奧巴馬給女兒的人生建議：停止做這17件事

9

別再浪費時間

Stop Wasting Time

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: time is the most valuable resource we have. Don't waste your time on unproductive things. If you want to explore the world's dark corners, that's great. I still associate with people who have not-so-kosher careers, but I don't hang out with those people at the expense of my own short- and long-term goals。

雖然之前說過了，但我還想再說一遍：時間是我們擁有的最寶貴的資源，不要把時間浪費在沒有意義的事情上面，如果你想探索這個世界的黑暗角落，很好。我也認識一些沒有固定工作的一些自由職業者，但我不會以犧牲自己的短期長期目標為代價和他們出去玩樂。

10

別再做承諾

Stop Making Promises

Always under-promise and over-deliver. When you make a promise, you're adding responsibility to your plate that, despite all your best intentions, you may not be able to deliver on. More often than not, your promise is an absolute (i.e. 「I promise I'll always love you」)， and only Sith deal in absolutes. Instead of making a promise with your words, simply be there 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。

11

停止軟弱

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」而任人擺布。

12

不要聽懷恨者的話

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 can come up with millions of reasons Twitter won』t work, and yet it's one of the most popular social media sites on the web. My opinion didn't stop Twitter's success any more than it convinced Kobe Bryant to quit the NBA or Josh Hartnett to 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，但它還是網際網路上最流行的社交網站之一。我的想法不會阻止推特的成功，就像你無法勸科比退出NBA或喬什·哈奈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?

13

停止浪費

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.

你飯沒吃完，然後扔掉食物;刷牙的時候還開著水龍頭，就讓寶貴的水嘩嘩的流走;明明可以走到的地方你偏要開車，燃燒汽油(無法再生資源)。如果你浪費了，那就趕緊停止這一惡習。

14

不要亂扔垃圾

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」。

15

別把每件事太往心裡去

Stop Taking Everything Personally

People get offended about the strangest things. Take Kendrick Lamar's now-infamous verse on 「Control」 this summer: he called out a list of a dozen rappers he thinks he's better than (and he』s right)。 The internet went crazy, and rappers all over the industry rushed to their Mics to record a response. The thing is, all K-Dot said is he's the best rapper. Everyone took it personally, and that's exactly what he was going for. The lesson to learn from this is that not everything is about you, and if you'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。

16

不要再說話了

Stop Talking

Sometimes it's best to just STFU – especially in relationships. I can't even count how many times I created an issue that didn't need to be an issue simply because I opened my mouth. Even if what you want to say is important, just shut up and ride it out. You can say more with your actions than words, and you can't listen when you're talking.

有時候沉默是金——特別在情侶關係里。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。

17

停一下，深呼吸吧

Just Stop, and Breathe…

No matter what you're doing in life or how your day is going, there's always room to just stop for a moment and just breathe. Try it right now to celebrate getting through this list of everything you'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。

來源：中學英語學習