Without question, what she accomplished is remarkable for anyone. The fact that she was 64 when she made her final, successful attempt—an age at which most of us are expected to be thinking about retirement—is extraordinary. But we don’t have to attempt to match her feat to achieve a sense of satisfaction and purpose. Most of us will never actually swim with sharks, but we can take Nyad’s example as a metaphor for how we should live our lives—always striving, always believing, and always learning as much (if not more) from our failures as from our successes.
As any of the individuals mentioned earlier (Kennedy, Schwarzkopf, Mandela) would surely attest, failure is a vital part of success that makes accomplishments so satisfying. Every day is epic! What matters is taking what we have to work with and making the most of it.
One of my favorite quotes by Teddy Roosevelt is:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.3
If there is anything to be said about the PA and NP professions, it is that we are resilient! I’m not suggesting we are swimming with sharks—but I am suggesting we should be proud of our professions and remain resilient and always “Find a Way!” Please share your thoughts with me at PAEditor@frontlinemedcom.com.
References
1. TED. Diana Nyad: Never, ever give up [video]. www.ted.com/talks/diana_nyad_never_ever_give_up.html. Accessed January 10, 2014.
2. Diana Nyad’s life lesson for the rest of us [editorial]. Dallas Morning News. September 3, 2013. www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20130903-editorial-diana-nyads-life-lesson-for-the-rest-of-us.ece. Accessed January 10, 2014.
3. Roosevelt T. Excerpt from “Citizenship in a Republic” [speech]; April 23, 1910. www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html. Accessed January 13, 2014