《哈利波特》之母JK羅琳的11堂人生課大綱
So you didn’t have a perfect childhood? Sorry for your loss. What a great excuse you may have for not going all the way to make your dreams come true.
你的童年不夠美好？對此我深表遺憾。可這又算什麼理由，竟能阻礙你一路追逐夢想的實現！
Warning: today your excuses may be gone forever, no matter what your life looks like. After reading these golden nuggets of life delivered by JK Rowling to a graduating class at Harvard, you will be in on her life secrets. These mini lessons take you from any excuse to the life of your dreams. Read at your own risk. By the end of this post, you will have no reason left to stuff your big and little dreams under the mattress.
提醒一句：不管生活過得怎樣，從今天起或許你將再也不找藉口了。讀完JK羅琳給哈佛畢業生們的金玉良言（JK羅琳哈佛演講>>>），你便能學到她的人生智慧。這些言簡意賅的道理將使你不再爲人生夢想而不斷找藉口。請勇敢往下讀吧。最後，你將再也不會找任何藉口任由各種夢想擱淺停滯了！
A lightning idea struck, and she became a billionaire author. Are you ready to enter your magical life? Here are some of her life philosophies that you too can take on.
只是靈光一閃，羅琳就變成了億萬文豪。你是否也準備開啓自己的奇幻人生了呢？下面是羅琳的人生哲學，或許你能從中受益：
1. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
“最低谷成了我重建生活的堅實根基。”
Here is how JK perceived her rock bottom:
羅琳是這樣理解“人生低谷”的：
“I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short lived marriage had imploded and I was a jobless alone parent and as poor as it was possible to be in Britain without being homeless.”
“我遇到了前所未有的挫敗。意外短暫的婚姻遺憾而終，我成了一個沒有工作的單身母親，除了還不至於無家可歸外，當時要多窮有多窮。”
You too can build up from your own rock bottom, laying a foundation for your dreams and goals, no matter where you are at in this very moment.
不管此時此刻境遇如何，你都可以從低谷開始，爲自己的夢想和目標夯實基礎。
2. “Failure gave me an inner security that I have never had by passing examinations.”
“失敗給了我一種內心安全感，這是我通過考試都不曾有過的感覺。”
Does inner security comes from a job, money, getting an A? The perfect spouse or relationship?
內心安全感源於工作、金錢還是成績得A？抑或完美的伴侶或人際關係？
Not according to Jo. Her inner security came from failure.
至少羅琳不是如此。她的內心安全感來自於失敗。
“Failure meant the stripping away of the inessential.”
“失敗意味着剝離無關緊要的一切。”
What can you strip away? What is inessential in your life? What will be left? What’s left is only what’s important to you along with inner security that you are choosing only a path that is right for you.
你能擺脫什麼？哪些是你生活中無關緊要的？剩下的又會是什麼？剩下的纔是真正重要的，懷着內心的安全感，你選擇那條唯一正確的道路。
3. ”Poverty itself is romanticized only by fools. It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.”
“無知的人才會將貧窮浪漫化。貧窮意味着數不盡的羞辱和艱辛。”
Some people associate poverty with spirituality. Or they think that it’s romantic to be writhing in hunger and cold, scratching out your craft anyway, digging deep.
有人將貧窮與靈性修養聯繫在一起，或者認爲在飢餓寒冷中痛苦掙扎、任憑本領漸漸磨滅、深入骨髓的境遇，是浪漫的。
Jo disagrees. Why romanticize humiliation and hardships?
羅琳對此並不認同。爲什麼要把羞辱和艱辛浪漫化呢？
“I cannot criticize my parents for hoping I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves and I have since been poor. And I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience.”
“我不能指責父母希望我永遠都不要經歷貧窮。他們一直活在貧窮之中，我自己也是。所以我非常認同父母的看法：貧窮並不是什麼體面的境遇。”
It may be time for you to romanticize wealth and abundance, and look forward to bringing your gifts to this world, while satiated, with some extra money in the bank. Now that is ennobling.
或許現在你應該將財富浪漫化，期待爲世界貢獻自己的價值，同時能獲得回報，銀行裏有點存款。這纔是體面的境遇。
4. “Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates.”
“天賦和才能並不會使你免遭命運無常的捉弄。”
So you have a college education or know you’re smart. That’s great, but as far as the fates, well as Jo says, “Your qualifications are not your life.” There’s no room for self-judgment here—life is what it is for all of us. Do what you can to get what you want. Keep on keeping on, and don’t give up.
你有大學文憑，自認爲很聰明，是吧？那也無可厚非。但在命運這裏，羅琳認爲“你的資歷並不能構成你的人生”。毫無自我評判的餘地——生活對所有人都是自行其道。所以，請量力而行地爭取渴望的東西。請堅持再堅持，千萬不要放棄！
5. “The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.”
“當你成熟到足夠自己把握方向盤的時候，責任也隨之而來。”
If you’re blaming someone else for you not finding your own dream and bringing it to life, grab the wheel; you’re old enough to drive.
如果你還不知道自己的夢想是什麼、該如何實現，卻又去埋怨別人的話，就請握好方向盤吧——你已經到了可以自己駕駛的年紀了。
“I do not blame my parents…there is an expiry date for blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction. I discovered that I had a strong will and more discipline than I had suspected.”
“我不會去怪父母……埋怨父母錯了方向也是有期限的。我發現自己的毅力和自律遠比想象的強大。”
You have what it takes, so take it. The minute you stop blaming, you can start steering.
既得之，則用之。一旦停止抱怨，你也就開始掌控了自己的方向。6. “We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already.”
“我們不需要魔法來改變世界，因爲我們的內心就已經擁有了所有力量。”
Wouldn’t it be nice to have Harry or Hermione’s magic wand? Or to go into a wand shop and browse?
如果能擁有哈利或赫敏的魔杖豈不是很厲害？或者去魔杖店親自挑選呢？
If Jo tells you that you have magic and power inside yourself, then you do. Believe it, allow it to surface and get ready for a wild ride.
如果羅琳認爲你自身就擁有神奇力量，那你確實就有。請相信你的力量、發揮出你的力量，去開啓一段瘋狂旅程吧！
7. “The crucial importance of imagination.”
“想象力極其重要。”
Did you think imagination is to be left for the kids? Maybe you’re just a big kid after all.
你以爲只有小孩纔有想象力嗎？或許你自己就是個大小孩呢！
“Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not and therefore the fount of all invention…we have the power to imagine better.”
“想象力不僅是人類獨有的想象能力，同時也是所有發明的源泉……我們有能力想象得更美好。”
“It is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we never shared.”
“這種力量能讓我們體會到自身不曾經歷的他人經驗。”
Go ahead and daydream. Let your imagination run where it may and imagine a better life, a better world. You have Jo’s permission.
請盡情做夢吧。讓想象力自由奔放，去想象更美好的生活、更和諧的社會。羅琳允許你這麼做！
8. “The first story I finished was when I was six years old.”
“我6歲時寫完了第一個故事。”
Our childhoods have lots of clues. What were you doing when you were six? What toy did you want? What did you play with?
從小看到老。6歲時你在幹什麼？你喜歡過什麼樣的玩具，又有哪些玩伴兒？
If you can’t remember, take a trip to the virtual toy store and see what you want to play with and play. It may lead to what you really want to be doing.
如果你記不起來，可以到實體玩具店看看自己喜歡什麼，然後玩一玩。或許你就能發現自己真正想要從事什麼。
9. “I began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.”
“我開始把所有精力投入到唯一重要的事情中去。”
What work matters to you?
什麼樣的事情對你而言是重要的？
“I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was.”
“我不再假裝是真實自我之外的其他人。”
What might you be pretending to be? What box are you in? Climb on out.
你會假裝成什麼樣的人？你陷在怎樣的圍城裏？趕緊出來吧。
10. “Harry Potter gave me back self-respect. Harry gave me a job to do that I loved more than anything else.”
“《哈利波特》爲我贏得了自尊，讓我從事了自己最喜歡的工作。”
Do what you love and what you are meant to do and the self-respect will follow.
選你所愛、做你所想，自尊便會自然而來。
11. “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might not have lived at all, in which case you fail by default.”
“活着不可能不犯錯，除非你過得極其謹慎、彷彿不曾活過一樣，可這樣你其實也還是犯了錯失敗了。”
Failure is good. It means you are out in the ring, not in the nosebleed section, watching other people battle it out.
失敗是有益的。失敗意味着你出局了，不在血腥的現場，看別人你爭我鬥。
“There was a point where I really felt I had ‘penniless divorcee lone parent’ tattooed on my head.”
“有一段時間，我真的覺得自己腦門上刻着‘身無分文的離異單親媽媽’字樣。”
“What I feared most; failure. I was the biggest failure I knew.”
“我最最害怕的就是失敗，可我自己就是最大的失敗。”
What do you think you have tattooed on your forehead? Too old to start? Young and inexperienced? Too poor? Too scared?
你覺得你腦門上刻着什麼字？年紀太大爲時已晚？年輕青澀毫無經驗？太窮？沒膽量？
Time to pour the concrete and lay the foundation for greater things.
是時候去爲更美好的事情和泥砌根基了。Here is a bonus life lesson:
以下是額外的人生課堂：
“I don’t think about who the audience is for my books.” Expectations of others can rule our lives if we let them. IF we let them.
“我不會考慮書的讀者是誰。” 如果我們允許，真的只要我們允許，別人的期望就能約束我們的生活。
“I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself and what those closest to me expected of me.”
“我很努力地去平衡自我抱負和身邊人對我的期許。”
Take a break from wondering how to create your career based on what others want. If you do what helps you, with the gifts you have, you will do as Jo did.
先緩一緩，不要困惑如何按照別人的期許來創造你的職業生涯。如果能做好有用之事，再憑藉自身天賦，你也會像羅琳那樣成功。
So there you have it. Life on JK Rowling’s terms.
這就是你能學到的。這就是JK羅琳的人生教誨。
“I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized. And I was still alive and I still had a daughter whom I adored and I had an old typewriter and a big idea.” Go ahead. Set yourself free. Your failures can be your stepping stones to greatness. This one life you have is yours to live. Do what you love and want to do—that’s where the magic is. Believe in yourself.
“我自由了，因爲最大的恐懼已成爲現實。我還活着，還有一個深愛着的女兒；我有一臺舊打字機，並且有一個很棒的想法。” 開始行動，給自己自由吧！你的失敗也可能是將來成功的墊腳石。這輩子需要由你自己來過。所以，請做自己喜歡和渴望的事情——這纔是魔法魅力所在。請相信你自己！
Light yourself up and dig deep for the magic inside you. It’s there, and it’s in all of us. Harry leads the way!
請點亮內心希望，發揮你內在的魔力吧。魔力是存在的，所有人都擁有這樣的魔力。哈利波特，請領路！
