我们是无助的享乐者，喜欢拥有和积攒东西。不论人们承认与否，一定程度上，我们都在相互攀比。我们之所以工作，是因为要付房租，偿还抵押贷款，还清信用卡透支费用，偿付助学贷款，买车，等。此类费用接连而至，让我们应接不暇。于是，我们会突然意识到，尽管拥有了想要的一切，我们仍然不幸福。自从适应了自己定下的新生活标准，我们的时间短了，耐性没了，睡眼少了，但压力大了，焦虑多了，脾气也暴躁了。鉴于此，幸福真的是由“物质”组成的吗？
事实上，有时，我们不仅用生命交换生活必需品，还用生命交换多余的物质享受和服务。我们这般沉迷于追求幸福，却忽略了一个事实——幸福一直就在我们心中。当然，你一定听过这样的事，即有些人一直都在苦苦“找寻自我”或“重新发现自我”。他们创新尝试的理由只不过是想找寻心灵深处的幸福。但他们忽略了一点，即幸福从头至尾都在心中。
失望和悲伤在生命中交替轮回，但幸福从不会舍你而去。人类对困难的适应能力无可限量。我们可以失去工作，但会为拥有爱人而感恩不已；我们可以流离失所，但会为活着而心存感激。
幸福是个人的一种感知。我们本能地受限于外界，找寻着生活的瑕疵。出于人的天性，我们从有能力自由思考的那刻起，就开始对生活吹毛求疵。也就在那时，我们失去了对自我价值的认知，也失去了生命的活力，陷入幸福的矛盾中，找不到幸福的方向。
幸福是你决定去接受的东西，没有任何商量的余地，它与金钱或名誉毫无瓜葛。只要我们活在乐观希望之中。敢于大胆梦想，活得简单纯粹，那么，我们就会重新拥有幸福的感觉。那种感觉并非悬于幸与不幸之间的真空地带，也无任何替代品。我们只能活一次——除了好好活着，我们别无选择。
实战提升篇
核心单词
paradox [5pArEdCks] n. 自相矛盾的议论
extravagant [iks5trAvE^Ent] adj. 奢侈的；浪费的；过分的
inevitably [in5evitEbli] adv. 不可避免地；必然地
redundant [ri5dQndEnt] adj. 多余的，过剩的
mortgage [5mC：^idV] n. 抵押；抵押借款
virtually [5v：tjuEli] adv. 实际上，事实上，差不多
optimistic [7Cpti5mistik] adj. 乐观的
实用句型
Because in the real world ，you had to look for a job ，and competition was stark.因为在现实中，你必须找一份工作，而且社会竞争也相当激烈。
①这里是由because引导的原因状语从句。
②look for 寻找，类似的表达还有look up查找；look after照顾；look at看等固定搭配。
翻译行不行
１.他们按年龄分成了三组。（according to）
２.实际上，我是想和你一起去的。（in fact）
３.她退休后一直同一些朋友保持着联系。(keep up with)
第一章 Enthusiasm Takes You Further
·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 plagued 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 wholeheartedly，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.
热情带你前进
佚 名
多年前，我开始寻求第一份工作。聪慧的辅导员们催促说：“芭芭拉，热情点！热情会比任何经验让你走得更远。”
他们说得真对啊！热情的人能让一次枯燥的旅行变成冒险，超额的工作变成机会，陌生人变成朋友。
“没有热情，什么大事也干不了。”拉尔夫·沃尔德·埃莫森这样写道。它像浆糊把你粘在那里，当困难沉重时你仍能坚持。当别人冲你喊着：“不行，你不行”时，它是内心的低语：“我能行！”
1983年诺贝尔医学奖获得者，遗传学家芭芭拉·麦克林多克的早期研究工作在很多年后才被广泛认可，但是她并没有停止实验工作。工作本身给她带来许多乐趣，她从未想过要停止。
我们天生好奇，充满热望，你看新出生的婴儿对钥匙的叮铃作响和疾驶而过的甲壳虫总是兴致勃勃。
是这般孩童似的好奇给了热情的人这般年轻生动的气韵，不管他们的实际有多老。
90岁高龄的大提琴演奏家帕布罗·卡萨尔仍然以演奏巴赫的曲子作为一天的序曲。当音乐从指间流出，他佝偻的肩膀便会舒展，喜悦重新浮现在他的双眼里。音乐对于卡萨尔来说不亚于仙丹，使他的人生变成一场永不停息的历险。正如作家、诗人萨缨尔·乌尔曼曾经写道：“时间令皮肤起皱，放弃热情则令灵魂起皱。”
你该如何重获儿时的热情？我相信，答案在这个词身上。“热情”来自于希腊语“内心的神”，内心的神就是坚持不懈的爱，适当地爱自己即自我接纳，然后衍生出来爱别人。
热情的人也会爱他们从事的工作，不管金钱、名气或权力。如果我们不能全职做自己热爱的事情，也可以兼职做呀，就像画画的州长，跑马拉松的修女和做家具的行政长官。