这是一篇在公众号“清晨朗读会”读到的一篇英文文章，感觉给我带来了很多的启发，所以尝试翻译并在此分享。
Little Luxuries小奢华
By Steve Pavlina
If you took all the money you spend on luxury lattes each year and saved it instead, you’d have a little bit more money but a less luxurious life. But you’d also risk getting more entrenched in a scarcity mindset because scaling back your lifestyle just to save a little extra money is mostly a waste of thought.
如果你将每年所有花在奢侈的拿铁上的钱存起来，你不只是会多了一点钱，少了一些奢侈生活的体验。因为，你同时也在冒险使那种匮乏感变得更加根深蒂固，因为缩减你的生活方式只是节省了一点额外的钱，而这种情况大多数时候都是在浪费你的注意力。
You’re better off enjoying little luxuries when you can appreciate them. Instead of directing your mind to fuss over small expenses, focus that thought energy where you’ll get a more magnificent return, such as pretty much any area of life improvement that’s meaningful for you. This creates better story for you to live out as well.
当你能欣赏这些小奢侈的时候你会过得更好。与其对小开销感到焦虑，不如让注意力聚焦于集中你的思想能量，你会得到更大的回报，比如在生活的任何领域获得对你意义重大的进步。这也为你的生活创造了更好的故事。
You’re probably not going to regret the summation of your small indulgences year after year, especially if you appreciated those little luxuries as you experienced them. You’re more likely to feel the negative impact of all the thought energy you wasted worrying about minor $5 or $10 decisions… and what that did to your self-esteem over time.
你可能并不打算对年复一年的这些小放纵的合计感到后悔，尤其是如果你亲身体验过了这些小奢侈给你带来的好处。你更多的可能是感到这些5块10块的小决定浪费了你的思想能量，带来的的负面影响……和随着时间的过去，对你的自尊的影响。
Self-discipline is a limited resource. Save it for the big stuff that matters. Don’t squander it on fussing over how you handle minor expenses.
自律是一种很有限的资源。把它留到重要的事情上。不要浪费在处理小开销的而产生的焦虑上。
When I was broke and deep in debt, I succumbed to this aspect of a scarcity mindset, skimping here and there on little expenses like $1 here or $5 there, such as by buying cheaper and lower quality food. Eventually I realized it was a lame waste of neural energy because that level of focus would never turn my situation around. It would only perpetuate more scarcity and keep me stuck. And it would only make me think less of myself.
当我身无分文，债台高筑的时候，我屈服于这种不好的精神状态，对1块5块的小开销斤斤计较，比如买便宜点的质量差点的食物。最后我终于意识到，这是对我的精神能量的毫无说服力的浪费，因为这种层面的聚焦永远都不会改变我的境遇。只会持续让我更加匮乏，陷入困境中。变得更加无法关注自己的内心的需要。
Allowing some space for small luxuries that I’d appreciate actually helped with shifting from scarcity to abundance thinking. Instead of wasting mental energy on “should I?” thoughts, simply enjoying and appreciating little niceties without infecting them with self-doubt gave me more energy in return, and it helped me align with inviting more into my life that I’d appreciate, like a healthier creative flow.
允许自己偶尔小奢侈一下，有助于我们从匮乏的心里状态转换为积极思考的状态。不再浪费精神能量在“我应该吗？”的想法上，简单的享受和欣赏细节之美而没有被自我怀疑所感染，给我了很多能量反馈，而且这帮我在生活中融入更多我欣赏的东西，像更健康的创作流程。
One incident that I found especially helpful was when I gave someone an extra $5 just to express appreciation for the work I saw her doing. She was cleaning tables at a restaurant, and she looked a bit down, so I imagined that she probably wasn’t getting much appreciation for her efforts. I walked up to her and told her that I saw her working hard and thought she deserved an extra tip. I was just trying to practice a small gesture of kindness, but she was super grateful and got a bit misty eyed. That helped me see that there were much better ways to focus my energy than worrying about how to save an extra $5.
一次偶然的机会我发现尤其有帮助的是，当我为了某个人的努力工作多付了5块钱以表达我对她的欣赏。她正在餐厅清理桌子，她看上去有一点低落，所以我猜想她没能因为自己的努力获得更多的欣赏。我向她走过去告诉她工作的很努力，这额外的小费是她应得的。我只是试着去实践一些小的善意的行为，但是她超级感激，眼睛有点模糊。这帮助我看到还有更好的方式来聚焦我的能量而不是如何去省下这5块钱。
This also applies to time scarcity. Instead of trying to save minutes or hours here or there, that wasted neural energy can be better invested elsewhere. A big transformation for me happened when I began volunteering with a nonprofit, also when I was broke and didn’t feel I could or should do such a thing with my precious time. It was largely out of desperation from noting that nothing else I was trying was getting results, so I figured that the results might be better if I tried something radically different.
这个原则也适用于时间匮乏上。总是想要在这里或那里节约几分钟几小时，浪费掉的精神能量可以更好的投资在其他地方。我的一个巨大的转变发生在我在一个公益组织志愿的时候，因为身无分文的囧况，我觉得我不应该也不能用我宝贵的时间做这些事。这很大程度上是由于我发现我所尝试的其他方法都没有效果而感到绝望，所以我认为如果我尝试一些完全不同的方法，结果可能会更好。
I know it’s challenging to redirect your thoughts from scarcity minded concerns like a seemingly wasted $5 or a wasted hour, even if you think that they’ll add up to significant amounts over the years. But try to recognize the long-term stuckness that this level of thinking induces. It’s an endless circular trap that just perpetuates itself, promising relief but delivering none.
我知道，将你的思想从诸如看似浪费的5美元或浪费的一个小时这样的稀缺性问题上转移过来是很有挑战性的，即使你认为这些事情在多年后会累积成可观的数目。但是试着去认识到这种思考水平所导致的长期停滞。这是一个无止境的循环陷阱，它只会让自己永远存在下去，给人一种解脱的希望，却不会带来任何结果。
Even when it’s difficult, keep directing your mind toward patterns of thought that you consider more elevated and more worthy of the person you wish to become. You don’t have to do this perfectly. You can make real progress just by leaning in a more empowering direction.
即使是困难的时候，也要不断引导你的思维模式，让你认为自己更高尚，更值得成为你想成为的人。你不必做得很完美。只要朝着更有利的方向努力，你就能取得真正的进步。
Instead of worrying about small expenses, think about making interesting contributions to people’s lives. Explore different ways to creatively express yourself. Take some interesting risks.
与其担心微不足道的开支，不如想想为人们的生活做出有趣的贡献。探索不同的方式来创造性地表达自己。冒一些有趣的风险。
Instead of worrying about small wastes of time, think about the direction you want your life to go over the next 5-10 years. Work towards long-term goals that you’re not sure you can accomplish, so you’ll have to grow into them.
与其担心小的时间浪费，不如想想你未来5-10年的生活方向。为你不太确定的长期目标付出努力，你会在其中成长。
Recognize that you’re unlikely to achieve meaningful breakthroughs by increasing your skill at saving small sums of money or recapturing small blocks of time. Most likely that mindset will just stress you out, and you’ll gain little to show for it.
要认识到，通过提高你在节省小钱或夺回小块时间方面的技能，你不太可能实现有意义的突破。
If you get the big pieces right, you can enjoy a happy and abundant life while still enjoying a luxurious latte and appreciating an hour of total laziness, without feeling that you’ve lost or squandered anything.
如果你选对了大部分，你就可以在享受一杯奢华的拿铁咖啡和一个小时的慵懒时光的同时，享受幸福和富足的生活，而不会觉得自己失去或浪费了任何东西。