Recent events have caused me to revisit the very source of motivation that drives me forward every day.
Of late especially, I feel behind, out of sorts. Again and again, I feel I fall short of the mark; at home, at work, in my community service activities, in my writing (CLEARLY here, this is only the second post for the month), I’m not shooting par. I’ve had moments of clarity, but many more of clouds; I’ve experienced the laser focus of productivity, but a lot of wandering from task to task, too.
This morning on the drive into work, this passage came to mind, and it seems to have pushed me over to the other side, the GOOD side, once again. I think I’m through the darkness of uncertainly and seeing more clearly the Light.
The main theme?
Get up each day, and get in the game, get back in the arena. If it was a good day prior, all the better. Make it happen again. If it was a crappy yesterday, no matter. The way forward is clear. Get up, dust off, and get after it. You’ll be glad you did. I know I am. Because that is who I want to be.
THE MAN IN THE ARENA
Excerpt from the speech “Citizenship In A Republic”
delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910
download PDF of complete speech
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
