Man in the Arena

  

I recently read the most amazing quote entitled "Man in the Arena", an excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In a Republic" delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23rd April, 1910 by Theodore Roosevelt.

"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." 

My thoughts are simply these that; I would rather be the man in the arena, the one that knows what blood, sweat and tears taste like than the critic who dare knows neither victory nor defeat!

To me, this is really about choosing to be the fearless version of myself; the one that opened a company that had its ups and downs because she wasn’t certain how to, the one who still went ahead and fought her way up through hard work, planning and strategy, the one who got her fitness back, the one who studied long hours with no sleep to get her school out of the way, the one who never gave up because the economy seemed nuts and everything was falling apart. The one who does and eventually becomes everything she ever dreamed of. 

I want to forever be that fearless version of myself.

The battle between the great me and the average me - ashamed to say that the average me has won a lot of those battles. When asked what my biggest fear is, I would say it has been the fear of my true potential - of finding out where exactly I belong in the food chain... but really and truly, with great power comes Great RESPONSIBILITY, could it be that that is my greatest fear? 

 So many questions, but at least I am asking them.

Again I say, I would rather be that man in the Arena, because the Arena is a training ground for who I really ought to be. I will fall and get bruised, maybe more than once, that's a given. But the arena is where I belong. The pews are too crowded anyway.

 Bless