I came across this quote in the exercise room where I’ve been working out on the elliptical machine lately. Running 5 miles has taken a toll on me and I’ve retired to the elliptical. Actually I think I’m getting a more strenuous workout on the elliptical machine. I’ve been going 4.2 or 4.3 miles in forty minutes on the machine. I love working out because I feel so good afterwards. It’s the runner’s high.
I like the quote because today was one of those days where I wasn’t winning and I felt a bit frustrated at days end. Now, however thanks to this quote and forty minutes of strenuous exercise I’m feeling a lot more peaceful. Life is really about trying and leaving it all out there. Roosevelt’s quote reminds me of a passage from the Book of Revelation 3:16.
“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 and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, 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 he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”–Theodore Roosevelt