什么都不想做怎么办
假如你现在是屏幕里的这个人。你在月初工作效率非常高，实际上，你简直所向披靡。你读了很多书，坚持去健身房，并及时完成了所有工作。
但是，突发情况发生了。也许你在床的另一头醒来，也许你的睡梦一直被无形的噩梦侵扰。无论是什么原因，现在似乎所有的事情都没那么容易了。你精疲力尽，你失去了所有动力，没有办法再做到尽善尽美。你甚至不记得为什么你之前那么有效率。并且昨天让你受益匪浅的那个灵光的脑子，似乎在昨天晚上就已经无影无踪了。
不幸的是，动力的丧失似乎已经影响到生活的方方面面。你恍然大悟，你要去健身，但是你太懒了，根本不想动，所以你那天没去健身。一天变成两天，两天变成一个星期。你屯了越来越多垃圾食品，疯狂刷剧，疯狂打游戏。除此之外，你并没有做那些你需要做的事情。更过分的是，你甚至都不想做。你怎么也想不起来，你当初是如何效率如此之高。
为什么我们仍停滞不前？对于大部分人来说，长期的成功都是长期的自我折磨和长期的失败换来的。值得一提的是，这是个复杂的心理学问题，我将会在下一个视频阐述这个问题。
我想为你们提供一些实用的建议，关于我是如何走出压抑、一成不变的生活，并重新恢复高效率。在我们开始分享这些非常有用的技巧之前，我想首先谈一下与其有关的事情。
第一点，这个视频的目的并不是为了替代心理咨询。当你有症状时，一定要及时检查。我不是医生，我只是一个普通人，我只是分享一些对我有用的方法。
第二点，尽管这个视频主要讲的是如何有效地、快速地摆脱一成不变的状态，而这一说法也是相对的，因为你没办法一夜之间就摆脱一成不变的状态。
那么，第一个技巧：利用“先做点什么”这个原则。这一原则会推动你去采取行动。如果你做某事感觉没有动力，这时，你就需要一些事物能够激发你的活力，让你充满动力，让你真正开始行动起来。“先做点什么”这一原则能够让你开始行动，尤其是提不起劲做任何事情的时候。
大部分人认为，为了让自己开始行动，你首先得有做这件事的动力。而当你受到鼓舞，你自然而然就有动力了。例如，你正在浏览红迪网或其它网站，你看到了Matt D’Avella的视频，然后，他说了一些能够和你产生共鸣的话，你受到了鼓舞，并开始行动起来。这一激励，让你备受鼓舞，然后你开始努力实现你的目标。
但是，“先做点什么”原则表明，灵感-动机-行动并不具有线性的因果关系。它是无尽的死循环，你想在哪里开始就可以在哪里开始。从行动开始，更加高效。让行为成为你的灵感，然后借助激励去开展下一步。
现在你可能在想，真是谢谢你，如果我没有动力做某事，那我应该做的，就是去做这件事。这真的是非常有帮助哦。但是事实上，你做很多事情，都是没有激励的。比如，你需要洗澡的时候，你会需要极大的鼓舞吗？事实是，并不需要，只是你自己觉得需要而已。这些充满动力的行为，正是你最需要的激励，让你能够进一步采取行动。
如果你只是坐着，等着灵感来击中你，那你还是去刷牙吧。刷牙，是一个非常关键的行动，能够让你充满动力，进行下一步行动。如果你有一篇很长的论文要写，不要老是想着我一定要写完我那篇4000字的论文。你就想着，我要打开那个文档，把我脑子里的东西都写下来，这就行了，我做这些就够了。但是一旦你开始写作，你就会文思泉涌，下笔如有神，因为你已经迈出第一步了。这就是“先做点什么”原则的核心所在。
第二个技巧看起来和我刚刚讲的第一个技巧是相违背的。这个技巧就是，为你的小小成就奖励自己。如果你关注了这个频道，我不会一直鼓励你，也不认为认为每个人都应该有回报。所以如果你和我想法一致，但是你也不认同因为洗了个澡就奖励自己或者与其类似的想法，因为你明白，你可以做到更多。但是在需要的时候，适当进行奖励，特别是当你不堪一击的时候，从心理学上讲，是非常有必要的。并且这也与脑子分为左右脑这一事实紧密相关。
我并不是为了讨论左脑与右脑，而是你脑子中更为重要的部分。这一部分靠近脑干，而脑干对于激励、情绪以及其他部分是紧密相关的。你脑中更理智、更抽象、更具备道德观的那一部分，在前额皮质发挥主要作用。所以，如果你的前额皮质层知道如何运用“先做点什么”原则，让你大脑的主要部分发挥作用，从而能够及时开始行动，不要对此太过于严苛也是很重要的一点。因为大脑也是你身体的一部分。不要对你的大脑太过于颐指气使，否则，你的脑袋就会不听使唤。它会崩溃，无法运转，无法响应你脑中理智那一部分下达的指令。因此，你需要更好地判断，对脑中的重要部分下达合理的指示，然后慢慢让它为你所用。
如果你实在懒的不行，什么都不想做，只想瘫着，并且你用“先做点什么”原则去让你的脑子去说服你去刷牙、去洗澡、换上干净衣服、打扫厨房，并在做完这些之后开始感到厌倦、烦躁，那就，休息一下吧。这听起来让人起疑，因为你脑子的理智部分也知道你应该做更多。但是，就，放松一下吧。在彻夜刷剧之后，消耗了大量多巴胺之后，稍微奖励一下自己吧。就单纯地休息一下，享受当下。
你现在可能在想，如果我不靠着动力，到底如何摆脱惯性？第三条技巧就会讲到这一点。那么，第三条技巧，那就是渐进性超负荷。这一技巧与慢慢减轻负担、逐渐变强的原理相通。与其在疯狂赶进度让自己的脑子崩溃以及开始长期的自我折磨之间艰难抉择，不如让你自己开始习惯一种循序渐进的生活，这其实更加高效。在你奖励自己所做出的的小成就时，并且将今天的自己与昨天的自己相比，你会发现你的成就越来越多。
例如，如果你制定一个计划，在七天之内摆脱惯性，这会比想要一夜之间就提高效率更加贴近现实。比如说，在第一天，你什么都不想做，只想一直上网冲浪。如果，在这一天，你能够让自己采取一些关键性的措施，那么你这一天就已经足够高效了。第一天的任务就是循序渐进地开始行动，并让自己对此感到满意。第二天，告诉你自己，采取行动、循序渐进并不糟糕，相反，这是很棒的一件事。如果你日复一日地坚持下来了，渐渐地，你会感觉到你的左右脑运作越发和谐，你会在一种舒服的状态下发现，自己就像浴火重生的凤凰，并且变回了月初那个效率极高的自己。
关于控制期待、保持耐心、让你的天赋更好地与脑子的关键部分和情感部分联合，其重要性不言而喻。左右脑的共同协作对于维持长期的成功不可或缺。最终，你会过着你一直想要的生活，并且一直维持下去。
这段视频文字主要探讨了个人动力与效率的周期性波动问题。开头描述了人们在月初通常效率很高，但会因各种原因（如突发状况、精神疲惫）突然失去动力，陷入懒惰、拖延的“惯性”状态，难以恢复。
视频核心提供了三个实用技巧来打破这种状态：
So pretend you’re this guy
and you were really productive earlier the month
In fact, you were kind of killing it.
You’re reading lots of books,
hitting the gym consistently,
and actually getting your work in on time.
But then something happened,
maybe you woke up on the wrong side of the bed,
maybe an invisible demon(恶魔) ghost(幽灵)
violated(违反；侵犯) you in your sleep.
Whatever the case may be,
everything seems just a bit harder to do.
You’re tired.
You’ve lost all the motivation you had
to keep being awesome.
and you can’t even remember why
you were being productive in the first place.
And that mental clarity that you seemed
to be the beneficiary of just yesterday,
seems to have ran away in the night.
And unfortunately this lack of motivation
starts to seep into the other areas of your life.
The thought dawns on you to go to the gym
and you’re too lazy to do it.
So you skip the gym that day.
one day turns into two days,
two days turns into a week.
You’re also starting to buy more junk food,
watch more TV, play more video games.
And not only are you not doing the things
you know you should be doing,
but you don’t even want to.
You can’t even remember why
you were being productive in the first place.
Why are we still here?
For a lot of people, these long periods of success
followed by long periods of self-destruction
and failure seem to be a common pattern.
And while this issue is a deep psychological issue
that I’ll dive into in a later video,
I wanted to give you guys a more practical guide
as to how I get myself out of
these type of pseudo(冒充的，伪的) depressive ruts(车辙，状态)
and start being productive again.
Now, before we dive into
these really powerful strategies,
I just wanna preface(序言, 前言) the video
with a couple of things.
Number one is that this video is not meant to be
a replacement for going to therapy(治疗，疗法)
if you actually have clinical(临床的;冷静的) depression(忧伤, 抑郁).
I’m not a doctor, I’m just a dude(普通人),
and I talk about what works for me.
Second of all, even though this video
is about how to get out of a rut efficiently or quickly,
that’s all relative.
You’re usually not gonna get out of a rut overnight.
Okay, so strategy number one is
to utilize(利用) the do something principle.
This principle is the catalyst(促进因素) for action.
If you don’t have the motivation to do something,
you need something
that’ll spark(引发) some sort of action,
something to get the momentum(动力) going,
something to get the ball rolling.
And the do something principle
is a means to take action
when you don’t have the motivation to do anything.
So most people think that
in order to take action on anything,
you need to be motivated to do that.
And motivation comes
when you’re inspired by something.
So for instance, say
you’re browsing Reddit or something
and you come a cross a Matt D’Avella video
and by the end, he says
something that strikes a chord(弦) with you
and you’re inspired to take action.
That inspiration served as the adequate(充分的, 足够的) motivation
to take action on your goals.
But to do something principle dictates(指示)
that inspiration, motivation, action
is not a linear sequence(顺序, 连续).
It’s an endless loop
and you can start wherever you wanna start.
So it’s far more efficient to start with action
and let that action become the inspiration
and the motivation necessary to take further action.
So you may be thinking, thanks genius(天才),
if I’m unmotivated to do something,
then I should just do something,
that’s really helpful.
But you actually take action
without motivation all the time.
Do you need some sort of
huge inspirational epiphany(显现)
to take a shower?
No, it’s just something you do.
These monotonous(无变化的, 单调乏味的) actions
are the very actions you should be using
as momentum to take further action.
If you’re just sitting there waiting for inspiration
to strike you, go brush your teeth.
Brushing your teeth is a little constructive(建设的,建设性的) action
that will give you momentum
into taking further action.
If you have to write a giant(特大的, 巨大的) essay,
don’t think to yourself,
oh, I have to go and write
my giant 4,000-word essay.
Just say, I’m gonna open up the word doc,
write whatever comes to my mind for one minute.
And that’s it. That’s all I have to do.
But once you start writing,
you will tend to want to write more
because you’ve convinced(确信的) yourself to get there.
That is in essence(本质，实质；精华) to do something principle.
Now, strategy number two seems counter(相反的，计数器)-intuitive(有直觉力的)
to what I just said,
and that is to reward yourself for small wins.
Now, if you follow this channel at all,
I am not a pat(轻拍) yourself on the back
and everyone gets an award kind of guy.
So if you’re in the same boat,
but you might cringe(奉承；畏缩) at the thought of
rewarding yourself for taking a shower
or something like that,
because you know you’re capable(能干的，能胜任的；有才华的) of so much more,
but the need to reward yourself for small wins,
especially if you’re in a vulnerable(易受伤的, 脆弱的, 敏感的) situation
is a psychological necessity.
And it has everything to do with the fact
that you have basically two sides of your brain.
And I’m not talking about right and left,
I’m talking more about
the more primal(最初的；原始的) part of your brain,
which is closer to the stem(脑干)
which is responsible for motivation
and emotion and stuff(材料；东西) like that.
And your more logical, abstract(抽象), moralistic(注意道德的) part
of your brain, which is present more
in the prefrontal(额叶前部的,前额的) cortex(皮层).
So if your prefrontal cortex knows to use
the do something principle
in order to convince your primal side of your brain
to take action on something,
it’s important that you’re
not too iron-fisted with this
because it’s a negotiation(谈判) with yourself.
Don’t be a slave driver(监督奴隶工作者,苛刻的上司) to
the primal side of your brain
or your primal side of your brain
won’t feel listened to,
it’ll lash(鞭打；猛击) out(严厉斥责) and it won’t wanna do anything
that your logical side of your brain wants it to do.
So you almost need to use your higher judgment
to provide compassionate(表示怜悯的,有同情心的) guidance
to the primal part of your brain
and very gradually win it over.
If you’re too lazy to pretty(相当的) much do anything
other than sit around all day
and you use the do something principle
to convince your primal side of your brain
to brush your teeth, take a shower,
get some nice clothes on and clean your kitchen
and you start to get really tired
and agitated after this,
take a break.
It may sound suspect and
your logical side of your brain knows
that you should be doing a lot more than that.
Just take it easy,
reward yourself for doing something constructive
for once, after days of bingeing(狂欢作乐) dopamine(多巴胺),
and just relax and have a good time.
So you might be thinking,
how the heck am I supposed(应当,理应,料想；猜想；以为) to get out of a rut
if I don’t ride this momentum out into the sunset?
That’s what tip number three is all about.
So strategy number three
is all about progressive overload.
It’s very similar to the philosophy(哲学)
of lifting weights and getting stronger.
Instead of yo-yoing(上下摆动（悠悠球）) between
taking crazy amounts of action
and then your primal brain lashing out
and going into long periods of self-destruction,
you should be messaging yourself
into organically(器官上地,有机地) growing a lifestyle
that you gradually get used to,
that’s more and more productive,
and you do more and more every day
while rewarding yourself for the small wins
and comparing yourself to who you were yesterday
rather than who someone else is today.
So for instance, if you develop a game plan
over the course of seven days to get out of a rut,
that’s a lot more realistic(现实的，实际可行的)
than just trying to be productive all of a sudden.
So say day one, you can’t really do much
other than go on the internet
for long periods of time.
On this day, if you convince yourself
to take pretty much any sort of constructive action,
that should be sufficient(足够的; 充足的) for the day.
Day one should just be about
gradually taking a little bit more action
and being happy with that.
And the next day, remind yourself
that wasn’t so bad
and it actually felt pretty good to take action
and try to do a little bit more.
And if you do this day after day,
then gradually and organically,
both sides of your brain will be in agreeance(和谐).
And you’ll very comfortably
start to rise from the ashes like a phoenix(凤凰)
and become the person
that you were earlier in that month.
I can’t stress how important this is,
managing expectations, being patient with yourself
and letting your higher faculties(能力, 才能)
be very communicative with the more primal
and emotional sides of your brain.
This synergy( 协同作用；协同) between both sides of your brain
is integral( 构成整体所必需的) for maintaining long-term success.
And you can eventually be very reliably
and sustainably(可持续性) living the kind of life
that you’ve always wanted to be living.