梁小明

编者注：有些人常常抱怨自己生不逢时，上天对自己不公。殊不知，拥有什么样的人生完全取决于你自己，在这个世界上，人们一次又一次地证明了这个道理：世上无难事，只怕有心人。

Every person creates his or her own reality. Authorship1 of your life is one of your absolute rights; yet so often people deny that they have the ability to script2the life they desire. They look past3 the fundamental4 truth that it is not our external resources that determine our success or failure, but rather our own belief in ourselves and our willingness to create a life according to our highest aspirations5.

每个人都创造着自己的生活。人人享有创造自己生活的绝对权利，然而人们总是否认他们有能力描绘自己所期望的人生。他们忽视了一个根本的事实，即决定我们成功与失败的不是外在条件，而在于我们对自己有没有信心，是否愿意根据自己的最高志向创造生活。

Clearly, the challenge here is to create and own your own reality. When you begin to live your life understanding that what you make of it is up to you, you are able to design it according to your authentic choices and desires. You will learn lessons here, such as responsibility and limitlessness, which will lead you to the life you were meant to live. These lessons provide you with the essential tools you need in order to take command of your life.

显然，这里的挑战是创造并拥有自己的生活。你一旦明白自己是生活的创造者并开始努力创造生活，你就能够按照自己真正的选择与愿望去设计人生。在这里你将学到一些东西，比如责任和潜能无限，它们将带你走进你想要的人生，并将给予你主宰自己的人生所必需的重要手段。

Responsibility 责任

To take responsibility means you admit your accountability6 and acknowledge your influence and role in the circumstances in which you find yourself. It means you are answerable for yourbehavior and you fully accept any consequences created by your actions.

承担责任是指你认同自己负有责任，承认自己在自身所处环境中的影响和作用，也就是说你为自己的行为负责，完全承担由自己的行为所造成的一切后果。

To take responsibility will propel7 you forward and onward to your greater goal. I know of a woman named Mary whose story of personal responsibility has always inspired me. Mary was born in Cuba and moved to Miami with her family when she was two years old. They lived in terrible poverty in a dangerous part of the city, where crime and drugs were part of everyday life. Mary was determined, however, even at the young age of eight, to make something of her life other than follow the expected route of becoming a maid, or a cashier at the local supermarket. So she got herself to school each and every day, sometimes having to step over drunks passed out8 in the doorway, just so she could get education and give herself a better life.

承担责任能推动你不断前进，实现你的更大目标。我认识一个叫玛丽的女人，她自己承担责任的故事一直鼓舞着我。玛丽出生在古巴，两岁时和全家一起搬到迈阿密市。他们生活贫困，住在迈阿密的危险地区，那里犯罪和毒品肆虐成灾。然而，玛丽8岁时就立志要干出一番事业，而不是她本该走的生活道路——当个女佣人或当地超市的收银员。为此，她每天去上学，有时甚至不得不从那些醉倒在家门口的酒鬼身上跨过去，因为只有这样她才能受到教育，为自己创造更好的生活。

Mary eventually left Miami, obtained a good education, and fostered9 her natural music ability. Mary could have given in to the life she was born into, or remained mired10 in blaming her parents and culture for her circumstances. She could have refused to take responsibility for the situation. Instead, however, Mary took responsibility for herself and created a life of which she can be proud.

玛丽最终离开了迈阿密，获得了良好的教育，并发展了她的音乐天赋。她本来可以向与生俱来的命运屈服，或者继续埋怨自己的父母和她所处的环境。她可以拒绝承担任何责任。然而，她本来却为自己承担了责任，并且创造了她可以引以为豪的生活。

Responsibility is a major lesson of adulthood. If you still havent learned the lesson of responsibility, its not too late.Remember, life will provide you with plenty of opportunities to get it right.

承担责任是成年人的一门必修课。如果你还没有学会承担责任这门课，现在还为时不晚。记住，生活会给你提供许许多多的机会去学会承担责任。

Limitlessness 潜能无限

Limitlessness is the sense that there are no boundaries to what you can become or do. You learn it when you know that your evolution11 is never-ending and your potential12 for growth reaches to infinity13.

潜能无限，即没有任何东西可以限制你成为你想要成为的人，做你想要做的事。如果你意识自己的进步是永无止境的，自己的发展潜力是无穷无尽的，那你就学会了这一课。

You were born knowing your limitlessness. As you grew and became socialized in this world, however you might have come to believe that there are boundaries that prevent you from reaching the highest levels of spiritual, motional, or mental evolution. However, boundaries exist only in your mind. When you are able to transcend14 them, you learn the lesson of limitlessness.

当你生下来的时候，你就知道自己的潜能是无限的，然而，随着你慢慢地长大，逐渐融入社会生活，你可能就开始相信有种种极限阻止你，使你不能达到精神、情感上和思想上的最高层次。然而，这些极限只存在于你的心里。如果你能超越它们，你就知道了什么就无限。

When I was young, I had a teacher who understood the importance of this lesson. She reminded us every day that we could do anything we set our minds to, no matter how impossible it might seem or how strong the opposition is. It is my sincere hope that there is a teacher like Mrs. Carbone in every school around the world, so that our children can know the wonder and power they have within themselves and will strive15 to access it.

我小时候的一位老师深信这一课程的重要性。她天天提醒我们：无论多么艰难，只要下定决心，我们就能做成任何事。我真诚地希望世界上的每所学校都有像卡波恩夫人这样的老师。这样，我们的孩子就会懂得他们身上拥有惊人的才能和力量，而且会去努力发掘它。

In this world, we have countless people who have proven that a person can do whatever he or she strives to do.

在这个世界上，人们一次又一次地证明了这个道理：世上无难事，只怕有心人。