One afternoon, many years ago, I went to pick up my mother from work. I got there a little early so I parked the car by the curb1, across the street from where she worked, and waited for her.
As I looked outside the car window to my right, there was a small park where I saw a little boy, around one and a half to two years old, running freely on the grass as his mother watched from a short distance. The boy had a big smile on his face as if he had just been set free from some sort of prison. The boy would then fall to the grass, get up, and without hesitation2 or without looking back at his mother, run as fast as he could, again, still with a smile on his face, as if nothing had happened.
At that moment, I thought to myself, “Why aren't most adults this way?” Most adults, when they fall down, make a big deal out of it3 and don't even make a second attempt. They would be so embarrassed that someone saw them fall that they would not try again. Or, because they fall, they would justify to themselves that they're just not cut out for4 it. They would end up too afraid to attempt again for fear of failure.
However, with kids(especially at an early age), when they fall down, they don't perceive5 their falling down as a failure, but instead, they treat it as a learning experience(as just another result/outcome). They feel compelled to try and try again until they succeed. The answer must be... they have not associated “falling down” with the word“failure” yet, thus they don't know how to feel the state which accompanies failure. As a result, they are not disempowered6 in any way. Plus, they probably think to themselves that it's perfectly okay to fall down, that it's not wrong to do so. In other words, they give themselves permission to make mistakes, subconsciously7. Thus they remain empowered.
While I was touched by the boy's persistence8, I was equally touched by the manner in which he ran. With each attempt, he looked so confident... so natural. No signs of fear, nervousness or of being discouraged—as if he didn't give a care about the world around him.
His only aim was to run freely and to do it as effectively as he could. He was just being a child—just being himself—being completely in the moment. He was not looking for approval9 or was not worrying about whether someone was watching or not. He wasn't concerned about being judged. He didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that maybe someone would see him fall(as there were others in the park aside from him and his mother) and that it would be embarrassing if he did fall. No, all that mattered to him was to accomplish the task or activity at hand to the best of his ability. To run... and to feel the experience of running fully and freely. I learned a lot from that observation and experience, and have successfully brought that lesson with me in my many pursuits in life.
Since then, I've always believed that in each of us is a little child with absolute courage. A child that has the ability to run freely(or express himself fully and freely)—without a care for anything external—without a care for what people would say if he/she experiences a fall.
I believe that that courageous part of us, that courageous child within us all, will always be with us for as long as we live. We only need to allow it to emerge more fully. We only need to once again connect with that child within us—and give that child permission to run freely, just like that boy in the park.
多年前的一个下午，我驱车去接母亲下班。因为到得稍微早了点，我就把车停靠在母亲单位对面的路边，等候母亲。
我透过车子右窗，看见一个小公园。公园里有个小男孩，约摸一岁半到两岁的样子，在草地上自由地跑来跑去，他妈妈就在不远处看着他。小男孩笑得很开心，好像刚刚摆脱某种囚禁。他摔倒了，毫不犹豫地爬起来，没回头看他妈妈一眼，又接着飞快地跑起来。笑容始终挂在他的脸上，仿佛什么事都没发生过。
那一刻，我就想：“为什么大多数成年人不能这样呢？”大多数成年人一旦摔倒，就觉得了不得，也不再努力。因为有人看到他们摔倒而让他们觉得大丢脸面，他们不再尝试；因为摔倒，他们就自我辩解，认为自己根本不适合奔跑。结果，因为害怕失败而最终放弃尝试。
然而，孩子们尤其是幼童，却不这样。当摔倒的时候，他们并不把摔倒视为失败，相反把它看作是学习的过程，是另一种成就或结果。他们觉得必须尝试、再尝试，直到成功。其实，问题的答案就在于孩子并没有把“摔倒”与“失败”联系起来，从而感受不到失败的滋味，因此也不会因失败而泄气。或许他们还觉得摔倒完全没关系，摔倒有什么错呢。换句话说，潜意识里他们允许自己犯错误，这样，他们就总干劲十足。
小男孩的坚持感动了我，同样，他奔跑的那种劲头也感动了我。每次尝试，他看起来都那么自信，那么自然，没有一丝恐惧、紧张、气馁，好像根本没把周围的世界放在眼里。
他惟一的目标就是自由奔跑，全神贯注地奔跑。他的行为正是孩子的天性，他活出了真实的自我，就在此时此刻。他不寻求他人认可，也不担心是否有人旁观。他不在乎别人的评判。他似乎根本没在意会有人看到他摔倒（除了他和妈妈以外，公园里还有其他人），也没难为情。是的，对他来说，重要的就是尽己所能地完成手头的事情或活动——奔跑……体验自由和全力奔跑的乐趣。看到此情此景，我深受启发，并成功地把这个启示落实到了我生活的各种追求之中。
从那以后，我就一直坚信，在我们每一个人的内心都有一个勇敢无畏的孩子——一个能自由奔跑的孩子，或者彻底且无拘无束地表现自我的孩子——不在乎外界，不在乎自己摔倒了人们会怎么说。
我相信只要我们活着，我们内心那个勇敢的部分、那个勇敢的孩子会永远与我们同在。我们只需要让他更彻底地释放出来，我们只需要再次与内心的那个孩子联络起来，允许他自由地奔跑，就像公园里的那个男孩一样。
1. curb n. 路边
2. hesitation n. 犹豫
3. make a big deal out of sth. 看重…；把…很当回事
4. be cut out for sth. 适合做某事
5. perceive v. 认识到
6. disempowered adj. 无能为力的
7. subconsciously adv. 潜意识里
8. persistence n. 坚持
9. approval n. 赞成，承认