這是一封細緻入微的家書，非常感人，貴為總統的奧巴馬給女兒的信親切、自然、樸實，沒有大話、套話，說的全是家常。17 條建議都非常具體，每一條都可以做得到，每一條都有益。行文的語氣沒有作為父親或者總統的“ 諄諄教導” ，從“ 不在外面吃飯” 這類小事，到“ 這個世界是一個完全由大家分享的世界，你所做的每件事都會影響到別人” 這類普世價值觀，奧巴馬都說得貼切、自然、優美。這次特別推出中英文對照版，希望在學習與做人方面，對您有所裨益。
以下為正文——
Life is short. It may feel like it takes forever sometimes, but the reality is that you live, and a short time later,you die. It happens so quickly, many people don’t even realize they had a life until it’s already over.
生命如此短暫。我們有時候覺得生命怎麼也走不完，實際上，你現在活著，過不了多久，就會死去。人生真是轉眼一瞬間的事情，很多人到臨死前才意識到這一生已經結束。
If you don’t believe in yourself, nobody will. Success starts in your mind, and if all you’re doing is putting yourself down and predicting failure, it’ll become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Insteadof doubting yourself, think positively. Not only will you be happier and more successful, you’ll spread it to everyone around you.
如果你自己都不相信自己，那沒人會相信你。成功源於你的頭腦，如果你所做的是不斷地看扁自己，預言著未來的失敗，這就真的會成為現實。與其懷疑自己，不如積極的考慮問題。不僅會讓自己更加開心和成功，你還能夠感染到周圍的人。
Now that you’re done doubting yourself,stop doubting others. You don’t like when people are critical of you, so stopbeing critical of others. Think about how you make other people feel – even if you have good intentions, people don’t like hearing negativity.
現在你不要再懷疑自己了，也別再懷疑身邊的人。你不希望被人對你挑剔，那麼也不要再去挑剔身邊的人。想想你給別人帶來的什麼樣的感受吧—— 即使出發點是好的，別人也不想聽到那麼多消極的事情呀。
I don’t feel like procrastinating right now– I’ll do it tomorrow. When you procrastinate, you remain stagnant. Whateveryou’re putting off doesn’t go away; resolve the problem, and move on. You’ll bemuch happier in the long run.
我现在不想做，还是留到明天吧。一旦开始拖延，其实你已经停滞不前了。你拖延的事情不会自行解决。解决问题，继续前行吧。从长远角度来说你会更加快乐
It’s completely possible to step on someone’s toes without meaning to – it happens all the time. There’s no need topile on by purposefully doing mean things, so make a conscious effort to stopbeing mean. If someone wrongs you, let it go. There’s no need to seek vengeanceunless that’s the type of person you want to be.
无意踩到别人的情况真的有可能会发生—— 常常会发生。但没必要去处心积虑地做一些不好的事情，所以要有意识地让自己不要那么刻薄。如果有人对你无理地对待，随他们去好了。 没必要去报复，除非你也想成为那一类的人。
Eating out is the biggest waste of money.Every so often it’s nice to treat yourself, but eating out for every meal isthe quickest way to drain your bank account. Learn how to cook at least ahandful of foods you enjoy: It’ll save you money, keep you healthier, andoccasionally impress people.
在外面吃飯真的非常非常的浪費錢。也許每次對於你而言都是一次犒賞，但每頓都在外面吃反而是花光積蓄的最快方式。至少也去學學怎麼做一些自己喜歡的菜：既能省錢，還能讓你更健康，還會讓其他人眼前一亮。
Lazy people are annoying – it’s likepulling teeth getting them to do anything. If I can’t do something as simple asgoing to a movie with you without having to factor in an hour of convincing youto get your lazy butt out of bed, I’d rather go alone. People have enoughtrouble motivating themselves; don’t make your friends and family waste theirvaluable energy motivating you as well.
懶人真的很招人煩—— 得像趕驢磨墨一樣逼著他們做事情。如果我想跟你看一場電影，卻不得不花一個小時說服你起床，那我寧願一個人去看。給自己動力都不是件容易的事情，就別讓朋友和家人浪費寶貴的精力再來給你動力了吧。
We all have problems, and sometimes we needto vent to someone. That’s acceptable, but pay attention to how often you’reventing. We all love helping our friends and family, but when all you get fromsomeone is negativity, it’s easier to cut them off than help, especially ifthey’re always complaining about the same things.
我們都有麻煩事，有時候總想跟別人傾訴。這可以理解，但要注意你吐槽的頻率。我們都喜歡幫助朋友和家人，但如果從那個人身上我只能感知到負能量，那麼還是離得越遠越好吧，尤其是當他們在反復抱怨同一件事的時候
If you only think about yourself, you’llsoon find yourself by yourself. Stop for a minute and think about how youractions affect other people – did you take the last cup of coffee from thebreak room? Refill it! Do you live with others? Don’t drink out the milkcarton. We share this world 100% of the time, so every action you take canaffect other people.
如果你只考慮你自己，那麼很快你會發現身邊只剩下你自己。停一分鐘想想你的行為會給別人帶來什麼影響吧—— 你是不是從休息室拿了最後一杯咖啡? 再倒滿呀! 你是不是和別人合租? 不要喝光所有的牛奶，這個世界是一個完全由大家分享的世界，你所做的每件事都會影響到別人。
If you only think about yourself, you’llsoon find yourself by yourself. Stop for a minute and think about how youractions affect other people – did you take the last cup of coffee from thebreak room? Refill it! Do you live with others? Don’t drink out the milkcarton. We share this world 100% of the time, so every action you take canaffect other people.
如果你只考慮你自己，那麼很快你會發現身邊只剩下你自己。停一分鐘想想你的行為會給別人帶來什麼影響吧—— 你是不是從休息室拿了最後一杯咖啡? 再倒滿呀! 你是不是和別人合租? 不要喝光所有的牛奶，這個世界是一個完全由大家分享的世界，你所做的每件事都會影響到別人。
Stop Making Promises
Always under-promise and over-deliver. Whenyou make a promise, you’re adding responsibility to your plate that, despiteall your best intentions, you may not be able to deliver on. More often thannot, your promise is an absolute (i.e “I promise I’ll always love you”)， and onlySith deal in absolutes. Instead of making a promise with your words, simply bethere when people need you, and exceed their expectations with your actions.
總是做承諾，總是做不到。每次做承諾都是不禁給自己增添了責任，無論你的出發點有多好，你都不可能完成所有的部分。大部分時候，你的承諾都太過絕對( 比如“ 我發誓我永遠愛你”) ，也只能在絕對環境中才能實現。與其用語言許下承諾，不如在別人需要你的時候出現，然後用行動達到他們的期望吧
Stop Being a Pushover
We live in a capitalistic society in which everyone’s trying to sell us something. Everyone’s looking out for themselves in one way or another, and you need to do the same. Stop putting yourself out because you’re too shy to say no.
我們處於一個資本主義社會，每個人都在試圖向我們推銷些什麼。每個人都在用不同的方式關注自己，你也要這樣做。別因為太害羞、不敢說“ 不” 而任人擺佈。
Stop Listening to Haters
No matter what you want to do in life,there’s always someone around to tell you why it can’t and won’t work. I cancome up with millions of reasons Twitter won’t work, and yet it’s one of themost popular social media sites on the web. My opinion didn’t stop Twitter’ssuccess any more than it convinced Kobe Bryant to quit the NBA or Josh Hartnettto stop acting. Why would you let someone’s opinion stop you?
無論你想幹什麼，總會有人告訴你不要這麼做，沒有用的。我可以想出成百萬條推特不實用的理由，但它還是互聯網上最流行的社交網站之一。我的想法不會阻止推特的成功，就像你無法勸Kobe 退出NBA 或喬許· 哈耐特不要當演員了一樣，都毫無意義。那麼為什麼要讓別人的想法阻止你呢?
Stop Being Wasteful
You don’t finish your meals,and away food instead. You leave the faucet running when you brush your teeth,pouring precious water down the drain. You drive places you could easily walk,burning gasoline (a non-renewable resource)。 You are wasteful,and it needs to stop.
扔掉或倒掉沒吃完的食物; 開著水龍頭刷牙，讓寶貴的水流走; 明明走路就可以到得到的地方卻偏要開車，燃燒汽油( 無法再生資源) 。 你若浪費，那就趕緊停止這一惡習。
Stop Littering
The only thing I hate more than wasteful people are litterbugs. Litterbugs are my least favorite bug, and there are more than you’d think. If you’ve ever thrown even one piece of gum, paper, candy wrapper, cigarette butt, etc on the ground, you’re a disgusting litterbug, and you should be ashamed of yourself. There are over 7 billion people in the world– if each person only throws one “innocent” piece of garbage on the ground, that’s 7 billion pieces of garbage littering a world in which nobody “did it”。
唯一一個讓我覺得比浪費的人更可惡的就是垃圾蟲。垃圾蟲最讓我厭惡，而且數量比你想的多很多。如果你曾扔過一塊口香糖、一張紙、糖果包裝、煙蒂，那麼你就是噁心的垃圾蟲。你應該感到羞愧。世界上有超過70 億的人—— 如果每個人都“ 無辜的” 扔一點垃圾，那麼全世界就會變成70 億垃圾場，而找不到“ 罪魁禍首” 。
Stop Taking Everything Personally
People get offended about the strangestthings. Take Kendrick Lamar’s now-infamous verse on “Control” thissummer: he called out a list of a dozen rappers he thinks he’s betterthan (and he’s right)。 The internet went crazy, and rappers all over the industry rushedto their mics to record a response. The thing is, all K-Dot said is he’s thebest rapper. Everyone took it personally, and that’s exactly what he was goingfor. The lesson to learn from this is that not everything is about you, and ifyou’re easily upset, someone will use that to their advantage.
人們會因為一些奇怪的事情感到被侵犯。就拿Kendrick Lamar 這個夏天備受爭議的歌曲《Control 》為例：他在歌詞中挑釁了一些他認為比他弱的說唱歌手( 的確是這樣) ，一石激起千層浪，整個說唱界的歌手都蜂擁錄歌作為回擊。重點在於，所有的人都認為自己是最好的說唱者，每個人都更看重自己，這就是他的目的所在。這件事教給我們的無非就是不是所有的事都要圍著你轉，如果你是玻璃心，有人會利用這一點。
Stop Talking
Sometimes it’s best to just STFU –especially in relationships. I can’t even count how many times I created anissue that didn’t need to be an issue simply because I opened my mouth. Even ifwhat you want to say is important, just shut up and ride it out. You can saymore with your actions than words, and you can’t listen when you’re talking.
有時候沉默是金—— 特別在情侶關係裡。我都記不清到底多少次因為說錯話引發了本可以避免的爭端。即使你想說的非常重要，那也閉嘴，自行消化。你可以用行動證明一切，畢竟你自己說話的時候是聽不見的。
Just Stop, and Breathe…
No matter what you’re doing in life or howyour day is going, there’s always room to just stop for a moment and justbreathe. Try it right now to celebrate getting through this list of everythingyou’re doing wrong.
無論你現在在幹什麼，這一天過得怎麼樣，你都需要好好停一下深呼吸。不如現在就歇一歇，犒賞自己總算挺過了一些錯事。
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