財(cái)富精英勵(lì)志演講 04:我生命中的三個(gè)故事(4)
My third story is about death.
我的第三個(gè)故事是關(guān)于死亡
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was yourlast, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, forthe past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today werethe last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever theanswer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
在我17歲的時(shí)候，我讀到了一句箴言，差不多是這樣的：“如果你把每一天都當(dāng)作生命中的最后一天去生活的話,那么終有一天你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己是正確的。”這句話給我留下了深刻的印象，從那時(shí)算起的33年以來，我每天早晨都會(huì)對(duì)著鏡子問自己：“如果今天是我生命中的最后一天，我還會(huì)做自己今天即將要做的事嗎?”當(dāng)答案連續(xù)多次都是“不”時(shí)，我就知道自己需要做些改變了。
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help memake the big choices in life. Because almost everything ?all external expectations, all pride, allfear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving onlywhat is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoidthe trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason notto follow your heart.
“記住你就快要死了”是我聽過的最重要的箴言，它幫我做出了生命中非常重大的決策。因?yàn)閹缀跛械囊磺?mdash;—包括所有的外界期望、所有的驕傲、所有對(duì)于難堪或失敗的恐懼——都會(huì)在面對(duì)死亡時(shí)化為虛無，留下真正重要的東西。你有時(shí)會(huì)想自己可能失去一些東西，“記住你就快要死了”是我知道的逃脫這種思維陷阱的最好辦法。既然你已經(jīng)赤身裸體了無牽掛了，你就沒有理由不去遵從自己的內(nèi)心。
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and itclearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctorstold me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect tolive no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs inorder, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything youthought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sureeverything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to sayyour goodbyes.
大概在一年前, 我被診斷出患有癌癥。那天早晨七點(diǎn)半，我接受了一次掃描，結(jié)果清楚地顯示我的胰腺里長(zhǎng)了一個(gè)腫瘤。我當(dāng)時(shí)都不知道胰腺是什么東西，醫(yī)生們告訴我，這幾乎可以確定是一種無法治愈的癌癥，我的壽命估計(jì)還有三到六個(gè)月的時(shí)間。醫(yī)生們建議我回家把事情都做個(gè)了結(jié)，這是醫(yī)生們的行話，意思是準(zhǔn)備后事。這意味著在接下去的幾個(gè)月里你要把未來十年要對(duì)孩子們說的話提前說完，意味著你要確保把每件事都安排妥當(dāng)好讓家人以后的日子盡量好過，也意味著你要對(duì)這個(gè)世界說再見了。
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck anendoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into mypancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, toldme that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because itturned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had thesurgery and I'm fine now.
這個(gè)診斷一整天都縈繞在我心頭，當(dāng)天晚上，我做了一次活體組織切片檢查：他們把一個(gè)內(nèi)窺鏡伸進(jìn)我的喉嚨，穿過我的胃一直進(jìn)到腸子里，用一枚探針伸進(jìn)胰臟取得了一些組織細(xì)胞。我當(dāng)時(shí)被麻醉了，在場(chǎng)的妻子告訴我，醫(yī)生們把這些細(xì)胞放到顯微鏡下觀察之后都驚叫起來，因?yàn)樗麄儼l(fā)現(xiàn)這是一種非常罕見的、通過手術(shù)可以治愈的胰腺癌。后來我做了手術(shù)，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)康復(fù)。
