English Original
One afternoon many years ago, I arrived early to pick up my mother from work. I parked by the curb across from her workplace and waited.
Looking out the car window to my right, I saw a small park. There, a little boy of about one and a half to two years old was running freely on the grass, his mother watching from a short distance. He wore a huge smile, as if just released from a prison. He would fall, get up, and without hesitation or a glance back at his mother, run as fast as he could again, still smiling as if nothing had happened.
For young children, falling isn't perceived as failure but as a learning experience. They feel compelled to try repeatedly until they succeed. They haven't yet associated "falling down" with "failure," so they aren't disempowered by it. Subconsciously, they give themselves permission to make mistakes, believing it's perfectly okay to fall.
I was touched not only by the boy's persistence but also by the manner of his running. With each attempt, he looked utterly confident and natural—no fear, nervousness, or discouragement, as if he didn't care about the world around him.
His sole aim was to run freely and as effectively as he could. He was simply being a child, being himself, completely in the moment. He wasn't seeking approval, worrying about being watched, or concerned about judgment. The potential embarrassment of others seeing him fall didn't bother him. All that mattered was accomplishing the task at hand to the best of his ability: to run and to fully feel the experience of running freely.
That observation taught me a profound lesson, which I have carried into many pursuits in my life.
中文翻译
多年前的一个下午，我提前到达母亲工作的地方接她。我把车停在她单位对面的路边等候。
我向右边的车窗外望去，看到一个小公园。一个大约一岁半到两岁的小男孩正在草地上自由地奔跑，他的母亲在不远处看着。他脸上洋溢着灿烂的笑容，仿佛刚从某种禁锢中被释放出来。他会摔倒，爬起来，然后毫不犹豫，也不回头看母亲，再次竭尽全力地奔跑，脸上依然带着微笑，仿佛什么都没发生过。
对于幼童而言，摔倒并不被视作失败，而被当作一次学习经历。他们感到必须不断尝试，直到成功。他们尚未将“摔倒”与“失败”联系起来，因此不会因此感到气馁。潜意识里，他们允许自己犯错，认为摔倒完全没关系。
男孩的坚持让我感动，他奔跑的方式同样触动了我。每一次尝试，他都显得无比自信和自然——没有恐惧、紧张或气馁，仿佛毫不在意周围的世界。
他唯一的目标就是自由地奔跑，并尽可能跑得尽兴。他只是在做一个孩子，做他自己，完全活在当下。他不寻求认可，不担心是否被人注视，也不在意被评判。别人可能看到他摔倒（因为公园里除了他和母亲还有其他人）以及可能带来的尴尬，这些似乎都没有困扰他。对他而言，唯一重要的是尽自己所能完成手头的任务：奔跑，并完整体验自由奔跑的感觉。
那次观察给我上了深刻的一课，我将它应用到了人生许多追求之中。