Tuesday, August 18, 2009

wisdom from Eleanor R.


I've heard Eleanor Roosevelt's quote "You must do the thing you think you cannot do" a bunch of times in my life and I've taken it to heart. Because of a conversation with my bff D I've been thinking about it again and wondering why you have to do the thing you think you cannot do. What difference does it make really, and shouldn't a free, adult person get to choose what she will do and won't do? Why must I do what I sincerely feel I might not be any good at?

And does this quote apply to golf? If it doesn't apply to golf, does it apply to getting on the loop-de-loop roller coaster?

Here's the whole quote: "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

I still think it's true, those words. What if one day I am called upon to do some great but incredibly hard thing, and I have not prepared myself for that destiny by taking advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves one at a time, day by day? Will God hold me responsible for that failure? If I am unable to complete it because I am not prepared? When the chances to prepare were offered all along the way and I turned them away?

Eleanor Roosevelt accomplished some amazing things. I wonder which of them she initially felt she could not do?

3 comments:

  1. That is a great quote. Could that mean that I need to pack my phobia up in a suitcase and get on a plane to Texas? Nah. It couldn't possibly mean that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. She probably thought she couldn't do the majority of what she did!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, Jenna, that's exactly what it means, except for the Texas part--you should stop in Oklahoma!! (hehehe)

    ReplyDelete