Yesterday I heard a recitation of famous words by Theodore Roosevelt. They are part of a speech he delivered in April 1910. This portion of the speech captured my attention, and I keep thinking about it.
Wonderful words for a perfectionist who struggles with the fear of failure. Implementation is always more difficult than appreciation, but the battle always begins in the mind.
Words to mull over.
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.
-Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
We may be fools, but at least we feel, eh?
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