关于孙悟空的故事简介:少付出多回报的秘诀

少付出多回报的秘诀

Written by Eric Hamm on September 26, 2009 

艾瑞克·哈姆写于2009年9月26日

I was walking the dogs this evening, thinking about my wife, Liz, and my son, Tyson, both of whom are visiting my mother-in-law for the weekend.  As I walked I was picturing Tyson, who is just a hair over 4 months of age, wearing his blue pajamas, hat and slippers.  This was the outfit I saw him in this morning, just before heading to the office.  He looked so cute, baby pimples and all.  He gave me a big smile and made both Liz and I smile with a joy that never seems to lose its luster, no matter how many times he cracks the same silly grin.

晚上，我一边遛狗一边想着我的妻子利兹和儿子泰森——两个人这周末都去探望我的岳母大人了。我一边走着一边在脑海中描绘泰森的形象，泰森才四个月大，穿着蓝色的睡衣，戴着帽子，穿着拖鞋。我早上去上班之前他就是这么穿的。他看上去很可爱，身上有婴儿粉刺啊什么的。他给了我一个大大的微笑，把利兹和我都逗乐了。这种快乐永远不会失去其光辉。只要小泰森冲着我们傻呵呵的露齿而笑，我们便会快乐。

So I’m walking my dogs, picturing my cute little son, my beautiful wife and the tangible happiness that they bring to my life.  I guess you could say that I had found a moment of true appreciation for what I’d been blessed with.  Yet the funny thing is that in those moments (and I’m sure you can relate to this) I had not a single thought of a purchased item.  Not my Macbook Pro or iPhone, not my car or house or my TV or bike or…you get the point.  OK, maybe I thought about my Macbook, but only for a second and then it was back to my wife and son.  

 

我一边遛狗，一边想着我可爱的小儿子和美丽的妻子，以及他们给我的生活所带来的真实的幸福感。我想你会说，此刻我应该为我有幸所拥有的一切而感恩。有趣的是，在那样的时刻（我确信那些时刻都和此刻相似）我从来没有想过任何一件用金钱买来的物品。我没有想过我的苹果笔记本电脑或苹果手机，没有想过我的车子、房子、电视或者自行车……诸如此类。好吧，也许我想到过我的苹果笔记本电脑，但只有一会儿，然后思绪就又回到妻子和儿子身上。

It’s just that in these moments we seem to recognize what truly matters in life.  The rest of the time we find ourselves worrying about money, obsessing over something we want to purchase or trying to convince ourselves and/or those around us that our lives would be much better off if we could just have that one item that’s missing from our ‘collection’.

在这些时刻，我们似乎认识到了生命中真正重要的东西。其余时间我们都在为金钱而困扰，为我们想买的东西而困扰，我们试图说服我们自己和我们身边的人，如果我们拥有了我们的“收藏品”中缺少的那一件，我们的生活就会更好。

Our Return Is Always Equal To Our Investment

 

回报总是与投入相符

When you invest your time, money and/or attention into something you will inevitably receive a return that is equal to that investment (this is not always entirely true, but just work with me here).  So let’s say you spend $50 on a nice dinner out.  You’ll receive an enjoyable, short lived bit of satisfaction and then you’ll forget all about it.  Now let’s say you spend $500 on a new grill.  This item has the capacity to provide you with many occasions of enjoyment and satisfying cuisine.  It cost you more money and took you more time to save up for, but you knew this was an investment into your grilling enjoyment.

当你对某事物投入了时间、金钱或关注的时候，你必然会得到与你的投入相符的回报（这一点并不总是完全正确，但比较符合我的情况）。比如说，你花50美元在外面吃了一顿晚餐，你会享受短暂的满足感，然后就将之全然忘记。再比如说，你花500美元买了一个新烤架。这件物品会让你得到很多的愉悦感和令人满足的美味佳肴。这次你花得更多，需要更长时间来储蓄，但你知道这是对之后得到的那份热烈的快感的投入。

OK, so forget about the horrible analogy above and think about this.  What has the greatest value in your life?  Got it?  OK, now what area of your life takes the most work to maintain?  I don’t know about you, but my family means the world to me and yet my marriage, for example, has required more effort to maintain than most anything else.

好了，忘记上面糟糕的类比吧，想想这些：在你生命中最重要的是什么？你得到它了吗？好，继续想，你生命中需要花最多的努力来维持的是什么？我不知道你的回答是什么，但对我来说，我的家庭就意味着整个世界，我的婚姻，比如说，需要我投入比其他任何事情都多的努力来维持。

You know the saying, “You get what you pay for.”?  Well, when it comes to having true joy in your life you find that hard work is most certainly involved.  My point is that trying to buy our happiness is the easy way out and yet the least satisfying option.  We are so easily convinced that somehow there is a price tag dangling from happiness and it’s just a matter of making enough money to purchase it.  But the fact is, this is a BIG FAT LIE!

你知道“一分耕耘，一分收获”这个说法吗？如果谈到如何拥有生活中真正的快乐，你会发现，辛勤工作必然是首要原则。我要说的是，通过买东西来得到幸福感是最简单的方法，但也是最难令人满意的选择。我们总是轻易地相信，不论如何，幸福总该是有标价的吧，所以我们要做的就是赚到足够多的钱来购买幸福。但事实是，这是个弥天大谎！

The last 7 years of marriage to Liz have been a roller coaster ride, to say the least, but it’s only in that effort that I’ve gained a priceless friendship that will last a lifetime.  And now we get to share that love with our son and enjoy even more value for our efforts.

跟利兹结婚的七年来，至少可以说，就像坐过山车一样，但也是在维持婚姻的努力中，我得到了弥足珍贵的友谊，这友谊会持续一生。现在我们将这份爱投射到我们的儿子身上，并且在这份努力中得到了更多的价值。

Let me end with this…

让我以此来结篇……

If you have a spouse, or a sibling or a parent or a friend or anyone in your life who brings you joy, always see the true value of that investment.  These are the things that matter, not the ‘stuff’ in your life.

如果你有配偶，或者兄弟姐们，或者父母，或者朋友，或者任何能给你的生活带来快乐的人，你就要看到对这些人的投入的真正的价值。这些是你生命中真正重要的东西，而不仅仅是“区区小事”。

The secret to spending less and having more is to take the time and energy that you would have spent on:

少付出多回报的秘诀就在于，把你花在以下事情的的时间和精力：

…working to make the money for a purchase 

…为了一件产品努力挣钱

…making the purchase 

…购买这件物产品

…making space for the product 

…腾出空间把玩这件产品

…and then maintaining it… 

…保养这件产品…

and put that effort into nurturing your relationships.  Do this and I promise you’ll find your greater efforts will always be matched with MUCH greater reward.

 

转而花在培养人际关系上。这样做的话，我保证你极大的付出总会得到更大的回报。