来源：《今日心理学》
日期：2021年1月1日
Sure, 2020 was a mess. And as I type on the first morning of 2021, as far as I can tell, the COVID pandemic still rages, the world political situation is still a mess, and I'm still driving a 2004 Nissan Sentra.
毫无疑问，2020年是一团糟。当我在2021年的第一天早上打字时，据我所知，新冠肺炎疫情仍在肆虐，世界政治局势仍是一团糟，而我仍然开着一辆2004年产的尼桑森特拉。
For humans, as is true for members of any species, life has always been a struggle. Sometimes it's just worse than it is at others.
对人类来说，就像对任何物种一样，生活一直都是一场斗争。有时候情况比其他时候更糟。
In our recent work in a field that we are calling positive evolutionary psychology, Nicole Wedberg and I use foundational principles of the evolutionary behavioral sciences to spell out what the good life looks like from an evolutionary perspective. Here, I present some suggestions for living that follow from this broader idea of positive evolutionary psychology. I hope you find them helpful as you and yours navigate the often dangerous waters of life.
在我们最近的工作中，在我们称之为正向进化心理学的领域，尼科尔·韦德伯格和我运用进化行为科学的基本原理，从进化的角度阐明了美好生活是什么样子的。这里，我根据正向进化心理学这个更宽泛的概念，提出了一些生活建议。我希望，当你和你的家人在生活的危险水域中航行时，它们会对你有所帮助。
1. Be honest.
Be honest with yourself and with others. Humans have a deep evolutionary history of spotting lies and deception. And, in short, lies and deception generally don't make people very popular. In fact, our minds have systems that are able to detect liars and cheaters among us. Be honest with yourself and with others in your life, even if it might seem difficult. There's no doubt that, ultimately, you'll be happy to have taken this approach.
对自己和他人都要诚实。人类在发现谎言和欺骗方面有着深刻的进化史。简而言之，谎言和欺骗通常不会让人变得很受欢迎。事实上，我们的大脑有能够发现说谎者和骗子的系统。在生活中对自己和他人诚实，即使这看起来很难。毫无疑问，最终，您会很高兴采用这种方法。
2. Don't expect perfection from yourself or others.
Mistakes are an inherent part of life. And this truth goes all the way down to the DNA-replication process itself. Sure, hold high standards for yourself and for others, but always allow room for mistakes along the way. If you're anything like me, you're guaranteed to, largely unintentionally, make lots of mistakes of all kinds of sizes in 2021. And this is true of those around you as well. And that's OK. That is part of living. Make room for imperfection in yourself and others.
错误是生活中固有的一部分。这个道理一直延展到dna复制过程本身。的确，对自己和他人都要有高标准，但永远要为犯错留出空间。如果你和我一样，2021年肯定会在不经意间犯很多各种各样的错误。你周围的人也是如此。没关系。这是生活的一部分。为自己和他人的不完美留出空间。
3. Make amends.
Across the human experience, social conflict of various kinds has emerged regularly. Betrayal, deception, emotional manipulation, and more. The human experience is not all peaches and cream—and it never has been. Humans evolved a psychology for living in small-scale groups with others who should expect to interact with one another extensively across life. This is, in important ways, a foundational feature of the ancestral environment that shaped our evolution.
在人类的经历中，各种各样的社会冲突经常出现。背叛，欺骗，情绪操纵等等。人类的经历并非都是美好的——从来都不是。人类进化出一种与其他人生活在小规模群体中的心理学，他们期望在生活中与他人进行广泛的互动。从重要的方面来说，这是祖先生存环境的一个基本特征，它塑造了我们的进化。
Given this fact, we've evolved a broad array of moral and emotional processes that serve to help us keep connected to others for our own good. Making amends with others on the heels of social conflict has always been an important part of the human experience. And while it is often a difficult thing to do, it also often has long-term benefits for oneself and for one's broader community.
鉴于这一事实，我们已经进化出一系列道德和情感过程，帮助我们为了自己的利益与他人保持联系。在社会冲突之后与他人和好一直是人类经验的重要组成部分。虽然这通常是一件困难的事情，但它也常常对自己和更广泛的社区有长期的好处。
4. Forgive.
Along with making amends with others for mistakes that we have made as we're navigating through life, we've evolved a psychology that allows us forgive others who've slighted us, in some form or another, as well. While forgiveness may not always be possible, genuine forgiveness often has benefits such as making the forgiver feel better about things and keeping close relationships intact as we engage in our life journeys.
在人生旅途中，我们会为自己所犯的错误向他人赔礼道歉，同时我们也进化出一种心理，这种心理允许我们原谅那些以某种形式轻视过我们的人。虽然宽恕并不总是可能的，但真正的宽恕有许多益处，例如，让宽恕者对事情感觉更好，以及在我们的生活旅途中保持亲密关系的完整。