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WHAT IF LIFE THROWS YOU A CURVE BALL?
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When You've Been "Throwed" |
The fables of Aesop, a Greek slave of the 6th Century B.C., have remained
part of our cultural heritage over the centuries because they contain such
important grains of truth. To say that we are only human is to relate an
important truth in and of itself. However, there are certain traits that
allow people to rise above the crowd with outstanding achievement.
One such trait - a characteristic vital to great, long-term accomplishment,
is persistence. Aesop described persistence in the fable of the tortoise and
the hare. Clearly the hare was faster, more athletic, and should have won
the race handily. A lack of persistence did him in.
Why is it that we see people with huge talent and great ability go nowhere
while average intellects and talents achieve greatness? It all comes down to
who sticks with it. In a dog-eat-dog world, there will always be someone out
there willing to work harder or smarter in order to eat your lunch.
However, the good new is, life is not a race! Even had the hare kept going
instead of stopping to nap, the tortoise would have arrived where he meant
to go. He might not have won the race, but he would have harvested the
rewards that were awaiting him.
That means, of course, that we need to know where we are going and why. The
German philosopher, Nietzsche, wrote, "The person with a strong enough Why
can endure almost any How." If you don't know why you are doing something,
it becomes very difficult to keep at it. If you don't know what you want,
knowing why you are doing it becomes hard, as well. Clarity of vision is
vital.
It's been said that Andrew Jackson's boyhood friends just couldn't
understand how he became a famous general and then the President of the
United States. They knew of others who had greater talent but who never made
such a mark in the world. One of Jackson's friends commented, "Why, Jim
Brown, who lived right down the pike from Jackson, was not only smarter, but
he could throw Andy three times out of four in a wrestling match. But look
where Andy is now."
Another friend responded, "How did there happen to be a fourth time? Don't
they usually say three times and out?"
"Sure, they were supposed to, but not Andy. He would never admit he was beat
- he would never stay 'throwed.' Jim Brown would get tired, and on the
fourth try Andy would throw him and be the winner."
Andrew Jackson just wouldn't stay "throwed"! And that determination served
him well for many years.
Life will knock us off our feet again and again. You've been there and so
have I. But some people just won't stay "throwed." They get up again, dust
themselves off and go for it one more time. These are people of courage.
They are also people of faith and hope.
Maybe you have been knocked off your feet. Will you stay "throwed," or will
you rise and give it your best one more time?
Calvin Coolidge, onetime President of the United States, put it this way:
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not;
nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not;
unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full
of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
Successful people are simply ordinary people who do ordinary things
extraordinarily well. They do things extraordinarily well because they keep
at it. They persist. It doesn't matter how much musical talent you have, if
you practice enough you will learn to play the piano - not like a Horowitz,
perhaps but well enough to derive a lot of satisfaction from it.
And if you fall, remember that the glory is not in never falling, it comes
in rising every time you fall. The way to look at those curve balls that
life might throw at you is depicted on a sign we saw at (of all places) the
local State Department of Commerce:
Adversity is Mandatory
Misery is Optional
We all get to choose how we respond. We don't get to choose what we respond
to, we can choose how we respond. If we respond in a positive and proactive
fashion, we can persist and keep at what it is we want to do as we move
toward our dream.
So decide with clarity what it is you want, make that your Why in your
actions and activities, and keep on keeping on. If life throws you a curve
(which it will quite often), keep on keeping on.
More To Think About
Here are a few more axioms for you - points of wisdom gathered over the
years:
- "I can complain because rosebushes have thorns, or rejoice because the
thornbush has a rose."
- "That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do; not that the task
becomes easier, but that our power to perform becomes greater."
- "In golf and in life, it's the follow through that makes the difference."
- "Successful people have formed the habit of doing those things that
unsuccessful people don't want to do."
- "Parvis e glandibus quercus." (Latin for 'tall oaks grow from little
acorns')
- "Challenges can be stepping stones or stumbling blocks, depending upon how
you view them."
- "If you think it can't be done, please don't interrupt those who are doing
it."
- "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." (Ralph Waldo
Emerson)
- "Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently" (Henry
Ford)
- "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." (John
Lennon)
- "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even
though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor souls who
neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in gray twilight that
knows not victory or defeat." (Theodore Roosevelt)
- "Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will
acquire the skill to do difficult things easily." (Friedrich Schiller)
- "Strong reasons make strong actions." (William Shakespeare)
- "The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look
for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."
(George Bernard Shaw)
- "And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A
man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you
at your own reckoning." (Anthony Trollope)
- "Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." (John
Wooden)
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