成功的生活

许多人终其一生也未寻找到自己的目标，连通向成功的第一步也不曾迈出。渴望成功的人啊，你准备好了吗？
生活要有意义，首要条件便是要有一定的目标。一般说来，成功者与不成功者的区别在于，前者知道他想要什么，并尽全力达到目的，而后者对他要做什么只有一个很模糊的想法。
这样的人会有许多白日梦，只是不着边际地想成为什么样的人，想要这个，想做那个，或是想做别的，但这同对生活有一个明确的目标——一个将所有兴趣、心力倾注其中的目标——完全是两码事。
随便问几个人，他们的生活目标是什么？你会吃惊地发现，他们大都对此问题是一头雾水，要他们给出明确的答案是多么地困难，更重要的是——问问你自己这个问题。你自己的最大目标是什么？在这个世界上，你最想做什么，最想成为什么样的人？除非你能立即简明扼要地作出答复，要不然，你就还没有真正踏上通往成功生活的道路。
目标不一定要宏大惊人，比如成为大富豪，建立遍布全国的连锁集团，或成为畅销书作家。它可以是通过有规律、定期地学习以拓宽自己的知识面。可以是尽己所能，在工作上得心应手，即便这是一项平庸的工作。也可以是从事某种社会义务工作，还可以是使家变成一个真正幸福的港湾。
每个目标，都可以成为有趣而令人满意的追求，极大地丰富你的生活以及你所处的社交圈。人类精神可以实现难以想象的成功。如果我们能在力所能及的范围内制定目标，便可以减少不必要的挫折与沮丧。目标一旦确定，我们必须经受必要的磨炼，获取必要的知识和能力而实现之。
有人说过，“天才是10%的灵感加上90%的汗水。”许多人没有实现自己的目标，是因为他们虽然对自己的目标热情有加，对所需付出的努力却热忱不足。他们幻想，若能像帕代莱夫斯基那样弹奏钢琴该有多好，但是他们又不愿意像他那样每天长时间地练习。他们梦想成为畅销书作家，或者名扬天下，但是，却巴望这件事情单凭想象便可实现。
不论我们的目标是什么，我们需要对相关的知识有无尽的渴求。在一位著名学者的墓碑上刻着如下的话：“他一生都在学习。”尽管他已满腹经纶，他却从未觉得自己已学到了所有的东西。但是，光有理论知识还是不够的。赛跑运动员需要了解所有有关于起跑、姿势、呼吸的知识。但是，他必须通过训练才能学会。同样，画家也要学习透视、剖析、调解以及其他知识，但他必须通过绘画才能使其技艺日臻完美。
没有决心不能实现目标。意志惟有经过一次次考验，才能克服困难、解决问题、获得成功，它的力量令人惊叹。它是人类精神的真正动力之一。
而与意志相伴的，还必须有想象力的情感因素的驱动。对于手头工作所付出的兴趣和热情，在很大程度上，决定着我们将会取得多大的成功。做自己喜欢的事情，我们会做得完美出色。
The first requirement of effective living is that we should have some sort of aim. Generally speaking, the difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful one is that the former knows what he wants, and bends every effort towards securing that end, while the latter has only a vague idea of what it is he is trying to do with his life.
Such a person may have daydreams in plenty, may wish vaguely to be and do this, that, and the other, but that is a vastly different thing from having a definite objective in living-an all-constraining aim towards which all interest and effort are directed.
Ask half of a dozen people what their aim in life is. You will be amazed to discover how greatly most of them will be taken by surprise at the question, and how they will have considerable difficulty in answering it with any certainty. More important——ask yourself the question. What is your own dominant aim？ What do you want to do and be, more than anything else in the world？Unless you can answer this question, at once in a few crisp sentences, you have not really started on the path of successful living.
The aim need not be anything very startling like making a fortune, or establishing a nation-wide chain of business, or writing a best-seller. It may be to widen your general culture by ordered and regular reading. It may be to become as efficient as you possibly can be in your own job, even though that job is a limited one. It may be to engage in some sort of voluntary social service. It may be to lay in your own home the basis of a truly happy family.
Any one of these aims could become an engrossing and satisfying pursuit, greatly enriching your own life, and that of the community in which you live. The human spirit is capable of almost inconceivable triumphs. We shall save ourselves some unnecessary frustration and heart-break, however, if we choose an aim which is reasonably within the scope of the powers with which we have been endowed. Once the aim is fixed, we must be willing to undergo the necessary discipline, and to attain the necessary knowledge and competency to fulfill it.
Somebody once said：“Genius is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.”Many people fail to achieve their object because, while enamored of the aim, they are less enamored of the effort required in its fulfillment. They think how lovely it would be to play like Paderewski, but they are not willing to practice long hours daily as he did. They dream of writing a bestseller or of having their name in lights, but imagine that such things can be achieved simply by thinking about them！
Whatever our aim, we need an insatiable thirst for knowledge about it. On the tombstone of a famous scholar are the words：“He died learning.” Learned as he was, he never imagined that he knew everything that was to be known. But mere theoretical knowledge is not enough. The runner needs to know all about the science of starting, about poise, about breathing. But he learns to run by running so, too, the artist will learn about perspective, anatomy, color-blending and much besides, but he perfects his art by painting！
No aim can be achieved without determination. The difficulties that can be overcome, the problems that can be solved, and the success that can be achieved by the exercise of the will, are simply astonishing. Here lies one of the truly dynamic powers of the human spirit.
But coupled with the will there must be an emotional drive of imagination, too. The interest and enthusiasm with which we give ourselves to the task in hand determine to a large extent the measure of success we shall achieve. We do best those things which we love doing.
（摘自2009·晨风号《忘忧草英汉对照》）