Failure is not a disgrace if you have sincerely done your best.
We live in a competitive world that measures success by winners and losers, and insists that every victory creates a loss of equal dimension. If one person wins, it seems logical that someone else must lose. In reality, the only competition that matters is the one in which you compete with yourself. When your standard of performance is based upon being the best you can be — for yourself — you will never lose. You will only improve. Make it a practice to objectively review your performance from time to time. When you fall short, assess the situation and ask yourself: “Is there anything I would or could have done to change the outcome?” If the answer is “no,” if you are satisfied that you’ve done your best, don’t waste time reliving the past. Simply learn what you can from the experience, and then get into action again. If you consistently do your best, your temporary failures will take care of themselves.
Permanent link to this post: Failure is not a disgrace if you have sincerely done your best.

The other fellow’s mistakes are a weak alibi for your own.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” It’s easy when you are part of a group to “go along to get along,” but when you are able to maintain your own highest standards of integrity — regardless of what others may do — you are destined for greatness. When you have developed a carefully thought out code of personal conduct, you will never have to ask anyone else what the appropriate course of action should be. You will intuitively know.
Permanent link to this post: The other fellow’s mistakes are a weak alibi for your own.