英语演讲：环游旅游后的几点感悟分享

We are having the wrong conversation about our comfort zone. The phrase "getting out of your comfort zone" is thrown around so much today online and in motivational quotes that it's begun to lose its meaning. 

关于我们的舒适区，我们的理解是错误的。“走出你的舒适区”这句话在今天的网络上和励志语录中被广泛传播，以至于它开始失去它的意义。

And this is because we don't clearly understand what our comfort zone is, and it seems counterintuitive to leave it because it's where we feel the most safe. It also sounds like we're sugar-coating something that we don't want to talk about, which is fear. Let me tell you a bit more about my story and how fear has played a role in it. 

这是因为我们不清楚我们的舒适区是什么，离开它似乎是违反直觉的，因为它是我们感到最安全的地方。这听起来像是我们在给一些我们不想谈论的东西涂糖衣，那就是恐惧。让我告诉你更多关于我的故事，以及恐惧在其中扮演的角色。

I come from a family of travelers. My mom started a travel agency when she was younger than I am now, and growing up they never left me behind when they went on their adventures. I graduated early and got a degree from community college by the time I turned 18. And at that time I had traveled to around 70 countries. 

我来自一个旅行者家庭。我妈妈在比我小的时候开了一家旅行社，长大后，他们在冒险的时候从不把我甩在后面。我很早就毕业了，在我18岁的时候拿到了社区大学的学位。那时我已经去过大约70个国家。

This was the point in my life where people began to ask me the most intimidating question that you can ask a young person: "What are you going to do next?" And in attempt to answer that question,  I began by asking myself what I was most passionate about, which has always been travelling.

在我的人生中，人们开始问我一个最令人生畏的问题：“你下一步要做什么？”为了回答这个问题，我开始问自己，我最热衷于什么，一直以来都在旅行。

And how to make the most out of the cards that I was dealt, which was how much travel experience I've had at my age. That's when it dawned on me. I had over six years to break the world record for the youngest person to travel to every country. And this was the perfect opportunity that I was looking for to get out of the books and into the real world. 

如何最大限度地利用所发的牌，也就是我这个年纪的旅行经历。就在那时我才恍然大悟。我用了六年多的时间打破世界纪录，成为世界上最年轻的旅游者。这是一个完美的机会，我正在寻找走出书本，进入现实世界。

In retrospect, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Flash-forward two and a half years later, and I spent countless hours crammed on planes, trains, chicken buses, tuk-tuks and junk boats travelling with nothing but a backpack. I have encountered health issues, spanning from malaria in West Africa to hospital-worthy food poisoning in Pakistan. 

回想起来，我完全不知道自己陷入了什么境地。两年半后，我花了无数个小时挤在飞机上，火车上，小鸡车上，土车上，还有垃圾船上，只带着一个背包。我遇到过健康问题，从西非的疟疾到巴基斯坦的医院食物中毒。

I learned how to cope with public anxiety attacks by myself in foreign countries, and I endured the brain-sizzling frustration of dealing with bureaucrats from every country that requires a visa. Believe it or not, these have been some of my most treasured memories because they were the most defining moments of my life, spent far, far away from my comfort zone. 

在国外，我学会了如何应对公众的焦虑情绪，我忍受了与每个需要签证的国家的官僚打交道时大脑里的挫败感。信不信由你，这些都是我最珍贵的回忆，因为它们是我生命中最具决定性的时刻，在远离我舒适的地方度过的。

Proving to Guiness World Records that I have traveled to every country was a completely different story. According to a very strict pack of guidelines, I'm required to submit everything from plane tickets to accommodation and taxi receipts, to multiple witness statements from each country. 

向吉尼斯世界纪录证明我去过每个国家是完全不同的故事。根据一套非常严格的指导方针，我必须提交从机票到住宿和出租车收据，再到每个国家的多份证人证词等所有资料。

I struggled to find two people in each country that spoke, read and wrote in English that would be willing to help me with my witness statements. I had to plead with immigration officers at every border to please stamp my passport with enough ink, to be able to read the name and the date on the passport stamp. 

我努力在每个国家找到两个能用英语说话、阅读和写作的人，愿意帮助我做证人证词。我不得不请求每一个边境的移民官员在我的护照上盖上足够的墨水，以便能够读到护照印章上的姓名和日期。

I am now in the process of submitting nearly 10,000 pieces of evidence in chronological order, documenting how I entered and exited each country, along with a detailed itinerary of what I did in each place. 

我现在正在按时间顺序提交近1万件证据，记录我是如何进出每个国家的，以及我在每个地方所做事情的详细行程。

Beyond this very overwhelming amount of paperwork, somewhere along this journey, I discovered that there was more than one element of my comfort zone that I was going to have to get out of to get to where I wanted to go. I now believe that there is a correlation between our comfort zone and our mind, body and soul. 

除了大量的文书工作之外，在旅途中的某个地方，我发现我的舒适区有不止一个元素，我必须离开它才能到达我想去的地方。我现在相信，我们的舒适区和我们的思想、身体和灵魂之间是有关联的。

If you know that you have fears in general, knowing exactly where those fears are stemming from is the first step towards overcoming them. I personally have a few very distinct fears. I am afraid of heights, which stems from my physical comfort zone. I have - I had a fear of being alone, which was completely controlled by my mind. 

如果你确定自己有恐惧感，那么确切地知道这些恐惧是从哪里来的是克服它们的第一步。我个人有一些非常明显的恐惧。我恐高，这源于我的身体舒适区。我有-我有一种孤独的恐惧，完全由我的思想控制。

And I also am terrified of regret, which comes straight from my soul. The reason why so many people are unsuccessful at getting out of their comfort zone is because our comfort zone is not just one thing. It's three. The first is obvious, our physical comfort zone. Naturally, what we fear most is death. 

我也害怕后悔，这是直接从我的灵魂里冒出来的。为什么这么多人没有成功地走出他们的舒适区，是因为我们的舒适区不仅仅是一回事。三点了。第一个是显而易见的，我们的身体舒适区。自然，我们最害怕的是死亡。

We're evolutionarily wired to avoid situations where we could get hurt. And that's why every cell in my body was screaming when I was standing on the edge of a 750-foot drop in Switzerland. The opportunity came up to bungee jump off of the third highest platform in the world, and being someone that was always too afraid to jump off of rocks into the water at the river.

我们天生就有避免受伤的习惯。这就是为什么当我站在瑞士750英尺高的落差边缘时，我身体里的每一个细胞都在尖叫。从世界第三高的跳台上蹦极的机会来了，作为一个总是不敢从岩石上跳到河里的水里的人.

This was by far my greatest fear, and the idea of facing it head-on excited me just as much as it terrified me. When they strapped in my ankles and perched me on the edge, I was shaking. Three ... Two ... One ... I plunged into seven and a half seconds of the most intense sensory overload I had ever experienced. 

这是迄今为止我最大的恐惧，面对它的想法让我既兴奋又害怕。当他们绑住我的脚踝，把我放在边缘时，我在发抖。三,二,一,我进入了我经历过的最强烈的感觉超负荷的7.5秒。

Complete terror turned into utter euphoria and resulted in one of the most significant moments of my life. In that moment, I realized that I was capable of pushing my body's limits and that it's something that's actually worth doing. I realized what was possible and became instantly hooked on the rush of having new experiences. 

完全的恐惧变成了极度的快感，这是我生命中最重要的时刻之一。在那一刻，我意识到我有能力超越我的身体极限，这是一件值得去做的事情。我意识到了什么是可能的，立刻就迷上了有新体验的冲动。

Little did I know at the time that facing my biggest fear was what would ultimately lead me to travelling to every country in the world, and out of 196 countries, I have only found myself in real, physical danger one time. I traveled to Yemen as a photographer for a Norwegian author who was writing a book about the least visited countries in the world. 

当时我几乎不知道，面对我最大的恐惧是什么最终会导致我去世界上的每一个国家，在196个国家中，我只发现自己有一次真正的身体上的危险。我作为一名挪威作家的摄影师来到也门，他正在写一本关于世界上访问最少的国家的书。

On our last night in the country, I woke up to the sound of gunshots outside of my hotel. I jumped out of bed and ran to the window to see that there were 50 or so men congregated in the parking lot, yelling and pushing each other around, with six cars with flashing headlights blocking the only exit. 

我们在乡下的最后一晚，我醒来时听到酒店外的枪声。我看见50辆车在停车场里闪着光，冲着停车场的车跑了出去。

With no security in sight, I grabbed my phone to call my contact in the country, who didn't answer because this was happening around 2:00 in the morning. I could hear voices outside of my hotel room even though I knew that we were the only people staying in the hotel. That was the first time I had ever heard a fully automatic weapon discharged. 

在没有安全措施的情况下，我抓起手机给我在乡下的联系人打电话，他没有接，因为事情发生在凌晨2点左右。尽管我知道我们是唯一住在旅馆里的人，我还是能听到外面的声音。那是我第一次听到全自动武器发射的声音。

I literally ducked and looked around the room realistically looking for the best place to hide. In that moment, there was nothing I could do but sit with my fear of potentially being kidnapped, until eventually, all the men disappeared, and I could cry myself to sleep after the adrenaline wore off. 

我真的躲开了，实事求是地环顾房间，寻找最好的藏身之处。在那一刻，我无能为力，只能坐在那里害怕被绑架，直到最后，所有的男人都消失了，我可以哭着睡着，肾上腺素消失了。

The next morning, I called - I talked to my contact in the country and asked him what had happened the night before. He responded with, "Oh, that? That was just a wedding party." Since Yemen is an Islamic country, they do not drink alcohol, and one of the ways that they celebrate is by shooting guns. 

第二天早上，我打电话给我在乡下的联系人，问他前一天晚上发生了什么事。他回答说，“哦，那个？那只是一场婚礼。”由于也门是一个伊斯兰国家，他们不喝酒，他们庆祝的方式之一就是开枪。

Basically, what this means is the this scariest thing that has ever happened to me while travelling was only scary because I didn't fully understand the culture. The fun didn't stop there. Getting out of the comfort zone that I had created around myself mentally would prove to be an even greater challenge and would require me to develop an entirely different aspect of my character. 

基本上，这意味着旅行中发生的最可怕的事情只是因为我没有完全了解当地的文化。乐趣不止于此。走出我在精神上为自己创造的舒适区将是一个更大的挑战，需要我在性格上形成一个完全不同的方面。

We are creatures of habit. We are most comfortable with things we can easily understand and predict. We fill our lives with routines. We wake up, go to class or work, eat our meals, maybe work out and go to sleep at basically the same times every day. We surround ourselves with the same stable relationships for years. 

我们是习惯的产物。我们对容易理解和预测的事物最为自在。我们的生活充满了例行公事。我们每天醒来、上课或工作、吃饭、健身和睡觉的时间基本相同。多年来，我们一直保持着同样稳定的关系。

We try so hard to live up to other people's expectations of us that sometimes we let our passions take the back seat because ultimately we don't want to become isolated from our society. After I traveled to the first hundred or so countries, the destinations became more and more obscure, and I stopped being able to talk my friends and family into coming with me. 

我们如此努力地不辜负别人对我们的期望，有时我们会让自己的激情退居二线，因为最终我们不想与社会隔绝。在我去了大约一百个国家之后，目的地变得越来越模糊，我无法说服我的朋友和家人和我一起去。

If you've never traveled for an extended period of time by yourself before, it might be hard to imagine what it's like to spend days in transit on airplanes, in airports, just to end up in an empty hotel room by yourself at the end of the night. After months of this for me, it resulted in intense loneliness, which was something I didn't even realize I feared because I had been sheltered from it my whole life. 

如果你以前从来没有长时间独自旅行过，你可能很难想象在飞机上、机场的中转途中度过几天，只是在晚上一个人呆在一个空荡荡的酒店房间里是什么感觉。对我来说，在经历了几个月的孤独之后，我甚至没有意识到我害怕孤独，因为我一生都在逃避孤独。

At the peak of my time spent alone, I found myself in the tiny island nation of Tuvalu, in the south Pacific with a population of only 11,000 people. I spent four days in the capital, Funafuti, because that's how often flights go in and out of the country. There was no Wi-Fi, no cell reception, no connection to the outside world whatsoever other than a small post office, which happened to also be the country's number one tourist attraction. 

在我独处的巅峰时期，我发现自己身处南太平洋小岛国图瓦卢，那里人口只有11000人。我在首都富纳富提呆了四天，因为这是往返该国的航班的频率。那里没有Wi-Fi，没有手机信号，除了一个小邮局之外，没有任何与外界的联系，而邮局恰好也是该国第一大旅游景点。

When I thought that I would be spending my time in Tuvalu completely alone and without any distraction, I noticed the only other foreigner on the island. She was a kindergarten teacher from the South Side of Chicago who also happened to be travelling to every country. 

当我想到我将独自一人在图瓦卢度过时光，没有任何分心时，我注意到岛上唯一的一个外国人。她是一位来自芝加哥南部的幼儿园老师，她碰巧也到过每一个国家。

We bonded so quickly and deeply over all of our shared experiences that we ended up going from complete strangers to travelling to Fiji, Tonga, Chad, Central African Republic and Saudi Arabia together. From the seven and a half months I spent travelling alone to 50 or so countries, I learned how to be alone without being lonely, 

在我们所有的共同经历中，我们如此迅速而深刻地结合在一起，最终我们从完全陌生的人变成了一起前往斐济、汤加、乍得、中非共和国和沙特阿拉伯。从我独自旅行到50多个国家的七个半月的时间里，我学会了如何独处而不感到孤独

And this did wonders for my self-confidence, but it also completely changed the way that I think about the people in my life. Now I have an appreciation for the time that I get to spend with the people that I care about the most in a way that I used to take for granted, before I knew what it was truly like to be alone. 

这对我的自信产生了奇迹，但它也完全改变了我对生活中人的看法。现在，我很感激我花时间和我最关心的人在一起的时光，我以前认为这是理所当然的，在我知道孤独是什么滋味之前。

I also discovered that we have so much more in common with people around the world than you may think, because ultimately we all want the same things, which is why at the root of our spiritual comfort zone, the layer closest to our souls, we are all looking for fulfillment. 

我还发现，我们与世界各地的人有着比你想象的更多的共同点，因为最终我们都想要同样的东西，这就是为什么在我们精神舒适区的根，最接近我们灵魂的那一层，我们都在寻找满足感。

We are afraid to leave the safety of our routine to pursue something greater because of our fear of failure. I set myself up for a goal with a very realistic potential for failure, not because my family wanted me to or because it was easy but because I knew that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't try. 

因为害怕失败，我们害怕离开日常生活的安全去追求更伟大的东西。我给自己定下了一个目标，这个目标很有可能失败，不是因为我的家人希望我这样做，也不是因为这很简单，而是因为我知道如果我不努力，我会后悔一辈子。

And now, I make the majority of decisions in my life based on the answer to a very simple question: "Will I regret not doing this?" If the answer is "Yes," I know that I have a moral obligation to myself and the people around me to do it, even if that means jumping off of a 750-foot dam or spending seven months alone or giving a talk in front of strangers. 

而现在，我一生中的大多数决定都是基于一个非常简单的问题的答案：“我会后悔不做这件事吗？”如果答案是“是的”，我知道我对自己和周围的人都有道义上的义务去做这件事，即使这意味着要从750英尺高的水坝上跳下来，或者独自呆上7个月，或者在陌生人面前发表演讲。

Being in a state of comfort itself is freedom from pain, but when we subject ourselves to genuine discomfort, and plunge into the unknown, that's when we learn to transcend the layers of our comfort zone, manage our fears, and become empowered by them. Ask yourselves: How uncomfortable are you willing to become in order to reach your fullest potential? 

处于舒适的状态本身就是从痛苦中解脱出来，但是当我们把自己置于真正的不适之中，投入到未知之中，那就是我们学会超越我们舒适区的层次，控制我们的恐惧，并被它们赋予力量。扪心自问：为了充分发挥你的潜能，你愿意变得多不舒服？

Thank you.

非常感谢。