I think we have this idea that greatness comes from mere talent, but I think a big part of it is a willingness to try again (and again) and to not be discouraged enough to quit in the process.
In the so-so crime drama A Most Violent Year, the main character states “to be successful and great, you must keep going back” (Abel Morales). I think this notion is comforting and true. Even when we feel like we aren’t where we want to be, sometimes the answer is just to keep trying, keep going back, until we get closer to being the person we hope ourselves to be.
This is also how many experts got to be where they are today. Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist, once said that, “An expert is a person who has found out by his own painful experience all the mistakes that one can make in a very narrow field.” That is, one becomes an expert in and through experience, trying again and again, and pushing past the mistakes.
(Lord knows I’ve had my share)
And one day, with enough going back, we might just arrive somewhere closer, figuratively (existentially) speaking, to where we want to be (and maybe make fewer mistakes someday).
Bearer of Pity 