书城外语人生要耐得住寂寞
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第25章 Has Unbearable Chill In High Places(5)

However you choose to learn gratitude is irrelevant.What really matters is that you create a space in your consciousness for appreciation of all that you have right now,so that you may live more joyously in your present moment.

大多数人想要改造这个世界,但却罕有人想改造自己。

参考翻译(王伟明)

很多人都认为,只有实现了他们既定的目标,他们才会幸福快乐。目标因人而异:有的人想攒到100万美元;有的人想把令人厌烦的十几磅肉减掉;还有些人想觅到心仪的伴侣,获得一份较好的工作,开一部更漂亮的车,或拥有一份理想的职业。不管你的目标是什么,你肯定会认为,一旦你达到了这个目标,你就能得到你梦寐以求的平静,你最终会变得完全的满足,开心和满意。

可事实往往并非如此。多数时候,当你到达彼岸时,仍不会满足,而且又会有新的憧憬。你总是劳心费神地去追求一个又一个目标,却对当前拥有的一切从不用心去欣赏和珍惜。每个人都有不满足现状的欲望,重要的是——头脑要时刻保持清醒。一方面,你的梦想和渴望使你的生活更丰富多彩。另一方面,这些欲望又驱使你越来越远离现有生活中的欢愉。

人们从远古时代开始便苦苦探究这一问题——我们如何能活在现实中。林林总总的幻想和憧憬始终在诱惑着我们——荣耀、美貌和声誉。因而,这也是现代社会所面临的一个严峻挑战。如果你学会感恩,你就可以真切地生活在现实中。

感恩是指对所拥有的一切和所处的人生境遇怀有感激之情,并懂得珍惜。你的内心会因存有感恩而满溢愉悦,感恩的心会让你懂得去欣赏人生的际遇。如果你努力地将目光定格在现实当中,你就能体会到它的美妙之处。培养感恩之心的方法很多,建议你试试以下几种:

试想你丧失了目前正拥有的一切,你的生活将会如何?肯定会令你追悔不已——你是那么喜爱和珍惜这一切。

每天,将你感激的事物罗列出来,这样你就会意识到自己有多么幸运。天天都这么做,尤其是在你觉得没什么可感激之时。或者,你也可以在睡前花几分钟对所拥有的一切表示感激。

花点儿时间向那些不如你幸运的人伸出援助之手,这样你可以对生活有更深刻的认识。

然而,你采取哪种方法学会感恩并不重要,努力去欣赏和珍惜正拥有的一切才是最为重要的,这样你就可以更幸福地享受当前的生活。

Love Is Difficult 爱是艰难的

Rainer Maria Rilke 勒内·马利亚·里尔克

It is also good to love,because love is difficult.For one human being to love another human being,that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us,the ultimate task,the final test and proof,the work for which all other work is merely preparation.That is why young people,who are beginners in everything,are not yet capable of love:it is something they must learn.With their whole being,with all their forces,gathered around their solitary,anxious,upward-beating heart,they must learn to love.But learning-time is always a long,secluded time ahead and far on into life,is solitude,a heightened and deepened kind of aloneness for the person who loves.Loving does not at first mean merging,surrendering,and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified,unfinished,and still incoherent),it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen,to become something in himself,to become world,to become world in himself for the sake ofanother person;it is a great,demanding claim on him,something that chooses him and calls him to vast distances.Only in this sense,as the task of working on themselves (“to hearken and to hammer day and night”),may young people use the love that is given to them.Merging and surrendering and every kind of communion is not for them (who must still,for a long,long time,save and gather themselves);it is the ultimate,is perhaps that for which human lives are as yet barely large enough.

一段不被接受的爱情,需要的不是伤心,而是时间——一段可以用来遗忘的时间;一颗被深深伤了的心,需要的不是怜悯,而是明白。

参考翻译(高昆)

爱是一件美好的事情,但爱是艰难的。一个人去爱另一个人,这也许是神给予我们的最艰难、最重大的任务,是最后的检测与验证,别的工作都不过是为此而作的准备。所以,那些一切都还刚刚开始的青年们还不能去爱,他们必须要学习如何去爱;必须用他们整个生命,用一切力量,用积聚了他们寂寞、痛苦和荣誉感的心去学习爱。在学习这个长久而专注的过程中,爱就会永远地铭刻心间——在深深的寂寞中孤独地等待,为了所爱的人。爱的定义并不是什么倾心、献身或二人的结合(对于两个涉世未深,协事无条理性的人来说,那会是怎样的结合呢?)。它对于个人是一种崇高的力量,是去成熟并实现自身的完善,去成就一个世界,为了另一个人而成就一个自己的世界。这是一个艰巨的、不可妥协的目标,这一目标选择了他并召唤其走向更广阔的空间。在这种认识下,青年人可以把给予他们的爱作用于自身。(“昼夜不停地探索、锤炼”)至于倾心、献身,以及结合,还不是他们所能做的(他们还须长时间地克制和积累),那是最后的终点,也许是我们现在还几乎不能达到的境界。

What Successful People Have In Common 成功人士的共性Anonymous 佚名

Is there a“success personality”—some winning combination of traits that leads almost inevitably to achievement?If so,exactly what is that secret success formula,and can anyone cultivate it?

At the Gallup Organization we recently focused in depth on success,probing the attitudes and traits of 1500prominent people selected at random from Who’s Who in America.The main criterion for inclusion in Who’s Who is not wealth or social position,but current achievement in a given field.Our research pinpoints a number of traits that recur regularly among top achievers.Here are five of the most important:

Common sense.This is the most prevalent quality possessed by our respondents.Seventy-nine percent award themselves a top score in this category.And 61percent say that common sense was very important in contributing to their success.

To most,common sense means the ability to render sound,practicaljudgments on everyday affairs.To do this,one has to sweep aside extraneous ideas and get right to the core of what matters.A Texas oil and gas magnate puts it this way:“The key ability for success is simplifying.In conducting meetings and dealing with industry regulators,reducing a complex problem to the simplest terms is highly important.”

Is common sense a trait a person is born with,or can you do something to increase it?The oil man’s answer is that common sense can definitely be developed.He attributes his to learning how to debate in school.Another way to increase your store of common sense is to observe it in others,learning from their and your own-mistakes.

Knowing one’s field.After common sense,specialized knowledge in one’s field is the second most common trait possessed by the respondents,with three-fourths giving themselves an A in this category.

Geologist Philip Oxley,former president of Tenneco Oil Exploration and Production Co.and now chairman of Tenneco Europe,attributes his success to having worked in the oil fields,by“sitting on wells and bird-dogging seismic crews,”he learned the tricks of the trade firsthand.“People,who are going to be good managers need to have a practical understanding of the crafts in their business,”he says.Today his expertise earns him a six-figure salary.

On-the-job experience convinced people the importance of specialized knowledge.He says that“understanding why my equipment performs the way it does”is part of his success formula.A noteworthy point:he obtained his specialized knowledge through self-education and not through formal schooling.