the Art of Life

The Art of Life

Good morning, my friends. Nice to see you again. The topic of my speaking today is The Art of Life.

An old Chinese saying goes like this when a bird passes by, his music remains, when a man passes away, his fame remains. We are now living in a highly developed society, surrounded by all kinds of information. We work hard every day just like a high speed machine. All we want is to catch the tail of success and realize our dream. However, some people look happy. It seems that good news is always waiting for them. At the same time, some people look tired. They feel bored every day. Why different? Maybe you will say they have different characters or they are in different situations. Yes, characters and situations do have an influence on our mood. But none of them is the main issue I think. The main issue is that they have different life styles. Some people know how to relax and be happy every day and some people don’t. And the secret of it is the art of life.

Steve Jobs was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Maybe that’s why he didn’t live long. It’s a joke. But what he said is

enlightening. Consider this, how many things do you think is unnecessary you did yesterday and how much time they took. If you make a list and calculate the total time. I’m sure you will be surprised. Most people don’t believe they have spent so much time on such unnecessary things. We often complain where all the time are or how time flies. And here is the answer---We spend our time on trifles. Our life is short and trifles are countless. Maybe you are a completest, but the fact is

that we can’t do every single thing perfectly for we don’t have that much time and energy. If you want your dream come true, stop bothering yourself on those tiny immaterial trifles. Pursue your dream and concentrate on meaningful things. Perhaps you can be another Jobs in the future.

Live every day like it is your last. This is the first point of the art of life.

Do you often laugh in your daily life? If not, please laugh more. Laughter is not only a kind of feeling, but also a kind of mentality. It indicates that you are confident and optimistic. Everyone knows that optimistic is a good word and the opposite is pessimistic. Then what is optimistic and what is pessimistic? I have a little story here.

An optimist and a pessimist are both salesmen. They go to a new place to promote shoes. Surprisingly, they find that people don’t wear shoes there. The pessimist feels very disappointed. He reports to his boss there is no market here because local people don’t wear shoes and they won’t buy any. On the contrary, the optimist reports that the market is huge here and people will buy a lot of shoes in the future and the reason is the same.

This is the difference between pessimist and optimist. So there’s no wonder that a saying goes like this. the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity while the optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. It’s reasonable. Sometimes, optimism means hope and hope means everything. If we think carefully, we can find that most successful persons have a same character, and

that is optimism. Columbus was an optimistic person. He believed that the world is round, so he set sail again and again. No matter how dangerous the sea was, he was heading west. At last he found a new land though thick and thin. Edison was another optimistic person. He wasn’t intimidated by thousands of failed experiments. He succeeded in the end and brought light to the world. So be an optimist. We often say no one can defeat you besides yourself. If you are

optimistic. You have already overcome fear in your heart. So be an optimist. From another point of view. Providing that there are two people here, one is smiling and the other one pulls a long face, which one would you like to get close to? No doubt, you will choose the smiling one. That means if you are an optimistic person, people are more willing to help you when you are in trouble.

Laugh more and be an optimistic. This is the second point.

We are not grateful for what we have until we lose it. This phase is often used to remind us to cherish our health. For when we work hard, health is often neglected. Nowadays, many people work day and night to make money, and their body break down gradually. But they will not realize it until they are in the hospital. Isn’t it better to take care of their body at the beginning? As we all know, a healthy body is the foundation of everything. But how to keep healthy? There are two key points I think. The first one is to lead a regular life. Our ancestors put stress on the harmony between human and nature. Sleep early and get up early is always good for us. The second point is to take exercise regularly. Voltaire, the French thinker said that practice is the power of life. And many doctors agree with him because exercising stimulates blood flow. It’s good for

our health.

Build your body and keep healthy. This is the third point. Actually, these three points are connected to each other. In the book “the weakness of human nature, Dale Kanai Ki recommends that when you are disappointed or bored, stop working, go out and exercise. You can forget all the unhappiness. Meanwhile, exercise can make your body strong and energetic. Only when you have a good body can you concentrate on meaningful things and work at a high efficiency.

This is the art of life. In fact, it’s not a secret. It’s just an attitude towards life. Everyone’s life has its own bitter and difficulty. We can’t choose it, but we can adjust to it. If you are now living a dull and boring life, do as I say. Maybe soon you will find happiness comes back to your life again and you are closer and closer to your dream.