From her Oscar acceptance speech, 2019: “If you are at home and you’re sitting on your couch, and you are watching this right now, all I have to say is that this is hard work. I’ve worked hard for a long time,” she said. “It’s not about winning. But what it’s about is not giving up. If you have a dream, fight for it. There’s a discipline for passion, and it’s not about how many times you get rejected or you fall down, or you’re beaten up. It’s about how many times you stand up and are brave, and you keep on going.”
– Lady Gaga
You never know from where you will obtain a bit of insight for the day.
Persistence.
Patience.
Treading your own path, not someone else’s, and recognizing that giving up is not going to get you to your goals.
I had runner’s envy at the gym the last few days.
A new member (I guess?). She’s fast. She’s gorgeous. She is a wonderful runner.
I’m slow. I’m nowhere near gorgeous. And I am a plodder.
But I get out there (or in there, as I am mostly a treadmill runner…) and I do it. Because for me, it’s essential to my mental health.
I am not her, she is not me. I need to run my own race (however slow…).
It’s the same at work.
I just saw someone got funding for a grant that’s similar to what I want to do.
I was initially really, really jealous.
And then I realized, her grant info is now publicly available. I can learn from her success.
My race. Not hers.
My study. Not hers.
My life. Not hers.