It's not what you achieve in life...it's what you overcome.

I think that what you achive in life makes you inside. Every bit counts dont you think

There is a saying, which tells:


"A clever person solves a problem, a wise person avoids it."


This thread reminds me of that, because of a few things...


1. To overcome something, you have to step out of your comfort zone to begin with, otherwise there is nothing to overcome since you are comfortable with it. While this is all fine, and dandy, because it's a choice, there is another concern here:

2. Some choices are not the best, and if a person purposefully makes the same choice over and over, even though it's not in their best interest (some would call it a mistake, or a habit), are you really overcoming anything at all then?

3. Do we really overcome anything at all, when everything just is in the first place?



For instance, your feelings are there. Throughout your entire life you will feel doubt. You may have moments where you feel like you have overcome it, but will find it creeping in there again once in a while.

I think Rocky said it best. What matters isn't how hard you can hit. Its how hard you can get hit and still keep moving forward.

If it inspires you it's a good quote for you. I love discussions like this because I love quotes and words and meanings. That's why I can't resist jumping in here. Travis, I think I've agreed with just about every post you've made, so please don't take offense by me taking a contrary position for a change, but...

I find it hard to appreciate that quote because to me it's a circular statement. If you overcome something, that's an achievement. If you achieve something, you've overcome something. To me that quote is kind of like saying winning doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is winning.

If it's what we overcome that counts, maybe we should go get ourselves into a world of hurt so we have more to overcome. If you're always doing stupid things instead of living intelligently, you'll have a lot more to overcome, but what does that prove? It proves you can overcome your own stupidity, but I'd rather live intelligently, wouldn't you?

Obviously Shoemoney was trying to say something about overcoming adversity, but I think he's chasing his own tail with that one. Here's a slightly different way to look at it that I think is more encompassing and a truer statement: It's not what happens to us in life that matters most, but what we become.

Yeah, it's a good one. I prefer the one that says "It's not what happens to you in life that matters but how you react to it" though... but both are really good ones... very inspirational...

Another way you could say it is: You overcome by focussing not on what you dont have but on what you do have, because its through using what you do have that will help you attain to what you dont have.