·Anonymous·
Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers urged,“Barbara, be enthusiastic!Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience.”
How right they were. Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends.
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that helps you hang in there when the going gets tough.It is the inner voice that whispers,“I can do it!”when others shout,“No, you can't.”
It took years and years for the early work of Barbara Mc-Clintock, a geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn't let up on her experiments.Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.
We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder as anyone knows who has ever seen an infant's delight at the jingle of keys or the scurrying of a beetle.
It is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such a youthful air, whatever their age.
At 90,cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. As the music flowed through his fingers, his stooped shoulders would straighten and joy would reappear in his eyes.Music, for Casals, was an elixir that made life a never ending adventure.As author and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote,“Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
How do you rediscover the enthusiasm of your childhood?The answer, I believe, lies in the word itself.“Enthusiasm”comes from the Greek and means“God within”. And what is God within is but an abiding sense of love-proper love of self(self-acceptance)and, from that, love of others.
Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money or title or power. If we cannot do what we love as a full-time career, we can do it as a part-time avocation, like the head of a state who paints, the nun who runs marathons, the executive who handcrafts furniture.
Elizabeth Layton of Wellsville, Kan, was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended bouts of depression that had pIagued her for at least 30 years, and the quality of her work led one critic to say,“I am tempted to call Layton a genius.”Elizabeth has rediscovered her enthusiasm.
We can't afford to waste tears on“might-have-beens”. We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after“what-can-be”.
We need to live each moment whoIeheartedIy, with all our senses-finding pleasure in the fragrance of a back-yard garden, the crayoned picture of a six-year-old, the enchanting beauty of a rainbow. It is such enthusiastic love of life that puts a sparkle in our eyes, a lilt in our steps and smooths the wrinkles from our souls.
逸名
多年前,我開始尋求第一份工作。聰慧的輔導(dǎo)員們催促說:“芭芭拉,熱情些!熱情會比任何經(jīng)驗讓你走得更遠(yuǎn)?!?/p>
他們說得真對??!熱情的人能讓一次枯燥的旅行變成冒險;超額的工作變成機(jī)會;陌生人變成朋友。
“沒有熱情,什么大事也干不了。”拉爾夫·沃爾多·愛默生這樣寫道。它像糨糊一樣把你粘在那里,當(dāng)困難沉重時你仍能堅持。當(dāng)別人沖你喊著“不行,你不行”時,它是內(nèi)心的低語:“我能行!”
1983年諾貝爾醫(yī)學(xué)獎獲得者——遺傳學(xué)家芭芭拉·麥克林多克的早期研究工作在很多年后才被廣泛認(rèn)可,但是她并沒有停止實(shí)驗工作。工作本身給她帶來許多樂趣,她從未想過要停止。
我們天生好奇,充滿熱望,你看新出生的嬰兒對鑰匙的丁零作響和飛馳而過的甲殼蟲總是興致勃勃。
是這種孩童似的好奇給了熱情的人這般年輕生動的氣韻,不管他們實(shí)際年齡有多大。
九十歲高齡的大提琴演奏家帕布羅·卡薩爾仍然以演奏巴赫的曲子作為一天的序曲。當(dāng)音樂從指間流出,他佝僂的肩膀便會舒展,喜悅重新浮現(xiàn)在他的雙眼里。音樂對于卡薩爾來說不亞于仙丹,使他的人生變成一場永不停止的歷險。正如作家、詩人薩纓爾·烏爾曼曾經(jīng)寫道:“時間令皮膚起皺,放棄熱情則令靈魂起皺?!?/p>
你該如何重獲兒時的熱情?我相信,答案就在這個詞身上?!盁崆椤眮碜杂谙ED語“內(nèi)心的神”,內(nèi)心的神就是堅持不懈地愛,適當(dāng)?shù)貝圩约杭醋晕医蛹{,然后衍生出來愛別人。
熱情的人也會愛他們從事的工作,不管金錢、名氣或權(quán)力。如果我們不能全職做自己熱愛的事情,也可以兼職做呀,就像畫畫的州長,跑馬拉松的修女和做家具的行政長官。
住在堪薩斯州韋爾斯維爾市的伊麗莎白·萊頓,六十八歲時開始畫畫,這一舉動令煩擾了她至少三十年的抑郁癥不治而愈,而且她的作品令一個評論家說:“我忍不住要管萊頓叫天才?!币聋惿字孬@了她的熱情。
我們浪費(fèi)不起眼淚在“如果當(dāng)初那樣該多好”之類的想法上。我們應(yīng)該將眼淚化為汗水,辛勤追趕“將會怎樣”的夢想。
我們需要每分每秒都全身心地生活,用全副感官去感覺:后院花園的花香;六歲孩童的蠟筆畫;美麗彩虹的魔力。對生活的熱情和愛讓我們的眼眸熠熠閃光,令我們的步履輕盈并撫平我們靈魂上的皺紋。
核心單詞
urge[?:d?]v.激勵;慫恿;極力主張;強(qiáng)烈要求
enthusiasm[in'θju:zi?z?m]n.熱心,熱情,熱忱
pIague[pleig]v.使苦惱;煩憂;折磨
tempt[tempt]v.引誘,誘惑,勾引;吸引;引起
genius['d?i:nj?s]n.天資,天賦,天才,英才
whoIeheartedIy[h?ul'ha:tidli]adv.全心全意地;全神貫注地
crayon['krei?n]n.蠟筆;炭筆
enchanting[in't?a:nti?]adj.迷人的,使人著魔的
實(shí)用句型
It is this chiIdIike wonder that gives enthusiastic peopIe such a youthfuI air, whatever their age.
是這種孩童似的好奇給了熱情的人這般年輕生動的氣韻,不管他們實(shí)際年齡有多大。
①這里是it is……that 的強(qiáng)調(diào)句結(jié)構(gòu)。
②whatever不管,諸如此類,類似的表達(dá)還有whoever無論誰;whichever無論哪一個等。
翻譯練習(xí)
1.他的成功緣于他的努力。(lie in)
2.他不顧危險地爬上了高塔。(regardless of)
3.完成這項任務(wù)至少需要兩天的時間。(at least)