玉儿

While I do not always end up managing to put each of the following tips into practice, I do make a big effort to do so each day. This is a list of my favorite tips to improving your life. All it takes is a little bit each day and you will see wondrous changes.

虽然我没有尽力把下面的每一条技巧都付诸实践，但我确实每天都作出一点努力了。下面列举的就是我最喜欢的自我提高的十大技巧。每天只要付出一点，你就会看到惊喜的变化。



1.Don't Procrastinate
1.不要耽搁

This is one I struggle with a lot in my own life. This has been a great challenge for me as I work from home, but taking this job has really helped me to stop putting things off and take control of my life. The feeling after completing a task you would normally put off is a great high - and certainly a much healthier one than some of the other highs in our lives. When you put something off, you are putting yourself into time-debt. You have to pay that debt back and almost always you end up having to do that at the most inconvenient time. By putting off writing an article for the site, for example, I end up having to write one at 7 at night when I would rather be watching a movie and having a drink! Your life will become so much more organized if you follow this rule.

在我的生活中，我总在奋斗。对我来说，从家里出来工作是很大的挑战。但是从事这份工作帮助我避免了办事情拖拉的做法，并能掌管自己的生活。做完一件你平时总拖延不做的事，那种感觉很好——肯定比做完其他好事要爽。如果你总是拖延做一些事，你就会欠下时间的债，你不得不去还债，那么你总是在很不适宜的时间里来完成它。以拖延写一篇文章为例，我在晚上7点钟才不得不写起来，而这时正是我想看一场电影或者喝点饮料的时间！如果你按照不拖延这条规则去办事，你的生活会变得更加有序。

[ 本帖最后由 玉儿 于 2007-11-21 02:05 编辑 ]

玉儿

2.Forget Goals - Live for the Now
2.忘记目标——活在当下

Lists of this nature almost always tell you to set and write goals. I am going to tell you the opposite. A very wise psychotherapist once told me that if you set a goal, and achieve it, you are often left with an empty feeling because the goal is not what you thought it would be. Not only does it not satisfy, you inevitably end up missing out on so much life by striving to reach something in the future. Having said this, I don't think you should ignore the future - it is worth having some idea of what you might like to one day achieve - but don't focus all of your energy on getting it. A good example of the difference is this: I have a goal to live in France. I spend 10 years trying to save up all my money so I can acheive that goal. In the meantime I am so busy scrimping and saving, that I can't afford to go out with friends, I can't afford to live in a nice home, and I am miserable because I am not living in France. On the other hand, if I simply decide that one day I would like to live in France, the idea is in my mind, but I continue to live and enjoy my life. In living my life, I am happy now and not focused on a distant goal. If it happens, great. If it doesn't happen, I haven't failed at anything. But who knows what wonderful things may happen in my life in the meantime? A very good fictitious example of this can be found in the film American Beauty.

列举条目的性质总在告戒我们建立和记下目标。我要告诉你相反的方法。一个非常聪明的心理学家曾经告诉我，如果你建立了目标并去完成它，你总有一种空空的感觉，因为目标不是你所想的就能实现。它不但不能使你满意，而且你不可避免地在为之奋斗的过程中使未来要失去一些东西。说到这，我不是让你忽视未来——未来值得你有这种想法：某一天取得成果——但是不要把所有的精力都投入在上面。这里有一个不同做法的典型的例子：我有一个在法国定居的想法，我花10年的时间积攒所有的钱为实现自己的目标做准备。同时由于我过度节俭、吝啬，以至我不能花钱与我的朋友一起外出消费，我住不起豪华漂亮的房子，我也很不幸，因为我最终没有在法国定居。相反，如果我当时只是简单决定某一天我要在法国定居，只是有这个想法而已，继续按照原来的方式生活。在生活当中，我很快乐，无须为远期目标而烦恼，如果目标实现了，那当然棒了，如果没有实现，那也没什么，我没有损失什么。但谁又知道同时我的生活中有什么精彩的事情发生呢？在影片《美国美人》中可以看到很好的虚拟的例子。

[ 本帖最后由 玉儿 于 2007-11-21 02:00 编辑 ]

玉儿

3.Face the Fear
3.面对畏惧

Every day you should do something you don't want to do - or feel uncomfortable doing. This varies in degrees for everyone, but we all have little things we can start out with. For example, you may not go to the gym because you fear everyone looking at you - do it anyway! In no time you will be so much more confident that you abolish the fear entirely and can move on to the next fear - maybe even something bigger. Living a fearless life gives you a confidence that is visible to others. Instead of building walls around ourselves, we should be tearing them down.
每天做一些你不想做的事或你感觉不自在的事。这因人而异，但每天总有一些我们能开始做的事情。例如，你可能不愿去体操馆——害怕每个人都观看你--但也要去。很快你就会自信而且完全消除畏惧心理。接下来把注意力转移到一些更让我们害怕的大事上来。无所畏惧的生活会给我们带来自信，别人是可以看得到的。不要在我们周围垒墙，我们要把它拆除。


[ 本帖最后由 玉儿 于 2007-11-21 02:00 编辑 ]

玉儿

4.Break the Chain
4.打断链条

If you have a lot of patterns in your life, try breaking them - do something different every day. Let's say you always order the same meal at your regular Friday night restaurant. Why not try something else this Friday? Not only do you get to broaden your experiences of life, you open up many doors for the future. Not long ago I would never eat oriental foods or seafood. Then one day I decided that I would just try it. Seafood is now one of my favorite foods and I would hate to be without it. Because I discovered that I love Thai and Chinese food, I can eat in any restaurant I want. That first step also meant that I am now willing to try absolutely any food (except maybe the ones on the Top 10 most Disgusting Foods list). My disliking for those foods had a much greater impact as well - I would only holiday in countries that had foods I felt safe with. Since then I have been to Oriental countries and loved it.

如果在你的生活中有许多模式，试着打破它们，每天有所改变。例如你总是在星期五晚上在餐馆里订同样的饭，为什么不试着在今天星期五晚上换换口味呢？这不但能拓展你的人生阅历，而且能为你的未来生活打开许多扇门。不久以前我打算再也不吃东方菜和海鲜，而过后某一天我决定尝一尝。海鲜现在是我最爱吃的食物了，我几乎不能没有它。因为我发现自己爱吃泰国和中国食品，所以我可以去任何一家我想去的餐馆。迈出了第一步，意味着我现在愿意品尝任何食物。（除了名单上列举的10大恶心的食物。）这同样对我不喜欢的食物也有很大影响——以前我总是去那些认为食物较安全的国家度假。自此，我去了许多东方国家，也爱上了这些国家。

玉儿

5.Learn a New Language
5.学一门新的语言

Learning another language is one of the best ways to improve your grasp on English. In my own experience, learning French at high school taught me so much more about grammar than English class ever did. In addition, when I later started studying Ancient Greek, I learnt a lot about the roots of English words - something I have found very useful in writing in the years since. As well as improving your knowledge of English, if you learn a living language you increase the number of places you might like to visit - or make those holidays much more enjoyable by being able to speak to the natives in their own tongue.

学一门其他的语言是提高你掌握英语的一个最好的方法。根据我自己的经历，我在高中学法语当中学到的语法知识比在英语课上学到的多的多。另外，当我后来开始学习古希腊语，我学了许多关于英语单词的词根知识，我发现它对我以后的写作很有帮助。同时也能拓展你的英语知识，如果你掌握了一门活语言就会增加访问你想参观地方的次数或者与当地人用当地语言谈话，你会觉得你的假期更有趣。

玉儿

6.Accept the things you can't Change
6.接受你无法更改的事实

When something bad happens in our lives, we try to fix them or change them. But sometimes we can't. Often this leads us to spend hours moping and falling in to depression. If you can make yourself accept the things you cannot change - you will become a much happier person. Acceptance of these situations also allows us to start finding a way to cope much faster. For example, you may realize that you have only $10 left in your bank account that has to last the next 2 weeks. Instead of getting down about it, accept that you have no money and work out a way to survive on that amount. You can save yourself from wasting hours in a bad mood by just getting on with life. You will find much more serenity in life following this tip.

当我们的生活中遇到不侧时，我们总是设法控制或改变它。但有时我们无法做到。这会导致我们很长时间闷闷不乐或情绪沮伤。如果你能接受你无法改变的事实，你就会成为比较快乐的人。接受这些状况需要我们从开始找到一个能够较快应付困境的方法。例如当你意识到你的银行帐户上只剩下10美元时，而必须用这10美元维持两周。你也不要垂头伤气，接受这个现实，想出靠这点钱生存的办法。这可以免于你在坏心情中浪费时间，而是想法去应对生活困难。学会这一条技巧你会更加开朗豁达。

玉儿

7.Be Generous
7.慷慨大度点

Generosity has a tendency to come back. By generosity I am not referring only to money. You can be generous with your smiles, your advice, and many other things. Always try to find a way to help others. One day you may be in great need and people you know will be more likely to come to your aid when they know that you would do the same for them. You might know someone that could use help around the home from time to time - not only are you doing a good thing by helping them out, but you may also make a great new friend.

大度才可能得到回报。慷慨我并不单指在钱财方面。你可以多奉献一些笑容，多提供一些建议，总之，也可在许多其他事情上表现慷慨一些。要总是想法设法去帮助别人。某一天你也许特别需要他人帮助，那些认识你的认为你可能同样帮助他们的人更有可能给予你帮助。你可能认识一些人，他们总是在你家附近提供帮助。—— 所以说你帮助他们不仅仅是做了一件好事，而且可以结交一些品行高尚的新朋友。

玉儿

8.Take a Break and have Fun
8.休息一会儿，放松一下

If you spend too much time in front of the computer, at your desk, or doing whatever it is that your occupation requires, you should take a break. This doesn't mean you have to take time off work - it just means you should try to make better use of your non-work time to do something fun. I always have difficulty pulling myself away from the computer and as a result I don't go out as often as I should on the weekend or in the evening. But every time I do - I wonder why I haven't done it sooner. This is a good way to develop new interests, and friends and to break up the monotony of everyday life.

如果你在电脑前，在办公桌前工作了很长时间，或者干了其他职责要求的工作很长时间，那么你应当中断工作休息一会儿。这不代表着你不去做你的工作，恰恰意味着你要充分利用非工作时间去放松一下。我很难把自己从电脑前拽离，这样往往不能在周末或傍晚外出。但每次我外出时，就想为什么不早点这样做呢。休息一下，对发展新的兴趣，结交朋友和打破每天的单调生活很有好处，这是个不错的方法。

玉儿

9.Keep a Schedule
9.做一个日程表

It is a very good idea to write down the tasks you need to achieve in each day. As you complete them, tick them off. You should not, however, feel like you are bound to your list. If you don't manage to do everything, it doesn't matter - move any incomplete tasks from today on to tomorrow's list. This is also a great help if you are a procrastinator.

每天写下你要完成的任务，这是一个非常好的方法.当你完成了这些任务，就可以把它们踢开。你也不必一定按照你的明细表去做。如果这一天你还有没有完成的任务，那也不要紧，把他们挪到第二天的任务中去。如果你是一个拖拉的人，这样会对你很有帮助。

玉儿

10.Get off to a Good Start
10.有一个好的开头

This means getting up early and eating breakfast. You will have much more energy throughout the day to follow the rest of these tips if you do! If you are so inclined, you can even include a little exercise in your morning routine. If you live with other people you can try to use this opportunity to get everyone together at the table to eat in the mornings. This is a nice way to start the day and a good way to ensure open lines of communication in a very busy household.
这意味着起床和早餐要早。只有这样你才能有充沛的精力去遵照其他条例做事。如果你起得很早，你甚至可以例行再做一点晨练。假如你和其他人生活在一起，你要尽力利用这个机会让每个人都聚在一起吃早餐。在一个忙忙碌碌的家庭中这是一天中好的开头同时也能保证大家从开始就能互相交流。