The daily practice that could rewire your brain - Timm Chiusano

You're listening to ted talks daily where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, elise Hugh. Do you believe that one simple mindset can change the entire way you see the world? Emotional intelligence coach Tim chusano does in this talk. He shares how a random glance at a manhole cover during one of the darkest periods in his life LED to a powerful revelation. He has since inspired millions to slow down, find Joy in the ordinary and, as he says, get addicted to appreciation.

你每天都在听ted演讲，我们每天都会给你带来新的想法，激发你的好奇心。我是你的主持人，elise Hugh。你相信一种简单的心态可以改变你看待世界的方式吗？情绪智力教练Tim chusano在这次演讲中这样说。他分享了在他生命中最黑暗的时期之一，随机瞥一眼井盖是如何揭示出一个强大的启示的。从那以后，他激励了数百万人放慢脚步，在平凡中寻找快乐，正如他所说，沉迷于欣赏。

Hi, my name is Tim. I'm addicted to appreciation. I know that sounds really strange, but if I do my job over the next eight minutes or so, you're not going to look at anything the same way ever again.

嗨，我叫蒂姆。我沉迷于欣赏。我知道这听起来很奇怪，但如果我在接下来的八分钟左右完成我的工作，你就不会再以同样的方式看待任何事情了。

And because of a manhole cover that I saw back on a terrible day in2018 it was quite literally one of the top three worst days of my entire career, one of those comically miserable days in corporate America. I was managing a team of270 people. Everybody seemed to have a meltdown on the same exact day, at the same exact time, eight hours of unnecessarily contentious meetings. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, and there were pending layoffs coming that spring. I was one of the few people in the company that knew that they were coming to. So the dread and the overwhelm was just hanging over me.

因为我在2018年一个可怕的日子里看到了一个井盖，这真的是我整个职业生涯中最糟糕的三天之一，是美国企业界滑稽悲惨的日子之一。我管理着一个270人的团队。每个人似乎都在同一天、同一时间、八个小时的不必要的争议会议上崩溃了。我相信你知道我在说什么，那年春天就要裁员了。我是公司里少数几个知道他们要来的人之一。所以恐惧和压倒性的压力就笼罩着我。

I get off the subway late again for dinner, and of course, I check my phone immediately and there's an email from my boss that says be in the office at nine A M tomorrow morning and be prepared for that meeting to suck. Like, great as I'm walking home, I go O A manhole cover. You know, it's pretty cool that somebody figured out that they would be safer if they were circles instead of squares. And I'm pretty sure that they're made in India too, which is interesting considering we're in new York city. I should look that up later.

我再次很晚才下地铁吃晚饭，当然，我立刻查看了我的手机，我的老板发来了一封电子邮件，说明天早上九点到办公室，为那次糟糕的会议做好准备。就像，当我走回家的时候，我打开井盖。你知道，有人发现，如果它们是圆形而不是正方形，它们会更安全，这很酷。我很确定它们也是印度制造的，考虑到我们在纽约市，这很有趣。我以后应该查一下。

Like Tim, what the f? How in the world did you go from all these overwhelming thoughts on such a terrible day to a manhole cover? Like this is a sincere question in the moment. Am I an idiot? Like how? How is that? How is my brain going from one place to another? Is this the part of my brain that was holding me back? Very serious corporate job. Is this the part of my brain that has distracted me, that is not allowing me to grow further than where I was?

像蒂姆一样，这是怎么回事？你到底是怎么从这么糟糕的一天里那些压倒性的想法变成井盖的？这是一个真诚的问题。我是白痴吗？如何？怎么样？我的大脑是如何从一个地方转移到另一个地方的？这是我大脑中阻碍我前进的部分吗？非常严肃的公司工作。这是不是我大脑中让我分心的部分，不允许我比以前成长得更远？

No, this was a realization that I was addicted to appreciation and that without it, life was remarkably less enjoyable because I was seeing the mundane things in this way. Appreciation is the act of noticing and valuing the good in our worlds. So by definition, being addicted to appreciation means being addicted to the recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something, or simply wanting to have a better understanding of the world around us.

不，这让我意识到，我沉迷于欣赏，没有欣赏，生活会变得非常不愉快，因为我以这种方式看待平凡的事物。欣赏是注意和重视我们世界中美好事物的行为。因此，根据定义，沉迷于欣赏意味着沉迷于对某人或某事的良好品质的认可和享受，或者只是想更好地了解我们周围的世界。

Think about what that would mean for your day to day, and yes, this is being present. This is the enjoyment of some sort of activity in the people around you, but it's also the small things, like a round manhole cover in new York city. As I started to digest this and think, what does this actually mean and how do I harness it? I realized that before any cognitive biases could pop into my head, I was addicted to seeing the good and giving benefit of the doubt in a way that just unlocked an entirely different level of life for me and enjoyment. And the more that I leaned into this, it gave me energy. It gave me lust for life and it gave me just Joy on a day to day basis in ways that I could never imagine that have LED me here today. Even on a day as gloomy as that day back in2018 by the way, I'm wearing the same exact suit, which is the craziest thing.

想想这对你的日常生活意味着什么，是的，这就是当下。这是你周围人某种活动的乐趣，但也是小事，比如纽约市的圆形井盖。当我开始消化这一点并思考时，这到底意味着什么，我该如何利用它？我意识到，在任何认知偏见涌入我的脑海之前，我沉迷于看到美好的事物，并以一种完全不同的方式给予怀疑的好处，为我开启了一个完全不同的生活层次和享受。我越是深入其中，它就给了我能量。它给了我对生活的渴望，它以我无法想象的方式每天给我带来快乐，让我今天来到这里。顺便说一句，即使在像2018年那样阴郁的一天，我也穿着同样的西装，这是最疯狂的事情。

So of course I put it on social media that night forward. Instagram only story be addicted to appreciation really for friends and family is my only followers back then but really I was saying it for me that it's okay to see life this way. It was almost this like freeing moment of I'm going to lean into this harder and what is it going to do? This is something that will not only unlock how you see things, but this is an act that you can practice and will bring you Joy in ways that you will not be able to imagine until you actually start to do it. And I know what you're thinking too. Appreciation and gratitude. Like, aren't we talking about the same thing here? No, these are two very different things. Appreciation is foundational. Gratitude is transactional to show gratitude you are actually receiving something. Appreciation is something that can just layer into everything that you are doing and just your existence on a day to day basis.

所以我当然把它放在了当晚的社交媒体上。Instagram上唯一的故事是沉迷于欣赏，真正的朋友和家人是我当时唯一的关注者，但实际上我是在对我说，这样看待生活是可以的。这几乎就像是一个解放的时刻，我将更加努力地投入其中，它会做什么？这不仅能解开你看待事物的方式，而且是一种你可以练习的行为，它会以你无法想象的方式给你带来快乐，直到你真正开始做。我也知道你在想什么。欣赏和感激。就像，我们不是在谈论同样的事情吗？不，这是两件非常不同的事情。欣赏是基础。感恩是一种交易，用以表达你真正收到的东西的感激之情。欣赏是一种可以渗透到你所做的每一件事中的东西，以及你每天的存在。

It can be annoying to see life this way on a such a consistent basis, like raining for the third day in a row. Maybe that's good for the reservoirs, that arch nemesis at work. That is kind of like that person that gives you a pit in your stomach. That's somebody to understand better. Show up where they need to be met and then you have the upper hand in the relationship simply because you appreciated them more. Please trust me on this one, this one works super, super well. And this is not just my opinion. It felt really good when it was just my opinion. But to see this corroborated took it to a whole nother level. There was a professor from Rutgers that made appreciation a core part of her studies, and she concluded that appreciation can be a disposition, that it is not the same as gratitude. The gratitude is actually just one of eight components that makes up what appreciation is, and simply by noticing things on a day to day basis, you can have this mindset of appreciation too.

以这种方式看待生活，就像连续第三天下雨一样，这可能会很烦人。也许这对水库有好处，就像那个在胃里给你一个坑的人。这是一个需要更好理解的人。出现在他们需要见面的地方，然后你在这段关系中占据上风，仅仅是因为你更欣赏他们。请相信我，这个超级好用。这不仅仅是我的观点。当这只是我的意见时，感觉真的很好。但看到这一点得到证实，就把它带到了一个全新的层面。罗格斯大学的一位教授将欣赏作为她研究的核心部分，她得出结论，欣赏可以是一种性格，与感激不同。感恩实际上只是构成欣赏的八个组成部分之一，只要每天注意到事情，你也可以有这种欣赏的心态。

This is what LED to me having an audience of a million and a half people on social media, which is super weird to say at48 years old. I was making these daily vlogs of my corporate life that were like maniacal four A M to ten PM scheduled in fifteen minute time blocking increments and people like, wow, this is cool and like super soothing to watch. This is a dope ass monday in your forty s is an opening hook on social media I never in a million years thought would like actually take off. And it did. And I started to see comments along the lines of you make growing up less scary and even though we are from completely different worlds, I love the way that you look at life. I had no intention of having that path lead me here today, but that's what appreciation has done for me. So let me show you how you can start to incorporate it into your life, too.

这就是我在社交媒体上拥有150万观众的原因，在48岁的时候这么说太奇怪了。我每天都在制作公司生活的视频博客，就像疯狂的凌晨4点到晚上10点，按15分钟的时间间隔排列，人们喜欢，哇，这很酷，看起来超级舒缓。这是一个40多岁的愚蠢的星期一，是社交媒体上的一个开场白，我一百万年来从未想过会真正起飞。事实的确如此。我开始看到这样的评论：你让成长变得不那么可怕，尽管我们来自完全不同的世界，但我喜欢你看待生活的方式。我本来不打算让这条路引领我走到今天，但这就是感激之情带给我的。所以，让我向你展示如何开始将它融入你的生活。

We're going to start with a thing for the sake of picking something that is around us right now. We're going to go with the light bulb. Omnipresent in today's world. Something we don't show gratitude for, right? Like you don't stop. Like I'm so grateful for this light bulb. But if you can think about the progress that light bulbs have made over time, if you can think about what it can do for our mood, look at this stage. Look at what lighting can do. It is remarkable and even if you just think, wow, that's dope, is a passing thought like that makes a huge difference and not to mention what it can do for you, the fact that it just lights up a room and you needed to. So when you go to bed tonight, think about the light bulb, just for a second. It will make a difference.

我们将从一件事开始，以便选择我们周围的东西。我们打算用灯泡。在当今世界无处不在。我们不感激的事情，对吧？就像你不停下来。就像我很感激这个灯泡。但如果你能想到灯泡随着时间的推移所取得的进步，如果你能想想它对我们的情绪有什么作用，看看这个阶段。看看照明能做什么。这很了不起，即使你只是想，哇，这太棒了，这种想法会产生巨大的影响，更不用说它能为你做什么了，它只是照亮一个房间，而你需要这样做。所以当你今晚睡觉时，想想灯泡，就一秒钟。这将产生影响。

All right, now a person, maybe the person sitting next to you, stole the seat that you thought you were going to sit in. Maybe to cut you off in line, if you ever need a reason to think how I could appreciate that person more, could you ever look at somebody and say, I would have done better with your circumstances, with the entirety of your life up to this moment? No, it's an impossible question to say yes to. That's the easiest way to appreciate someone else more. All right? So what appreciation we'll do for you in closing. My wife despises mayonnaise and that is fine. This is not absolute. The world is full of horrible, horrible things. Appreciation is not absolute. But when it comes to the horrible things in life, the more we can understand and appreciate what is happening, the more we can appreciate what we are capable of when it comes to change together.

好吧，现在有人，也许是坐在你旁边的人，偷走了你以为你会坐的座位。也许为了切断你的联系，如果你需要一个理由来思考我如何能更欣赏那个人，你能看着别人说，我本可以在你的情况下做得更好，在你的整个生命中，直到这一刻吗？不，这是一个不可能答应的问题。这是更欣赏别人的最简单方法。好吗？那么，在结束时，我们将为您献上什么样的感谢。我妻子讨厌蛋黄酱，这很好。这不是绝对的。这个世界充满了可怕的事情。欣赏不是绝对的。但是，当谈到生活中可怕的事情时，我们越能理解和欣赏正在发生的事情，就越能欣赏我们在共同改变方面的能力。

Appreciation will make you happier on a consistent basis. It will bring more wonder. You will be more present. You will take less for granted. When you show appreciation on a consistent basis, it will allow you to encourage others and see the differences between us as reasons to believe in each other. Is this something that the world needs right now? A better understanding for the how and why of everything maybe reason to look at things skeptically from a different perspective. Might this be better for us to take a bit less for granted on a day to day basis? I vote yes. But then again I firmly believe in what we were capable of collectively when we wholeheartedly into how we can appreciate the world that we exist in together. Thank you.

欣赏会让你持续快乐。这将带来更多的奇迹。你会更加在场。你会认为不那么理所当然。当你始终如一地表达感激之情时，这将使你鼓励他人，并将我们之间的差异视为相互信任的理由。这是世界现在需要的吗？更好地理解事物的方式和原因，可能会让我们从不同的角度怀疑地看待事物。对我们来说，在日常生活中少一点想当然可能会更好吗？我投赞成票。但话又说回来，我坚信，当我们全心全意地欣赏我们共同存在的世界时，我们能够共同做到什么。非常感谢。

That was Tim chusano at ted next2025.

这是Tim chusano在ted next2025上的演讲。