Brain Food #663
We are all works in progress
Thoughts of the day
In some recent posts, I wrote about regrets, the results of action, but mostly of inaction, on one’s part.
Perfectionism, or fear of failure, or fear of showing vulnerability, or mere procrastination, can be paralysing.
The average lifespan, if you live to be 80, is four thousand weeks. The truth is that, in those four thousand short weeks, intent alone is never enough.
As Leonardo da Vinci said:
“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
And so, it might be better to start something than not to finish it at all. After all, we are all works in progress.
An incessant maker and ideator, da Vinci himself left scraps of ideas, but also work that he never managed to complete in his life, one of the most known being the Adoration of the Magi painting. It was still a work in progress when da Vinci had to suddenly move from Florence to Milan. The painting was left behind, and left unfinished. Sometimes, what is a priority changes.
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