Courage. Discipline. Perseverance.
Think_n_See
Think_n_See
da5zeay
applying my absolutist tendency to imagine the "courageous,
disciplined, and perservering archetype". You know, like Superman.
I don't think I am any of these things all the time, but when the time
comes I have to make a choice to DO or DO NOT. So for me, this is all
tied to the assessment of a particular situation.
Courage: The act of doing something that has an element of risk to
one's self, acting in the face of fear. I think of war movies,
firefighters, police officers, and acts of everyday heroism from
mothers and fathers, teachers, big brothers, kids standing up to
bullies, and following one's dreams in the face of criticism. I don't
know if I actually push myself to action in the envelope of fear. I put
myself more into an acceptance that something might happen that I don't
like, and move forward. A certain confidence that I will survive tends
to diminish the fear factor, so this doesn't feel particularly
courageous to me...
Discipline: I think of this as performing a task with a single-minded
focus, no excuses, because the task is critical in some way. I think
there are two kinds: discipline without question, and discipline shaped
by experience. I'm better at the latter...I have to have been burned to
really know that I have to stay the course.
Perserverance: Standing fast in one's convictions and commitments for
the long haul? This is either my strongest or my weakest attribute of
the three, depending on how you look at it. On the one hand, I can be
pretty dogged about pursuing something. However, I can also have very
flexible criteria for achieving a certain end. The goal itself may
change during the course of time, as I reassess and redefine the
situation and its outcome. The general goal, I think, is to arrive at
an optimal solution for the greatest number of involved people, myself
included. So I've dropped things rather than continue them because I
thought it wouldn't work in the long run. I've made promises to people
that I later chose to define in a different way than other people may
have originally thought. Circumstances change, but I think following
through with good intentions is probably what I perservere at best.
Perservering at a static goal, though, I'm not so good at.
Think_n_See
Courage. Lion. Roaring. Trapeze Artist. First day of school.
Performing on stage. Going for the ball out of bounds. Being open.
Discipline. 4:30am running. After-school reading ahead a chapter of
homeword. Every day making progress to a goal. Focus. Soemtimes
being closed. That one thing, and movement towards it. Increasing
reps and weight.
Perseverance. Cold calling again. Not taking 'no'. Being the frog
that falls into a glass of milk and churns it into butter. Fall and go
again. Go a different way, go the same way. It's all good, just go.
da5zeay
I pictured myself as the Roaring Lion, then I tried being the Bald
Eagle, and it helped!
I especially liked the idea of being the frog that churns butter :-)
da5zeay
on Falujah last November (2004). It told the stories of marine squads
getting in there and doing their job in very unpleasant and dangerous
circumstances, resulting in the injury or death of several squadmates,
At the end of the show, one of the Marines being interviewed made this
comment (paraphased): "The opposite of fear isn't courage. It's love.
We love each other to death, and that's why we keep going."
Think_n_See
I wonder if it's because in one the world seems so open, and in the
other, so constricted and closed.
Also, have heard frequently that hate is not the opposite of love. Not
caring/indifference is the opposite, many say.
That makes me think of Limp Bizkit. A lot of Mike Shinoda's songs are
about that not-caring zone, and its repercussions. Watch this year's
MTV's Video Music Awards for an original score by Mike Shinoda and
other singers.
I say that the opposite of love is not knowing & hesitation.
The potentially deep philosophy of that we leave for another day.