Silhouttes
I was addicted to political news for years. I’d watch it first thing in the morning, while eating lunch, and then before going to bed. Eventually, though, I grew tired of listening to “experts.” At some point I realized these critics don’t have any skin the game.
They don’t take risks. All they do is sit back and make comments. They are spectators!
It’s so easy to criticize the people who are doing something; the people who are taking risks.
This isn’t about politics. It has to do with the people we listen to and are influenced by. If you only listen to the critics you’ll be too scared to do things outside of your comfort zone.
You know—the scary stuff. So how much skin do you have in the game of your life?
Are you becoming the person you were created to be or that you want to become?
Or are you worried about what the critics will say if you start changing or taking risks?
Creating this blog has been a weekly battle against fear, resistance, and self-doubt. But this isn’t something we only face when creating a blog.
It’s deeper than that. I’ve heard a lot of successful people say fear and self-doubt is something they struggle with even after years of success.
Most of us, including myself, are like silhouettes of what our greatest life would be. There are times when we show
glimpses of greatness and potential, but we’re so hesitant from letting our light fully shine that we get in our own way and stay in the dark. I think it’s because we haven’t fully visualized our potential.
We fear what others will think if we do something different.
We fear being embarrassed.
We fear failure.
Or maybe it’s the fear of not living up to our own expectations or even worse, the expectations set on us by others.
And some of us fear success. It’s true; I’ve seen it!
But why are we so scared? And why do we care so much about what others think? At some point 100% of us will die, right? And when our last days come, we won’t care about the opinion others have about us. Isn’t it true that the most important opinion is the one we have of ourselves?
That’s why life is much better in the arena rather than in the stands with the spectators. Life isn’t a spectator sport, but that’s how we treat sometimes. Are you going to go thru life as a fighter or a spectator?
One of the best things I’ve read on this topic comes from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech that’s been titled “Daring Greatly.”
He said,
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”