人生不设限·改变态度就能改变人生
You can change your attitude and change your life without taking a pill, seeing a shrink, or trekking to a mountaintop to consult a guru. So far in this book I've been encouraging you to find your purpose, to have hope for the future and faith in the possibilities for your life, and to love yourself as you are. Those attributes will give you a strong foundation and reason for optimism, which is the power source for adjusting your attitude, much like the batteries in your television remote control.
你见过有人可以成功、满足且快乐，同时又抱持悲观思想吗?我是没有了，那是因为乐观让人充满力量，给人控制情绪的能力，而悲观则会削弱意志，因而让心情控制行动。拥有乐观的看法，你就可以调整态度，充分利用不好的情况。有时人们会把这个叫作“换框法”(reframing)，意思是当你无法改变环境时，可以改变看待环境的方式。
Have you ever known a successful, fulfilled, happy person who is also a pessimist? I haven't. That's because optimism is empowering—it gives you control over your emotions. Pessimism weakens your will and allows your moods to control your actions. With an optimistic outlook, you can adjust your attitude to make the best of bad situations. This is sometimes described as "reframing" because while you can't always change your circumstances, you can change the way you look at them.
一开始，你可能必须有意识地这么做，但只要练习一阵子，就会变成自发行为。刚展开演讲生涯时，如果碰到班机取消或转乘其他交通工具不顺利，我常常会发脾气，觉得很受挫折。但最后我不得不面对一个事实：像我这种频繁旅行的人，难免会碰到一些状况。另外，我年纪也大了，不适合老是发飙，而且生气时没有脚可以跺两下，实在不带劲。
At first, you may have to do this consciously, but once you practice it for a while, it becomes automatic. I am on tour constantly with my caregivers, and in the early days of my speaking career, when a flight was canceled or a connection missed, I had trouble controlling my anger and frustration. Finally I had to face the fact that when you travel as often as we do, there will be problems. Besides, I was getting too old to throw tantrums, and they sort of lose their effectiveness when you can't really stomp your feet.
我必须训练自己拥有在旅程不顺时调整态度的能力。现在，当我们被迫在候机室等上几小时，或者必须突然改变行程时，我会从正面的角度诠释那些负面事件，以避免压力、挫折或愤怒上身。我会激发一些乐观的想法，例如：“我们的班机是因为天气不好才会延误，这样很好啊，等暴风雨过了再登机不是比较安全吗?”或者“班机取消是因为机械故障，我宁愿在地上等待一架没有问题的飞机，也不愿意搭上有状况的飞机”。
I had to master the ability to adjust my attitude about travel interruptions. Now when we are forced to sit for hours in airports or need to abruptly change plans, I avoid stress, frustration, and anger by focusing on a positive interpretation of the negative event. I fire up optimistic thoughts such as: Our flight was delayed because of bad weather. That's good, because we'll have a safer trip if we wait out the storm.Or: They canceled our flight because of mechanical problems. I'd rather wait here on the ground for a good plane than be up in the air in a bad one.
当然，我还是希望旅途顺利，不想有那么多波折，但如果不调整态度，我就会老是想着负面的事，那样实在很不健康。当你允许环境脱离你的控制，去决定你的态度和行动时，就可能会掉入一个不断向下的旋涡里：草率决定、误判形势、反应过度、太早放弃、错失机会——错失那些总是在你认为人生不可能变好的情况下出现的机会。
I'd still rather have a smooth trip than a bumpy one, but the alternative to adjusting my attitude was to dwell on the negative, and that's just not healthy. When you allow circumstances beyond your control to determine your attitude and actions, you risk plunging into a downward spiral of hasty decisions and faulty judgments, to overreacting, giving up too soon, and missing those opportunities that always—always—appear just when you think life will never get better.
悲观主义和负面性会让你无法超越现况，永无翻身之日。因此，当你觉得负面思维让你血液沸腾时，要把它们赶出去，然后用比较正面和激励的内在对话来取代。这里有个负面思想与正面思想的对照表，可以帮助你监督自己内在的声音。
Pessimism and negativity will ensure that you never rise above your circumstances. When you feel your blood boiling due to negative thoughts, tune them out and replace them with more positive and encouraging inner dialogue. Here are examples of negative versus positive thinking to help you monitor your own inner voices.
