下载掌阅APP，畅读海量书库
立即打开
|
美丽英文：成功是一种选择
冯铃之 |
|
本书由紫云文心授权掌阅科技电子版制作与发行
版权所有 · 侵权必究 |
序
PREFACE
Success
By Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is success?
To laugh often and love much,
To win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children;
To earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends,
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others,
To give oneself;
To leave the world a little better,
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation,
To know even one life has breathed easier;
Because you have lived?
This is to have succeeded.
什么是成功？
笑口常开，爱心长存，
赢得智者的尊重和孩子们的爱戴；
赢得真诚的认可，容忍损友的背叛；
欣赏一切美好，
发现别人的可爱，
无私地奉献；
给世界增添光彩。
要么培育出健康的孩子，要么留下花园一块，或是改善社会条件；
尽情娱乐、笑得畅快，把欢乐的歌唱起来；
甚至知道一个生命活得自在，
因为你的一路走来--
这就是成功的内涵。
有梦想，才有力量
Goals determine what you are going to be.
--Julius Erving
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
--Oscar Wilde
目标决定你将成为什么样的人。
--尤里乌斯·欧文
梦想家能发现用月光铺就的道路，惩罚是他比所有人提前看到曙光。
--奥斯卡·王尔德
Success in Life
成功
Success means different things for different people. Some may equate it with fame, some with wealth and still some with accomplishments. For me, it means fulfilling one’s dreams. Whatever your dreams are, you have a goal there and then focus all your attention on it. Dreams bring you hope and happiness. In the process of struggling for it, you cry, sweat, complain or even curse, but the joy of harvesting makes you forget all the pains and troubles you have gone through. So an old proverb says that the sweetest fruit is one that has undergone the bitterest ordeal.
There are several keys to success. First, your goal must be practical and practicable. If you set your goal too high, chances are that you will never attain it. Next, you have to make a plan of doing it. You can take some steps to realize it. Since the process is quite tough, you need to be diligent, patient and persevering. Even if you meet with some difficulties or frustrations, just take them in your stride. You can always tell yourself that there is nothing insurmountable. With this will and determination, success is sure to wait for you at the end of the tunnel!
Opportunity
善待机会
The air we breathe is so freely available that we take it for granted. Yet without it we could not survive more than a few minutes. For the most part, the same air is available to everyone, and everyone needs it. Some people use the air to sustain them while they sit around and feel sorry for themselves. Others breathe in the air and use the energy it provides to make a magnificent life for them.
Opportunity is the same way. It is everywhere. Opportunity is so freely available that we take it for granted. Yet opportunity alone is not enough to create success. Opportunity must be seized and acted upon in order to have value. So many people are so anxious to “get in” on a “ground floor opportunity”, as if the opportunity will do all the work. That’s impossible.
Just as you need air to breathe, you need opportunity to succeed. It takes more than just breathing in the fresh air of opportunity, however. You must make use of that opportunity. That’s not up to the opportunity. That’s up to you. It doesn’t matter what “floor” the opportunity is on. What matters is what you do with it.
We Are the Architect of Our Life
我的命运自己掌握
Consider...YOU！In all time before now and in all time to come, there has never been and will never be any one just like you. You are unique in the entire history and future of the universe. Wow! Stop and think about that. You’re better than one in a million, or a billion, or a gazillion...
You are the only one like you in a sea of infinity!
You’re amazing! You’re awesome! And by the way, TAG, you’re it. As amazing and awesome as you already are, you can be even more so. Beautiful young people are the whimsy of nature, but beautiful old people are true works of art. But you don’t become “beautiful” just by virtue of the aging process.
Real beauty comes from learning, growing, and loving in the ways of life. That is the Art of Life. You can learn slowly, and sometimes painfully, by just waiting for life to happen to you. Or you can choose to accelerate your growth and intentionally devour life and all it offers. You are the artist that paints your future with the brush of today.
Paint a Masterpiece.
God gives every bird its food, but he doesn’t throw it into its nest. Wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do, it’s truly up to you.
Life Is a Do-It-Yourself Project
生命如同为自己打造的工程
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.
The employer was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the employer came to inspect the house and handed the front-door key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he said, “my gift to you.”
What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.
So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized, we would have done it differently.
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live in it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, “Life is a do-it-yourself project.” Who could say it more clearly? Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.
If the Dream Is Big Enough, the Facts Don Count
心中有目标，风雨不折腰
I used to watch her from my kitchen window, she seemed so small as she muscled her way through the crowd of boys on the playground. The school was across the street from my home and I would often watch the kids as they played during recess. A sea of children, and yet to me, she stood out from them all.
I remembered the first day I saw her playing basketball. I watched in wonder as she ran circles around the other kids. She managed to shoot jump shots just over their heads and into the net. The boys always tried to stop her but no one could.
I began to notice her at other times, basketball in hand, playing alone. She would practice dribbling and shooting over and over again, sometimes until dark. One day I asked her why she practiced so much. She looked directly in my eyes and without a moment of hesitation. She said, “I want to go to college. The only way I can go is if I get a scholarship. I like basketball. I decided that if I were good enough, I would get a scholarship. I am going to play college basketball. I want to be the best. My Daddy told me if the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.” Then she smiled and ran towards the court to recap the routine I had seen over and over again.
Well, I had to give it to her-she was determined. I watched her through those junior high years and into high school. Every week, she led her varsity team to victory.
One day in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, head cradled in her arms. I walked across the street and sat down in the cool grass beside her. Quietly I asked what was wrong. “Oh, nothing,” came to a soft reply. “I’m just too short.” The coach told her that at“5’5” she would probably never get to play for a top ranked team-much less offered a scholarship-so she should stop dreaming about college.
She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment. I asked her if she had talked to her dad about it yet. She lifted her head from her hands and told me that her father said those coaches were wrong. They just didn’t understand the power of a dream. He told her that if she really wanted to play for a good college, if she truly wanted a scholarship, that nothing could stop her except one thing-her own attitude. He told her again, “if the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.”