How to Refill an Empty Life
One day about fifteen years ago I suddenly came face to face with myself and realized there was something quite empty about my life.
My friends and associates perhaps didnt see it. By the generally accepted standards, I was successful, I was head of a prosperous manufacturing concern and led what is usually referred to as an active life, both socially and in business.
大约15年前的一天,我在面对自己时,突然觉得自己的生活很空虚。
也许这是朋友和同事所无法理解的。按照公认的标准来看,我是一位成功者。我领导着一个生意不错的制造公司,是社交界及商界中的活跃分子。然而,对我而言,这些并没有太大的意义。我始终都在圈内转来转去。
But it didnt seem to me to be adding up to anything. I was going around in circles. I worked hard, played hard, and pretty soon I discovered I was hitting the highballs harder than I needed. I wasnt a candidate for Alcoholics Anonymous, but to be honest with myself I had to admit I was drinking more than was good for me. It may have been out of sheer boredom.
I began to wonder what to do. It occurred to me that I might have gotten myself too tightly wrapped up in my job, to the sacrifice of the basic but non-materialistic values of life. It struck me abruptly that I was being quite selfish, that my major interest in people was in what they meant to me, what they represented as business contacts or employees, not what I might mean to them.