一群事业有成的校友聚到一起去探望大学的老教授。他们的谈话很快就变成了抱怨——他们抱怨工作和生活中压力太大。教授要给客人上咖啡,就走进厨房拿了一大壶咖啡和各式各样的杯子过来——有瓷的、塑料的、玻璃的、水晶的,有的样式简单,有的贵气十足,有的则十分精美。教授叫学生自己倒咖啡。
当所有学生手上都拿到了咖啡,教授说:“如果你们留意一下,就会发现所有好看的、贵气的杯子都被拿去了,剩下那些不好看、便宜的杯子。你们想得到最好的,这很正常,但这就是你们的烦恼和压力的根源。”
“你们真正想要的是咖啡,而不是杯子,但你们却下意识地拿了外表最好的杯子,同时还盯着别人的杯子看。”
现在思考一下吧:生活犹如咖啡,工作、金钱和社会地位如同那些杯子,它们只是承载生活的工具,而不会改变生活的质量。有时候,我们把注意力全都集中在杯子上,而未能享受咖啡的美味。所以,不要被杯子牵着鼻子走,好好享受咖啡吧。
A group of alumni[校友], highly established[建立] in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints[抱怨] about stress in work and in life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment[各类物品的聚集] of cups porcelain[瓷制的], plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite[精致的] telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, if you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.”
“What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously[有意识地] went for the best cups and were eyeing each others cups. ”
Now consider this: Life is the coffee and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and do not change the quality of life. Sometimes, by concentrating[集中] only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. So, dont let the cups drive you. Enjoy the coffee instead.