Man in the arena

I found Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena" so useful in 2024. It reminded me that what really matters is continuing to show up and giving it your all, regardless of outcome. It helped me focus on learning and growing from challenges instead of worrying about criticism or failure.

The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;
but who does actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who neither know victory nor defeat.

• Theodore Roosevelt's speech "Citizenship in a Republic," delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910