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.

大約六個月前，我在一家健身房報名。

每天早上，在我們小組訓(xùn)練的時候，一位私教在做著他自己的訓(xùn)練。

他充滿決心和毅力地進(jìn)行日常訓(xùn)練，仿佛一切都很輕松的樣子，然而我深刻地知道他做的訓(xùn)練是多么辛苦。

每當(dāng)我快要抱怨、放棄的時候，我總是會看著他一次次地突破自己的極限。

于是我總是能重新找到努力訓(xùn)練、不再滿腹怨言的動力。

幾周前，我看著他毫不費力地做著引體向上，于是離開隊伍，跑過去問他，我是否可以嘗試一下引體向上。

我從沒做過引體向上，但教練做起來非常輕松的樣子。他熱情地走到一邊，讓我站上去試試。

我想都沒想便做了起來，一個，兩個。我只能做這么多了，我再也沒有力氣了。

我告訴教練我只能只做這么多了，于是他走到我身后，推著我做了第三個、第四個。做完之后，我感覺真的很棒！第二天，我做完自己的訓(xùn)練之后，讓他再看看我做引體向上。我還是只做了兩個，第三天、第四天仍是如此。

我很不滿意自己只能做兩個引體向上，但周末當(dāng)我去到健身房時，偶然看到教練站在那兒搖著頭。

我問他發(fā)生什么事了嗎，他卻說他被我做的引體向上震驚了。

他告訴我，消防員的訓(xùn)練要求男性做五個引體向上，女性則需要做一個或兩個。

他解釋道其實很多人根本一個也做不了，他很驚訝我竟然可以做到。

他還告訴我如果我堅持每天訓(xùn)練，很快就能完成五個或六個引體向上。

到了這個時候，我或許應(yīng)該告訴你，我是個已經(jīng)五十歲的女人了。

假如教練一開始就跟我說引體向上是這么困難，我很可能完全不會嘗試。

或者即使我嘗試了，也只會用上一半的力氣，畢竟失敗是預(yù)料之中的。

我稱贊教練讓我相信，對我來說，成功不僅僅是一個可能性，而是一個可以達(dá)成的期待。