3 . Perhaps you have ever heard the saying: Change is the only constant. Everyone, without doubt, goes through changes in their life, whether it is a physical state of aging or a mental state of emotional maturity. However, some are afraid to make the conscious decision to move or they think it’s too late to have a fresh start.

I have a friend named Jack. At the age of 37, he is a Senior Manager at one of the Big Four. He has a great salary, owns his own apartment and enjoys the fine things in life, but not without the heavy burdens that his job brings. On the surface, it looks like he has got life figured out. Yet when I once asked if he was happy with his work, he answered that he sometimes wished to quit his job to do something less stressful. But he’d become accustomed to this lifestyle and felt that it would be too late to give it up to achieve a new ambition.

For him, the risks are too high, so whether he can’t abide his present job or not, he has to choose to suck it up. You might have come to a similar situation as Jack’s or you might be a Jack. You’re now facing a wall. No matter what it is—the stress of your job or the terrible feeling, it’s time that you had to decide whether you’ll tear down that wall or continue to let it enclose you. I suggest pushing back the boundaries and breaking the fixed patterns. Why do you feel it’s too late to start over? That is simply because you’re comparing yourself with others — younger or more successful individuals. In fact, you should compare yourself with the older version of you.

Don’t become that person who lets life pass by only to regret it when you are making your way into old age. Don’t let your life plateau (停滞不前) and waste away in the daily chores. Don’t give up the potential you still have hidden and be locked away by your current state. Now, you’d better bravely start going after the things you want to do, without abandoning your dreams, ambitions and responsibilities.

As a student, I have few opportunities to work owing my full schedule. But an activity called Farm Work Program left a deep impression on you. During the program, I had to get up early and did arranging farm work with my classmates. For example, we help water the plants and picked vegetables. While work, I realized how hardly it was to work with my own hands.

What happy it was to enjoy the fruits of my labor. At home where we can help our parents do some housework. We can help wash dishes before dinner. Remember that nothing can make us happy than seeing the results of our hard work.

5 . Being jobless for the last three months, I am upset nowadays. My son has lost his ______ from a good school and he might have to go to a less qualified school. I have moved from a spacious (宽敞的) apartment to a small one in order to ______ my living expenses. My wife has built extra stress. On top of that, my father in-law ______ a week ago, which has added fuel to fire, ______ our family into a more terrible state.

In these circumstances I have two mental ______: either to feel upset and keep losing my peace of mind, or ______ my negative thoughts with super mental powers about self-confidence and consistency, and ______ applying for new jobs with positive attitude.

I choose the second option because I believe that the pain I am ______ today will build up my ______ . My strengths will then increases my confidence and make me a good times make me a ______ man one day. I understand that good and bad stages are part of ______ . While good times make me happy, bad times ______ the ‘inner’ me.

Two months later, ______ , I have finally landed on a job which is very exciting and offers a nice salary. Time has healed my wife’s mental stress ______ the death of her father. My son has already been accepted by another good school because the admissions for new academic year were still ______ !

As I am back on the track of normal life, I can ______ say that the most important things that helped me ______ the crisis (危机) were my consistent character of patience, and ______ attitude towards life. So, while I wish you all the best life can ______ you, I would highly recommend taking the same attitude towards life ______ you are trapped in any of such situations.

Life is full of various experiences, some of them are unforgettable. I still remember the hiking experiences with my classmates for 16 km a year ago. That summer day, we set off early in the morning, think it would be a great fun to walk for so long a distance. However, as the weather is getting hotter and hotter, I found their legs heavier and heavier. What’s worse, my feet began bleeding because long time pressing against the shoes. At one point, I even wanted to give up. But I managed to dragging the rest of the way to the destination. Though not pleasant, this journey was impressive or rewarding, I have learnt that life is a long journey like this. No matter what happened, we should never give up.

8 . While I was growing up, I often heard my teachers say, “Oh, Bob is gifted in math.” While watching the Olympics, my parents would say, “These gymnasts are born with such ability.” Statements like these made me believe people were born with certain talents (天赋) and if they didn’t have a particular one at birth, then they never would. Therefore, I hardly applied myself to math. Nobody told me that if you keep trying and trying, one day a difficult task will seem easy.

Actually, I learned this from my young daughter, Samaya. One day, I was finishing some paperwork and I said, “Oh no, how could I have made that mistake!” Samaya immediately said, “Mum, don’t worry. Mistakes make your brain grow bigger.”

In fact, we all need to be reminded that mistakes or failures are just fine and that they are a huge part of growth and success. However, the common and popular belief is the opposite. We must correct this with our children. We must encourage them to make mistakes because that means they are trying out new ideas.

Billionaire Sara Blakely, founder of the shapewear business Spanx, has seen many failures. She made a living by selling fax machines for seven years. Knocking on many doors and making a lot of mistakes was a journey she considers educational. Sara Blakely owes her risk-taking skills to the weekend talk she had with her father.

As a child, her father would ask her the same question every weekend. “What did you fail in this week, Sara?” He did not care how high her scores were. He wanted to know what she had tried but failed in. When she told him about her failures and mistakes, he would give her a high five. In this way, he programmed her mindset (思维) to believe that mistakes and failures are fine.

9 . With his leg lame and his teeth uneven, the boy thought of himself as the most unfortunate child in the world. He _________played with his classmates, and when asked to answer questions, he always _________his head without a word.

One spring, his father brought home some saplings (树苗).______of his children would plant a sapling and he promised, "Whoever ________ his sapling best shall get a gift." The boy certainly wanted to get the gift.______seeing his brothers and sisters watering the trees, he_______ an idea: he hoped the tree he planted would die soon. So watering it once or twice, he never_______ it.

Several days later, he was _________ to find it not only didn't die, but also grew so many fresh ________. Compared with those of his brothers and sisters, his appeared greener. His father kept his _______, bought the boy a gift and said he would become an outstanding________ after growing up.

From then on, the boy slowly became_____ and confident. One evening, he suddenly________ his biology teacher once said that plants ________ grow at night. Why not go to see the tree?

When he came to the courtyard, he found his father working near the tree! Immediately he ________: Father had been secretly ________ his tree! He returned to his room, tears in his eyes.

Decades passed. The boy didn't become a botanist. ________, he became the U.S.__________. His name was Franklin Roosevelt.

________ is the best nourishment (滋养品) of life. ________ it is just a bucket of water, it can make the tree of life grow well!

10 . One of the most inspiring quotes(名言) I ever heard was by Brian Tracy. He said: “The_________between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people_________many more times than unsuccessful people.”

I deeply understood the _________ of the quote soon after my first book was published.

I was living in Atlanta at the time and ___________ my first signing sale for my new book at the phoenix and Dragon, the largest bookstore in the city. Although a nice sign was placed outside the room ___________ images of both me and my book, The 9 Insights of the Wealthy Soul, not a single customer entered the room. _________ each minute passed, I became increasingly _________.

At 6:25 pm, just before the store’s _________, I began to get myself ready to leave. At that moment, just when I couldn’t fell any _________, a middle-aged couple walked into the room. I managed to ____________ my emotions and introduced myself and my book.

The couple turned the pages each other, and the husband ____________ to his wife. She then told me, “I think we’ll get the book.”

Despite the impulse (冲动) to jump ____________, and hold their hands to thank them for being my __________ readers, I realized the woman was trying to say something else.

“The __________ we’re buying it is that our son died two years ago,” she said. “Maybe your book will help us ____________ it .”

At that moment, I knew if I never sold a copy of the book, my four years of __________ had been meaningless.

Although I would have many more challenging years ____________ my book became a bestseller, this couple’s story was all the __________ I needed at that point to keep me __________.

Thanks to them, I would realize that the greatest of lives are made all in the same way : One challenge ... one challenge ... one difficulty ... one step ... and one small ____________ at a time.