雙語美文改變生活的密碼

　　摘錄：看看這些密碼暗示是如何幫助我、使我的目標具體化的，它們使我受到激勵、變得興奮。儘管想出你的下一個目標有些時候會比較困難，但是堅持下來就能得到好結果。

　　I was having a great morning until I sat down in front of my office computer. “Your password has expired,” a server message flashed on my screen, with instructions for changing it.

　　Coming up with a new code doesn’t seem like a big deal, unless you work at my company, where we have to change it monthly, using at least one uppercase character, one lowercasecharacter, one symbol, and one numeral. Oh, and the whole darn thing can’t be fewer than eight characters. And I can’t use any of the same passwords I’ve used in the past three months.

　　Suddenly I was furious. What didn’t make it any better was that I was deeply depressed after my recent divorce. Disbelief over what she had done to me was all I thought about. Every day.

　　本來早上心情不錯，但當我開啟辦公室的電腦、螢幕跳出“您的密碼已經失效”時，我崩潰了——這貨又在提示我修改密碼了。

　　想出一個新密碼似乎並不是什麼難事，但假如你在我們公司上班那就要徹底抓狂了——因為在這裡我們不得不每月修改一次密碼，還得至少使用一個大寫字母、一個小寫字母、一個標點符號和一個數字。噢，對了，最氣人的是密碼還不能少於八個字元，以及不能重複使用在過去三個月內曾使用過的密碼。

　　我突然覺得很憤怒，尤其在我最近剛離婚，意志正消沉的情況下，更讓我感覺不好了。我每天想著的就是懷疑前妻對我做過的那些事情。

　　That didn’t mean anything to the empty input field with a pulsating cursor, waiting for me to type a password that I’d have to reenter—many times—for the next 30 days. I remembered a tip I’d heard from my former boss. He’d said, “I’m going to use a password to change my life.”

　　當然這些憤怒，也不能讓密碼空格處閃動的游標停止——在接下來的30天內、我需要不斷地重複輸入這個新密碼。不過我想起了前老闆的一個小建議，他說“我準備用一個密碼來改變我的生活。”

　　I couldn’t focus on getting things done in my current mood. There were clear indicators of what I needed to do to regain control of my life, but I couldn’t heed them.

　　在現在這種心情狀態下，我根本不能集中注意力做事情。顯然我需要做些事情以重新掌控我的生活，但是此前我沒能注意到這一點。

　　My password became the indicator. My password reminded me that I shouldn’t let myself be a victim of my recent breakup and that I was strong enough to do something about it.

　　我的密碼給了我很大的啟發，它提醒我不能讓我自己成為最近崩潰狀態的受害者，它還提醒我——自己足夠強大、可以對此有所作為。

　　I made my password Forgive@h3r.

　　我把我的密碼改成Forgive@h3r。

　　I had to type this statement several times a day. Each time my computer would lock. Each time my screen saver with her photo would appear. Each time I would come back from eating lunch alone. In my mind, I wrote Forgive her every day.

　　我每天都要把這個密碼輸入好幾次。每當電腦鎖屏、屏保出現她的照片的時候、每當我在外面獨自吃午飯回來的時候，我每天都在輸入“原諒她”。

　　The simple action changed the way I looked at my ex-wife. That constant reminder of reconciliation led me to accept the way things had happened at the end of my marriage and embrace a new way of dealing with my depression. As the month wore on, I felt a slow healing begin to take place. By the time my server prompted me to reset my password the following month, I felt free.

　　這一個簡單的行為改變了我看待我前妻的方式。不斷的提醒使得我接受了這些在我婚姻盡頭發生的事情，並能以一種新的方式處理我的壓抑情感。一個月後，我感覺到我已經慢慢被治癒。到了下個月、我的伺服器提醒我修改密碼的時候，我感覺自己終於放下了。

　　One month later, my dear Exchange server asked me yet again to reset my password. I thought about the next thing that I had to get done.

　　一個月以後，我親愛的密碼修改彈窗再一次要求我重設密碼，我開始考慮下一件要做的事情。

　　My password became Quit@smoking4ever.

　　我的密碼又改成了Quit@smoking4ever。

　　I quit smoking overnight.

　　很快我戒了煙。

　　This password was a painful one to type during that month, but doing it helped me to yell at myself in my mind as I typed that statement. It motivated me to follow my monthly goal.

　　在那個月輸入密碼對我來說是一件很痛苦的事情，不過每次在輸入密碼的時候都在幫我在思想中抗爭，它幫助我完成我的每月目標。

　　One month later, my password became Save4trip@thailand.

　　一個月以後，我的密碼變成了Save4trip@thailand。

　　Guess where I went three months later: Thailand.

　　猜猜三個月之後我去了哪兒：當然是泰國。

　　Seeing how these reminders helped to materialize my goals kept me motivated and excited. While it’s sometimes difficult to come up with your next goal, keeping at it brings great results.

　　看看這些密碼暗示是如何幫助我、使我的目標具體化的，它們使我受到激勵、變得興奮。儘管想出你的下一個目標有些時候會比較困難，但是堅持下來就能得到好結果。

　　Here is a simplified extract of what some of my passwords have been in the past two years, so you get an idea of how my life has changed, thanks to this method:

　　下面是我摘錄的一些在過去兩年裡我使用過的密碼，通過它們，你大概能瞭解到我的生活是如何改變的。感謝這些方法：

　　Forgive@h3r To my ex-wife, who left me.

　　Forgive@h3r原諒她——給離我而去的前妻。

　　Quit@smoking4ever It worked.

　　Quit@smoking4ever永遠戒菸——完成。

　　Save4trip@thailand It worked.

　　Save4trip@thailand為泰國旅遊攢錢——成功。

　　Eat2times@day It never worked, still fat.

　　Eat2times@day每天只吃兩頓飯——失敗。我依然很胖。

　　Ask@her4date It worked. I fell in love again.

　　Ask@her4date和她約會成功。我重新戀愛了。

　　MovE@togeth3r It worked.

　　MovE@togeth3r住在一起——成功。

　　Facetime2mom@sunday It worked. I talk with Mom every week.

　　Facetime2mom@sunday每週日和媽媽視訊聊天——成功。我每個禮拜都和媽媽交談一次。

　　And the one for last month:

　　最後是上個月的密碼：

　　Save4@ring Yep. Life is gonna change again soon.

　　Save4@ring Yep為結婚戒指攢錢，對、結婚戒指——我的生活將很快再次發生巨大改變。