thanks for the invite to shout

great advice is timeless isn’t it? Thank you for your comment to my post and thank you for the inspirational extract.

All of us who dare to put pen to paper, for whatever reason, will face moments of self doubt and frustration. However I fully believe that these will be counter-balanced by moments of exhilaration and sheer joy.

When the ledger is tallied up, I hope it is the latter moments that will be ‘to the good’.

Thanks
Will

I found this today, it is from a book called “Readings for young men, merchants, and men of business” (note, it is from 1866 so anywhere that it says “men”, go ahead and think “women” as well…)

I’ll be thinking about it for a little while.

–

It is weak to be scared at difficulties, seeing that they generally diminish as they are approached, and oftentimes even entirely vanish. No man can tell what he can do until he tries. It is impossible to calculate the extent of human powers; it can only be ascertained by experiment. What has been accomplished by parties and by solitary individuals in the tundra and the frozen regions, under circumstances the most difficult and appalling, should teach us that, when we ought to attempt, we should not despair.

The reason why men oftener succeed in overcoming uncommon difficulties than ordinary ones, is, that in the first case they call into action the whole of their resources, and that in the last they act upon calculation, and generally under-calculate. Where there is no retreat, and the whole energy is forward, the chances are in favor of success, but a backward look is full of danger.

Confidence of success, is almost success; and obstacles often fall of themselves before a determination to overcome them. There is something in resolution which has an influence beyond itself, and it marches on like a mighty lord amongst its slaves; all is prostration where it appears. When bent on good, it is almost the noblest attribute of man; when on evil, the most dangerous. It is by habitual resolution that men succeed to any great extent; impulses are not sufficient. What is done at one moment is undone the next; and a step forward is nothing gained unless it is followed up.

“What is difficulty?” says a popular author. “Only a word indicating the degree of strength requisite for accomplishing particular objects; a mere notice of the necessity for exertion; a bugbear to children and fools; only a mere stimulus to a man!”