One of the most powerful scenes in the award-winning movie Lawrence of Arabia depicts the ten-day death march that Lawrence’s army made through the desert. As the army staggered along, nearly dead from dehydration, they suddenly spied an oasis and eagerly fell into the water.
When Lawrence took a head count, he noticed that one of the camel boys was missing. The boy’s camel was found near the back of the camp – without the boy. Lawrence immediately told several of his men, “We must go back and find him.”
But his men refused to venture back into the merciless furnace of sand. “Master,” they pleaded, “It is Allah’s will that the boy did not return with us. His fate was written by God. We must not interfere.”
Lawrence angrily remounted a camel and headed back into the dunes. The men stood there, shaking their heads. “Now, we’ve lost him, too,” they chorused, as they returned to their rest.
Two days later, a shimmering image emerged from the heat wave. “It’s Lawrence! He has found the boy!” the soldiers shouted as they ran forward to assist him. Lawrence leaned over and handed them the unconscious boy. He looked at their faces and said in a hoarse whisper: “Remember this: Nothing ‘is written’ unless you write it.”
Oftentimes, we dismiss everything that it is already our fate not to get what we want in life. Some people believe that because their parents are poor, they, too, would be like them. Others surmise that it is their destiny not to succeed in most of the endeavors they are doing.
To these people, despair is a part of their living. “We despair when our hopes are dashed; we despair where was persists; we despair when illness lingers,” comments C. Neil Strait. But should they go on living in misery? Have they not known that answers have been found in moments of despair? That ideas have sparked because of despair? That hope has been etched anew as a result of despair?
“Despair comes uninvited, but only remains where it is entertained. If it is nurtured through depressive thoughts and fed with pessimistic thoughts, it remains,” Strait points out. “But when the soul takes flight to greater thoughts, despair flees. Hope, faith, and a positive will starve despair.”
In whatever you do, don’t take “No” for an answer. Never say die. No retreat, no surrender. An unknown poet says it well: “When things go wrong as they sometimes will. When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill. When the funds are low and the debts are high, and you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
“When care is pressing you down a bit; rest, if you must, but don’t you quit. Life is queer with twists and turns, as everyone of us sometimes learns. And many a failure turns about when he might have won had he stuck it out. Don’t give up though the pace seems slow – you may succeed with another blow!
“Success is failure turned inside out – the silver tint of the clouds of doubt. And you never can tell just how close you are. It may be near when it seems so far. So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit – it’s when things seem worst that you most not quit.”
Don’t let those failures trouble you. They are part of growing up and to give you lessons on what not to do the next time. Ralph Waldo Emerson advises, “Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.”
Edwin Markham has the same idea: “For all your days prepare, and meet them ever alike: When you are the anvil, bear; when you are the hammer, strike.”
“If you want to get somewhere you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up,” American inspirational speaker Norman Vincent Peale urged.
Don’t picture yourself a failure if in the beginning you don’t go too far. Basketball superstar Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
Sometimes, life is a series of failure before success arrives. Richard Bach completed only one year of college, then trained to become an Air Force jet-fighter pilot. Twenty months after earning his wings, he resigned. Then he became an editor of an aviation magazine that went bankrupt. Life became one failure after another. Even when he wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull, he couldn’t think of an ending. The manuscript lay dormant for eight years before he decided to finish it – only to have 18 publishers reject it. However, once it was published, the book went to sell 7 million copies in numerous languages and make Bach an internationally known and respected author.
Rejections are nothing new to successful authors. In 1902, the poetry editor of the Atlantic Monthly returned the poems of a 28-year-old poet with the following note: “Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse.” The poet was Robert Frost.
Three years earlier, Rudyard Kipling received the following rejection letter from the San Francisco Examiner: “I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.”
“Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure,” commented Robert Schuller, “it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.” And Kenneth Boudling reminded, “Nothing fails like success because we don’t learn from it. We learn only from failure.”
If Lawrence did not do anything, he won’t be able to bring back the boy. And yet, he did what his men didn’t want to do – go dispel ‘it is written.’ You won’t go far if you think you won’t go far.
Picture yourself being successful. But don’t just sit there; do something on how to reach your goal. Do it – now!
When Lawrence took a head count, he noticed that one of the camel boys was missing. The boy’s camel was found near the back of the camp – without the boy. Lawrence immediately told several of his men, “We must go back and find him.”
But his men refused to venture back into the merciless furnace of sand. “Master,” they pleaded, “It is Allah’s will that the boy did not return with us. His fate was written by God. We must not interfere.”
Lawrence angrily remounted a camel and headed back into the dunes. The men stood there, shaking their heads. “Now, we’ve lost him, too,” they chorused, as they returned to their rest.
Two days later, a shimmering image emerged from the heat wave. “It’s Lawrence! He has found the boy!” the soldiers shouted as they ran forward to assist him. Lawrence leaned over and handed them the unconscious boy. He looked at their faces and said in a hoarse whisper: “Remember this: Nothing ‘is written’ unless you write it.”
Oftentimes, we dismiss everything that it is already our fate not to get what we want in life. Some people believe that because their parents are poor, they, too, would be like them. Others surmise that it is their destiny not to succeed in most of the endeavors they are doing.
To these people, despair is a part of their living. “We despair when our hopes are dashed; we despair where was persists; we despair when illness lingers,” comments C. Neil Strait. But should they go on living in misery? Have they not known that answers have been found in moments of despair? That ideas have sparked because of despair? That hope has been etched anew as a result of despair?
“Despair comes uninvited, but only remains where it is entertained. If it is nurtured through depressive thoughts and fed with pessimistic thoughts, it remains,” Strait points out. “But when the soul takes flight to greater thoughts, despair flees. Hope, faith, and a positive will starve despair.”
In whatever you do, don’t take “No” for an answer. Never say die. No retreat, no surrender. An unknown poet says it well: “When things go wrong as they sometimes will. When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill. When the funds are low and the debts are high, and you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
“When care is pressing you down a bit; rest, if you must, but don’t you quit. Life is queer with twists and turns, as everyone of us sometimes learns. And many a failure turns about when he might have won had he stuck it out. Don’t give up though the pace seems slow – you may succeed with another blow!
“Success is failure turned inside out – the silver tint of the clouds of doubt. And you never can tell just how close you are. It may be near when it seems so far. So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit – it’s when things seem worst that you most not quit.”
Don’t let those failures trouble you. They are part of growing up and to give you lessons on what not to do the next time. Ralph Waldo Emerson advises, “Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it.”
Edwin Markham has the same idea: “For all your days prepare, and meet them ever alike: When you are the anvil, bear; when you are the hammer, strike.”
“If you want to get somewhere you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up,” American inspirational speaker Norman Vincent Peale urged.
Don’t picture yourself a failure if in the beginning you don’t go too far. Basketball superstar Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
Sometimes, life is a series of failure before success arrives. Richard Bach completed only one year of college, then trained to become an Air Force jet-fighter pilot. Twenty months after earning his wings, he resigned. Then he became an editor of an aviation magazine that went bankrupt. Life became one failure after another. Even when he wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull, he couldn’t think of an ending. The manuscript lay dormant for eight years before he decided to finish it – only to have 18 publishers reject it. However, once it was published, the book went to sell 7 million copies in numerous languages and make Bach an internationally known and respected author.
Rejections are nothing new to successful authors. In 1902, the poetry editor of the Atlantic Monthly returned the poems of a 28-year-old poet with the following note: “Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse.” The poet was Robert Frost.
Three years earlier, Rudyard Kipling received the following rejection letter from the San Francisco Examiner: “I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.”
“Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure,” commented Robert Schuller, “it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.” And Kenneth Boudling reminded, “Nothing fails like success because we don’t learn from it. We learn only from failure.”
If Lawrence did not do anything, he won’t be able to bring back the boy. And yet, he did what his men didn’t want to do – go dispel ‘it is written.’ You won’t go far if you think you won’t go far.
Picture yourself being successful. But don’t just sit there; do something on how to reach your goal. Do it – now!
