"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' ... You must do the thing you think you cannot do." Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by LivingI was recently reminded of that line in one of Oprah's Life Class episodes: You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
I saw the episode when I was catsitting for Swiss Girl. The next day I knew I had to open my damned computer and edit my novella, and I stood there in the kitchen looking towards the living room, and I felt like: I can't. I don't even know why I felt this way. I knew that if I just started I'd be fine, but starting felt like this huge task. And then I remembered the line. I said to myself: Mabel, you must do The Thing You Cannot Do. And I marched myself over to the couch and worked on my novella.
I shared this with Ms. Brownlow. It's become our mantra. She's had some much more difficult things to do than opening a Scrivener file, and she kept telling herself: Time to do The Thing I Cannot Do. She muscled through. She kicked a. and took n.
Yesterday and today I made my bloggy nabe rounds, and saw a lot of Facing the Thing That Cannot Be Done. One frog (Friend on a Blog!) has just learned that her brother's cancer is back, aggressively so. Everyday things suddenly became Things That Cannot Be Done. But she did them.
So... just wishing you all luck with your Thing That Cannot Be Done, whether it's getting out of bed tomorrow morning, making that phone call, leaving that dude, walking the dog, quitting your job. May the Force be with you.
"We'll never get it out now!" (Too much left brain, Luke. Too much left brain.)
6 comments:
Time to do The Thing I Cannot Do.
Wow -- I loved this post. And your quote is one I need to hang on my wall.
When I read it first thing I was reminded of was escaping the boys father. I did not think we would live, truth to tell, I expected to wake up dead, but we didn't.
It was a huge leap of faith that 'seemed right' and I took it. May the gods forgive me for risking their lives, but I had to do it... Where we were at was no life.
I faced the fear, risked all, and was lucky. Sometimes you just have to jump.
As for my borther -- no news is good news right? FGV's dearest.
Wonderful advice. I've been procrastinating for over a week and today I made a decision, and then read this. It's so right. I will do the thing I said I couldn't do, and I will do it with passion.
For me, sometimes just leaving the apartment is the thing that cannot be done. I will remember this and leave the apartment, especially when I can't.
do or do not, there is no try-- Has to be in the top 5 SW quotes. Love that scene, thanks for posting it. And Skye, I know what you mean, some days even getting out of bed is a statement of faith.
Definitely a mantra for life ... along with Yoda's
I like the last part of that scene where Yoda uses the Force to pull Luke's X-wing out of the swamp. Luke is astounded and says, "I don't believe it!", and Yoda responds, "That is why you fail."
Snap!
@Judie - Wow. Just... wow. That's one of the most frightening leaps to take, I'm sure. Well then you certainly deserve the wonderful husband you now have.
@Skye - And think of all the Things That Cannot Be Done that you've already done this past year. Really, there's loads of them. :-)
@Robena - With passion too! I guess that's step two, I'll have to try it! You unman me quite, Ms Grant.
@Barb - Easily my favorite scene in the whole series. Sigh.
@widders - In your face Luke! Lucas did a surprisingly good job of summarizing a lot of eastern philosophy in those Yoda training scenes.
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