So let?s say you spend $50 on a nice dinner out. You?ll receive an enjoyable, short lived bit of satisfaction and then you?ll forget all about it. Now let?s say you spend $500 on a new grill. This item has the capacity to provide you with many occasions of enjoyment and satisfying cuisine. It cost you more money and took you more time to save up for, but you knew this was an investment into your grilling enjoyment.

OK, so forget about the horrible analogy above and think about this. What has the greatest value in your life? Got it? OK, now what area of your life takes the most work to maintain? I don?t know about you, but my family means the world to me and yet my marriage, for example, has required more effort to maintain than most anything else.

You know the saying, “You get what you pay for.”? Well, when it comes to having true joy in your life you find that hard work is most certainly involved. My point is that trying to buy our happiness is the easy way out and yet the least satisfying option. We are so easily convinced that somehow there is a price tag dangling from happiness and it?s just a matter of making enough money to purchase it. But the fact is, this is a BIG FAT LIE!

The last 7 years of marriage to Liz have been a roller coaster ride, to say the least, but it?s only in that effort that I?ve gained a priceless friendship that will last a lifetime. And now we get to share that love with our son and enjoy even more value for our efforts.

Let me end with this…

If you have a spouse, or a sibling or a parent or a friend or anyone in your life who brings you joy, always see the true value of that investment. These are the things that matter, not the ?stuff? in your life.

The secret to spending less and having more is to take the time and energy that you would have spent on:

…working to make the money for a purchase

…making the purchase

…making space for the product

…and then maintaining it…

and put that effort into nurturing your relationships. Do this and I promise you?ll find your greater efforts will always be matched with MUCH greater reward.

少付出多回报的秘诀

发布时间：2011-12-20 文章出自：译言 原文链接：点击查看

晚上，我一边遛狗一边想着我的妻子利兹和儿子泰森——两个人这周末都去探望我的岳母大人了。我一边走着一边在脑海中描绘泰森的形象，泰森才四个月大，穿着蓝色的睡衣，戴着帽子，穿着拖鞋。我早上去上班之前他就是这么穿的。他看上去很可爱，身上有婴儿粉刺啊什么的。他给了我一个大大的微笑，把利兹和我都逗乐了。这种快乐永远不会失去其光辉。只要小泰森冲着我们傻呵呵的露齿而笑，我们便会快乐。

我一边遛狗，一边想着我可爱的小儿子和美丽的妻子，以及他们给我的生活所带来的真实的幸福感。我想你会说，此刻我应该为我有幸所拥有的一切而感恩。有趣的是，在那样的时刻（我确信那些时刻都和此刻相似）我从来没有想过任何一件用金钱买来的物品。我没有想过我的苹果笔记本电脑或苹果手机，没有想过我的车子、房子、电视或者自行车……诸如此类。好吧，也许我想到过我的苹果笔记本电脑，但只有一会儿，然后思绪就又回到妻子和儿子身上。

在这些时刻，我们似乎认识到了生命中真正重要的东西。其余时间我们都在为金钱而困扰，为我们想买的东西而困扰，我们试图说服我们自己和我们身边的人，如果我们拥有了我们的“收藏品”中缺少的那一件，我们的生活就会更好。

回报总是与投入相符

当你对某事物投入了时间、金钱或关注的时候，你必然会得到与你的投入相符的回报（这一点并不总是完全正确，但比较符合我的情况）。比如说，你花50美元在外面吃了一顿晚餐，你会享受短暂的满足感，然后就将之全然忘记。再比如说，你花500美元买了一个新烤架。这件物品会让你得到很多的愉悦感和令人满足的美味佳肴。这次你花得更多，需要更长时间来储蓄，但你知道这是对之后得到的那份热烈的快感的投入。

好了，忘记上面糟糕的类比吧，想想这些：在你生命中最重要的是什么？你得到它了吗？好，继续想，你生命中需要花最多的努力来维持的是什么？我不知道你的回答是什么，但对我来说，我的家庭就意味着整个世界，我的婚姻，比如说，需要我投入比其他任何事情都多的努力来维持。

你知道“一分耕耘，一分收获”这个说法吗？如果谈到如何拥有生活中真正的快乐，你会发现，辛勤工作必然是首要原则。我要说的是，通过买东西来得到幸福感是最简单的方法，但也是最难令人满意的选择。我们总是轻易地相信，不论如何，幸福总该是有标价的吧，所以我们要做的就是赚到足够多的钱来购买幸福。但事实是，这是个弥天大谎！

跟利兹结婚的七年来，至少可以说，就像坐过山车一样，但也是在维持婚姻的努力中，我得到了弥足珍贵的友谊，这友谊会持续一生。现在我们将这份爱投射到我们的儿子身上，并且在这份努力中得到了更多的价值。

让我以此来结篇……

如果你有配偶，或者兄弟姐们，或者父母，或者朋友，或者任何能给你的生活带来快乐的人，你就要看到对这些人的投入的真正的价值。这些是你生命中真正重要的东西，而不仅仅是“区区小事”。

少付出多回报的秘诀就在于，把你花在以下事情的的时间和精力：

…为了一件产品努力挣钱

…购买这件物产品

…腾出空间把玩这件产品

…保养这件产品…

转而花在培养人际关系上。这样做的话，我保证你极大的付出总会得到更大的回报。

The nice thing about an infinite space such as, for instance, the one in which we live, is that you can find basically anything if you look hard enough.

在我们生活的这个无垠的宇宙中，的确有那么一件好事，那就是无论你想找什么，只要你努力去找，基本上都能找到。

To that end the Hubble Space Telescope often proves handy for discovering celestial objects shaped like everything from a sea horse, the letter X, tadpoles and flying saucers.

正因为这样，哈勃太空望远镜常常能轻而易举地找到一些神迹，从海马，到字母X，从蝌蚪到飞碟，各种形状的神迹都能被它发现。

Since it's Christmas it seems appropriate that the ageing space camera turns its attention to finding seasonally-shaped nebulas.

圣诞节将至，一把年纪的哈勃望远镜也应该把注意力转向寻找与圣诞有关的星云了。

The bipolar star-forming region spotted by Hubble is actually two giant, super-hot streams of gas blasting outwards from a central star. But what it looks like is a beautiful, ghostly angel ring.

哈勃这次发现的这片产星区有两极，是由一颗中央星向外延展所形成的超高温气流。看起来就像是美丽而诡异的天使羽翼。

You know, if you look really hard.The image is credited to NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team. But we won't be happy until we see a galaxy shaped like Santa. Hubble, it's over to you.