Acknowledge, And Move On

It's not the critic that counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or whether 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 and often comes up short again and again. Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause. And who, if at best in the end, knows the triumph of higher treatment and high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his soul shall never be with those cold and timid ones, who know neither victory nor defeat. -Theodore Roosevelt

Cold and timid souls. We have far too many of those running around these days. I am seeing more and more people completely paralyzed an not moving past a mistake or event in their life.

Most people like this get completely caught up in analyzing and thinking about whatever went wrong. Many people say that they are caught up in "analysis paralysis". I say that they are just sad, and making excuses. We used to be a people that could endure hardship, and come back. We are turning in to a people that will dissect anything and any event to the point of doing absolutely nothing.

Is this you? Stop it!

How?

• Ask yourself this. Did this kill you? No? Still breathing and above ground? Great! You can still do something.
• Did it critically harm something else or someone? Well then, why? Unless you are a sociopath and intend purposefully to harm others or do damage to things, There is probably a lesson here.
• If this was simply a failure or an everyday disappointment, what are you making yourself miserable for?  Listen, you are only hurting yourself, and the people around you and in your life by staying so focused on all this negativity. You don't have to keep on like this.
• Learn the lesson of the event. I call it an event, because that is all it really is. Time marches on, and so should you.
• Acknowledge, and move on. If you can see the lesson, and learn from it, then get back up and get after it again. The only one that will remember your failures most of the time is you. If you learn from your past events and don't continue making the same mistakes over and over again, then you will have some successes mixed in there at some point!

People fail, things are usually hard, and we all experience difficulty. The difference is what you make of it. As my favorite quote above says, get in the arena! No matter what, because if you are in the arena, you will learn, it's the struggle that makes us.

Fight on!