On persistence…
"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins; not through strength, but through persistence."
~ Buddha
“If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.”
~ Tal Ben-Shahar
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
How do you learn how to swim? You get in the water.
The first lesson is that you need to push yourself to do the thing that scares you.
Do not see failures as the end of the road, or as confirmation of the self-limiting, critical beliefs you’ve internalized throughout your life.
Rather, they see failures (frustrating as they may be) as opportunities: for gaining knowledge and skills, for trying new methods, for altering course and achieving different goals than you might have set out to.
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One day last June (2025), during a steady rain on a chilly morning in New Hampshire, Roger Federer told a story about failure.
Over the course of two decades, he emerged as one of the greatest tennis players who ever lived. He played 1,526 singles matches in his career and won almost 80 percent. He hoisted 20 Grand Slam trophies, including Wimbledon a record eight times.
“Now, I have a question for you,” Federer said, looking out across a sea of umbrellas at the commencement ceremony for Dartmouth College. “What percentage of points do you think I won in those matches?”
He paused.
“Only 54 percent,” he said.
It was one of those statistics that at first seemed incorrect. Federer was one of the most dominant athletic forces of this century. That guy lost nearly half of his points?
“When you lose every second point, on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot,” he told the crowd. “You teach yourself to think, ‘OK, I double-faulted. It’s only a point.’ When you’re playing a point, it has to be the most important thing in the world, and it is. But when it’s behind you, it’s behind you. This mindset is really crucial, because it frees you to fully commit to the next point and the next point after that, with intensity, clarity and focus.”
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“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”
~ Bruce Lee