During a research experiment a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank.

在一个研究实验中，一个海洋生物学家把一条鲨鱼放进一个大的水箱中，然后投放了一些小的诱饵鱼进去。

As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacked and ate the smaller fish.

你可能已经预料到了，鲨鱼快速地在水箱里四处游动，攻击并吃掉了那些较小的鱼。

The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. She then put the shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other.

然后海洋生物学家将一面强韧的透明纤维玻璃插入到容器中，创建了两个单独的分区。然后，她把鲨鱼放在纤维玻璃的一边，另一边是一组新的诱饵鱼。

Again, the shark quickly attacked. This time, however, the shark slammed into the fiberglass divider and bounced off. Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to no avail. Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around unharmed in the second partition. Eventually, about an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up.

再次，鲨鱼迅速攻击。然而，这一次，鲨鱼撞上了玻璃纤维隔板并被弹了回来。每隔几分钟，鲨鱼就不信邪地重复这徒劳的行为。同时，那些作为诱饵的鱼在另一个区域里毫发无伤地游来游去。最后，经过大约一个小时的实验，鲨鱼放弃了。

This experiment was repeated several dozen times over the next few weeks. Each time, the shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, until eventually the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether.

在接下来的几个星期里，这个实验重复了几十次。每一次，鲨鱼的攻击性都变得更弱，并较少尝试攻击诱饵鱼，直到最终鲨鱼厌倦了冲击纤维玻璃隔板，并完全停止攻击。

The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark didn’t attack. The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fish, so the baitfish swam wherever they wished, free from harm.

然后海洋生物学家拿走了纤维玻璃隔板，但鲨鱼没有攻击。鲨鱼被训练得相信了它和诱饵之间存在一道屏障，所以鱼儿游到任何地方，都不会受伤害。

Samely, as a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

同样，当一名男子经过象群的时候，他突然停了下来。这群庞大生物被一根系在他们前腿的小绳子拴住了，他对此十分困惑。没有锁链，没有笼子。显然，任何时候大象们都可以挣脱束缚，然而，由于某种原因，她们并没有挣脱。

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

他看到附近的训练员，问道，为什么这些动物只是站在那儿，却不尝试逃脱。“咳，”训练员说，“在它们很小的时候，我们用同样尺寸的绳子拴着它们，那个时候，这条绳子足够拴住它们了。随着它们渐渐长大，它们习惯性地认为自己无法挣脱。它们以为这条绳子依然可以束缚住自己，所以它们从不会尝试挣脱。”

Many of us, after experiencing setbacks and failures, emotionally give up and stop trying. Like the shark and elephant in the story, we believe that because we were unsuccessful in the past, we will always be unsuccessful. In other words, we continue to see a barrier in our heads, even when no ’real’ barrier exists between where we are and where we want to go.

我们中的许多人，在经历挫折和失败后，会从情感上选择放弃，并停止尝试。好比故事中的鲨鱼和大象，因为过去失败过，所以就觉得永远不会成功。换句话说，我们经常会在我们的脑中看到一个障碍，即使我们所在的位置和我们想要达到的位置之间并没有“真正的”障碍。