BecauseIWasToldICan

About six months ago， I joined a gym.

Every morning， there is one personal trainerthere who works out at the same time that my lit-tle group does our workout.

He does his“routine”with such a quiet de-termination that he makes it all look very easy， al-though I know all too well how hard he is work-ing.

Whenever I tend to complain and quit， Iwatch him push himself to his own limits， and Ifind myself motivated to work as hard and with-out complaint.

A couple of weeks ago， I was watching himdo chin- ups. He made them look effortless. Ibroke away from my group and asked him if Icould try a chin-up.

I had never tried before， but he just made itlook so easy. He eagerly stepped aside and en-couraged me tXHpxqJXNGpGbBjNWbifFKw==o step up to the bar.

I pulled myself up without thinking… once…then twice. That was all I had in me. I had nostrengthleft.

I told him that was all I had， so he steppedup behind me and pushed me up for a third andfourth“pull”. It felt so good.

The next day when I was done with myworkout， I asked him to spot me again. Again， Idid two.Again on day three and so on.

I thought it was pitiful that I could only dotwo， but when I came to the gym at the end of theweek， he was standing there just shaking his head.

When I asked him what was up， he said hewas impressed with my chin-ups.

He told me that when they are training fire-fighters， the men are required to do five chin-ups，and women are required to do one or two.

He explained that most people can’t dothem at all， and that he was amazed that I could.

He further told me that if I practised everyday， I would be doing five or six in no time.

At this point I should probably add that I am50 years old… and female.

Had he told me at the very beginning howdifficult it was， I more than likely would not havetried at all.

Or I might have tried， but given it only halfan effort， because failure would have been the ex-pectation.

I applaud him for letting me believe that forme， it was not only a possibility， but that successwas a realistic expectation.

大约六个月前，我在一家健身房报名。

每天早上，在我们小组训练的时候，一位私教在做着他自己的训练。

他充满决心和毅力地进行日常训练，仿佛一切都很轻松的样子，然而我深刻地知道他做的训练是多么辛苦。

每当我快要抱怨、放弃的时候，我总是会看着他一次次地突破自己的极限。

于是我总是能重新找到努力训练、不再满腹怨言的动力。

几周前，我看着他毫不费力地做着引体向上，于是离开队伍，跑过去问他，我是否可以尝试一下引体向上。

我从没做过引体向上，但教练做起来非常轻松的样子。他热情地走到一边，让我站上去试试。

我想都没想便做了起来，一个，两个。我只能做这么多了，我再也没有力气了。

我告诉教练我只能只做这么多了，于是他走到我身后，推着我做了第三个、第四个。做完之后，我感觉真的很棒！第二天，我做完自己的训练之后，让他再看看我做引体向上。我还是只做了两个，第三天、第四天仍是如此。

我很不满意自己只能做两个引体向上，但周末当我去到健身房时，偶然看到教练站在那儿摇着头。

我问他发生什么事了吗，他却说他被我做的引体向上震惊了。

他告诉我，消防员的训练要求男性做五个引体向上，女性则需要做一个或两个。

他解释道其实很多人根本一个也做不了，他很惊讶我竟然可以做到。

他还告诉我如果我坚持每天训练，很快就能完成五个或六个引体向上。

到了这个时候，我或许应该告诉你，我是个已经五十岁的女人了。

假如教练一开始就跟我说引体向上是这么困难，我很可能完全不会尝试。

或者即使我尝试了，也只会用上一半的力气，毕竟失败是预料之中的。

我称赞教练让我相信，对我来说，成功不仅仅是一个可能性，而是一个可以达成的期待。