Chapter 23 Are you willing to buy everything for 1 million

We live in a beautiful fairy tale kingdom every day, but we turn a blind eye and turn a deaf ear. Why? I have known Harrow Albert for many years and he used to be my academic dean.One day we made an appointment to meet in Kansas City, and he drove me to my farm in Bell City, Missouri.Along the way, I asked him, "How do you get to be happy?" He told me a very meaningful story that I will never forget. "I used to worry about a lot of things," he said, "but one day in the spring of 1934, I was walking in Doughty Street, Webmin West, and I saw something that made me worry never again. Yes. The whole thing happened in 10 seconds, and in those 10 seconds, I learned more about life than I've learned in the past 10 years."

"I ran a grocery store in Weber City for two years," Harold Albert continued, "not only did I put all my savings into it, but I also took out a debt, and it took me seven years to pay for it. Pay it off. The grocery store is closed, and I'm going to the Industrial and Mineral Bank to borrow some money to get a job in Kansas City. I'm walking down the road like a loser when I see A man without legs walked towards him. He was sitting on a small wooden platform with wheels removed from roller skates. Holding a piece of wood in each hand, he let himself slide across the street. When I saw him, he was already across the street, about to lift himself a few inches up onto the sidewalk, and our eyes met as he tipped the little wooden cart up. He grinned at me , greeting: 'Morning, sir, it's been a beautiful day, hasn't it?' He looked happy. I stood there looking at him, and suddenly, I realized how rich I was."

I have two legs and can run and jump.I am ashamed of my self-pity.So, I said to myself, he can be so happy, so happy, so confident without two legs, and of course I can be with two legs.I felt my chest lift up.Originally, I only wanted to borrow 100 yuan from ICBC, but now I have the courage to borrow 200 yuan from them.I wanted to go to Kansas City to see if I could get a job, and now I can tell people with confidence that I'm going to Kansas City to find a job.As a result, I borrowed that money and got a job too. “Today, I stick this note on my bathroom mirror so I can read it every morning:

People ride horses, I ride donkeys, Look back at the wheelbarrow man, Insufficient than the top, more than the bottom. " I once asked Eddie Reaganback what was the most important lesson he learned after spending 21 days adrift on life rafts with his mates hopelessly lost in the Pacific Ocean. "The most important lesson I learned from that experience," he said, "is that if you have enough fresh water to drink and enough food to eat, never complain about anything." "Time" magazine once published such a report, saying that a soldier was wounded at Guandarcano, hit by shrapnel in the throat, and lost blood seven times.He wrote a note to the doctor asking, "Can I live?" The doctor replied, "Yes." He wrote another note asking, "Can I still talk?" The doctor He answered him again: "Of course." After receiving such an answer, he wrote: "Then what is there to worry about?"

Why don't you stop right away and ask yourself, "So what's there to worry about?" You will find that all kinds of things you worry about are really insignificant and unimportant compared to other people. About 90% of the things in life are right, and only 10% may be wrong.If we want to be happy, we should focus our thoughts on the 90 percent of the things that are right and ignore the 10 percent that are wrong.If we want to worry, feel sad, or get stomach ulcers, let's focus all our thoughts on the 10 percent of the wrong things and ignore the 90 percent of the good things.

Many Protestant churches in the UK have posted the words "Think more, be more grateful", and this sentence should also be engraved in everyone's heart.Think of all the things we are grateful for, and thank God for all that we have. The author, Swift, is the most pessimistic writer in the history of English literature.He mourned his birth so much that on his birthday he had to wear black and fast for a day.But in the midst of despair, the pessimist extols the power of happiness and joy to give people health.He declared: "The three best 'doctors' in the world are Diet, Quiet and Pleasure."

You and I are getting free services from "Happy Doctors" every hour of every day, if only we could focus on the incredible amount of wealth we have - wealth that far exceeds Alibaba's treasures.Would you sell your eyes for $100 million?How much are you willing to sell your legs for?And your two hands, your hearing, your family.Add up all your assets, and you'll find yourself so rich that you wouldn't want to sell all the gold in the Rockefellers, Fords, and Morgans. But can we really understand these?Actually not.As Schopenhauer said: "We seldom think of what we have, but we always think of what we don't have." This is the greatest tragedy in life, and it may bring more pain than all the wars and wars in history. There are many more diseases.

It is also this that almost turned John Bermer "from a normal person into a grumpy old guy" and almost destroyed his family.He once told a story about himself. "Shortly after retiring from the army," Mr. Berma said, "I started a business, and through hard work day and night, everything went smoothly. But soon problems occurred, and I could not buy parts and raw materials. This may force me to Giving up the business, for which I was filled with apprehension, and turned from a normal person into a grumpy old fellow with a bitter personality - I didn't know it then, I don't know it until now. It's getting worse and worse, Almost made me lose my happy family. However, one day a young man who was a soldier under me said to me: 'You should be ashamed, John, that you act as if you were the only one in the world with troubles. What if you shut down the factory? When things get back to normal, you can start over. You could have more to be grateful for, but you keep complaining. God, I wish I It's you. Look, I have only one arm and half my face is burned, but I never complain. If you continue to complain, you will not only lose your business, but your health, your family with your friends.'

"Those words made me suddenly wake up. I found that I was going astray. I was determined to change and find myself again, and now I have done it." Another friend, Lucille Blake, was on the verge of tragedy before she learned to be self-sufficient and not worry about what she lacked. I've known Lucille for years, and we took a short-story writing class together at Columbia University's School of Journalism.Nine years ago, when she was living in Duson City, Arizona, her life took a drastic turn.Here's her story: "My life has been hectic, taking organ at the University of Arizona, running a language school in the city, and teaching music appreciation classes at Desert Willow Ranch where I live. I've been attending parties, large and small, all day , dances, horseback riding under the stars. Until one morning, a heart attack broke me down. 'You'll have to stay in bed for a year,' said the doctor. He didn't give me any encouragement to make me believe able to fully recover.

"Lie in bed for a year, like a cripple, and may even die. I was terrified, and asked myself repeatedly, why was my fate so rough and such unfortunate things happened? Did I do something wrong and deserve to suffer? Such retribution? I cried and screamed, filled with resentment. But in any case, I could only obey the doctor's orders and lie in bed waiting for fate. I had a neighbor named Rudolph, an artist. He said to me: "Maybe you think it's a very painful thing to lie in bed for a year, but it's not. You can make full use of this time and re-understand yourself. I believe that the improvement of your thinking in these few months will be more than half of your own." There will be more in one life.' After hearing these words, I calmed down and started to try to learn some new values ​​and read some books that can inspire people. One day, I heard a news from a radio station The commentator said: 'You should talk about what you know.' I've heard that line countless times before, but it's just now getting inside me. I'm determined to only think about things that are positive in my life— Happy and healthy things. Every morning, I force myself to think about exciting things: I have no pain, I have a lovely daughter; I can see with my eyes and hear with my ears; beautiful music is playing on the radio , have enough time to read and study, eat well and sleep soundly, have good friends, so many people come to see me that the doctor has to put up a sign - only one guest is allowed at a time, and the time of reception is limited ...I should be happy for myself.

"It's been nine years since then, and my life is rich and vivid now. I'm so grateful for the year I spent in bed, it was the most rewarding and most rewarding time I've ever had in Arizona. Happy year. I still maintain the habit of counting how many proud things I have every morning. This is the most precious treasure in my life. Sometimes, I feel very ashamed because until I worry that I will You don't really learn how to live until you die." Dear Lucille Blake, In case you don't realize it, what you're learning is exactly what Dr. Samuel Johnson discovered more than two hundred years ago: "It's easier to learn to see the good side of things than one Earning a thousand pounds a year is more important." I would like to remind you that this statement was not made by a naturally optimistic person. The person who said this statement has experienced pain and survived for 20 years without food and water before becoming a famous writer of a generation and the most famous speech in history. home one. Logan Smith said succinctly: "Life should have two goals. First, get what you want; second, enjoy it fully. But only a wise man can do the second step." If you want to know how to turn washing dishes at the kitchen sink into a once-in-a-lifetime experience, read this inspiring book, "I Wish I Could See," by Brooke Dale. A woman who was nearly blind for 50 years.She wrote in the book: "I have only one eye, and it is full of scars, and I can only see through a small hole on the left side of the eye. When reading, I have to hold the book close to my face, and then try to squint my eye as far as possible to the left. " However, she refuses to accept pity from others, and she does not want others to think that she is different from ordinary people.When she was a child, she longed to play hopscotch with other children, but she couldn't see the lines on the ground, so she lay down on the ground after the other children came home, pointed her eyes almost on the lines, and looked around where the children were playing. Keep it in mind, and soon you will become a master of the game.When reading, she held the large-printed book so close to her face that even her eyebrows touched the book.However, it was such a person who got two degrees-a bachelor's degree from Minnesota State University and a master's degree from Columbia University. She began her career as a teacher in a small village in Twin Valley, Minnesota, and worked her way up to become a professor of journalism and literature at Augutana College in South Dakota.She taught there for 13 years while speaking at a number of women's clubs and hosting a book show on radio. "In the back of my mind," she writes, "I took a jovial, almost game-like attitude to life in order to overcome the constant fear of total blindness that haunted me." Then, in 1943, at the age of 52, a miracle happened. After an operation, her eyesight improved 40 times than before. A whole new, exciting and lovely world unfolds before her eyes.She suddenly discovered that even washing dishes at the kitchen sink made her feel very happy. "I played with the soap bubbles in the dish basin," she wrote, "reaching in, grabbing a handful of them, and holding them up to the light, and in each bubble I could see little The bright colors of the rainbow." You and I should be ashamed of this. We have been living in a beautiful fairy tale kingdom every day for so many years, but we have been doing nothing, turning a blind eye, turning a deaf ear, and not enjoying life to the fullest. The fourth rule of being happy: Count your good things—and not too much about your troubles.