人生不设限·你可以选择想象更美好的生活

通过我在超过25个国家的演讲、DVD和You Tube上几百万的浏览人次，我有幸将充满希望的讯息带给许多人。我实在很难想象，如果我在10岁就结束自己的生命，将失去多少喜悦、失去多少与人分享人生故事和领悟的机会——包括印度的12万多人、哥伦比亚斗牛场中的18000人，以及乌克兰一场大雷雨中的9000人。

Through my speaking engagements in twenty-four countries, DVDs, and millions of YouTube.com views, I've been blessed to reach so many with a message of hope. Think about just how much joy I would have missed experiencing if I had taken my life at the age of ten. I would have missed the extraordinary opportunity of sharing my story and what I'd learned with more than 120,000 people in India, another 18,000 in a bullring in Colombia, and 9,000 during a thunderstorm in Ukraine.

随着时间过去，我逐渐明白，在那个阴郁的日子里，我没有取走自己的生命，是上帝取走了。

In time I came to understand that even though I didn't take my life that dark day, God did.

他取走我的生命，重新赋予它更多意义、目的与喜乐，远远超过一个10岁孩子有限的眼光所能理解的。

He took my life and gave it more meaning and more purpose and more joy than a ten-year-old boy could ever have understood.

不要去犯我差点犯下的过错。

Don't you make the mistake I nearly made.

1993年那次，如果我让自己的脸再往水下沉个十多厘米，或许我是能结束短暂的痛苦，但代价是什么?我将看不到现在这个在夏威夷海边与海龟一同游泳、在加州冲浪、在哥伦比亚潜水的开心男子。除了这些探险活动，更重要的是，我或许永远不可能接触到这么多生命。

If I had remained facedown in six inches of water back in 1993, I might have ended my temporary pain, but at what cost? That despairing child could not possibly have foreseen the joyful man swimming with great sea turtles off the Hawaiian coast, surfing in California, or scuba diving in Colombia. Even more important than those adventures are the many lives I might never have touched.

我只是个微小的例子，挑个真正的英雄吧，无论是德蕾莎修女、甘地，或是马丁·路德·金牧师，你会发现这些人虽身处逆境——监狱、暴力，甚至死亡威胁——却始终相信，他们的梦想会战胜一切。

I'm just one small, tiny example. Pick any true-life hero, whether it's Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, or the Reverend Martin Luther King and you'll find someone who had to weather adversity—prison, violence, even the threat of death—but held on to the belief that their dreams could prevail.

当负面思想与阴暗的情绪找上你时，请记住，你是有选择的。如果你需要帮助，就去寻求帮助，因为你并非孤单一人。你可以选择想象更美好的生活，然后采取行动实现它。

When negative thoughts and dark moods come to you, remember that you have a choice. If you need help, reach out for it. You are not alone. You can choose to picture better days and to perform actions that will make them real.

想想看，当我还是个孩子时，我面对些什么，而如今我过的又是怎样的日子?谁知道未来的你会有什么样美好的人生与伟大的成就?谁知道通过我们的付出，我们能成为多少人生命中的奇迹，帮助他们活得更美好?所以，请与我同行，跟我这个没手没脚的人一起走进充满希望的未来吧!

Consider what I was up against as a boy and look at my life now. Who knows what great days and wonderful achievements await you? Who knows how many lives we can make better by serving as someone else's miracle? So walk with me, the man with no arms and no legs, into a future filled with hope!