Get in the Arena

There is a big difference between watching life happen and actually living it.

More than a century ago, Theodore Roosevelt captured that difference in words that still hit just as hard today.

In his famous “Man in the Arena” passage from the speech Citizenship in a Republic, delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910, Roosevelt gave credit not to the critic standing safely on the sidelines, but to the person willing to step into the arena, struggle, make mistakes, endure setbacks and continue trying.

Full credit belongs to Theodore Roosevelt for that timeless message.

But the arena is still open.

And today, it is ours.

You don’t need to know exactly how everything will work out before you start.

You don’t need permission to chase the opportunity, make the phone call, change careers, start the business, repair the relationship, become a better leader or finally do something about the dream you have been talking yourself out of.

Get in the arena.

Live today like there is no tomorrow.

That doesn’t mean being reckless.

It means understanding that time is incredibly valuable and treating today accordingly.

Say what needs to be said.

Take the trip.

Make the call.

Tell people you appreciate them.

Take the chance.

At the same time, learn like you will live forever.

Stay curious.

Read another book.

Ask another question.

Listen to someone who knows something you don’t.

Challenge something you have always believed.

Learn from your victories, but pay even closer attention to your failures.

Most importantly, never convince yourself that you have arrived.

You are never done.

There is always another lesson to learn, another weakness to improve, another person you can help and another version of yourself waiting on the other side of effort.

You will stumble.

Good.

You will occasionally get it wrong.

Welcome to the arena.

You may even fail spectacularly.

Get back up.

The goal isn’t perfection.

The goal is progress.

Be better today than you were yesterday.

Then wake up tomorrow and try to do it again.

Because someday the arena will close for every one of us.

When that day comes, I would rather know I entered it, got dirty, took some hits, learned some lessons, helped some people and kept trying than spend my life explaining what I might have done.

Roosevelt challenged us to dare greatly.

More than 100 years later, the challenge hasn’t changed.

Get in the arena.

And if you need someone in your corner while you are figuring out your next move, you already know where to look.

I am not hard to find.