人生是一出戏，你扮演着不同的角色。所以，不必刻意地去追求什么，把自己定位于某一个角色。做一个自然的你，这样，你的戏才是完美的、成功的......
I’ve been thinking lately about how we treat those who dare raise their heads above everyone else.
We fool ourselves that just because someone is famous — whether in sports, politics, music, films, TV, or simply being someone's son, daughter, husband or wife — we think they should be perfect, no longer human. If we award them the high level of attention we give to celebrities①, we expect them in return to be flawless②, and is obviously absurd③. Being human means being flawed. We build someone up, encourage them to be self-important, put them in every glossy magazine — then try to knock them down.
The Aztecs (people living in Mexico in the 15th and 16th centuries) turned this into a fine art. A person would be selected from among the fittest, most handsome, most courageous and promising males. He would then live the life of a god-king for a year—housed in a palace of unbelievable luxury, fed fine food and given the company of beautiful maidens. Then on day 366, he would be sacrificed, laid on a stone, and sliced open with a sword on top of a pyramid.
We are becoming so hungry for our own clean version of this rare form of human sacrifice that we now manufacture our heroes in a three-month period on a TV talent contest. Then we project our childish fantasies of perfection on to them and then destroy them as soon as they disappoint us.
It's not just celebrities that we do this to. We do it to each other all the time — at work, in our social lives — tearing people apart. We're like cruel children on the playground and find it hard to accept imperfection. I suggest that we call a truce④ now and begin accepting each other — including our heroes — a human, meaning as flawed people.
Remind yourself
Meanwhile, what do you do if you find people in your own circle showing disapproval of you? Well, you cannot please all the people all the time, so it always helps to remind yourself of this. The key to keeping your sanity⑤ is not to take criticism personally. Life is all like the theater: Sometimes you're playing the part of the good guy, sometimes the bad; sometimes you're the winner, sometimes the loser. Whichever part you're playing, play it with all your energy, but don't be fooled into believing that it's who you are.
Once, I decided to try myself in challenging, possibly humiliating⑥ situations to help overcome my fear of humiliation. So I went out to play with my guitar on the street. There I was, standing at the entrance to a busy subway station as hundreds of impatient rush-hour commuters⑦ poured out of their offices on their way home. I was playing and singing my heart out — and being ignored by everyone for an hour — and that finally did what I needed. Taoists⑧ call it investing in loss — the loss of self-importance. I became a nobody. Instead of finding it painful, as I would have expected, it didn’t hurt at all. What does it matter if you are a nobody? If you find yourself given a role, give in, play it with grace, be completely yourself, until you get a better role.
The key to life is to build a solid sense of self-worth that is free from the opinions of others. Try to think deeply and feel your innermost self, and that is what sustains⑨ you.
You don’t stop liking playing in life — you just stop taking the ups and downs and gains and losses so seriously. Let people call you stupid; it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to be perfect any longer. From now on, you simply have to be yourself.
Notes:
1. celebrities 名人，名流
2. flawless 无暇的，完美的
3. absurd 不合理的，可笑的
4. truce 休战，暂停
5. sanity 明智，清醒
6. humiliate 羞辱；使丢脸
7. commuters 乘公交车上下班者
8. Taoists 道家
9. sustain 支撑；恰当地扮演......的角色
