Last night I was delighted to introduce Rena, one of my closest friends from school, to a few new friends I met at the China Personified launch party. We were chatting with our new friend Li about the Intercollegiate Business Convention that our Women in Business club at Harvard hosts every year. As we chatted, Rena mentioned how she spent almost three hours the other day negotiating rates for the convention center that we are to host our conference at. Amazed, I joked to Li that Rena really has three jobs, exaggerating a bit about the fact that in addition to her day job at her internship, planning the IBC conference was truly like having another full-time job.
“Ok, I see that I have two jobs,” Rena conceded. “But what’s my third?” she asked.
I thought about that for a minute, and then I answered—“Taking care of yourself.”
At the time, I made that answer up on the fly, but thinking more deeply about it, our #1 job and #1 priority in life should really be to care for ourselves. In the pursuit of success, whether that be success in school, success in your internship, success in a career, or even just success in finding pleasure, the first thing we cut when we feel pressed for time is time for ourselves. Sleep, proper meals, and exercise are just a few of those things, and alone time, thought time, meditation time, and yoga time are additional ones that can often be cut out of my schedule. Today however, I deliberately took the time to stay in my dorm for a few hours and exercise, meditate, do some yoga, and eat a healthy, home-cooked meal. Many of us, including myself, don’t give ourselves enough time to do these things that are an essential part of living a balanced and happy life. So let’s take this “third job” and make it first—you’ll find that doing your #1 job well will enable you to find success in all of your other ones as well.
“好吧，我只看到两份工作，”瑞纳说。“但是，我的第三份工作是什么？”她问道。
我想了大约一分钟，我回答说，“照顾好你自己。“
当时，我是随便回答她，但后来更深入地思考，我认为照顾好自己确实是每个人的第一位工作。在追求成功的路上，不管是在校学生，或者实习生，或者已经工作的人，甚至只是享受乐趣的人， 我们感到时间紧迫的时候，第一件事就是削减自己的时间。比如睡眠，进餐时间，锻炼时间， 独处冥想的时间，做瑜伽的时间，这些经常从我的日常安排中减掉了。然而今天，我特意留下时间在我的宿舍里锻炼了几个小时，养神， 做瑜伽，做家常菜。我们许多人，包括我自己，不给自己足够的空间做这些事情，但是这些时间是生活平稳和幸福生活的重要组成部分。因此，我们应该把“第三职业”当成第一职业—你会发现，做好你第一职业将使你在其他职业成功 。