Reaching for a Star?

“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

reaching-for-star-768x1024Here’s a little late January guilt (you’re welcome): If you’re like me, you started 2019 with wonderful plans and are now wrestling with “Rubber, meet Road.” For many, the hard part is simply getting started. Having a perfect plan is praiseworthy, but getting started is everything. The finest blueprints are still just lines on paper until the building is constructed (no one can live in a blueprint). To put it another way: you can’t steer a parked car, but a car in motion–well, OK, course corrections are necessary even when you’re moving. In fact, pilots consider course corrections a part of the plan, not interruptions; they call this “vector,” the cone-shaped general direction that gradually narrows as they move closer to their destination. Sailors call it “tacking,” the zig-zag pattern that eventually gets them to the right port of call. But more importantly, both know that at some point they have to make a start, and then keep going. Stars are lovely, but have you noticed?

They never come to us.

About mitchteemley

Writer, Filmmaker, Humorist, Thinker-about-stuffer
This entry was posted in Culture, Humor, Quips and Quotes and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

17 Responses to Reaching for a Star?

  1. It should also be noted that “tacking” on a ship with sails enables you to move against the wind so even if the wind isn’t in your favor – you can still get there and the stars are just a lovely.

    Liked by 3 people

  2. Lucia says:

    Well put. let’s hope that this year we will reach the stars or at least get much closer.
    All we need is to start.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Great words of motivation to help folks along in their quest to meet personal challenges in 2019, Mitch. It’s like that saying which goes: A body in motion stays in motion. Your words and those of, Ralph Waldo Emerson, will really encourage a lot of people.

    Liked by 3 people

  4. So true! An object in motion stays in motion.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Yes, it’s all about laboring through, day after day!

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Great post, and great quote.

    Hard work, day by day, produces results. It took me 18 months, but I wrote 22 Roger Tuckerman letters, and am finally publishing another eBook.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Great visual for motivation… it’s ONLY January, eleven more months to go we’ve GOT THIS!!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. What a crystal clear comparison! Good point.

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Sweetu Rocks says:

    Waw🙋 amazing blog

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s