Common wisdom gives us a lot of contradictory advice. There’s:

• “Fortune favors the brave.”
• “Discretion is the better part of valor.”

And there’s:

• “Look before you leap.”
• “He who hesitates is lost.”

But I think the best advice comes from the Bible:

“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.”
— Book of Ecclesiastes 9:11

It’s good to plan ahead. It’s good to set goals. It’s good to believe we are both able to succeed and worthy of success. But we should also remember that “time and chance happen to us all.”

If we win, that’s great! Let’s celebrate. But if we lose, let’s survive, get up, learn from the loss, and do better next time:

“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 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!’

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!”
— Rudyard Kipling, “If”

Courage for life is a key theme of my book Why Sane People Believe Crazy Things Second Edition, now on sale. Get your copy today!