重遇未知的自己（雙語魅力美文系列）

2024年4月21日 星期日 祝福早安 天氣晴朗 氣溫15℃ 《重遇未知的自己》 “信仰就像陽光一樣，你可以站在一邊觀察研究陽光的顏色，特質等等。但你只有進入陽光，站在陽光下，才能感受陽光的溫暖，才能體會到陽光的意義。” 獨處 Solitude I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone; let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowed hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he is employed; but when he comes home at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can“see the folks,”and recreate, and as he thinks, remunerate himself for his day’s solitude; and hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without ennui and“the blues”; but he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his, and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it. 我發現人若大部分時間用於獨處，將有益身心。與人爲伴，即使是摯友，也很快會有厭煩或虛度光陰的感覺。我愛獨處，我發現沒有比獨處更好的伴侶了。出國，身在熙攘人羣中，要比退守陋室更讓人寂寞。心有所想、身有所繫的人總是孤身一人，不論他身處何地。獨處與否也不是由人與人之間的距離來決定的。在劍橋苦讀的學子雖身處蜂巢般擁擠的教室，實際上卻和沙漠中的苦行僧一樣，是在獨處。農人終日耕于田間，伐于山野，此時他雖孤單但並不寂寞，因他專心於工作。但待到他日暮而息，卻未必能忍受形影相弔、空有思緒做伴的時光，他必到“可以看見大夥兒”的去處去找樂子，如他所認爲的那樣以補償白日裏的孤獨。因此他無法理解學子如何能竟夜終日獨坐而不心生厭倦或倍感淒涼，然而他沒意識到，學子雖身在學堂，但心繫勞作，他是耕於心田，伐於學林，這正和農人一樣，學子在尋求的無非是和他一樣的快樂與陪伴，只是形式更簡潔罷了。 每個人都是天生的贏家 Born to Win Each human being is born as something new, something that never existed before. Each is born with the capacity to win at life. Each person has a unique way of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and thinking. Each has his or her own unique potentials—capabilities and limitations. Each can be a significant, thinking, aware, and creative being—a productive person, a winner. Winners do not dedicate their lives to a concept of what they imagine they should be; rather, they are themselves and as such do not use their energy putting on a performance, maintaining pretence, and manipulating others, they are aware that there is a difference between being loving and acting loving, between being stupid and acting stupid, between being knowledgeable and acting knowledgeable. Winners do not need to hide behind a mask. 每個人生來就是新的事物，就是前所未有的事物。每個人天生就具備在生活中獲取成功的能力。每個人都有自己觀察、聽聞、觸摸、品嚐和思考的獨特方法。每個人的潛力也各不相同———各有所長也各有侷限。每個人都有可能成爲一個傑出的、好思考的、頭腦清醒而富有想象力的人———成爲一個有創造性的人，一個贏家。 贏家不會沉溺於概念之中，想象他們“理當”成爲何種人；相反，他們按天性行事，因此，他們不會費神地裝模作樣，故作姿態，玩弄他人。他們很清楚愛與裝愛、傻與裝傻、真才實學與故作高深之間的區別。贏家無需用面具掩飾自己。 Winners are not afraid to do their own thinking and to use their own knowledge. They can separate facts from opinion and don’t pretend to have all the answers. They listen to others; evaluate what they say, but come to their own conclusions. Although winners can admire and respect other people, they are not totally defined, demolished, bound, or awed by them. Winners do not play“helpless”, nor do they play the blaming game. Instead, they assume responsibility for their own lives. They do not give others a false authority over them. Winners are their own bosses and know it. A winner’s timing is right. Winners respond appropriately to the situation. Their responses are related to the message sent and preserve the significance, worth, well-being, and dignity of the people involved. Winners know that for everything there is a reason and for every activity a time. Although winners can freely enjoy themselves, they can also postpone enjoyment; can discipline themselves in the present to enhance their enjoyment in the future. Winners are not afraid to go after what they want, but they do so in appropriate ways. Winners do not get their security by controlling others. They do not set themselves up to lose. 贏家不懼怕獨立思考和運用自身的知識。他們既懂得區分事實與觀點，又不會裝作通曉一切。他們傾聽他人意見，品評他人言論，但要得出自己的結論。贏家懂得尊重和敬佩他人，但卻不會完全爲他人所限制、摧垮、束縛或嚇倒。 贏家不會裝作可憐，博取同情；也不會怨天尤人，開脫自己。相反，他們承擔生活中自己應盡的責任。他們不會給別人名不副實的權威，讓別人凌駕於他們之上。贏家主宰着自己的命運，對此他們一清二楚。 贏家善於審時度勢，對形勢做出恰當的反應，根據所得信息，維護有關人員的地位、價值、利益和尊嚴。贏家明白，每一樣事都事出有因，每一個行動都要恰逢時機。 儘管贏家可以自由地享受生活，但也能夠推遲享樂。他們可以在現階段約束自己，爲了將來享受更大的快樂。贏家不懼怕追求心中所想，也不會行爲出格。贏家不會通過控制他人來獲取自身的安全。他們不會讓自己踏上失敗之路。 值得思考的事情 Something Worth Thinking About How many times have you heard the expression that most people spend more time planning their vacation than they do planning their lives? I would expand that expression by adding that most people spend more time“thinking”about their vacation than they do thinking about what’s important in their life. While rest and relaxation are a must in living a balanced life, it’s not what we were created to do. After all, the Master Creator took his R&R(Rest and Recreation) on the seventh day, only after six days of“definitely directed thought.”Wallace D. Wattles wrote“There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought; it is the hardest work in the world.”And yet it is the first and primary labor of achievement. My friend Mike Litman wrote an outstanding article. It’s called“The Millionaire Composite”and it analyzes one of the big differences between super-successful people and everyone else. He writes“I recently visited with a Real Estate Multi Millionaire Mogul. What did I see next to his desk? His vision statement, along with a list of what he values in life—hand written. “A few months back, I interviewed an individual who has sold over a billion dollars worth of products on television. He told me that he reads his life and business vision and goals daily, and that he TAKES TIME to visualize exactly what he wants to create-EACH NIGHT before falling asleep.” 我們多少次聽到過這樣的論點：大多數人在規劃假期上花的時間比他們在規劃自己生活上花的時間要多。我爲這一觀點做了一點延伸：大多數的人在“考慮”假期上花的時間比他們在考慮人生中重要的事情上花的時間要多。 雖然休息和放鬆是平衡生活方式必需的元素，但是我們並不是爲了它們而活着。畢竟，偉大的造物主在前6天用“明確的方向性思考”後，第7天才休息和放鬆。華萊士D.華佗士寫道：“沒有任何一種體力勞動能夠使大多數人望而卻步，但連續不斷地持久思考卻能做到這一點；它是這世界上最困難的工作。”同時，它也是取得成功首先要做的重要的勞動。 我的朋友邁克裏曼寫了一篇傑出的文章，名字叫做《百萬富翁的構造》，其中分析了超級成功者與其他人的一個重要區別，他寫道“我最近拜訪了一位房地產界的傑出富翁,你們猜我看見他桌旁放了些什麼？寫的是他對自己夢想的描述和一張列有生活中值得珍惜之物的清單———都是手寫的。 “幾個月前，我採訪了另一位獲得巨大成功的商人，他通過電視節目賣出的產品總價值超過10億美元。他告訴我：每天他都思考生活和事業中自己的夢想與目標，他花時間將他想要實現的理想在腦海中形象化———每晚睡覺前都這樣做。” What is your life’s purpose or your personal mission statement? Is it written down? Do you review it and think about it often? Is your life organized around your purpose and a set of goals that support that purpose? Without purpose and goals—definitely directed thought—you are like the proverbial“ship without a rudder.”There is power in your purpose and in your goals. It is the power that takes you over obstacles, the fuel that propels you toward the life you envision. One of my favorite passages of James Allen is one he wrote in“The Mastery of Destiny”: “All successful people are people of purpose. They hold fast to an idea, a project, a plan, and will not let it go; they cherish it, brood upon it, tend and develop it; and when assailed by difficulties, they refuse to be beguiled into surrender; indeed, the intensity of the purpose increases with the growing magnitude of the obstacles encountered.” And that’s worth thinking about. 你的人生目標和個人使命是什麼？你把它們都寫下來了嗎？你經常回顧並思考它們嗎？你的生活是圍繞着理想和一系列相關的目標而安排的嗎？ 如果沒有理想和目標———明確的方向性思考———你就像是俗語說的“一條沒有舵的船”那樣。理想和目標中蘊含着力量。它是使你越過障礙的力量，它是推動你向美好生活前進的燃料。 在詹姆士·艾倫的文章中，有一段我很喜歡，它摘自《命運的主人》： “所有成功人士都有清晰的理想和目標。他們緊緊把握一個點子，一項工程，或一個計劃，絕不讓它溜走；珍視它，讓它慢慢發芽，呵護它，讓它成長；當困難襲來時，他們絕不投降；甚至，追求理想的熱情隨着遭遇阻礙的強度而愈發增長。” 這是值得我們思索的。 我們的抱負構築了我們的命運 It Is Ambition That Form Our Own Destiny Here is a strong view that holds that success is a myth, and ambition therefore a sham. Does this mean that success does not really exist? That achievement is at bottom empty? That the efforts of men and women are of no significance alongside the force of movements and events? Now not all success, obviously, is worth esteeming, nor all ambition worth cultivating. Which are and which are not is something one soon enough learns on one’s own. But even the most cynical secretly admit that success exists; that achievement counts for a great deal; and that the true myth is that the actions of men and women are useless. To believe otherwise is to take on a point of view that is likely to be deranging. It is, in its implications, to remove all motives for competence, interest in attainment, and regard for posterity. We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or in drift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what ambition is about. 有一種盛行的觀點認爲，成功是一種神話，因此抱負亦屬虛幻。這是不是說實際上並不存在成功？成就本身就是一場空？在諸多運動和事件的力量相形之下，男男女女的努力顯得微不足道？顯然，並非所有的成功都值得景仰，也並非所有的抱負都值得栽培。對值得和不值得的選擇，一個人自然而然很快就能學會。 但即使是最爲憤世嫉俗的人暗地裏也承認，成功確實存在，成就的意義舉足輕重，而把世上男男女女的所作所爲說成是徒勞無功纔是真正的無稽之談。不相信成功的存在，就等於接納了一種很可能造成混亂的觀點。這種觀點的本意是一筆勾銷所有提高能力的動機、求取業績的興趣和對子孫後代的關注。 我們無法選擇出生，無法選擇父母，無法選擇出生的歷史時期與國家，或是成長的周遭環境。我們大多數人都無法選擇死亡，無法選擇死亡的時間或條件。 但是在這些無法選擇之中，我們可以選擇自己的生活方式：是勇敢無畏還是膽小怯懦，是光明磊落還是厚顏無恥，是目標堅定還是隨波逐流。我們可以決定生活中哪些是至關重要的，哪些是微不足道的。決定生活意義的是我們的所做和所不做。但是不論世間對我們所做的選擇和決定有多麼漠不關心，這些選擇和決定終究是我們自己做出的。 我們決定，我們選擇。而當我們做出決定和選擇時，我們的生活便得以形成。最終構築我們命運的就是抱負之所在。