Here are the words of W. E. Henley, the English poet, who wrote them after prolonged illness, amputation and a drawn-out bed-ridden existence...
“I am the master of my fate.
I am the captain of my soul.”
These are the words that Nelson Mandela repeated to himself over 27 years of solitary, humiliating, soul destroying incarceration.
He credits these words and their meaning to him at that time to the retention of his sanity.
He believed that no matter what was happening to him, that no one had control over how he responded to the dreadful circumstances in which he existed, except him self.
The battering of the body, the assaults on the mind, and the humiliation to which he was subjected, would have broken most humans.
But he had the wit to see that he could train, guide, and protect his own mind by how he allowed himself think.
He was aware that any thought can be installed in our minds, and any thought can be removed from our minds.
So, with that idea immovably planted, he put his belief and purpose into action.
He is not the first person to do this under appalling circumstances.
Some inmates in the concentration camps of the Second World War did much the same.
They determined to survive so that the atrocities they suffered would be made known to the world and never again inflicted on human beings.
Such is the power of decision and action that we can express in our lives.
Extreme desire, burning ambition, any traumatic experience, a probing question, heartfelt disappointment, or any deeply experienced emotion, can provoke a change in one’s mind that can turn life around, one way or another.
This is one of the reasons why failure in some project can be used as the fire in the next one.
We can learn how to apply our resources differently, use other aids we hadn’t previously considered, or change the direction from which we approach the goal.
We can train our minds to the habit of action. Most of us have trained our minds very well to the habit of inaction. We may have let ourselves become conditioned to inaction.
Sometimes, to make a mighty difference in our lives, we need only to make small changes, and implement them frequently.
To that end, if that is something that is of interest to you, take it a step further and see if what’s indicated HERE might be of interest to you.
Have a look. Think about what you read. Then ask yourself if you could use it.
“I am the master of my fate.
I am the captain of my soul.”
These are the words that Nelson Mandela repeated to himself over 27 years of solitary, humiliating, soul destroying incarceration.
He credits these words and their meaning to him at that time to the retention of his sanity.
He believed that no matter what was happening to him, that no one had control over how he responded to the dreadful circumstances in which he existed, except him self.
The battering of the body, the assaults on the mind, and the humiliation to which he was subjected, would have broken most humans.
But he had the wit to see that he could train, guide, and protect his own mind by how he allowed himself think.
He was aware that any thought can be installed in our minds, and any thought can be removed from our minds.
So, with that idea immovably planted, he put his belief and purpose into action.
He is not the first person to do this under appalling circumstances.
Some inmates in the concentration camps of the Second World War did much the same.
They determined to survive so that the atrocities they suffered would be made known to the world and never again inflicted on human beings.
Such is the power of decision and action that we can express in our lives.
Extreme desire, burning ambition, any traumatic experience, a probing question, heartfelt disappointment, or any deeply experienced emotion, can provoke a change in one’s mind that can turn life around, one way or another.
This is one of the reasons why failure in some project can be used as the fire in the next one.
We can learn how to apply our resources differently, use other aids we hadn’t previously considered, or change the direction from which we approach the goal.
We can train our minds to the habit of action. Most of us have trained our minds very well to the habit of inaction. We may have let ourselves become conditioned to inaction.
Sometimes, to make a mighty difference in our lives, we need only to make small changes, and implement them frequently.
To that end, if that is something that is of interest to you, take it a step further and see if what’s indicated HERE might be of interest to you.
Have a look. Think about what you read. Then ask yourself if you could use it.
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