A Master Has Failed More Times Than A Beginner Has Even Tried
“A master has failed more times than a beginner has even tried” (with Chinese writing meaning “never give up”).
This is one of my favorite quotes because it speaks to the expectations many people have of themselves that end up causing depression, anxiety, anger issues, and other mental health issues. We aren’t usually happy with simply being who we are. We are always comparing ourselves to others, not really knowing those other peoples experience, their struggles and their strengths. In some ways this is a good thing because it can push us to try harder and do more, but in other ways it can be bad in that it can make us not appreciate the good things about ourselves. I remember when I first started exercising. I would compare myself to everyone who ran past my slow jog/walk. I seemed to especially compare myself if the person was 20+ years older than me. I would think to myself “how out of shape am I”, “how embarrassing is this” and I would just stop and give up. To get back into it, I had to really recognize that exercise was not strength of mine for various reasons, and that is okay. I have many other strengths and I am allowed to have a weakness and I am allowed to have a weakness that I want to work on so it becomes a strength. I also can recognize now that I am not going to be able to run a 5k the first day I am out on a jog after never exercising. Instead of comparing myself to other people, I started to compare myself to where I was when I started on my goal. This gave me a lot of encouragement and inspiration and now I love exercising, even though I am not usually the fastest or most graceful one out there.
I challenge you to stop comparing yourself, because as the quote implies, you weren’t witness to all of the other peoples struggles and don’t know their starting points or how many times they failed to get where they are at. Try to be better than you were last month, try to excel in something you aren’t great at. That alone is a success.