Risky Business 2

I ran across these quotes today, and I thought they were relevant to our recent theme:

"There are risks and costs to a program of action but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."--John F. Kennedy

“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.” –William Jennings Bryan

In regards to everything you will do this year, whether the activity or decision involves school, think about what you can achieve if you are willing to take action and get out there and do something, rather than just waiting for something to come to you.

Many people approach life as though it were a very posh restaurant. They sit at the table, and they will never get that filet if the waiter forgets about the order. They may place the order, but they depend on someone or something else to bring everything to them down to the last serving of butter or refill of tea. On the other hand, there are folks who approach life as if it were a buffet. They walk up to the serving area, examine all of their options, and select what they want on their plates. They march up, take what they want and build their own menu step by step. If they don't want root vegetables with their entree, no problem. They pick up corn on the cob, instead. Still others decide to go shopping and prepare that juicy steak on the grill just the way they want it. If you think of that in terms of how you live your life, consider which type of diner you are. Do you wait for everything to come to you, do you look at the selections out there and take what you want, or do you create your own dishes and enjoy them just the way you want them to be?

Try this thought on for size:


"When you develop yourself to the point where your belief in yourself is so strong that you know you can accomplish anything you put your mind to, your future will be unlimited."

— Brian Tracy: Pre-eminent entrepreneurship expert

You are the only one who sets limits to what you can achieve! Do you believe in yourself and your ability to do anything you set your mind to? When I consider these ideas, I am reminded of a familiar passage from Ralph Waldo Emerson (that's one of the reasons I love his work so much--he had all of this down a long time ago...). In his famous essay, Self Reliance, this is what he said about doing what you set out to do:

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark."

Ok. I know that's a lot to translate, but consider each line carefully, and see what you come up with. If you have questions, shout them out by responding to this post. And don't worry--this isn't the last time you'll see that passage. Oh, by the way, when I went to look up this quote online so I could share it with you, here's what I found on the first page of the browser. I think it attests very well to what these knowledgeable men are saying. It's about a skyscraper, the design of which is so complicated and gravity-defying that it could not have been built several years ago...this building is going to be the headquarters for Chinese television and was constructed in relationship to the Olympics in Beijing. You really have to see it to believe it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080720/wl_mcclatchy/2994196

What do you think of it? At the very least, it's visually impressive.
There is a concrete example of how man can achieve unbelievable things if he only applies himself and believes that he can do it. How did they build it? Nobody told them they couldn't...

I hope you're having a great summer!