minding the mission

One reason I like the YWCA- they write an inspirational quote on a whiteboard near the entrance and for weeks at a time, the same words stare me in the face as I come and as I go. Last month it was a quote by Aristotle - 'we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.' Upon entering the Y, the quote usually translates to something gym-related. Upon leaving the Y, it can translate to anything. I like that. Doggedness is often taken for granted. I guess it seems too boring. Maybe it just seems boring because all the dogged thrillseekers die young. The world is overpopulated with dogged bores.

I almost never declare quotes bullshit. But a lot of them are. There's no censorship. The secret is to not let a bad quote be the source of a great deal of inspiration to you. I don't think Confucius ever intended to be extracted from a cookie.