The Challenge of Keeping Your Head

If you can stay calm when everyone around you is losing their heads and blaming you, and if you can trust yourself when others doubt you, yet still make space for their doubts; if you can wait patiently without growing tired, or face lies without becoming deceitful, or endure hate without letting it consume you, and yet remain humble, not letting pride overtake your words then you have truly mastered yourself.

If you can dream without letting dreams control you, and think without being enslaved by your thoughts; if you can face both triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same; if you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by others to trap fools, or watch everything you’ve worked for be destroyed, and still have the strength to rebuild with worn-out tools; if you can take all your winnings, risk it all in one go, lose, and start again without complaining about your loss; if you can push your heart, nerves, and muscles to keep going long after they’re exhausted, holding on when there’s nothing left inside you except the will to press on then you have truly learned resilience.

If you can talk with crowds without losing your virtue, or walk with kings without losing the common touch; if neither enemies nor loving friends can hurt you, and if all people count with you, but none too much; if you can fill every unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of effort then the Earth is yours, and everything in it.

More than that, you’ll have mastered the art of living fully.