摘錄：許多問題的造成其實并不是因為我們自己運氣差或者別人有意為之。事實上，這些問題往往是由我們自己的壞習慣產生的。

　　Many of our problems come from within our own minds. They aren't caused by events, bad luck, or other people. We cause them through our own poor mental habits. Here are 10 habits you should set aside right away to free yourself from the many problems each one will be causing you.

　　Stop jumping to conclusions. There are two common ways this habit increases people's difficulties. First, they assume that they know what is going to happen, so they stop paying attention and act on their assumption instead. Human beings are lousy fortune-tellers. Most of what they assume is wrong. That makes the action wrong too. The second aspect of this habit is playing the mind-reader and assuming you know why people do what they do or what they're thinking. Wrong again, big time. More relationships are destroyed by this particular kind of stupidity than by any other.

　　許多問題的造成其實并不是因為我們自己運氣差或者別人有意為之。事實上，這些問題往往是由我們自己的壞習慣產生的。這里列出了十個習慣希望能夠幫助你擺脫這些自己造成的麻煩又沒必要的煩惱：

　　不要過早下結論。過早下結論會通過兩條途徑為你制造麻煩。第一是，你會認為自己已經了解所有的事情的發(fā)展，所以不再重視這件事情，而按照自己假設的發(fā)展方式操作事情?？上祟惒⒉皇且环N會算命的種類，所以大部分的假設都是錯誤的，這樣也導致的事情常常失敗;第二是，你會猜測別人的想法并且會做出假設，同樣的，這些假設通常也是錯誤的。而且這些愚蠢的假設也導致了你與他人的關系被破壞。

　　Don't dramatize. Lots of people inflate small setbacks into life-threatening catastrophes and react accordingly. This habit makes mountains out of molehills and gives people anxieties that either don't exist or are so insignificant they aren't worth worrying about anyway. Why do they do it? Who knows? Maybe to make themselves feel and seem more important. Whatever the reason, it's silly as well as destructive.

　　Don't invent rules. A huge proportion of those “oughts” and “shoulds” that you carry around are most likely needless. All that they do for you is make you feel nervous or guilty. What's the point? When you use these imaginary rules on yourself, you clog your mind with petty restrictions and childish orders. And when you try to impose them on others, you make yourself into a bully, a boring nag, or a self-righteous bigot.

　　不要小題大做。很多人因為一些小挫折的刺激而做出過激的反應。小題大做使人變得緊張兮兮，產生過多的憂慮。

　　不要發(fā)明規(guī)則。過分的使用“應該”和“應當”是沒必要的。這些詞除了讓你感到緊張外，不會有任何用處。為什么?因為當你使用這些發(fā)明的規(guī)則時，你會變得受約束和有孩子氣的命令口氣。而當你試圖將這些規(guī)則強加于他人時，只會讓別人對你產生厭惡的情緒(霸權，自以為是的)

　　Avoid stereotyping or labeling people or situations. The words you use can trip you up. Negative and critical language produces the same flavor of thinking. Forcing things into pre-set categories hides their real meaning and limits your thinking to no purpose. See what's there. Don't label. You'll be surprised at what you find.

　　避免給他人扣帽子。對別人否定的評價也會限制你對他的看法和想法。所以，避免預先給別人扣帽子，說不定你就可以發(fā)現別人其他不同一般的地方。

　　Quit being a perfectionist. Life isn't all or nothing, black or white. Many times, good enough means exactly what it says. Search for the perfect job and you'll likely never find it. Meanwhile, all the others will look worse than they are. Try for the perfect relationship and you'll probably spend your life alone. Perfectionism is a mental sickness that will destroy all your pleasure and send you in search of what can never be attained.

　　別做完美主義者。生活并非十全十美的。若尋找一個完美的工作職位，卻永遠找不到它，而一些看起來好的也并非那么好。追求完美主義是一種精神基本，它會摧毀你的一切快樂并且建立一堆你不可能實現的目標。

　　Don't over-generalize. One or two setbacks are not a sign of permanent failure. The odd triumph doesn't turn you into a genius. A single event-good or bad-or even two or three don't always point to a lasting trend. Usually things are just what they are, nothing more.

　　不要過分概括。一兩次的挫折并不意味著永遠失敗，幾次成功也不能說明你是一個天才。一件事--好或壞--或者二或三件事并不代表永久的趨勢。一件事的成敗就是它的成敗，不要過分夸大其失敗的教訓和成功的經驗。

　　Don't take things so personally. Most people, even your friends and colleagues, aren't talking about you, thinking about you, or concerned with you at all for 99% of the time. The majority of folk in your organization or neighborhood have probably never heard of you and don't especially want to. The ups and downs of life, the warmth and coldness of others, aren't personal at all. Pretending that they are will only make you more miserable than is needed.

　　不要懷疑別人在討論自己。大部分的人，包括你的朋友和同事，在99%的時間內并沒有討論你或者考慮你。很多職位的同事和鄰居甚至都不會認識你。別人對你的態(tài)度冷熱大部分都非私人的想法。不斷地懷疑別人在討論自己只會讓你多疑和痛苦。

　　Don't assume your emotions are trustworthy. How you feel isn't always a good indicator of how things are. Just because you feel it, that doesn't make it true. Sometimes that emotion comes from nothing more profound than being tired, hungry, annoyed, or about to get a head-cold. The future won't change because you feel bad-nor because you feel great. Feelings may be true, but they aren't the truth.

　　不要總憑直覺判斷。你的直覺并不是總是一個正確的指示器，因為你只覺得會這樣，但“覺得”并不說明這就就會是正確的。未來并不會因為你的直覺感覺會這樣而改變。感覺可能是真的，但不一定是對的。

　　Don't let life get you down. Keep practicing being optimistic. If you expect bad things in your life and work, you'll always find them. A negative mind-set is like looking at the world through distorting, grimy lenses. You spot every blemish and overlook or discount everything else. It's amazing what isn't there until you start to look for it. Of course, if you decide to look for signs of positive things, you'll find those too.

　　不要讓生活拖垮你，學著樂觀一些。如果你期盼有壞事發(fā)生，想必常常都真的發(fā)生了。一個消極的人對于事物的看法都是扭曲的，他會發(fā)現世界是灰暗的，到處都是污點。換個方向想，如果你嘗試去尋找一些積極的事情，你也一定會發(fā)現它們的。

　　Don't hang on to the past. This is my most important suggestion of all: let go and move on. Most of the anger, frustration, misery, and despair in this world come from people clinging to past hurts and problems. The more you turn them over in your mind, the worse you'll feel and the bigger they'll look. Don't try to fight misery. Let go and move on. Do that and you've removed just about all its power to hurt you.

　　不要沉迷于過去不可自拔。這是我認為這是最重要的一點：放開那些已經過去的事情，繼續(xù)你的生活。很多的憤怒、沮喪、痛苦和絕望都是因為沉迷于過去的傷害和問題而造成的。你把這些已經過去的事情看得越重要，你的生活也就越沉重，你也更難從傷害中擺脫。不要嘗試與這些過去的事件爭斗，因為它們已經過去了，所以放開手，往前走。