Daily Mood Quote
Day 138 – September 18, 2011
Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours.
~Richard Bach
So, the other day I'm sitting on the sofa watching Jeopardy with Alex Trebek and words came across the screen that I could not see. My first reaction was to feel sorry for myself. Stupid limitation...Then, I began to wonder about the limitations that others experience. Some physical limitations can't be helped, like my eyes. It would not have taken much to get up from the sofa, walk over to the television, and read what was scrolling across the bottom of the program. Instead I became frustrated and stopped myself from achieving what I wanted to do; read the words. I paid more attention to my limitation than my goal.
I believe a lot of people make that mistake and so goals are not achieved. It's not a limitation that others are putting on me, its a limitation that I chose to define me for just a moment. True, diminishing vision is not something to be taken lightly, but I have the opportunity to overcome it and achieve more. Cavett Robert said, “Any person who selects a goal in life which can be fully achieved, has already defined his own limitation.” That's another way of saying your reach should exceed your grasp. The point is your reaching and pushing forward, not sitting back saying “woe is me” that just doesn't cut it.
In the movie Rudy, Rudy (played by Sean Astin), was told by many that he was too small to play college football. Determined to not allow the limitation of others stop him, he went out for the team at Notre Dame. After two years of playing football Rudy was told by Fortune (Charles S. Dutton), “You're 5 foot nothin', 100 and nothin', and you have barely a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in there with the best college football players in the land for 2 years. And you're gonna walk outta here with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. In this life, you don't have to prove nothin' to nobody but yourself. And after what you've gone through, if you haven't done that by now, it ain't gonna never happen. Now go on back.” Maybe not the King's English, but it gets the point across. We all are capable of achieving the things in life we truly desire, maybe not to be the “very best”, only one person can be that, but to “hang in there”, be the best you can be and like Rudy achieve bigger things in life. It's what we need to prove to ourselves that drives us toward excellence. When we let others define those goals, or tell us we can't, we are only letting our dreams fade on the shelf and letting our best selves fade right along side them.
That's how I view my vision situation (punny I know). I am achieving in a post-graduate program that has humbled many and many never even try. Not because its somebody else's idea of what I should do, or be, but because its a goal that burns inside. We all have limitations, some physical, some financial, some self made and all too often limitations put upon us by other's attitudes. The key is to look toward the goal and not at the blockers in front of you. And when you see an opening, go for it with all you've got. Rudy did. There is a fellow who plays for the New England Patriots (Danny Woodhead, from tiny Chadron State College in Nebraska), who is only 5'8” tall and he is succeeding among giants. Miniature running back dominates in the NFL, bumblebees fly, and anyone with a goal that burns inside can achieve. It's when you push past your “limitations” that amazing things begin to happen.
What goals “burn” inside you today?
Tune in tomorrow to read the daily mood quote
Thank you for reading
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