you shouldn't try your best, right？对，他是一个挺狠的人，他就说不要给自己留太多余地，right？So just like you said, he just cuts to the chase，就比较直接，然后就说你不要再老是说我要试，我要尝试我最好的，你就直接做出你最好的，要来就来真的。Yeah, sometimes we just gotta get moving, right？We gotta start doing stuff.
Get over it and get on with it. That's right. Exactly.
对，然后他是很相信说每个人都是自己人生的建筑师哦。We are the architects of our own lives. Okay，so architects 就是建筑师，然后这是一个职业，建筑呢就是 architecture，是吧？Yeah, architecture like the way buildings are designed and structured, right？And of course, architects being the people that do that as a profession.
是是，那接下来呢他又谈到了一点就是，我记得之前我们在讲一本书的时候也说过，就是你要带着意图去生活，你要会分辨，不要糊里糊涂。
Yeah, that's right. You have to be discerning. Okay，so to discern，动词，就是要好好地分辨，要会辨别，要会识别。To be discerning，这里是一个形容词，意思就是你是有辨别力的。Yeah, you're putting thought into how you're，you know，analyzing things and how you're thinking about everything instead of just big blah，you know，you're actually putting thought into it.
就像他前面说的，你 take the hill 之前先问问，what is my hill？就哪一座才是值得我跨或者我要想去跨越的山峰山丘？That's being discerning. Yeah, it's like we owe it to ourselves, right？To be discerning and make those decisions with ourselves in mind and what we really want.
对，好，那前面说他蛮狠的啊，不给自己留余地，但是呢，他这里也是说，我们每个人都会 make mistakes，都会犯错，就感觉他安慰了我们一下，结果接下来又变得很狠，他说 you got to own them.
That's right, we're going to make mistakes, but we've got to own them. 所以不是说你就是一定要做很完美什么的，因为 a lot of things are not up to you，而且 mistakes，失败是成功之母嘛，最重要的是要负起责任，是吧？So to own your mistakes. Yeah, that's to take responsibility，to take accountability for your mistakes.
对，大家可能觉得有点奇怪，什么？要拥有我的错误，但是它就是这个意思，just be responsible for your mistakes，就不要怨天尤人都怪别人啊，怪情形啊，这样。
That's right, yeah, we can't learn from our mistakes unless we own them, right？嗯，他说接着你要干嘛？You have to make amends. 这啥意思呢？Make amends means make the mistake right. Maybe that's apologizing or fixing something that's broken. 就是要来弥补或者纠正那个错误。对，and that's part of owning your mistake，right？
嗯，没错。好，那最后他有一句也是很鼓励鼓舞人心的话，就是我们每个人是我们生命这本书的作者。Ah，so not only are we the architects，we are also the author of the book of our lives. Okay，an author. 这是 author 和 writer 还有点不一样，author 好像更加的有 ownership，而且 author...
而且 author 比 writer 似乎是层级层次又上了一层。Yeah, it feels a little more professional, more accomplished. A writer could do all kinds of writing, but an author is publishing books, is definitely writing books. 对，而且他还可以做动词用。So you can author your own life. Yeah, that's right. You can author your own life，author the book of your life.
好的，那我们今天的节目就到这儿。不知道你是否喜欢今天分享的这一段 speech，这一段演讲。那如果之后你也想听到更多英语原声的演讲的话呢，也欢迎在留言专区告诉我们。Yeah, let us know, were you moved by this speech as much as we were？We'd love to hear about it in the comments. 那非常感谢大家收听今天的节目，我们下次再见。再见。