New Year resolutions
原文
Lesson 50
New Year resolutions
What marked the end of the writer's New Year resolutions?
The New Year is a time for resolutions.
Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of 'dos' and 'don'ts'.
The same old favourites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity.
We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less,
find more time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house,
be nice to people we don't like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk every day.
Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment.
If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results from failure.
Most of us fail in our efforts at sel-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out.
We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody
so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways.
Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself.
I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercises every morning and to read more of an evening.
An all-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year,
but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task.
The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up.
The self-discipline required to drag myself out of bed 11 minutes earlier than usual was considerable.
Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living room for two days before anyone found me out.
After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions,
I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition.
It was this that betrayed me.
The next morning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance.
That was really unsettling but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and soon everybody got used to the idea.
However, my enthusiasm waned.
The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished.
Little by little the eleven minutes fell to zero.
By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from.
I argued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning,
I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from work.
Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television,
I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to a book.
One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read.
That proved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen.
I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading.
In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute.
Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I just haven't had time to read it!
译文
第50课
新年决心
是什么标志着这位作家新年决心的结束呢？
新年是一个制定新目标的时刻。
至少在精神层面上，我们大多数人都能列出一份详尽的“该做”与“不该做”的清单。
那些老掉牙的决心年复一年地重复出现，单调得令人厌烦。
我们决定每天早上早起一些，少吃一些食物。
多花些时间陪孩子们玩耍，同时还要处理家里的各种琐事（比如打扫卫生、做饭、洗衣服等等）。
对待那些我们不喜欢的人也要友善；开车时要小心谨慎；每天还要带狗狗去散步。
过去的经验告诉我们，有些成就其实是无法实现的。
如果我们还是顽固的烟民，那只是因为我们太多次地经历了因失败而产生的挫败感。
我们大多数人在自我提升的努力中失败，是因为我们的计划过于宏大，而我们根本没有时间去执行。
我们还有一个根本性的错误：那就是把我们的决心或计划公之于众。
这样，当我们重新回到那些糟糕的老习惯时，看起来就会更加愚蠢了。
意识到这些陷阱后，今年我试着把决心只留给自己。
我给自己设定了两个简单的目标：每天早上坚持做体育锻炼，晚上多读书。
新年前夜的通宵派对为我提供了一个很好的借口，让我能够在新年的第一天不执行任何这些新年决心。
但到了第二天，我勤勉地执行起这项任务。
每天的锻炼只有十一分钟，我打算在清晨大家还没起床前做。
要比平时早11分钟起床，所需要的自制力是相当大的。
尽管如此，我还是设法在两天里悄悄溜进客厅，直到被家人发现。
在毯子上跳来跳去、把人的身体扭成各种不舒服的姿势之后……
我疲惫不堪地坐到了早餐桌前。
正是这个状态出卖了我。
第二天早上，全家人都聚在一起观看这场表演。
那确实让人不自在，但我用幽默的态度抵挡了家人的嘲笑和讥讽，大家很快就习惯了。
然而，我的热情逐渐消退了。
我花在锻炼上的时间逐渐减少了。
渐渐地，这十一分钟减少到了零。
到了1月10日，我又回到了起点。
我心想，如果早上少花些时间把自己累得筋疲力尽，
下班回家后我就能保持头脑清醒来读书了。
抗拒电视的催眠效果……
有好几个晚上，我待在房间里，眼睛一直粘在书上。
然而，有一天晚上，我感到寒冷又孤独，于是下楼坐在电视机前，假装在看书。
这证明是我的败因，因为我很快又恢复了在屏幕前打瞌睡的老毛病。
我仍然没有放弃多读书的决心。
事实上，我刚刚买了一本书，书名是《如何一分钟读完一千个单词》。
也许这本书能解决我的问题，只是我还没时间去读它罢了！