B

    When I was a little girl, my father loved to play catch (抛接球游戏) with me. I wasn't very good, but he would encourage me. He was always telling me “keep your eye on the ball” as I would not be able to catch even the easiest of throws.

    As I got older, we didn't play catch as much. If I had a problem, I would go to my father to ask for his advice. He would try to joke with me and say “keep your eye on the ball”. We would both laugh because usually that advice did not apply to(适用于) the problem, but he would try to make me smile.

    My father became ill in 1995 when I was 23. As he suffered from a stroke (中风), he could not speak. There weren't any more conversations. He could only mouth words, which were sometimes hard to understand. After a while, I seemed to be pretty good at reading his lips (嘴唇), even better than the nurses who were caring for him.

    During our last conversation, I was telling him about a problem I was having with my then boyfriend. Once again, I could read his lips： “Keep your eye on the ball.” We both smiled.

    That was the last time I saw my father before he passed away.

    Since then, when I get into a stressful situation I tell myself “keep your eye on the ball”.

    Lion was the King of the Jungle(灌木丛). One day, Giraffe told Lion, "Rabbit says he is the new King of the Jungle." "What?" Lion was very angry. He went to meet Rabbit. The other animals followed him to see what he would do. "Rabbit," said Lion, "Why do you say that you are the new King of the Jungle?" "Oh, but it's true," said Rabbit. "I'm faster and cleverer than you. We can have a competition（竞赛）.""All right," said Lion.

    Rabbit took Lion to a deep ravine (深谷). He said, "If I fly down to the ravine faster than you, I am faster and cleverer than you. So I go, or you will go first?" "Of course I will go first," said Lion, "I am the King of the Jungle!" He then threw himself into the deep ravine. Rabbit smiled and said to the other animals. "I am your new king now. I am faster and cleverer than Lion." The other animals didn't understand.

    "Lion was stupid! Anyone will die after jumping into the ravine!"

    About 10 years ago, I started a job as a trainer. In one of my first classes, the head trainer told us a story.

    He began by drawing a man standing in the middle of a circle. To make it more interesting, he drew things like a house, a car, and a few friends inside the circle.

    He asked the question," Can anyone tell me what this is？"In a long silence, one guy decided to speak out," The world?" The trainer said, "That's close. Actually, this is your Comfort Area. Inside your circle, you feel very comfortable. You have all the things that are important to your home, your family, your friends and your job. People feel that inside this circle they are safe from any danger."

    " Can anyone tell me what happens when you step out of this circle？"A strong silence came over the room. At last, the same guy started," You are afraid." Another guy said," You make mistakes." The silence continued and the trainer smiled and said," When you make mistakes, what can the result be?" The first guy shouted," You learn something."

    "Quite right, you are learning." The trainer turned to the board and drew an arrow（箭头）pointing from the man to the outside of the circle.  He continued to say," When you leave your Comfort Area you put yourself out there, in front of the world to be in situations that you are not comfortable with. The end result is that you have learned something that you did not know and you slowly become a better person." He turned again to the board and drew a bigger circle around the first one, and added a few new things like more friends, a bigger house, etc.

    The moral of the story is that if you stay inside your Comfort Area, you will never be able to expand your horizons（开阔视野）and learn. When you step out of your Comfort Area you will finally make your circle bigger and your mind grow stronger, and all in all a better person."