The Quotes That Built Me
We all carry things with us… not tools, not gear, but words. Quotes that stick. Lines that are said at the right time and stay with you.
These are a handful of mine.
“Do or do not, there is no try” – Yoda
If you’re setting out to try, you’re already setting yourself up to fail. Why not just do the thing and either succeed at it or fail at it? If you succeed, you win. If you fail, you learn, ready to go again if you choose to DO it again.
“There is no such thing as can’t” – My Grandad
I am totally aware he didn’t make this up… but when I was 5 years old I thought he did. I asked for a job so I could help him, and he gave me a little task of pulling weeds. I said, “I can’t.”
His response, that there was no such thing, has stuck with me ever since.
The truth was, I didn’t want to… not that I couldn’t.
This is true through all of life. You can achieve anything you want to. There is no such thing as can’t. If you think you can’t do something, you’re just not ready yet you need to put the effort into it and practice. Learn the skill, get the qualification, overcome your fear, what ever it is, whatever you think you can’t do, you can, it’s just on the other side of time and effort.
“There is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing” – Ranulph Fiennes
This guy is the business.
Again, I know he didn’t make this up, Billy Connolly also said it, but Ran is one of my heroes and he embodies this quote.
The greatest living explorer. The things he has done and the places he has been prove the whole “no such thing as can’t” bit.
“The world is a huge place how will you know where you fit in unless you explore beyond your comfort zone?” – Ernest Shackleton
The world is massive! There are hot bits, cold bits, wet bits and dry bits, and that’s me just generalising.
How do we know that where we are now and what we are doing now is what we are supposed to do? We don’t.
We must explore everything. Say yes to everything. Because you might just find the thing you’re supposed to do… or the place you are supposed to be.
Also, Shackleton was an incredible human being. The guts on the fella!! Jeez!
“Be naive enough to start, stubborn enough to finish” – Ross Edgley
I guess I’ve accidentally gone along with this my whole life. I always take things on or agree to do stuff with excitement, with very little thought to how I will be feeling when the time comes to actually do it.
But my positivity, stubbornness, and refusal to fail gets me through the thing I have started.
I do worry that as I get older the naivety will make way for the experience of life and I will start saying no to the things that ultimately will make me grow!
“You can’t always win, but don’t be afraid of making decisions” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
I guess I am lucky in life, I’ve always been happy to make a decision. Take responsibility, take the bull by the horns and decide on a direction to go in. Like Arnie says, don’t be afraid to make the decision. Own it and roll with it.
Take responsibility and whatever happens at the other end is on you. Yeah, occasionally it won’t go right… If that’s the case, learn from it.
“You’re here today because you come from a long line of survivors” – My Dad
This is the truth. We are lucky to be here.
Without going too deep, the Earth had to be in the perfect position at the perfect time, with a string of things having to go exactly right for us to even exist… That’s enough Brian Cox, I’m nowhere near clever enough!
But our ancestors had it hard! Before modern medicine there was no guarantee you’d make it through childhood. And if you did, there was always something lurking about that might get you. Throw a couple of world wars into the mix as well…
If you’re here now, it’s because your ancestors were pretty damn tough, and maybe even a bit lucky.
Life is a miracle…. to be conceived, go full term, be born healthy and survive everything life throws at you… it’s a blummin miracle.
So don’t stress.
Just live.
TM
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