If you allow anything to hold you back it will hold you back. Whatever you allow to push you forward will push you forward. 如果你允许任何事情阻碍你，它就会阻碍你。无论你允许什么推动你前进，都会推动你前进。

There are many factors, circumstances and influences flowing through your life. Whether each one is a liability or an asset is to a large degree up to you. 你的生活中流淌着许多因素、环境和影响。每一项是负债还是资产在很大程度上取决于您。

Great disappointments and tragedies can arise out of seemingly perfect situations. And magnificent achievements can come from desperate, seemingly hopeless conditions, based on what you allow to get to you. 巨大的失望和悲剧可能源于看似完美的情况。而伟大的成就可能来自绝望的、看似绝望的条件，基于你允许得到的东西。

What matters most is not usually the nature of your situation. What makes a crucial difference is what you take from it and what you do with it. 最重要的通常不是您的情况的性质。关键区别在于您从中获取了什么以及您如何使用它。

Even in places and pursuits where others may have failed, you have the opportunity to succeed. Even those factors that may have held others back can be your motivation to move forward. 即使在其他人可能失败的地方和追求中，您也有机会成功。即使是那些可能阻碍他人的因素也可能成为您前进的动力。

Many things may seem inevitable, and yet most things are really not. No matter what life may send your way, look for how you can use it in a positive, productive and valuable manner. 许多事情似乎是不可避免的，但大多数事情实际上并非如此。无论生活会给你带来什么，都要寻找如何以积极、高效和有价值的方式使用它。

— Ralph Marston — 拉尔夫·马斯顿