"Don't let your will roar when you power only whispers."
Thomas Fuller
17th century British clergy/author
I have mixed feelings about this.
It might be telling us to temper our aspirations when we are not in a position to achieve them, or does it go even further, suggesting we should never reach beyond what we can already grasp?
If it is the second, how would we ever get beyond the starting point?
Few I know, and certainly not me, began from a position of power.
Few I know, and certainly not me, began from a position of power.
if you're not in a position to achieve your goals, why try? i know many will say that's too pessimistic but i'm just being real. why waste the time and money when you know you won't succeed? like fuller said, you can't will something to happen that was not meant to be.
ReplyDeleteDo you always know when there is no chance you can do what you want to do? Are there no times when it could go either way?
ReplyDeleteSure, if I become convinced that something I want to do just will not happen, there's little point in expending resources that will not produce the desire result. But my problem with Fuller's quote is that it seems to suggest we always know when that is, which we don't. Too absolute, black and white.
I asked ". . . or does it go even further, suggesting we should never reach beyond what we can already grasp?" In reality, we often don't know which is which do we? There are many times when we are surprised that we succeed, just as there are times we are surprised by failure.
The more you've made me think about this, the more I realize that for me, the best course is to error on the side of assuming success more than failure. I can more easily live with having tried and failed than I can having to think about what might have been had I only tried.