An Idiom: Accident of Birth

Meaning: the consequence of the circumstances into which a person is born.

 

For example, a prince will probably have a different life to a pauper or an

Inuit to a Kalahari bushman. The term may also be applied to some innate talent

that a person has by virtue of the DNA they inherited from their parents. For

example, "LeBron James's success at basketball was, in part, due to the accident

of birth of growing to 6 feet, 8 inches tall".

 

    - Gary Martin, https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/accident-of-birth.html

 

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The inner debate of nature-vs-nurture in rationalizing my own successes and

failures was a perennial waste of time. It invaribly led to hubris, self-pity,

or paralyzing fear. It's better to focus on one thing at a time without

obsessing about the past or future, or even current circumstances.

 

Many a long-distance runner could attest that the most important thing is to put

one foot in front of the other. If you run up a 2000ft steep hill, thinking of

the summit at the bottom magnifies your pain and wishing the ordeal over turns

the trail into a rack. A long-enough slope breaks your strong will.

 

If you focus, instead, on the nuances in making each step as pleasant as

possible (for example, by shortening your strides when the rise is sharp and

matching your breathing to them), however, you enter a meditating state and it

would feel as if you reached the top in no time with a fresh pair of legs.

 

This happened each time I ran up Mission Peak. Folks huffed and puffed while

gawking at me ascending effortlessly. The last time I went with Peter, my nephew

in his 20s, on Christmas Eve. I left him behind at around two thirds of the way

up, and waited at the top for 15 min, watching him climb.

 

I had years of training. What if you just started? You run up maximizing the

pleasure of each step until it feels no longer fun and you go home. You come

back the next day or the day after. You do the same and find it takes longer for

you to quit. You hold the line and stay with the plan. It is an anti-fragile

process, each cycle breaks some weak link in you and builds you up stronger. You

enjoy the progress until you are able to do it.

 

This is wisdom and I'd like to end with two quotes:

 

    - "From one thing, know ten thousand things," and

    - "If you know the way broadly you will see it in everything."

 

by Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings.

[7grizzly]

回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : I think it's a great truth that helps everything one does. But not everyone is ready to receive it. Tim, for example, didn't give a crap :-)

[暖冬cool夏]

If you run up a 2000ft steep hill, thinking of the summit at the bottom magnifies your pain and wishing the ordeal over turns the trail into a rack.
+1, True. My daughter has started running on and off for a few years. Maybe I can show this post to her when she is back. :))