The Meanings of Life

By Roy F Baumeister

一直以來(lái)，幸福的人生和有意義的人生總是被人們混淆，但其實(shí)這兩者完全不是一回事。一味追求幸福只會(huì)讓人們的幸福感降低。我們?cè)鯓硬拍軐ふ业接幸饬x的人生，而不僅僅是幸福的呢？

Parents often say: “I just want my children to be happy.” It is unusual to hear: “I just want my children’s lives to be meaningful,”yet that’s what most of us seem to want for ourselves. We fear meaninglessness. We fret about the “nihilism” of this or that aspect of our culture.1. fret: 煩惱，焦急；nihilism:虛無(wú)主義。When we lose a sense of meaning, we get depressed. What is this thing we call meaning, and why might we need it so badly?

Let’s start with the last question. To be sure, happiness and meaningfulness frequently overlap2. overlap: 部分重疊。. Perhaps some degree of meaning is a prerequisite for happiness, a necessary but insufficient condition.3. 可能“有意義”在某種程度上是“幸?！钡南葲Q條件，一個(gè)必要不充分條件。 prerequisite: 先決條件；insufficient: 不充足的。If that were the case, people might pursue meaning for purely instrumental4. instrumental: 有幫助的。reasons, as a step on the road towards happiness. But then, is there any reason to want meaning for its own sake5. for one’s own sake: 為了自己的利益。? And if there isn’t, why would people ever choose lives that are more meaningful than happy, as they sometimes do?

The difference between meaningfulness and happiness was the focus of an investigation I worked on with my fellow social psychologists. We found five sets of major differences between happiness and meaningfulness, five areas where different versions of the good life parted company.

The first had to do with getting what you want and need. Not surprisingly,satisfaction of desires was a reliable source of happiness. But it had nothing—maybe even less than nothing—to add to a sense of meaning. People are happier to the extent6. to the extent: 到……的程度。that they find their lives easy rather than difficult. Happy people say they have enough money to buy the things they want and the things they need. Good health is a factor that contributes to happiness but not to meaningfulness. Healthy people are happier than sick people, but the lives of sick people do not lack meaning. The more often people feel good—a feeling that can arise from getting what one wants or needs—the happier they are. The less often they feel bad, the happier they are. But the frequency of good and bad feelings turns out to be irrelevant to meaning, which can flourish even in very forbidding conditions.7. 但是美好和痛苦感受的發(fā)生頻率與“意義”并不相干，“意義”甚至能在十分險(xiǎn)惡的條件下顯現(xiàn)出來(lái)。irrelevant: 不相干的； flourish: 興旺，活躍；forbidding: 嚴(yán)峻的，險(xiǎn)惡的。

The second set of differences involved time frame8. time frame: 時(shí)間框架。. Meaning and happiness are apparently experienced quite differently in time. Happiness is about the present; meaning is about the future, or, more precisely, about linking past,present and future. The more time people spent thinking about the future or the past, the more meaningful, and less happy, their lives were. Conversely9. conversely: 相反地。, the more time people spent thinking about the here and now, the happier they were.Misery is often focused on the present, too, but people are happy more often than they are miserable. If you want to maximise10. maxmise: 把……增到最大限度。your happiness, it looks like good advice to focus on the present, especially if your needs are being satisfied.

This begins to suggest a theory for why it is we care so much about meaning.Perhaps the idea is to make happiness last. Happiness seems present-focused and fleeting, whereas meaning extends into the future and the past and looks fairly stable.11. 幸福似乎是著眼當(dāng)下并且轉(zhuǎn)瞬即逝的，然而“意義”卻橫跨過(guò)去和未來(lái)，看上去相當(dāng)穩(wěn)定。fleeting: 飛逝的，轉(zhuǎn)瞬的。For this reason, people might think that pursuing a meaningful life helps them to stay happy in the long run12. in the long run: 長(zhǎng)期來(lái)看。. They might even be right—though,happiness is often fairly consistent13. consistent: 始終如一的，一致的。over time. Those of us who are happy today are also likely to be happy months or even years from now, and those who are unhappy about something today commonly turn out to be unhappy about other things in the distant future. Despite these realities, people experience happiness as something that is felt here and now, and that cannot be counted on14. count on: 期待，指望。to last. By contrast, meaning is seen as lasting, and so people might think they can establish a basis for a more lasting kind of happiness by cultivating15. cultivate: 培養(yǎng)。meaning.

Social life was the locus16. locus: 地點(diǎn)，場(chǎng)所。of our third set of differences. As you might expect, connections to other people turned out to be important both for meaning and for happiness. Being alone in the world is linked to low levels of happiness and meaningfulness, as is feeling lonely. Nevertheless, it was the particular character of one’s social connections that determined which state they helped to bring about. Meaningfulness comes from contributing to other people, whereas happiness comes from what they contribute to you. This runs counter to some conventional wisdom: it is widely assumed that helping other people makes you happy.17. 這和某些常見(jiàn)的至理名言背道而馳，例如：大家普遍都認(rèn)為幫助他人會(huì)讓自己更幸福。conventional: 常見(jiàn)的，傳統(tǒng)的；run counter to: 相反，與……背道而馳；assume: 假定，想當(dāng)然地認(rèn)為。Well, to the extent that it does, the effect depends entirely on the overlap between meaning and happiness. Helping others had a big positive contribution to meaningfulness independent of happiness, but there was no sign that it boosted18. boost: 促進(jìn)，增加。happiness independently of meaning. If anything, the effect was in the opposite direction: once we correct for the boost it gives to meaning, helping others can actually detract from19. detract from: 減損，使遜色。one’s own happiness.

The depth of social ties can also make a difference in how social life contributes to happiness and meaning. Spending time with friends was linked to higher happiness but it was irrelevant to meaning. Having a few beers with buddies or enjoying a nice lunch conversation with friends might be a source of pleasure but, on the whole, it appears not to be very important to a meaningful life. By comparison, spending more time with loved ones was linked to higher meaning and was irrelevant to happiness.The difference, presumably20. presumably: 大概，推測(cè)起來(lái)。, is in the depth of the relationship. Time with friends is often devoted to simple pleasures, so it may foster good feelings while doing little to increase meaning.21. 和朋友在一起的時(shí)間通常被歸為簡(jiǎn)單的快樂(lè)，所以它可以給人帶來(lái)好心情，但是對(duì)提高“生活的意義”幫助不大。foster: 培養(yǎng)。If your friends are grumpy or tiresome,22. grumpy: 脾氣暴躁的；tiresome: 令人討厭的，煩人的。you can just move on. Time with loved ones is not so uniformly23. uniformly: 一致地。pleasant. Sometimes one has to pay bills, deal with illnesses or repairs, and do other unsatisfying chores24. chores: 家務(wù)事，雜事。.And of course,loved ones can be difficult too, in which case you generally have to work on the relationship and hash it out.25. hash out: 經(jīng)過(guò)長(zhǎng)時(shí)間討論解決一個(gè)問(wèn)題。It is probably no coincidence that arguing was itself associated with more meaning and less happiness.

A fourth category of differences had to do with struggles, problems, stresses and the like.In general, these went with lower happiness and higher meaningfulness. We asked how many positive and negative events people had recently experienced. Having lots of good things happen turned out to be helpful for both meaning and happiness. No surprise there. But bad things were a different story. Highly meaningful lives encounter plenty of negative events, which of course reduce happiness. Indeed, stress and negative life events were two powerful blows to happiness, despite their significant positive association with a meaningful life.26. 的確，壓力和消極的人生經(jīng)歷是對(duì)幸福的兩個(gè)重大打擊，盡管它們和“有意義的人生”之間具有重要而積極的關(guān)聯(lián)。blow: 打擊。We begin to get a sense of what the happy but not very meaningful life would be like. Stress, problems, worrying, arguing,reflecting on challenges and struggles—all these are notably27. notably: 顯著地，尤其。low or absent from the lives of purely happy people, but they seem to be part of a highly meaningful life.

Do people go out looking for stress in order to add meaning to their lives? It seems more likely that they seek meaning by pursuing projects that are difficult and uncertain. One tries to accomplish things in the world: this brings ups and downs, so the net gain to happiness might be small, but the process contributes to meaningfulness either way.28. 一個(gè)人努力在世上有所作為，這讓人生變得跌宕起伏，幸福的凈收益可能會(huì)很少，但是無(wú)論如何，這個(gè)過(guò)程卻會(huì)實(shí)現(xiàn)人生的意義。ups and downs: 跌宕起伏；either way: 不管怎樣。

The final category of differences had to do with the self and personal identity29. personal identity: 個(gè)人認(rèn)同。. Activities that express the self are an important source of meaning but are mostly irrelevant to happiness. Of the 37 items on our list that asked people to rate whether some activity (such as working,exercising or meditating) was an expression or reflection of the self,25 yielded significant positive correlations with a meaningful life and none was negative.30. yield: 產(chǎn)生；correlation:相關(guān)性。Only two of the 37 items (socialising, and partying without alcohol) were positively linked to happiness, and some even had a significant negative relationship. The worst was worry: if you think of yourself as a worrier, that seems to be quite a downer31. downer: 令人沮喪的事物。.

If happiness is about getting what you want, it appears that meaningfulness is about doing things that express yourself. Even just caring about issues of personal identity and self-definition was associated with more meaning, though it was irrelevant to happiness. This might seem almost paradoxical32. paradoxical: 自相矛盾的。: happiness is selfish, in the sense that it is about getting what you want and having other people do things that benefit you, and yet the self is more tied to meaning than happiness. Expressing yourself, defining yourself, building a good reputation and other selforiented activities are more about meaning than happiness.