Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed, but with what it is still possible for you to do.
Pope John XXIII
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If you really want to make yourself miserable at this joyful holiday season take a pen and a pad of paper and make a list of all the times you failed. It'll pass the time, and the older you are the more time it will take.
On the other hand you can acknowledge the fact that "to err is human" as the old worn out saying goes and that you are not the only person around who has racked up a good history of flops.
To sit around remembering past failures or even past successes is a good time waster. It has been said that while young men have dreams, old men have memories. To that I say: Feh! Sure I have memories and sometimes I draw on them to think and write about something. But that's the reason, and I don't want to dwell on the memories of my failures. Those memories are useless. Lessons have been learned and life goes on. I want my remembering to be like a sun dial which indicates only sunny hours. And when I draw on them I want them to be accompanied by the sweet sounds and gentle aromas that pertain to my present life. Life is a forward thing. It isn't what I've done it's what I'm capable of doing that matters. So why should I waste my time and mental energies on the past when I could be designing, devising, determining. Today is today. Tomorrow is different. I want the difference to be according to me.
In keeping with that impetus I have put together the suggestions for the famous world renowned WINTER QUESTION and come up with the following.
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.
You have all Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
DB - The Vagabond
4 comments:
As past is prologue, there is nothing wrong with remembering our failures so they are not repeated. But to obsess about them is limiting and can be quite debilitating indeed. This is a thoughtful post, DB. Thank you.
A good read as usual DB. I've learned through life not to obsess about what didn't go as I hoped and to just move on and look forward to what tomorrow brings. It works for me.
My glass is half full, and I look forward to filling the other half.
I'm with you...I do my best to learn from my mistakes and then move on. I'm not always successful, but I keep trying! :)
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