Or do you let your critics decide what you will do?
On today’s Deep Thoughts Thursday, Lindsay and Michelle consider a quote from Teddy Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States.
When he was a child, Teddy Roosevelt was weak, sickly and asthmatic. He had poor eyesight, too. Yet he grew up to be one of America’s greatest symbols of achievement and individual strength. His attitude continues to inspire today, and is summed up in the following quote:
“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.”
Roosevelt suggests that we overcome trying to be perfect and instead develop a bias toward action. Put emphasis on doing something, not fear of what others will say. Don’t let critics overcome you or have power over you. The critic is not taking a risk, and so they are weaker than you.
Do you think about this attitude?
How have you behaved this way in your life?
Share your story with us in the comments section below!