14歲的時候，有人和我聊起天賦

文◎Anon 譯◎Mr.B. 繪◎馬豆子

14歲的時候，有人和我聊起天賦

文◎Anon 譯◎Mr.B. 繪◎馬豆子

When I Was 14, Someone Taught Me about Talent

I was 14, chubby①chubby 英 ['t??b?] 美 ['t??bi] adj. 圓胖的，豐滿的, and just finished running our daily mile for P.E in last place (I ran it in twelve minutes), when I started talking to my friend. I found out that he ran it in five minutes. I was frustrated②frustrated 英 [fr?'stre?t?d] 美 ['fr?stret?d] adj. 失意的，挫敗的；泄氣的, I told him that I wished I was like him, so I wouldn't feel like I'm dying.

He replied, "Is it easy for you to run, since it's so much slower than me?" I took this as an insult, and snapped③snap 英 [sn?p] 美 [sn?p]vt. 突然折斷；猛咬；啪地關上"Of course not!" To which he replied "So why do you think it's easy for me? Just because someone can do something better than you doesn't mean it's easy for them. Running a five minute mile is hard for me. Don't assume④assume 英 [?'sju?m] 美 [?'sum] vi. 假定；設想that people have it easy just because of their talents."

After he said that, he ran with me for the rest of the year, and my time improved to an eight minute mile in three months. If you start focusing on⑤focus on集中于everyone else's talent, you'll lose sight of what you were trying to do in the first place.

我14歲的時候圓胖圓胖的，每天體育課跑圈總是最后一名（要12分鐘才能跑完）。跟朋友說起這件事兒，才發現他只用5分鐘就能跑完全程。當時我很受挫跟他說希望自己能像他一樣，而且不會每次跑完步都感覺自己要死了。

他問，“你跑得那么慢是不是跑得很輕松？”我被刺痛了，所以吼了回去“當然沒有！”他反問：“那你憑什么覺得我就很輕松？如果一件事別人做得比你好，并不意味著他就比你輕松。5分鐘跑完全程對我來說是一項艱巨的任務。不要因為覺得某人很有天賦，就否定他的努力。”

說了這些之后，他陪著我跑完了那年剩下的課程。而我用了3個月的時間，把自己的用時縮短到8分鐘。一旦你把視線聚焦在別人身上，你就會有失偏頗，把一切歸結到所謂的“天賦”上，忘記了你應該做的事始終是改變自己。