I truly believe what this quote by Theodore Roosevelt says:
“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 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 and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Many times we come up short in things, simply because were are afraid to put ourselves out there. What if we give everything we have to something, and still don’t achieve the desired outcome...then what? So as a natural defense mechanism, many times we just say/do things like,”well I didn’t really care, if I wanted to, I would have done better,” or “I didn’t try very hard, if I had I would have won.”
I challenge myself each day to Live in the Arena, I challenge you to do the same. At least then you’ll know you gave it all you had, and THAT is something to be proud of.
