VOA慢速英语2021 如何改掉坏习惯（在线收听）

How to Break Bad Habits

Imagine you are studying English. Perhaps you are learning new words or expressions. But then you feel the need to check your phone. Perhaps you look on social media.

想象你在学英语，也许你正在学习新单词或短语。但是你觉得有必要查看一下手机，或许你会看看社交媒体。

You return to your studies, only to look again at your phone a short time later. This process, when repeated many times, could reduce your ability to learn new material. It is what you might call a bad habit – a custom or repeated action that has a negative effect on you or your goals.

你回来学习，只是很快又去看手机了。这个过程重复多次，可能会降低你学习新材料的能力。这就是你可能称之为坏习惯的东西——对你或你的目标有负面影响的习惯或重复性行为。

Today, on Education Tips, we will explore how you can break bad habits, such as repeatedly checking your phone.

今天，在教育小贴士中，我们将探讨如何改掉坏习惯，比如反复查看手机。

In an earlier Education Tips story, we explored habits. Habits are ways of dealing with issues in your environment. You often do not think about them.

在以前的教育小贴士中，我们探讨过习惯。习惯是应对所处环境中各种问题的方法，你常常不会去想它们。

In the earlier report, we discussed how habits are made. Now, a quick reminder for you. James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits, describes a four-step process by which habits are made. These steps are cue, craving, response, and reward.

之前的节目中，我们也讨论过怎么养成习惯。现在，给你提个醒。詹姆斯·克利尔在《原子习惯》一书中描述了养成习惯的四个步骤。这些步骤是提示、渴求、回应和奖励。

A cue is a signal. It tells your brain to do something: to begin a behavior. A craving is a desire for something. The response, or reaction, is the habit that you perform. The response gives you a reward.

提示是一种信号，它告诉大脑做一些事情：开始一种行为。渴求是对某事的渴望。回应或者说反应，是你的习惯。回应会带来奖励。

"Rewards are the end goal of every habit," Clear writes.

“奖励是每个习惯的最终目标，”克利尔写道。

In our cell phone example, the cue is seeing the cell phone. The craving is the desire or urge to check your phone. The response is checking your phone. The reward might be seeing something interesting on social media, for example.

在查看手机的例子中，提示是看手机，渴求是渴望去查看手机，回应是查看手机，奖励可能是在社交媒体上看一些有趣的东西。

James Clear notes that to break bad habits, you need to think about each step in the habit-making process.

詹姆斯·克利尔指出，要改掉坏习惯，需要考虑习惯形成过程中的每一步。

To break a habit, he writes, you should think about making the bad habit invisible, unattractive, difficult and unsatisfying.

他写道，要改掉一个习惯，你应该考虑让这个坏习惯变得隐形、没有吸引力、困难和不令人满意。

To make your phone invisible, you could hide it away. To make it unattractive, you could think about why it is a good idea to stop checking the phone. To make phone use difficult, you can increase the space between you and your phone. To make your phone unsatisfying, you could make a habit contract. For example, you could ask a family member to watch your behavior and point out when you check your phone. You could promise to pay that person every time you look at the device while you are studying.

为了让手机隐形，你可以把它藏起来。为了让它不吸引人，你可以想想为什么停止查看手机是个好主意。要使用手机变得困难，你可以增加你和手机之间的距离。为了让手机不令人满意，你可以定一个习惯合同。例如，你可以让家人注意你的行为，并在你查看手机时指出。你可以承诺在学习时每次看手机，都要给他钱。

Wendy Wood is a psychologist and an expert on habits. In the book Good Habits, Bad Habits, she offers some ideas on how people can cut back on their cell phone use.

温迪·伍德是一位心理学家，也是习惯方面的专家。在《好习惯，坏习惯》一书中，她就人们如何减少使用手机提出了一些想法。

One suggestion is to wear a wristwatch. This will limit at least one reason for looking at the phone – checking the time.

一个建议是戴手表。这至少会限制看手机的一个原因——查看时间。

Wood notes the importance of increasing the number of steps you need to take in order to use your cell phone.

伍德注意到增加你使用手机所需步骤的重要性。

"Silence it. Turn it off. Switch on your phone’s Do Not Disturb mode," she writes. She adds that you can move your phone to a place that is more difficult to reach. For example, you can put your phone inside a backpack.

她写道，“把它静音，关机。打开手机的“免扰”模式。她还补充说，你可以把手机放到一个更难拿到的地方。例如，你可以把手机放在背包里。

Wood also suggests another way to think about cell phone use. She says you can add a new, healthy habit onto your cell phone habit. "What about if every time you check your phone, you call one member of your family just to say hello and have a quick … chat?" she asks.

伍德还提出了另一种思考手机使用的方法。她说你可以在用手机习惯上增加一个健康的新习惯。“是不是可以每次查看手机时，你打电话给一个家人打个招呼，然后聊几句？”她问道。

Finally, Wood suggests one kind of reward you could give yourself for not looking at your phone: reading a good book.

最后，伍德建议可以给自己一不看手机的奖励：读一本好书。

Today, we discussed ideas for reducing your cell phone use. But you can use these ideas to break other behaviors.

今天，我们讨论了减少手机使用的方法。但你可以用这些想法来停止其他行为。

The important thing to remember is that people can change their habits. But they must think carefully about their surroundings or environment. You might decide to stop doing an action, but if such an action is very easy for you to do, you will probably continue doing it.

重要的是要记住人们可以改变他们的习惯，但必须仔细考虑周围的环境。你可能决定停止做某事，但如果做这件事对你来说很容易，你可能还会继续做下去。

Habit changes take time. But with patience, planning, and repetition, you can do it.

改变习惯需要时间，但只要有耐心、有计划，反复实践，你就能做到。