I don't know if it's strange that one of my biggest inspirations is a poem, but it is. 'IF', by Rudyard Kipling pretty much says it all to me. Over the years it has acted as a mantra, if you like, to the way I want to live my life. It is difficult to quantify the power of words, and I can't say that the whole poem inspires my ways. However, there are elements that act as inspiration for truth, others as a reminder to be strong even if that means to do so in silence, and there are parts that are a reminder that man is feeble.
Yet, I have recognised my own feebleness as a man, in that there are elements here I still endeavour to master. They fit with so closely with the way I am as an individual, and are the very things about me which I am trying to change.
Read the poem, in my opinion it is both beautiful and dark, attainable through hard work only, with little room for laziness if its goals are to be achieved. It requires physical action of the individual to complete it; the capacity of the mind to understand its doctrine is not enough, you must give the mind strength and energy through physical application of making your body healthier. Then, and only then, can your mental wellbeing and strength of personality begin to shine through.
This is difficult for lazy man, but I'm working on it. The poem in full I have put below, the lines I am focusing on are these: "If you can dream - and not make dreams your master. If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim"
I dream of being in control of myself and have done for many years; I'm starting to gain that control now as I venture forward on my mission to better physical health, mental health, and all round wellbeing. I have thought about many things I would like to do (write, paint, create, maybe have my own business one day), and these thoughts are becoming more about possibilities, real opportunities, all through this greater sense of a developing wellbeing and self worth, because of my physically and mentally taking control of me, rather than some kind of weird societal control exerted upon me!
Enjoy 'IF', by Rudyard Kipling
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
No comments:
Post a Comment