In the 1950s, a female swimming athlete set a goal for herself.

二十世纪五十年代，一位女游泳运动员给自己定了一个目标。

She decided¹ to swim across the English Channel before she retired².

她要在退役之前横渡英吉利海峡。

If she could make it, she would be the first person in the world who did it.

如果她成功做到的话，那她将是世界上的第一人。

On that day, she jumped into the sea without any hesitation³ and swam towards the oppostie bank.

到了那一天，她毅然决然地跳进了大海，向海峡对然游去。

In the journey, she faced heavy fog, heavy rain and heavy waves. Though she was tired, she still carried on swimming.

在途中，她遇上了大雾，遇上了大雨，还遇上了汹涌的大浪，虽然很累，但她依然坚持向前游。

But in the end, she gave up.

然而，最终，她还是放弃了。

And what she didn't know at the moment she gave up was that the opposite bank was only 1 mile away.

而在她放弃的时候，她所不知道的是：她离对岸只有一英里了。

Later people had asked her about the reason. And she said: "The reason why I gave up is that I could not see the destination which I was so closed to reach."

事后有人问她放弃的原因，她说：“我之所以放弃，是因为我看不到即将到达的目标。”

Too many success stories have been lecturing us about courage and persistence⁴. But they never told us where to find courage and persistence.

有太多成功的故事都在强调勇气和坚持，然而，它们却从不告诉你勇气和坚持从哪里来。

You can only have courage when you know where your goal is. You can only manage to persist when you know where your goal is.

只有当你知道目标在哪的时候，你才能真正有勇气，才能真正做到坚持。

And that's because only when you know where your goal is can you prepare yourself well mentally.

因为只有当你知道目标在哪的时候你才能做好心理准备。

Courage and persistence never fall from the sky.

坚持和勇气从来都不是天上掉下来的美好品质。

They come from weighing between input⁵ and output.

它们来自你对投入和产出的权衡。

A life without goals is like a ship without a compass. It goes nowhere.

没有目标的人生，就像没有罗盘的船，哪也去不了。

There is no courage or persistence in a life without goals.

在一个没有目标的人生里，根本没有所谓的勇气与坚持。