Around twenty years ago I was living in Seattle and going through hard times. I could not find satisfying work and I found this especially difficult as I had a lot of experience and a Master's degree.
大約二十年前，我住在西雅圖，經歷著人生中非常艱難的時光。我找不到滿意的工作，尤其是我經歷豐富還手握一個碩士學位，這感覺尤其令人難熬。
To my shame I was driving a school bus to make ends meet and living with friends. I had lost my apartment. I had been through five interviews with a company and one day between bus runs they called to say I did not get the job. I went to the bus barn like a zombie of disappointment.
說來慚愧，我靠著開校車這份工作來勉強維持生活，然后在朋友家蹭住。我已經沒有了自己的公寓。我在一家公司面試了五次，然后有一天，我在出車途中被告知無法得到這份工作。我走進車庫時，如同一個失魂落魄的僵尸。
Later that afternoon, while doing my rounds through a quiet suburban neighbourhood I had an inner wave—like a primal scream—arise from deep inside me and I thought "Why has my life become so hard?" "Give me a sign, I asked... a physical sign—not some inner voice type of thing."
那天下午晚些時候，當我例行出車經過一個安靜的郊外街區時，內心突然一陣涌動——如同一聲原始的尖叫，從內心深處升騰起來，我想：“我的生活為何如此艱難？”“給我一個信號好嗎？”我懇求道，“一個看得見摸的著的信號，而不是什么內在的聲音啟示你之類虛幻的東西。”
Immediately after this internal scream I pulled the bus over to drop off a little girl and as she passed she handed me an earring saying I should keep it in case somebody claimed it. The earring was stamped metal, painted black and said 'BE HAPPY'.
就在這聲內心的尖叫剛過去，我停下校車，放下一個小姑娘，就在她經過我身旁時，她遞給我一只耳環，說讓我先保存著以防萬一有人來認領。這個耳環是金屬片質地，黑色，上面寫著：“請快樂一點”。

At first I got angry—yeah, yeah, I thought. Then it hit me. I had been putting all of my energies into what was wrong with my life rather than what was right! I decided then and there to make a list of 50 things I was grateful for.
一開始我很憤怒，是的，是的。我想。隨后，它真正擊中了我，原來我把所有的精力投諸到我的生活為什么一團糟上，而不是感恩那些順境上。當即我就決定列一個表寫出讓我感激的人生50件事。
At first it was hard, then it got easier. One day I decided to up it to 75. That night there was a phone call for me at my friend's house from a lady who was a manager at a large hospital. About a year earlier I had submitted a syllabus to a community college to teach a course on stress management. (Yup, you heard me.) She asked me if I would do a one-day seminar for 200 hospital workers. I said yes and got the job.
一開始有些難，慢慢地就容易多了。有一天我決定要擴增到75條。那天晚上，在朋友家有一個電話找我，來電者是一位女士，她是一家大醫院的經理。大約一年前，我曾向社區大學提交了一份教授壓力管理的課程提綱。（呵呵，就是你聽到的沒錯）她問我是否可以為200個醫院員工做一個一天的研討會。我說沒問題就接下了這個活。
My day with the hospital workers went very well. I got a standing ovation and many more days of work. To this day I KNOW that it was because I changed my attitude to gratitude.
和醫院員工相處這天過得非常順利，我獲得了他們長時間地起立鼓掌，然后我又多得到了幾天的工作。直到此時，我終于明白了，一切都是因為我改變了心態，心懷感激。
Incidentally, the day after I found the earring the girl asked me if anyone had claimed it. I told her no and she said "I guess it was meant for you then."
更巧的是，就在我拿到耳環的第二天，那個女孩兒問我是否有人認領它。我告訴她沒有，然后她說：“那么我想它也許就是為你準備的。”
I spent the next year conducting training workshops all around the Seattle area and then decided to risk everything and go back to Scotland where I had lived previously. I closed my one-man business, bought a plane ticket and got a six-month visa from immigration. One month later I met my wonderful English wife and best friend of 15 years now. We live in a small beautiful cottage, two miles from a paved road in the highlands of Scotland.
接下來第二年的時間，我都用來在西雅圖各地辦培訓專題討論會，然后決定孤注一擲回到以前居住過的蘇格蘭。我結束了我的單身生意，買了一張機票，并從移民局獲得了六個月的簽證。一個月后，我就遇到了我那位理想的英國妻子，她也是我十五年的好友。我們定居在一個距大路約兩英里遠的蘇格蘭高地的一個美麗的小村舍中。
'THE ONLY ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE' has been my motto for years now and yes, it completely changed my life.
“感恩是唯一的心態”多年來已經成為了我的座右銘，是的，它徹頭徹尾地改變了我的人生。