How a Password Changed My Life

密码如何改变我的生活

I was having a great morning until I sat down in front of my office computer. “Your password has expired,” a server message flashed on my screen, with instructions for changing it. Coming up with a new code doesn’t seem like a big deal, unless you work at my company, where we have to change it monthly, using at least one uppercase character, one lowercase character, one symbol, and one numeral. Oh, and the whole darn thing can’t be fewer than eight characters. And I can’t use any of the same passwords I’ve used in the past three months.

在我坐到办公电脑面前之前我都有一个愉快的早晨，直到电脑屏幕前跳出来一条服务信息，上面写着“您的密码已经失效”，提示我修改密码。想出一个新密码似乎并不是什么难事，除非你在我们公司上班，因为在这里我们不得不每月修改一次密码，还得至少使用一个大写字母、一个小写字母，一个符号和一个数字。噢，对了，最气人的是密码还不能少于八个字符，以及不能使用在过去三个月内曾使用过的密码。

Suddenly I was furious. What didn’t make it any better was that I was deeply depressed¹ after my recent divorce. Disbelief over what she had done to me was all I thought about. Every day.

我突然觉得很愤怒，尤其在我最近刚离婚，意志正消沉的情况下，更让我感觉不好了。我每天想着的就是怀疑前妻对我做过的那些事情。

That didn’t mean anything to the empty input² field with a pulsating³ cursor, waiting for me to type a password that I’d have to reenter—many times—for the next 30 days. I remembered a tip I’d heard from my former boss. He’d said, “I’m going to use a password to change my life.”

当然这些对于跳动的光标那里等着我在接下来的30天里无数次的输入密码毫无意义。我记得曾听过以前老板的指点，他说“我准备用密码来改变我的生活。”

I couldn’t focus on getting things done in my current mood. There were clear indicators⁵ of what I needed to do to regain⁶ control of my life, but I couldn’t heed⁷ them.

在我现在的心情状态下我不能集中注意力做事情。虽然有一些明显的指示来让我做需要做的事情以重新掌控我的生活，但是我不能注意到。

My password became the indicator⁴. My password reminded me that I shouldn’t let myself be a victim of my recent breakup and that I was strong enough to do something about it.

我的密码变成了指令员，它提醒我不能让我自己成为最近崩溃状态的受害者，并且我是足够强大来解决它们的。

I made my password Forgive@h3r.

我把我的密码改成Forgive@h3r。

I had to type this statement several times a day. Each time my computer would lock. Each time my screen saver with her photo would appear. Each time I would come back from eating lunch alone. In my mind, I wrote Forgive her every day.

我每天要把这个密码输入好多次。每次电脑锁上的时候、每次电脑屏幕上保存的她的照片出现的时候、每次我在外面独自吃午饭回来的时候，我每天都在输入“原谅她”。

The simple action changed the way I looked at my ex-wife. That constant reminder⁸ of reconciliation⁹ led me to accept the way things had happened at the end of my marriage and embrace a new way of dealing¹⁰ with my depression. As the month wore on, I felt a slow healing begin to take place. By the time my server prompted me to reset¹¹ my password the following month, I felt free.

这一个简单的行为改变了我看待我前妻的方式。不断的提醒使得我接受了这些在我婚姻结尾所发生的事情的方式，并能以一种新的方式处理我的压抑情感。一个月后，我感觉到我已经慢慢被治愈。到了下个月，我的服务器立即提醒我修改密码的时候，我感觉很轻松。

One month later, my dear Exchange server asked me yet again to reset my password. I thought about the next thing that I had to get done.

一个月以后，我亲爱的交换服务器再一次要求我重设密码，我开始考虑下一件要做的事情。

My password became Quit@smoking4ever.

我的密码又改成了Quit@smoking4ever。

I quit smoking overnight.

很快我戒了烟。

This password was a painful one to type during that month, but doing it helped me to yell at myself in my mind as I typed that statement. It motivated me to follow my monthly goal.

在那个月输入密码对我来说是一件很痛苦的事情，不过每次在输入密码的时候都在帮我在思想中抗争，鼓动我完成我的每月目标。

One month later, my password became Save4trip@thailand.

一个月以后，我的密码变成了Save4trip@thailand。

Guess where I went three months later: Thailand.

猜猜三个月之后我去了哪儿：当然是泰国。

Seeing how these reminders¹² helped to materialize my goals kept me motivated and excited. While it’s sometimes difficult to come up with your next goal, keeping at it brings great results.

看看这些指令员是如何帮助我使我的目标具体化的，它们使我受到激励、变得兴奋。尽管想到你的下一个目标有些时候会比较困难，但是坚持下来就能得到好结果。

Here is a simplified extract of what some of my passwords have been in the past two years, so you get an idea of how my life has changed, thanks to this method:

下面是我摘录的一些在过去两年里我使用过的密码，通过它们，你能大概了解到我的生活是如何改变的。感谢这些方法：

Forgive@h3r To my ex-wife, who left me.

给离开我的前妻：Forgive@h3r

Quit@smoking4ever It worked.

它起作用了：Quit@smoking4ever

Save4trip@thailand It worked.

它起作用了：Save4trip@thailand

Eat2times@day It never worked, still fat.

它从未奏效，我依然很胖：Eat2times@day

Ask@her4date It worked. I fell in love again.

它起作用了，我再一次恋爱了：Ask@her4date

MovE@togeth3r It worked.

它起作用了：MovE@togeth3r

Facetime2mom@sunday It worked. I talk with Mom every week.

它起作用了，我每个礼拜都和妈妈交谈一次：Facetime2mom@sunday

And the one for last month:

最后是上个月的密码：

Save4@ring Yep. Life is gonna change again soon.

生活将很快再次改变：Save4@ring Yep