Are you 'The Man in the Arena'?
The opinions that matter are the ones fighting alongside you.
On one hand, you may have aggressive or condescending critics who either think you’re too much trouble or too little to amount to anything.
But on the other hand, there’s you who might think because you have a mountain of constraints and mockers, that it’s on you to save yourself.
Well, take this in good stride.
The Roman arena where the metaphor ‘Man in the Arena’ originates wasn’t just a place for lone warriors.
Gladiators actually formed support groups called “collegia,” with leaders and guardian deities. These brotherhoods made sure fallen fighters received proper funerals and their families were cared for.
So you see, even in the harshest of settings, soldiers understood you’re never truly fighting alone.
The point Roosevelt made in his famous speech, which ancient gladiators demonstrated, is that the ‘arena’ calls for courage but is not opposed to support.
The community of people who will stand by you, honor your efforts regardless of the outcome, and catch you if you fall is one worth seeking or building, because if gladiators succeeded by building something greater than their individual wins, who are you not to do the same?
The famous passage from Roosevelt:
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.