首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
A Simple Truth about Happiness After I gave a talk on the subject of happiness, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "
A Simple Truth about Happiness After I gave a talk on the subject of happiness, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "
admin
2010-04-12
26
问题
A Simple Truth about Happiness
After I gave a talk on the subject of happiness, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "I wish my husband had come." "Much as I loved him." she explained, "it wasn’t easy being married to someone so unhappy." This woman enabled me to put into words what I had been searching for—altruistic, as well as the personal, reasons for taking happiness seriously. I told her that each of us owes it to our spouse, our children, our friends to be as happy as we can.
I was not a particularly happy child, and like most teenagers, I took pleasure in my anguish. One day, however, it occurred to me when I was taking the easy way out. Anyone could be unhappy, it took no courage and efforts. True achievement lay in struggling to be happy. The notion that we have to work at happiness comes as news to many people. We assume it’s a feeling that comes as a result of good things that just happen to us, things over which we have little or no control. But the opposite is true: happiness is largely under our control. It is a battle to be fought and not a feeling to be awaited. To achieve a happy life, it’s necessary to overcome some stumbling blocks, three of which are:
Comparison with Others Most of us compare ourselves with anyone we think is happier—a relative, an acquaintance or, often someone we barely know. I once met a young man who struck me as particularly successful and happy. He spoke of his love for his beautiful wife and their three daughters, and of his joy at being a radio talk-show host in a city he loved. I remember thinking that he was one of those lucky few for whom everything goes effortlessly right. Then we started talking about the Internet. He blessed its existence, he told me, because he could look up information on multiple sclerosis the terrible disease afflicting his wife. I felt like a fool for assuming nothing unhappy existed in his life.
Images of Perfection Almost all of us have images of how life should be. The problem, of course, is that only rarely do people’s jobs, spouses and children live up to these imagined ideals. Here’s a personal example: no one in my family had ever divorced. I assumed that marriage was for life. So when my wife and I divorced after five years of marriage and three years after the birth of our son, my world collapsed. I was a failure in my own eyes. I later remarried and confided to my wife that I couldn’t shake the feeling that my family life had failed. She asked me what was wrong with our family now (which included her daughter from a previous marriage and my son). I had to admit that, aside from the pain of being with my son only half the time(my ex-wife and I shared custody), our family life was wonderful. "Then why don’t you celebrate it?" she asked. That’s what I decided to do. But first I had to get rid of a "perfect" family.
"Missing the" Syndrome One effective way of destroying happiness is to look at something and focus on even the smallest flaw. It’s like looking at the tiled ceiling and concentrating on the space where one tile is missing. As a bald man told me, "whenever I enter a room, all I see is hair." Once you’ve determined what your missing tile is, explore whether acquiring it will really make you happy. Then do one of the three things: get it, replace it with a different tile, or forget about it and focus on the tiles in your life that are not missing.
We all know people who have had a relatively easy life yet are essentially unhappy. And we know people who have suffered a great deal but generally remain happy. The first secret is gratitude. All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it’s truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy.
The second secret is realizing that happiness is a byproduct of something else. The most obvious sources are those pursuits that give our lives purpose—anything from studying insects to playing baseball. The more passions we have, the more happiness we are likely to experience. Finally, the belief that something permanent transcends us and that our existence has some larger meaning can help us be happier. We need a spiritual faith, or a philosophy of life. Whatever your philosophy is, it should include this truism: if you choose to find the positive in virtually every situation, you will be blessed, and if you choose to find the awful, you will be cursed. As with happiness itself, this is largely your decision to make.
Happiness is a feeling chiefly decided by ______.
选项
答案
yourself
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/EUj7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Thispassageismainlyabouthowthedevelopmentofairlineindustryhasaffectedtheenvironmentthroughitsgreenhousegasese
A、K10-15.B、K20-24.C、E10-12.D、F1-3.BWhatarethefamily’sseatnumbers?此题考查听特定信息的能力,解题关键是要听到SeatnumbersK20-24,考生还应注意数字辨音的速
Althoughtheenjoymentofcolorisuniversalandcolortheoryhasallkindsofnamestoit,colorremainsaveryemotionalands
A、Stayathome.B、Holdparties.C、Dopart-timejobs.D、Travel.CWhatdoesthemanwanttodothissummer?由选项推测本题与做某事有关。本题关键句为“I
A、Computersarefast.B、Computersdonotoftenprovideevidencesorwitnesses.C、Computerscanreplacepaperwork.D、Computersar
WhenMikeKellyfirstsetouttobuildhisownprivatespace-ferryservice,hefigureshisbread-and-butterbusinesswouldbelo
Ilovetravelingbytrain.Fast【B1】______,slowlocaltrainswhichstopateverystation,【B2】______trainstakingbusinessmen
Mediamogul(显要人物)TedTurneryesterdaysoldmorethanhalfofhisAOLTimeWarnerInc.holdingsforabout$780million,amovet
A、Fishingandhunting.B、Hebegantoshowgreatinterestinnaturalbeauty.C、Nuclearscience.D、Amateurradio.D信息明示题,文章第二段指出,.
A、Inanyordertheywish.B、Racesfirst,thenaveragecyclists.C、Bicycleclubmembersfirst,thenothers.D、Ingroupsattimed
随机试题
设A为n阶方阵,且A+E与A—E均可逆,则下列等式中不成立的是()
A.因虚致实B.寒证化热C.寒热错杂D.真寒假热长期小便淋漓不尽,下肢厥冷,气短。食少便溏,近日小便闭塞不通,小腹胀痛,舌淡脉弱,为
患儿男,1岁,因误吸花生米后呛咳3天入院,胸片发现右肺肺不张,听诊右肺呼吸音极低,临床考虑是右支气管异物可能,欲作支气管镜检查,应选择支气管镜的内径为
HLB值用于体现()
血栓闭塞性脉管炎的药物治疗,错误的是
甲涉嫌故意杀人被提起公诉,可能判处死刑。关于本案诉讼程序,下列哪一选项是正确的?(2007年试卷2第38题)
试述港口与航道工程大体积混凝土的定义和防裂措施。
利润计划轮盘是罗伯特·西蒙斯提出的一种基于企业战略的业绩绩效模式,其构成为利润轮盘,现金轮盘和()。
阅读下面材料,回答问题。教学设计一:在教学生求平行四边形的面积时,教师讲授如下:连接AC,因为三角形ABC与三角形CDA的三边分别相等,所以,这两个三角形全等,三角形ABC的面积等于1/2底乘高,所以,平行四边形ABCD的面积等于底乘高,命题得到证明
A、ItisadvocatedbytheAmericanlinguistWilliamLabov.B、Itconnectswithsimplificationofsounds.C、Peopleallowedtheonce
最新回复
(
0
)