The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least, most of us could compile formidable lists of ‘dos’ and ‘don'ts’. The same old favourites recur year in year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat less, find more time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the house, be nice to people we don't like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk every day. Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment. If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results from failure. Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious and we never have time to carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways. Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep my resolutions to myself. I limited myself to two modest ambitions: to do physical exercises every morning and to read more of an evening. An all-night party on New Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying on either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously to the task. The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to drag myself out of bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable. Nevertheless, I managed to creep down into the living-room for two days before anyone found me out. After jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions, I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition. It was this that betrayed me. The next morning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance. That was really unsettling, but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the family good-humouredly and soon everybody got used to the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned. The time I spent at exercise gradually diminished. Little by little the eleven minutes fell to zero. By January 10th, I was back to where I had started from. I argued that if I spent less time exhausting myself at exercises in the morning, I would keep my mind fresh for reading when I got home from work. Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to a book. One night, however, feeling cold and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read. That proved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to my old bad habit of dozing off in front of the screen. I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading. In fact, I have just bought a book entitled How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute. Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I just haven't had time to read it!

新年是下決心的時候，至少在大多數(shù)人的心里會編排出一份“應做什么”和“不應做什么”的令人生畏的單子。相同的決心以單調(diào)的規(guī)律年復一年地出現(xiàn)。我們決心每天早晨起得早些；吃得少些；多花點時間與孩子們一起做游戲；做大量的`家務；對不喜歡的人友善一些；小心駕車；每天都要帶著狗散步；等等。以往的經(jīng)驗告訴我們有些事是辦不到的。如果我們煙癮大，戒不掉，那是因為屢戒屢敗，失去了信心。我們大多數(shù)人想自我完善卻遭到失敗，這是因為我們的規(guī)劃過于宏大，而又根本沒有時間去實施。我們還犯有一個根本性的錯誤，即把我們的決心向大家宣布。這樣一旦滑回到那些環(huán)的老習慣上去，我們在別人眼里會顯得更加難堪。我深知這些問題，于是，今年我對自己的計劃要嚴加保密，只給自己定下兩項適中的任務：每天早上鍛煉身體，每天晚上多看點書。新年除夕舉辦的一次通宵晚會，使我理直氣壯地在新年頭一天免去了這兩項任務。不過，新年第二天，我全力以赴地照著去做了。

早鍛煉一共只有11分鐘，我打算在別人起床之前進行。這就要求我比平日早11分鐘把自己從床上拽起來，這種自我約束是很艱苦的。不過開頭兩天我還是成功地躡手躡腳地來到樓下起居室，被誰也沒發(fā)現(xiàn)。我在地毯上跳過來蹦過去，扭曲身子，擺出各種姿勢，弄得渾身不舒服，然后坐到桌邊吃早飯，一副筋疲力盡的樣子。正是這副模樣泄露了我的秘密。第二天早晨全家人結(jié)隊來到起居室看我表演。這真叫人不好意思，但我心平氣和地頂住了全家人的嘲笑和奚落。不久，大家對我習以為常了，而這時我的熱情卻減退了。我花在鍛煉上的時間逐漸減少，慢慢地從11分鐘減到了零。到了1月10日，我恢復了原來的作息時間。我辯解說，早晨少耗費精力鍛煉，晚上下班回家看書時頭腦更清醒些。有幾天晚上，我極力擺脫了電視的誘惑，坐在自己房間里，兩眼盯在書上。可是，有一天夜里，我感到又冷又孤單，便來到樓下坐在電視機前假裝看書。這下我可完了，因為不一會兒，我就恢復了以前的壞習慣，在屏幕前打起瞌睡來。但我還沒有放棄多看些書的決心。事實上，我剛買來一本叫《一分鐘讀一千字的訣竅》的書。也許這本書能解決我的問題，但我一直還沒時間去看這本書！