Do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up? Maybe a fireman? A baker? A ballerina? You probably have some sort of idea what you ultimately want to do with your life. BUT are you actually doing it? Are you working towards it? Or have you given up all hope on your dreams with the burdens of daily life pulling you down?
你還記得自己夢想長大時做什么嗎?消防員?烘焙師?芭蕾舞演員?你都可能對自己最終想做點兒什么還有些想法。但你真的在做嗎?你是在朝著這個方向努力嗎?還是你在生活的壓力下已放棄了自己的夢想?
Pursuing your dreams comes along with many benefits! Here are some reasons why you should not give up on your dreams:
追隨你的夢想可以帶來很多益處!下面是你為什么不應該放棄夢想的幾個理由：
1. Failure.
失敗
This word seems counter-intuitive in reasons not to give up your dreams, but failure is more beneficial than you might think. Most people don’t pursue their dreams for fear of failure. Little do they know, this is one of the biggest ways we learn and grow!
把這個詞當做不要放棄夢想的理由似乎有悖直覺，但是失敗比你想象的要有用。大部分人都因為害怕失敗而放棄追求夢想。殊不知，這是我們學習和成長的最好的一個途徑!
Many famous and successful Americans had to fail over and over again to achieve what they hoped to in life. Abraham Lincoln failed at war, as a businessman, as a lawyer and even at politics at first. He pushed on through and became president of the United States. Thomas Edison’s teachers called him “stupid” and he was fired multiple times before “failing” 1000 times attempting to invent the lightbulb. Michael Jordan was once cut from his high school basketball team. He later said,
美國有很多著名的成功人士在追求他們想要的生活時都經歷了一次又一次的失敗。亞伯拉罕·林肯打戰失敗過，做商人時失敗過，做律師時失敗過，就連做政客時剛開始也失敗過。他繼續努力才成為美國總統。托馬斯·愛迪生的老師曾說愛迪生“愚蠢”，他在發明電燈泡前失敗了1000多次，在此之前，還被解雇了很多次。邁克爾·喬丹曾一度被高中籃球隊除名。后來他說，
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career.
I’ve lost almost 300 games
26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot … and missed.
I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed.”
“在我的職業生涯中，我有9000多個投球沒有投中。我輸的比賽幾乎有300場。有26次，大家相信我能投入致勝的一球…..但是我沒能。在我的生活中，我一次又一次地失敗。這就是為什么我現在成功了。”
If we can learn anything from these successful men, it would be to never give up on our dreams simply because of fear of failure.
如果說我們能從這些成功人士身上學到些什么的話，那就是不要因為害怕失敗而放棄夢想。
2. Persistence.
毅力
With that failure comes persistence. Persistence is something that can only be learned through hardships. If you never fall down, you can’t learn how to get back up. Each time we pick ourselves back up and forge through, we get a little bit stronger and more capable of achieving our ultimate goals.
失敗會帶來毅力。只有歷盡艱辛，才會擁有毅力。如果你從未失敗，你不會學會如何重新爬起來。每當我們重新振作前進時，我們都會更加堅強，更有能力去實現我們最終的目標。
3. It’s better to try and fail than to wonder what might have been.
嘗試和失敗比去猜想會發生什么要好的多
Have you ever regretted trying something in your life? Perhaps it was trying out for the school play. Or asking that special someone out on a date. That feeling of wondering what could have been might still eat at you even years down the road.
在你的生活中，你有沒有后悔去嘗試什么東西?也許是去嘗試學校的演出。也許是邀請那個特別的人出去約會。如果不去嘗試，那幾年之后，那種去猜想會發生什么事的感覺可能仍然在折磨著你。
How do you avoid that feeling of regret? By trying. You don’t have to do something huge, but sitting down and making a plan with small steps on how you will achieve your dreams will start you off in the right direction. Little by little you will forge a path towards your goals.
如何能避免那種遺憾的感覺?嘗試。你不必去做大事，但是坐下來，為如何實現夢想而制定一步一步的計劃會讓給你從正確的方向開始。漸漸地，你會找到通往目標的道路。
（兼職編輯：張博）
