Goals Bring Growth – Sunday, October 25, 1981
Thoreau reminded us that “men were born to succeed, not to fail,”1 but the line between success and failure may be so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it. Often, we throw up our hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. Persistence can turn what seems to be hopeless failure into joyous success.
There is no failure except in no longer trying. Failure is not in falling down, but in staying down. If there is a single factor that makes for successful living, it is the ability to draw dividends from defeat.
We are more likely to conquer difficulties when we believe in our own ability to do so.
And this confidence in ourselves can inspire the confidence of others. It is a contagious kind of courage that carries others along with it.
A young man with great potential—stricken in his prime with a crippling disease—inspires all those who know him. Despite his affliction, he always finds the strength to maintain an attitude of optimism. He reads, he writes, he studies. He finds courage and comfort in the scriptures. He sets goals for himself. He became engaged and he married. And although travel is both difficult and painful for him, he and his bride left by car on their honeymoon. Upon returning, he wrote in his personal journal, “Next time we plan to travel south. After that, who knows? I hear Hawaii makes a great winter getaway.”
Courage, faith, optimism. Yes, Epictetus told us that “difficulties are the things that show what men are.”2 It is always possible to better our lives—to seek values and opportunity in any situation.
Attitudes, said a prominent psychiatrist, are more important than facts. A handicap is a fact. Hardship and disaster are facts. But when one person is defeated by a handicap, another is stimulated. Where one merely complains about hardship, another rises to the challenge.
Poet Joaquin Miller, inspired by the log of Columbus’ first voyage across the uncharted Atlantic wrote, “…What shall we do when hope is gone? …Sail on! Sail on! Sail on! And on!”3 Because men were indeed born to succeed, and to succeed at overcoming difficulty is the greatest success of all.
1 Henry David Thoreau, “Confidence and Achievement,” Light from Many Lamps, Simon and Schuster, 1951, p. 133
2 Epictetus, “Confidence and Achievement,” Light from Many Lamps, Simon and Schuster, 1951, p. 151.
3 Joaquin Miller, “Confidence and Achievement,” Light from Many Lamps, Simon and Schuster, 1951, p 139.
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October 25, 1981
Broadcast Number 2,723