One day, a hardworking farmer found an eagle's egg lying on the ground of his farm. He was in a hurry and he paid no attention to it and carelessly placed it together with all the chicken eggs. After several days, the egg hatched¹ and the little eagle came into the world.

The eagle thought he was the same as the other chickens, so the eagle pecked² and dug for worms. He ran about and sometimes jumped around, flying a few feet in the air like the chickens. Over the years, the eagle grew old and tired. One day he saw a splendid bird flying overhead³, and asked,” Who is that?” “That's the king ofthe sky—the bald eagle,” replied a chicken. ”The sky is her home. We're chickens – our home is on the farm.”

And so the eagle lived and died like a chicken, for that's what he believed he was.

Are you an eagle that acts like a chicken? Unfortunately, many people have great talents but never bring them to use. Actually, we can make our talents take off by developing our character strengths. Suppose there was a young man who was interested in the world. He asked questions about his environment, explored new neighborhoods where he lived, and soon he mentally mapped out the city he lived in. He used his curiosity⁴ to make the best of his talents for spatial⁵ intelligence.

When we use our character strengths, we will recognize that we are eagles.

文章大意：

一天，一个勤奋劳作的农民发现一只鹰蛋落在了他的农场。他当时很忙，所以没怎么理会这颗蛋，于是将它和鸡蛋混放到一起了。几天后，鹰蛋开始孵化了，之后一只小鹰就出生了。

这只鹰以为自己和其它的小鸡一样，所以也跟着小鸡一起啄食、挖虫子。它到处乱跑，有时候也跳来跳去，和小鸡一样在空中飞行几英尺。随着时间的流逝，这只鹰变得又老又疲惫了。一天他看到一只杰出的鸟在空中飞翔，于是它问：“那是谁？”一只小鸡回答：“那是天空之王-秃鹰。天空就是她的家，而我们只是小鸡，农场才是我们的家。”

所以这只鹰一直以小鸡的方式活着、死去，因为它相信它就是小鸡。

你是活得像一只小鸡的鹰吗？不幸的是，很多人有天赋但不能加以运用。其实，我们可以通过发展我们的个性优势使我们的才华得以施展。设想一下有一个对世界很感兴趣的年轻人，他问了一些关于环境的问题，探索了他居住的新社区，很快他就在脑海中勾勒出了他居住的城市。他利用自己的好奇心，充分利用自己的空间智慧。

当我们发挥我们的性格优势时，我们就会明白其实自己也是老鹰。