For those who want to achieve great things, there are no excuses in the world.
There is no succumbing to temptation, no matter the price you have to pay. Because, in the end, wherever your personal drive and demeanor takes you, you will be able to say you never faltered or strayed from your path.
There is lots of advice about the importance of failure, but I think one of the places where people go wrong is that they apply this concept to their morals and values. “My principles flopped, but hey that’s part of life right?
Failure is important.” I beg to differ on this. I say that your principles should be non-negotiable. You should never stray from what you believe in no matter what. How can you live with yourself if you do?
Of course you are going to fail in life, but don’t fail because your conscience failed.
Fail because you stayed true to yourself and you gave it your all. This is a concept that I have struggled with on and off for a while.
Letting my moral compass slide for one reason or another. I would rather fail 100 times over than let my morals and values slip. It is just the worst feeling in the world. I am glad that I am self aware of this concept because I never want to go back to that feeling ever.
I find it significantly frustrating when people give up on who they really are. They just pack up the bags and hop of the train that is full of everyone else that gave up.
Never give up. Never give in.
Recently, I have been given a significant amount of free time (knee surgery). I have been spending the days icing, elevating, watching movies, reading, sleeping.
That really is about it. I will pick myself up for meals, but the majority of the day is spent in bed.
I watched this amazing documentary on this Norwegian WWII hero named Max Manus who lived through this philosophy.
He believed at his core that there was a greater cause and that he never would give in to the enemy. In fact, when he was fully surrounded in his apartment by the German army, he literally jumped out of the window just to buy himself more time so he could figure out how to escape.
Good lord.
I wonder if I would have the heart to do something like that.
Something happened to me yesterday that I would not have expected to happen in a million years. It was good to see that person again, and interestingly enough, my heart didn’t race for a second.
It was just, calm. I knew that eventually I would run into them again, but I wasn’t sure what my reaction or feeling about the situation was going to be.
Well, trust me when I say I was incredibly surprised when my heart stayed calm and at peace.
I am at peace. I have a full heart.
Never before have I felt this way.
For me, it was an uncomfortable feeling at first last night when I laid down to sleep. There has always been a raging storm underneath by pale British skin.
But as things are beginning to settle and settle more, I am stuck with the feeling of nothingness. A nothingness that can be filled with something. That anything can be created out of.
It is only when you fully let go of the past that you can fully live in the present. Not the future. The present.
Needless to say coming out of the Forum I was almost stunned with how much I could create and how much I could do. Holy hell i told myself after I cleaned up all the mess I had made.
I find myself in a very interesting point in my life right now because of all the time I have because of my surgery. I have so much time to think and so much time to just hang around.
Yes I am still being productive, but you know what I mean. I think this is just one of the best mental breaks I can possibly get. So I am enjoying the quiet time while it last right before school.
My heart is beating again. And that is all I have to say about that 🙂
Whatever your goal is, never give into your excuses for not achieving it.
You can do anything you want in the world, you just have to go out and get it.
There is no reason why you cannot be a hero.
Be a hero for the world, trust me, we need them.
Go. Go now.
And never look back
Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project