The Real Value Is In The Attempt

“You must not be disheartened or sink into sadness if your actions do not attain the perfection you intended. What do you expect? We are all fragile, we are earth, and not every plot of land produces the fruit intended by the farmer.” -Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, Letter

A paradox…

Often we need the big dream, the big outcome, the big vision in order to set goals and then try to achieve them.

But rarely do we get the outcomes we seek. Or in the same timeframe.

Thus, we may think we failed.

We didn’t.

Thinks of goals as merely direction. As focus so as to not drift aimlessly. Seneca wrote, “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” We need the goal to focus and know which port to sail into.

But the real value is in the attempt.

Because no matter the outcome, merely by the attempt, we grow as human beings. We learn new skills. We practice virtues like discipline and willpower and sacrifice and courage. We adapt. We develop. We stretch.

We went into the arena. We “dared to fail greatly.”

And that helps anything we do going forward.

Set the goal. Go for it.

But remember, the real value is in the attempt.