改变之所以难以发生，并非因为你不够努力，而是因为你用错了方法。
前中扣带回皮层。这个区域堪称我们内在韧性的“肌肉”，它只在一个特定时刻才会生长：当你内心抗拒却依然选择行动时。无论是忍受冷水澡的刺激，还是坚持枯燥的康复训练，每一次违背本能的坚持，都在为这个区域注入新的力量。这不仅是神经科学的发现，更是自我提升的本质：通过刻意挑战自我，让意志力像肌肉一样可测量地增长。
- Okay, so you wanna change your life. You want to un-frick your entire life and you wanna do it in just one year. Is that even possible? Well, I think it's definitely possible, but will you? That's a completely separate question.
你想在一年内彻底扭转现在的处境，让生活焕然一新。这真的靠谱吗？我觉得绝对靠谱。但问题在于：你真有这个决心吗？这就另当别论了。
Most of you watching this video probably won't, just statistically, most of you are probably gonna end up in a similar situation that you did at the end of last year. Another year is gonna go by and you're gonna be in a very similar situation, but some of you will pull ahead. It just depends on if you break the cycle of mediocrity that you've been in recently.
大多数观看这段视频的人，从统计学角度来说，大概率不会有什么改变。你们中的大多数人年底可能还是会回到和去年差不多的处境。又一年过去了，你们的生活依然原地踏步。但也有一部分人会脱颖而出。关键就在于，你能否打破近来一直平庸的循环。
I'm kind of talking to myself, by the way. I don't know about you guys, but this past year was a pretty challenging year for me. It did not go to plan. I was not nearly as productive or healthy, mentally or physically as I wanted to be, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that I kind of destroyed my back. I herniated two discs in my L5-S1 and my L4, 5 and the road to recovery has been rocky to say the least.
其实我也是在说给自己听。不知道你们情况如何，但过去这一年对我来说相当艰难，完全脱离了原定的计划。我的效率和身心状态都远未达到预期，很大程度上是因为我的背部受了重伤。我的腰椎L5-S1节段和L4-L5节段出现了两处椎间盘突出，康复之路简直可以说是一波三折。
Due to my impulsive nature, I always try to push the agenda. I always try to play hockey. If I can physically walk, I figure, eh, yeah, I can just glide around and play a hockey game. Well, this has led to injury and re-injury and re-aggravation, and that was basically the entire theme of my 2025. It was me hobbling around, physically nerfed, which really affected my mental health, my productivity, and overall lifestyle in more ways than I even care to mention.
由于我生性冲动，总是不顾后果地强行推进计划。我一直想打冰球，心想只要能走路，滑着上场打球应该没问题。结果却导致了旧伤复发、反复加重，这基本就是我2025年的全年写照。那一年我始终步履蹒跚，身体机能大打折扣，这对我心理健康、工作效率乃至整个生活方式的影响，方方面面多得我都不愿细说。
So believe me when I say, if you're watching this video on January 15th or February the 23rd or August the 5th, doesn't matter when you're watching this video, just know that I am right there with you. I am intensely motivated to make the next 365 days better than the last. So in this video, I'm going to go over some of the tactics and strategies that I am currently employing to guarantee that this year will be a bounce back year. If you're interested in making this year your strongest year yet, then keep watching.
请相信我说的话，无论你是在1月15日、2月23日还是8月5日看到这个视频，不管何时观看，请记住，我始终与你同在。我满怀热忱，誓要让接下来的365天比过去更加精彩。所以在这个视频里，我会分享一些当前正在践行的技巧和策略，确保今年成为我的反弹之年。如果你也希望今年成为自己最强的一年，那就继续看下去吧。
Number one, develop a positive vision and just forget about negative visions. You hear so often that you should develop a positive vision about where you want to be in life, yada, yada, yada, but you should also develop a negative vision. Think about all the things you're trying to run from. What do you not want to experience? What sounds like hell to you? The problem I have with this is it has never worked for me.
第一点，构建积极的愿景，彻底抛开消极的设想。你肯定经常听到这样的建议：要对自己的人生目标建立积极的憧憬，诸如此类。但有人也会说，你还得构想一个消极的版本，想想你想要逃避的一切，那些你绝不想经历的处境，那些听起来如同地狱般的场景。但对我来说，这方法从未奏效。
If you're in a really challenging spot and life hasn't been going super well for you, and you've had a lot of challenges, I don't think people need to be reminded as to how crappy it can be and how much worse it can get. People are painfully aware of how much worse it can get. There is no shortage of doom and gloom everywhere you look on the internet, but what people don't have is very much hope. A lot of people I talk to can't even fathom a better life for themselves. They can't even imagine how things could get better, let alone how to do that every step of the way.
如果你正处于人生的低谷，生活一直不太顺遂，经历了许多挫折，我觉得人们其实不需要被提醒情况能有多糟、还能恶化到什么程度。大家对"还能差到什么地步”已经痛苦地心知肚明了。互联网上悲观论调铺天盖地，悲观情绪从不匮乏。但人们真正缺少的是希望。我接触过的很多人，甚至连"更好的生活"都无法想象。他们根本想不出事情怎么可能会变好，更别提一步步去实现它了。
I think that is the main problem because once you start to outline a specific plan of action and you start to imagine that things in your life can and will get better, then you start to develop hope and hope is the most powerful motivation. If you don't focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new, then hope is hard to come by. So it is integral to develop a positive vision, not just a vision, a plan, which leads me into the next part of this, which is don't be generic.
我认为这才是问题的核心所在。当你开始制定具体行动计划，开始想象生活能够也必将好转时，希望便油然而生。而希望正是最强大的动力源泉。如果不能将全部精力专注于创造新生，而是徒劳地与过去抗衡，希望就难以降临。因此，构建积极的愿景至关重要，但积极的愿景不能是模糊的轮廓，必须是清晰的蓝图。这就引出了下一个要点：切忌空泛。
This is a huge trap that people fall into when they start imagining a better life for themselves. The first thing you're probably gonna do is you're gonna sit there and start thinking about all these things you want. You probably want more money. You want that bank account to be nice and fat. You want to feel physically better than you do now, you probably want to go to the gym a lot more often and have a better diet.
很多人在憧憬美好未来时，最容易陷入的误区就是泛泛而谈。你可能坐下来开始畅想，脑海里浮现出各种渴望：想要银行账户鼓起来，想要身体状态焕然一新，想要频繁出入健身房，想要饮食结构健康营养。
As you think about the person that you want to be, you probably are conjuring up some type of cotton candy, bubblegum version of who you want to be in the future. The issue with this is that literally every single person on the planet is doing exactly what you're doing. They are manifesting and conjuring up the most generic Instagram-approved version of their future self. Somebody that bears no resemblance to the person that you are now, to the friends that you have, to the life that you live, the hobbies that you're trying to get better at.
当你想象理想中的自己时，脑海里浮现的很可能是一种棉花糖、泡泡糖式的虚幻形象，那种甜腻、空洞、不切实际的完美版本。问题在于，地球上几乎每个人都在做同样的事：他们在显化、在构想最千篇一律的"小红薯风"未来自我。那个形象与你现在的自己毫无关联，与你身边的朋友无关，与你当下的生活脱节，与你正在努力精进的爱好也扯不上关系。
So if you actually want to develop an effective strategy for being better than you were last year and actually gain some traction in your life, then you have to develop a specific vision. If you do this properly, you'll have an unlimited well of motivation to tap into all throughout the year because your goals will be intimately linked with the things that you do every single day, and you can see progress happen in real time, which generates its own motivation.
如果想真正制定出超越去年的有效策略，在生活中切实取得进展，就必须构建清晰的愿景。如果方法得当，你将在整年都拥有取之不尽的动力源泉，因为你的目标将与日常行动紧密相连，每一份进步都清晰可见，而这本身就会催生源源不断的动力。
Let me give you a specific example. One of my main goals for this year is to grow Nootrify. I want to pour so much time and energy into making sure that Nootrify is a positive experience for people. I essentially just want to run the best nootropic company in the world that is extremely ambitious, but it's something that I interact with every day. It's something that I have direct control over and something that I find highly motivating.
举例说，今年我的核心目标之一就是把Nootrify做大做强。我要投入大量时间和精力，确保用户能在这里获得优质体验。说白了，我立志要打造全球顶尖的益智药企业，这个目标确实雄心勃勃，但它与我每日的工作息息相关，是我能够直接掌控的领域，更是让我充满干劲的动力源泉。
And when it comes to fixing my back, well, what do I wanna do with my back? Well, I play a lot of hockey and I love the idea of scoring goals and just being an effective teammate and basically performing in a way that I know I'm capable of on the ice, that idea gives meaning to my rehab, my boring little bird dogs and dead bugs and Mackenzie press ups. It's all lame (beep) I hate doing those things. But when I think about it in the context of specific areas of my life that could be so much more enjoyable and fulfilling, then all of a sudden I have all the motivation I need.
说到修复背部的问题，我究竟想达成什么目标呢？我热爱冰球，渴望在赛场上进球得分，成为值得信赖的队友，展现自己真正的实力，正是这份期待，让那些枯燥的康复训练有了意义。那些无聊的鸟狗式、死虫式和麦肯锡俯卧撑，说实话我讨厌做这些。但只要想到这能让我的冰球人生更加畅快淋漓，瞬间就动力满满了。
The moral of the story is find things in your life that you want to improve. Maybe it's a relationship that you have, maybe it's the lack thereof. Maybe it's about dying to yourself a little bit, foregoing some of these frivolous pleasures so that you can get into a more secure financial situation. But then think about what that secure financial situation would give you. What would it afford you? How would it make you feel to have a specific amount more money every single month?
这个故事的寓意是：找到生活中真正想要改变的东西。也许是一段现有的关系，也许是关系的缺失。也许是需要对自己"狠"一点，放弃一些浮华的享乐，换取更稳固的财务状况。但接着要深入思考：那个稳固的财务状况能带给你什么？它能让你拥有什么？每个月多出一笔具体数额的钱，会让你产生怎样的感受？
Number three, and this is probably the most important tip in this whole video, and that is to grow your aMCC. And what the hell is that? Well basically grow your anterior midcingulate cortex. So the aMCC is a part of your brain that literally grows and strengthens, it increases in gray matter when you voluntarily do something that you don't want to do.
第三点，也是全片最关键的秘诀：培养你的前中扣带回皮层。这到底是什么呢？简而言之，前中扣带回皮层是大脑中一个会真实生长和强化的区域，当你主动去做那些本不想做的事情时，它的灰质就会增加。
Let's take cold showers for example. Most people don't want to take a cold shower. They would rather take a hot one. But when you say to yourself, okay, cold showers, that sounds terrible, but I'm going to do it anyways. And you hop into that cold water, your anterior midcingulate cortex grows, and every day that goes by, as long as you hate that cold shower, every single time, your anterior midcingulate cortex will grow stronger and stronger and stronger. And what this does is makes you more capable of shouldering discomfort in the future.
以洗冷水澡为例，绝大多数人宁愿洗热水澡，也不会主动选择冷水。但当你说服自己：冷水澡确实难熬，但我偏要尝试。当你毅然踏入冰冷的水中时，前中扣带回皮层就会开始生长。只要每天坚持，每次带着抗拒却依然行动，这个区域就会愈发强健。这种锻炼最终会让你在未来更能承受不适。
But there's a catch, if you learn to actually enjoy the cold shower. If you develop this attitude beforehand that, hmm, yeah, that actually sounds quite delightful. I can't wait to hop in the cold shower. Then when you hop in the cold shower, your aMCC does not grow anymore. The aMCC only grows when you don't want to do something and do it anyways. It only grows through challenge.
但有个陷阱：如果你学会了真正享受冷水澡，如果你事先培养出一种"嗯，听起来挺惬意的，我已经迫不及待要冲个冷水澡了"的心态，那么当你真的冲进去时，你的前中扣带回皮层就不会再生长了。前中扣带回皮层只有在你不想做某件事、但还是做了的情况下才会生长。它只通过挑战而生长。
The implications of this are astounding. It's kind of game breaking. It is basically self-improvement. Every self-improvement book distilled into one psychological fact, one neurological reality. What even is self-improvement? Like what is that? Well, if it's anything, it's growing. It's challenging yourself. It's becoming stronger instead of weaker, it's becoming wiser instead of dumber, becoming more resourceful, more useful and less pathetic to the best of your ability.
这一发现的深远意义令人惊叹，几乎颠覆了传统认知。它本身就是自我提升的精髓，相当于将所有自我成长类书籍浓缩成一个心理学定律、一个神经学事实。自我提升究竟是什么？若究其本质，那就是成长，是挑战自我，是变强而非变弱，是变聪明而非变愚钝，是尽己所能变得更足智多谋、更有价值，而不是越来越软弱无能。
But what is your ability? Now we're talking, maybe your ability to learn new skills, to stay calm in the face of chaos, to put in effort at school, to read a book, to get yourself to the gym, to learn how to code a website, to stick with boring things. It all comes down to tenacity. It comes down to your ability to sit with tedium, to endure uncomfortable situations, sit with it and work through it. That is the way that you grow in life. And your ability to do so might just have a name, it's the aMCC, the anterior midcingulate cortex.
但你的"能力"到底是什么？现在说到点子上了，也许是学习新技能的能力，在混乱面前保持冷静的能力，在学校努力投入的能力，读完一本书的能力，让自己去健身房的能力，学会写代码的能力，坚持做枯燥事情的能力。归根结底，这一切都取决于坚韧。取决于你忍受乏味的能力，忍受不适处境的能力，与之共处并熬过去的能力。这就是你在生活中成长的方式。而你做到这些的能力，或许有个名字：aMCC，前中扣带皮层。
Can you imagine how much further along you'd get in life if you could measurably, progressively overload your tenacity skill? That was a mouthful, that basically didn't even mean anything, but it does mean something, hopefully. Like if you have a jacked aMCC, then you can go like, oh yeah, like HTML, this is really boring, but I'm just gonna sit here and kind of just do it and learn and get good and yeah, it's not that fun, but it's okay and I can do it because I have a jacked aMCC.
想象一下，如果你能像训练肌肉一样，切实地、循序渐进地增强自己的坚韧品质，人生会达到怎样的高度？这话听起来有点绕，但愿你能明白我的意思。当你拥有强大的前中扣带回皮层，就能坦然面对：比如学习HTML确实枯燥，但我可以静下心来钻研、练习、精通。虽然过程并不有趣，但这都无所谓，因为我练就了强大的前中扣带回皮层，完全能够应对。
Like I feel like 99% of people's problems in life, they're not a mystery, right? It's not like you don't know how to do it or how to even start. It's that you can't bring yourself to start. You don't want to sit there and do step one because you know there are 356 steps and you don't wanna do step one and two and three because it's tedious and it's boring and it takes work and there's not a lot of pleasure. But now that you know that the aMCC exists, and the more you challenge yourself to do these little things, there's a part of your brain that is growing and getting stronger and building that tenacity within you that helps you push past any obstacle in life. That's an incredibly motivating thought.
我觉得生活中99%的问题，症结并不在于你不知道怎么做或从何入手，而是你根本无法说服自己开始行动。你抗拒迈出第一步，因为清楚地知道后面还有三百五十六步等着你。你不愿踏出一二三步，因为过程乏味枯燥，需要付出努力却收获甚微。但现在你知道了前中扣带回皮层的存在。当你越是挑战自己去完成这些琐碎小事，大脑中就有个区域在真实生长，不断强化你内在的韧性，助你跨越人生任何障碍。这个认知本身就蕴含着无穷动力。
There's this scene in "Fight Club." It's probably not the most memorable scene in "Fight Club," but for some sick reason, it's my favorite scene in "Fight Club." It's a scene where they're using the basement and Lou, the owner, comes downstairs and he's like, yo, you're not allowed to use this building. I actually have to blur this 'cause it's so gory. But basically, Lou starts beating the living crap out of Tyler Durden, and as an absolute power move, Tyler decides to just take the beating. (Tyler laughing) To eat the punches, to let Lou know that he's not backing down, no matter how badly he gets beaten.
《搏击俱乐部》里有这样一个场景，可能不是电影里最经典的一幕，但出于某种难以言说的缘由，它成了我最钟爱的片段。当时他们正在地下室活动，房东 Lou 下楼来说：喂，你们不能用这栋楼。这里其实得打码，因为太血腥了。Lou对泰勒·德登施以暴行，拳拳到肉，而泰勒却选择用最极端的方式回应，他坦然承受着每一次重击，用笑声告诉卢：无论被打得多惨，他绝不会屈服。
- Unbelievable. (Tyler grunts) - You don't know where I've been, Lou. - [Lou] Oh my God. - He starts bleeding on him. He starts smearing his blood all over Lou, just basically saying like, I don't care what you do to me. You might be physically stronger than me, but I am mentally stronger. To me, that is the essence of tenacity. To me, that's what the aMCC means. It's like that dog in you that can push past obstacles, that can make things happen. That more than anything is the most important resource that you have. It's like a raccoon like mindset. You're out there in the streets, you're diving in dumpsters 'cause you need to eat and you're gonna get it done. You will find a way to survive.
难以置信。（泰勒发出闷哼声）"你根本不知道我经历过什么，卢。"（卢惊呼）他开始将鲜血涂满卢全身，用这种姿态宣告：无论你如何对我，身体或许会被压制，但意志绝不会屈服。在我看来，这就是坚韧的本质，这就是前中扣带回皮层所代表的含义，那是你内心深处永不退缩的猛兽，能冲破一切阻碍，将不可能变为现实。这种品质比任何资源都珍贵，就像浣熊在街头求生，即使翻找垃圾桶也要活下去的执着。你会找到生存之道，你必将冲破困境。
So next time you feel like, oh, I have to do something, but I don't really want to. So I have to find the perfect mental angle to make it seem more interesting to me. And that's sort of like a mental hack, and forget it. There is intense utility to doing things that you don't want to do specifically because you don't want to do them. Make that your ethos this year, the boys over at "Yes Theory" were right. Seek discomfort, it's good for you.
下次，当你觉得"哦，我必须做件事，但我真不想做"，于是开始寻找完美的心理角度来让它显得更有趣，把这种"心理技巧"忘掉吧。专门去做那些你不想做的事情，恰恰因为你不愿意做，这其中蕴含着巨大的价值。让这成为你今年的 准则，"Yes Theory" 那帮家伙说得对：主动寻求不适，这对你有好处。
With all of these knowledge, mindsets, strategies, data, you and I are about to have our, I can't speak apparently, you and I are about to have our best year yet, book it.
有了这些知识、心态、策略和数据，你和我即将迎来我们的，显然我话都说不利索了，你和我即将迎来最棒的一年，板上钉钉。
By: Better Ideas