大象的繩子

As a man was passing the elephants， he suddenly stopped， confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains， no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could， at anytime， break away1 from their bonds but for some reason， they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt2 to get away.“Well，” trainer said， “when they are very young and much smaller， we use the same size rope to tie them and， at that age， its enough to hold them. As they grow up， they are conditioned to3 believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them， so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at anytime break free from their bonds， but because they believed they couldnt， they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants， how many of us go through life hanging onto4 a belief that we cannot do something， simply because we failed at it once before？

Failure is part of learning； we should never give up the struggle in life.

當一個人從大象群旁邊路過時，突然停住了，他感到迷惑不解：這些龐然大物只是被一根小小的繩子拴著，而那根繩子就系在它們的前腿上。沒有鎖鏈，也沒有牢籠。很明顯，大象能在任何時刻從它們的“禁錮”中掙脫出來，但出于某種原因，它們并沒有這么做。

他看見附近有一位馴獸師，便詢問為何這些動物只是乖乖地站在那里，而并沒有企圖逃掉。“呃”，馴獸師說，“在它們還非常年幼而且個頭也很小的時候，我們用同樣尺寸的繩子拴住它們，在那個年紀，這足以能扣留住它們。當它們逐漸長大時，便習慣于認為自己是不可能逃脫的。它們料想那根繩子仍舊能夠約束它們，于是就永遠也不去嘗試強行掙脫。”

那人感到十分驚奇。這些動物可以在任何時刻從它們的“禁錮”中逃脫，但因為它們確信自己做不到，而被困在原處。

就如同這群大象一樣，我們中有多少人在生命的歷程中固守自己做不到某事的信條，僅僅是因為我們曾經在這方面失敗過一次呢？

失敗乃是學習的一部分；我們永遠都不應該放棄生命中努力奮斗的機會。