24岁之前，我们相信自己最快乐的日子尚未到来；过了30岁，我们就认为最快乐的时光已逝去。一项全国性的健康调查也提示了同样的结果：30岁过后，我们变得更加实际，不把幸福当成生命本身的一种目标。我们认为，只要我们保持健康，事业上、情感上称心如意，那么我们就觉得幸福便会随之而来。
什么时候你最富创造力？一般在30岁至39岁之间。但是不同的职业，高峰期也不相同。
莫扎特8岁时就创作了一部交响曲、4首奏鸣曲；门德尔松17岁时就完成了他的最著名的作品《仲夏夜之梦》，但是大部分伟大的音乐作品都是人们在33岁至39岁之间创作出来的。虽然大多数领域的最佳状态来得比较早——大多数诺贝尔奖获得者都是25岁以后、30多岁时完成他们最出色的研究的——但是创造型的人会在生命中不断地完成高质量的工作。对于“状态良好的大脑”，不存在极限。
Accomplishes a Happy Life造就一个美好的生活
Some time ago now I came to realize that how we define particular words—success, happiness, love, etc—can have a major impact on the way in which we live our life. One term that I hear thrown around often is “good life”, e.g. “he lived a good life”. But what is a good life exactly? This term will mean different things to different people, and yet I believe there are some ingredients that all “good lives” share. Here are some of these ingredients.
Being present in the moment
Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed. —Corita Kent
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. —Oscar Wilde
Gratefulness
Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy - because we will always want to have something else or something more. — Brother David Steindl·Rast
Love
Love doesn’t make the world go around; love is what makes the ride worthwhile. —Franklin P. Jones
Life is the flower for which love is the honey. —Victor Hugo
A life lived for others
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. —Winston Churchill
Squeezing the most out of our time
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. — Abraham Lincoln
We get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless. —Paul Bowles
Living with purpose
The purpose of life is a life of purpose. —Robert Byrne
Acceptance that life will bring sadness
There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word “happy” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by “sadness”. —Carl Jung
Living without fear
Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live. —Dorothy Thompson
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. —Mark Twain
Not taking life too seriously
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. —Elbert Hubbard
不久前，我认识到我们如何定义一些特定的词：成功，快乐，爱等，就会对我们生活的方式产生重要的影响。我经常听到的一个词就是美好的生活，比如他有一个美好的生活，但究竟什么才算是一个美好的生活？虽然不同的人对此有不同的理解，但我相信所有的“美好的生活”中均分享着一些要素，以下就是这些要素。
活在当下
生命是时刻的连续，而活在每一刻就是成功。——柯利塔·肯特
活着是世上最珍贵的，大多数人只是存在，仅此而已。——奥斯卡·王尔德
感恩
感恩是我们握在手中的开启快乐生活的钥匙，因为如果我们不懂感恩，那么不管我们拥有多少，我们也不会开心－因为我们总会想要拥有其他东西或者想得到更多。－布拉德·大卫·斯泰德·赖斯特
爱没有使世界转动，但正是它，使周游世界变得有价值。——富兰克林·本杰明
人生是花朵，爱情是花蜜。——雨果
一种为了他人而活着的生活
我们靠获得的东西生存，但我们靠给予的东西生活。——温斯顿·丘吉尔
最大地挤压我们的时间
生命，不在乎享受多少年，只在乎真正活过多少年。——亚伯拉罕·林肯
我们可以把生命视为取之不尽，用之不竭的。然而，这一切仅发生在一定数量的时代，且仅占一个很小的数目，这是真的。有多少次你会记得你童年的某一个下午，而那个下午已经成为你生命里最深的一部分以至于你认为你甚至不能设想你的生活没有它？也许你会想起它4次到5次以上，也许甚至没有。有多少次你会观赏月亮的升起？也许是20次。然而，这一切似乎是无限的。——保罗·鲍尔斯
有目的地活着
生活的目的就是过一种有目的的生活。——罗伯特·拜恩
接受生活也会带来悲伤
有多少个夜晚，就有多少个白天，并且在一年当中，这两个的时间长度是一样的。即使是一个愉快的生活也要有阴暗的衡量，而“快乐”如果没有“悲伤”的对照，它也会失去了它的意义。——卡尔荣
无畏地活着
我们唯有不再害怕我们才能开始生活。——托莫斯·托马森
二十年后，当你回顾你所经历的事情时，你将为没有尝试的事情而感到后悔。所以从现在起，仍掉你的安全套结，从安全的港口启航，和信风一起航行，开始探险，去追求你的梦想吧！——马克·吐温
不要对生活太认真
别对生活太认真，否则你将永远不能摆脱它活着。——艾伯特·哈伯德
If I Could Catch a Rainbow 如果我能留住彩虹
If I could catch a rainbow,
I would do it just for you,
And share with its beauty,
On the days you’re feeling blue.
If I could build a mountain,
You could call your very own,
A place to find serenity,
A place to be alone.
If I could take your troubles,
I would toss them into the sea,
But all these things I’m finding,
Are impossible for me.
I cannot build a mountain,
Or catch a rainbow fair,
But let me be what I know best,
A friend that’s always there.
如果我能留住彩虹，
我将只为你一个人挽留，
在你感到忧伤的日子，
与你分享它的美丽。
如果我能建造大山，
你尽可把它当成你自己的，
体验宁静的空间，
独处的地方。
如果我能带走你的烦恼，
我会把它们通通扔进大海，
然而我发现所有这些事情，
我都无能为力。
我建不成一座大山，
也留不住彩虹的美丽，
就让我做你最好的朋友吧，
永远与你相伴。
The wholeness of life 健全的人生
Once a circle missed a wedge. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went around looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching. Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice flowers or talk to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.