Do It Anyway
Posted by Corey on December 10, 2009
Mother Teresa wrote an amazing poem (paraphrased below). Thanks Julius H. for sending!
“People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis;
It was never between you and them anyway.”
Exactly!
This must be where Martina McBride got the inspiration for her song “do it anyway”–I love it.
I feel like not enough people think like this! Too many individuals (myself included) do actions based on what other may think/ how others will react. This is a great example of living your life to its fullest for yourself, and being the best that you can be so that you may better yourself and others in the process. This is great!
It’s so true that sometimes having good character and personality will make others judge you or even take advantage of you, but really, regardless of how other people treat you, you should always stick to what you believe in.
It is so easy to be discouraged by others and give up, but that is not being a fearless failure. The key is ‘Persistence, Persistence, Persistence.’ Just because it seems that the majority of people are rude and pessimistic does not mean that others should follow suit. One positive attitude may lead to another and your effect on someone else can cause a domino effect.
This quote will always be relevant and personable. I know recently I have been guilty of giving up on the general ‘people’ simply because of the behavior of a collective few. If I continue to not realize my generalizations I could potentially not let in someone who does not share those same qualities. This statement is the prefect motto for open-mindedness.
I really like the message of this poem. I agree that no matter what others may do to you, you should always try to be the best you that you can be. I mean, who wants to live in a world where people are so afraid of how people will treat them that they give up on doing good or being happy? There will always be those people who try to take something positive and ruin it, but that doesn’t mean that we should give up one creating the positives.
While it is well known that Mother Teresa was a wise woman, the fact that she wrote this proves that point even further. Especially considering she saw so many horrible things in her lifetime, and even worse of people. I feel that if a person like her can keep a positive out look and continue to press forward in even the darkest of days surrounded by doubt and fear. Then all of us should be able to. Her words inspire me, not to give up, not to falter and not to let anyone stand in the way of what I want out of life!
Where to start? The way one lives their life must not be entirely based off of how they are perceived or treated by others. What we see constantly in this world today is a conglomerate of people who live solely to impress…others. The only individual that matters in terms of impressions and satisfaction is one’s self, as at the end of the day, external perceptions don’t matter unless they are parallel with internal perceptions. It is our duty to uphold, as best we can, a decent mix of these virtues. Personally, I know several people who’s central goal in life is to acquire a large QUANTITY of contacts and friends, and they seem to stretch themselves out much too far. Not only did they have more commitments than they could handle, they had so many different personalities, they no longer had their self. If someone were to tell them ‘just be yourself’ they wouldn’t be able to, because the definition of their self, was whatever someone wanted them to be. Eventually we will all face our own end, and we will not be thinking about how that one passerby that one time didn’t like us for some reason or another, but rather we will be attempting to determine whether we had reached total fulfillment.
This poem is the complete encompassment of what you’ve been talking about in class. In order to live a truly ethical life and be a good person, you should act in ways that effect others positively as well. These are the virtues we should strive towards in our daily lives. While it is difficult to act in these ways, especially when others are not, it is important to hold true to a personal standard and at the very least, try to be kind, forgiving and honest. Without such vital ethical standards, no one would want to live in this world. When people continue to try live by the actions Mother Teresa describes in this poem, the world is a desirable place to live in. I really like that this poem is in simple terms in which people can really take these actions into their daily lives.
I think the message of this poem is stating that we are surrounded by so many people and we can’t simply let a few of them get in our way or persuade us to make a bad choice or influence us to be selfish. This poem is how I bet most people wish they could live their life, but it is very easy to be influenced negatively by others. Mother Teresa is a true saint because she was able to lead her life according to this poem. What others thought of her didn’t matter, her only motive was to help others and make the world a better place to live. This poem shows that true goodness is blind. Others don’t have to watch you display the characteristics of a good person in order for you to actually act virtuously.
This is a great model for how I wish I could live my life, and I feel that many people would agree with me. It is so easy to be influenced by others to make what might not be the most selfless choices. Mother Teresa acted according to this poem by dedicating her life to helping make the world a better place. What I think really stands out though in her case is that she never tried to take on too much at one time. She focused on helping one person at a time. She acted as though no one was watching and she never boasted about her healings. She believed in the idea that true goodness is blind, and others shouldn’t have to witness you doing a respectable action in order for you to act virtuously.
This is very powerful. I have never read this before, and it is very true. Often times, speaking for myself, we tend to NOT do things that are good for us because we think, “well people won’t appreciate it anyway”. We worry too much about what others think, how others will feel, how others will react, how long others will remember, or whether they will congratulate you or not. I feel like people have let me down so much in the past, and it was the best thing that could happen to me! Now i do things for me, because they make me happy, and i don’t care what other say, or even if they will notice. Thanks for posting this professor C. I feel like this is the little push we all need sometimes to keep on truckin’. =)
Why people “are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered”? If unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered are bad, we can forgive them; however, these people have to be educated till they become nice. I am feeling very confused in my live. People always make their statement consistent. How do we identify nice? If I win a match, is it nice for losers? If I earn lots of money, is it nice for the poor? My parents are like Mother Teresa, and they both taught me to be kind anyway. I follow my parents’ words till now; however, these days, I am thinking may be sometimes we don’t have to be so kind, and sometimes angry, sad, or yell are not negative. Just follow our heart. If we want the world become better, if we want somebody else become better, just do it what you want, is it right? We all have limited energy; however, how we can make unlimited influence.
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