【美文欣赏】成功是一种选择

Success Is a Choice

All of us ought to be able to brace ourselves for the predictable challenges and setbacks that crop up everyday. If we expect that life won't be perfect, we'll be able to avoid that impulse to quit. But even if you are strong enough to persist the obstacle course of life and work, sometimes you will encounter an adverse event that will completely knock you on your back.

我们每个人都应该让自己做好准备，迎接每天可以预见的挑战和突如其来的挫折。假如我们相信生活并非十全十美， 我们就能够避免因一时冲动而放弃追求。但是即使你足够坚强并能够在生活和工作的障碍重重的道路上挺进，有时候你也会遭遇逆境，它将会在背后给你狠狠一击。

Whether it's a financial loss, the loss of respect of your peers or loved ones, or some other traumatic event in your life these major setbacks leave you doubting yourself and wondering if things can ever change for the better again.

不管是出现经济损失，或是失去同辈及亲人的尊敬，或是遭受其他的生活重创，这些巨大的挫折都会使你对自己产生怀疑， 并且想知道情况是否能够好转。

Adversity happens to all of us, and it happens all the time. Some form of major adversity is either going to be there or it's lying in wait just around the corner. To ignore adversity is to succumb to the ultimate self-delusion.

我们每个人都可能遭遇困境，而且它时常发生，有些灾祸不是即刻发生就是藏于角落以待时机。而忽视逆境则无异于彻头彻尾的自我欺骗。

But you must recognize that history is full of examples of men and women who achieved greatness despite facing hurdles so steep that easily could have crashed their spirit and left them lying in the dust. Moses was a stutterer, yet he was called on to be the voice of God. Abraham Lincoln overcomes a difficult childhood, depression, the death of two sons, and constant ridicule during the Civil War to become arguably our greatest president ever. Helen Keller made an impact on the world despite being deaf, dumb, and blind from an early age. Franklin Roosevelt had polio.

但是你必须认识到，历史上有许许多多的事例，都讲述了克服重重困难之后才成为卓越不凡之人。而他们曾面对的困难如此之大，以至于足以轻易粉碎他们的意志，并让他们流落于尘俗之中。摩西曾有口吃，但他后来却成为传播上帝福音的使者。亚伯拉罕·林肯战胜了童年的艰难困苦、绝望沮丧、丧失两子之痛以及内战中纷至沓来的嘲弄，最终成为美国历史上无可争辩的最伟大的总统。海伦·凯勒从小就双目失明，双耳失聪，又是个哑巴，但她还是对世界产生了深刻彩响。而窗兰克林·罗斯福则患有小儿麻痹症。

There are endless examples. These were people who not only looked adversity in the face but learned valuable lessons about overcoming difficult circumstances and were able to move ahead.

类似的例子不胜枚举。这些人不仅大胆地直面逆境，而且从中学到了征服困境的宝贵经验，然后能够勇往直前。