Four Pieces of Wisdom I’ve Carried Through Life

Everyone is motivated by different things. I tend to be a low-achiever/perfectionist with a tendency to second guess myself into a tailspin before taking on a new project.

Surprisingly, though, this has not stopped me from writing best-selling nonfiction books, starting and running a 24-hour Catholic AM radio station, and leaving different “fairly successful” occupations when the situation no longer fit.

Basically, what I needed then, and still use today, were a few bits of wisdom that helped me take those first steps into uncharted waters.

If It’s Worth Doing, It’s Worth Doing Badly

This first one has been my mainstay since my early 20s. It sounds counterproductive, but it continues to work surprisingly well… at least for me.

Here it is:

“If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.”

It’s from the English writer and philosopher G.K. Chesterton, who wrote this in his book What’s Wrong with the World, published in 1910. I never read his book, but I did find the quote when I was starting a big project, and it resonated with me.

It slam-blasted to the curb all the naysaying voices in my head that said, “You’re too old,” or “You don’t know enough to do that,” or just basically snide remarks like, “Who are you to be doing that?”

The truth is that we don’t need to be the best qualified to do something if no one else is doing it and it needs to be done. Or maybe we just plain want to do it. If the desire is there, why not do it?

Little Things Add Up

My second bit of wisdom comes from the opening of Julia A. Fletcher Carney’s poem Little Things.

“Little drops of water,

Little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean

And the pleasant land.”

I don’t know that I ever actually read the whole poem. Possibly. But it was the first two lines that clicked. Seeing a raindrop plopping into a puddle and knowing that by itself it wasn’t much, but add a zillion more and you have an ocean.

I am always hearing or reading this and that from a thousand different sources, but one story connected me with this poem most strongly. A priest was comforting a woman who felt she hadn’t accomplished much in her life. He told her that every meal she had prepared for her family, which added up to thousands over the years, was an accomplishment.

That is true for each of us who every day do something that is small in and of itself but, over time, becomes a testament to something that matters and holds value.

The Smartest Isn’t Always the Happiest

I come from a large family with seven brothers and three sisters. Some in the family were just a bit smarter than others.

I don’t remember the occasion exactly, but I expect I was feeling a bit sorry for myself because I didn’t seem to be as bright as some of the other members of my family.

My mom said to me, “Not everyone who is the smartest is the happiest.”

It wasn’t that she was putting me down for not getting an A on my report card or admonishing me that I should try harder. She was just giving me a bit of wisdom that maybe I needed to look at things a little differently.

It was just one bit of conversation that, in itself, may not have seemed all that noteworthy, but it has helped me appreciate who I am a bit more simply for being who I am.

In the Evening of Life

My final bit of wisdom is more spiritual in nature and is attributed to Saint John of the Cross:

“At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.”

I won’t say that I remember the “exact” quote every time. I actually had to look it up to be accurate. But it has always stayed with me.

Not how much we have achieved. But simply, “How much have we loved and been loved?”

It’s something that can be done by anyone, anywhere, at any time. It doesn’t have to be big or memorable. Maybe only one person in the whole existence of life will know what that love was.

It struck me the deepest when I was mourning the loss of an older brother who died at 28. He had few friends, no major accomplishments that the world would have noticed, and left behind only the family who treasured him.

But oh, how important that life was to us.

Of course, there have been other quotes or bits of wisdom in my life that I have latched onto. Some pop up when I most need them, and some are forgotten entirely but helped me at the time.

Let’s Connect:

What are some of the words of wisdom that have been life changing for you? Words from a friend or a book, or perhaps just a thought that popped into your head and helped you see life in a new way?