The inadequacy of the human condition

Recently, a friend of mine gave up on something he was determined to succeed in. It was irritating to me since I was a witness to the triumph of the circumstance over the individual. Even more irritating was the fact that he was so close to victory, but he needed to hold on; he needed to persevere.

I am at a complete loss when I am faced with the prospect of defeat; and because of this weakness, I consciously try to not recognize the consequences of my decisions. I believe in taking life as it comes, one day at a time. But today is an opportunity that will never present itself again. So why let go of a free gift? A day is only 24 hours long. We can skip days in heartbeats if we choose to not notice how each day crawls on by. I do not understand the reason for surrender - its just not beneficial whichever way you look at it. Failure is acceptable, but when we give up we have lost all the days, the present included, where we have striven for something.

But maybe it's something intrinsic. As an animal, we are hardwired to avoid situations where we will be at a loss. This is the single seed of the of human intelligence. The progenitor of need and the father of desire. In anticipation of an empty future, the fruits of the present would seem bitter and sour. But the attempt is it's own reward.

The attempt is the reach for glory. The attempt is proof positive that you are a thinking, living human being. Conscious thought, that which separates us from baser animals, is the ability to merge a known situation with intangible items like hope. The belief that the river will suddenly change it's course without a predetermined pointer to such an event. This is what makes an entrepreneur, this is what makes a leader, this is what makes a visionary - the ability to not only see things as they are, but the flexibility to perceive things as they might be.

In life, almost everyone tells you it can't be done. Almost everyone convinces you that things are fine as they are. The circumstances begin to increase the weight on our shoulder, till we become Atlas and balance the world on our backs. The night does seem darkest before the dawn. If we spent our lives listening to what we "should be" or what we "should do", then we become nothing more than a statistic. Another number or name against a birth certificate, matriculation certificate, proof of employment and a death certificate. Is your life defined by your certificates? Are we another entry in a database of irrelevant facts? Are we predestined to be another face in the crowd, another brick in the wall?

As a race, we seem determined to reduce the individual to a member of a herd. The reasons for this might be numerous, but there is a fantastic line I heard in coach Carter, and it goes as below:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone."