virgin islands scene

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
-- Rumi
 

 

Friday, March 28, 2003

Decisiveness

If you could live your life backwards it would be easy to avoid mistakes. You could simply look back on the mistakes, clearly and unmistakably see them coming, and move in another direction.

In the real world, where time moves only forward, avoiding mistakes is not nearly so easy to do. For the only way to completely avoid mistakes is to completely avoid taking action.

But that, of course would be the biggest mistake of all. For although you would never make any mistakes, you would never move forward either, and never get anything done.

In order to accomplish anything, you have to accept the fact that you’re going to make some mistakes. Of course you would never set out to intentionally make a mistake, and it’s wise to take reasonable precautions against them.

And then, have the courage to move forward, to make definite decisions, to take specific actions, even though some will turn out to be mistakes. When the mistakes do come, that very same decisiveness will get you quickly past them.

— Ralph Marston

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