One of my all-time favorite quotes is from W.H. Murray’s Scottish Himalayan Expedition.
I’ve memorized a slightly modified version of it and recited it in my head well over 1,000 times.
It’s part of my sequence of four quote-prayer-mantras I silently repeat to myself when/if I get up in the middle of the night. It always comes right before I recite a Churchill quote and right after I recite a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that comes right after I recite a Steve Jobs quote.
We’ll chat more about those quotes and the “IF I get up in the middle of the night and my mind starts wandering, THEN I turn my brain off by saying a quote” protocol I run to help me get a great night of sleep.
For now…
I want to chat about that W.H. Murray quote.
Here it is:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meeting and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
Now…
As inspiring as that is, here’s what I think is MOST interesting (and most powerful!) about that passage.
You know what Murray says RIGHT before that passage?
(Neither did I until I read Steven Pressfield’s latest book, Put You Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be.)
Here’s what Murray says RIGHT before that all-time classic wisdom gem.
He tells us: “... but when I said that nothing had been done I erred on one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money—booked a sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but it is great in consequence.”
Then he proceeds with his (goosebumps) epic line that, and I repeat: “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness…”
I repeat: The commitment Murray made wasn’t some huge thing. It was SIMPLY BUYING A BOAT TICKET.
As he says: “This may sound too simple, but it is great in consequence.”
And, that’s Today’s +1.
What do YOU want to create in your life?
Are you committed?
WOOP it. Decide whether or not you want to pay the price.
If you do…
What’s your boat ticket?
Today a good day to book your sailing to Eudaimonia?
Remember: “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meeting and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
Happy sailing, Hero.
Day 1. All in. Let’s go!
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