Latest / the Daily Quote - Positive Daily Inspiration and Motivational Quote of the Day / Michelangelo - "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."

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Michelangelo - "The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." · the Daily Quote - Positive Daily Inspiration and Motivational Quote of the Day

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  Dot com. Welcome to the Daily Quote, the
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  podcast designed to kick start your day in a positive way.
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  I'm your host, Andrew McGivern, and this episode is brought to
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  you by that great news podcast. Why should you listen?
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  Because good news should be heard.
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  And the link is in the show notes.
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  Today's quote is widely attributed to Michelangelo.
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  Sculptor, painter, architect and the poet of the Italian
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  Renaissance, the man behind the Sistine Chapel painting, the
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  statue of David, and some of the most breathtaking works of human
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  creation ever produced. The original source of the quote
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  can't be 100% verified to Michelangelo, but as you'll
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  hear, no one in history lived its truth more completely.
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  And it goes like this. The greater danger for most of
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  us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it
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  is too low and we reach it. This quote is profound because
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  it inverts the fear most of us carry through our entire lives.
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  We are terrified of aiming too high, of reaching for something
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  beyond our current capability and falling short, of being seen
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  trying and failing, of the gap between ambition and outcome
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  being visible to others. That fear is so powerful and so
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  pervasive that most people quietly negotiate their dreams
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  downward before they've even begun setting targets they know
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  they can reach. Pursuing goals that won't
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  embarrass them if they achieve less.
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  Building a life sized carefully to avoid the specific pain of
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  falling short. And Michelangelo, or at least
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  the wisdom attributed to him, is saying that's the wrong fear
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  entirely. The danger isn't the miss.
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  That danger is the reach that was never attempted, the aim
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  that was set so low that achieving it left everything
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  that mattered most untouched. Consider what Michelangelo
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  himself chose to aim at. He undertook projects of almost
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  incomprehensible ambition, years of relentless, solitary effort
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  on the Sistine Chapel, lying on scaffolding, painting above his
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  head until his neck and eyes filled him.
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  He could have aimed lower. He could have produced work that
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  was merely excellent rather than transcendent.
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  Nobody was forcing him toward the ceiling of possibility.
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  He chose that. And here's what the low aim cost
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  that most people never calculate.
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  Not just the outcome, but that person.
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  When you set your aim deliberately within what you
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  already know you can achieve, You don't grow, you can form.
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  You arrive at the destination exactly the same person who set
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  out. No larger, no more capable, no
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  more alive, and no way to know what you're actually capable of.
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  A low aim reaches a kind of comfortable stagnation dressed
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  up as success. A high aim mist is something
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  completely different. Even in the missing, even in the
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  falling short, you become someone you weren't before.
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  Your capacity expands in the attempt.
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  The distance between where you started and where you fell short
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  is ground you now occupy that you didn't before.
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  As conductor Herbert von Karjen said, those who have achieved
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  all their aims probably set them too low.
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  The full achieved goal is its own confession.
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  The miss at least proves you were aiming at something worth
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  going for. So here's the question where in
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  your life are you? Quietly negotiating your aim
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  downward, not because of the higher target was impossible,
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  but because falling short felt more frightening than ever.
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  Attempting it at all because the wisdom attributed to
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  Michelangelo isn't asking you to be reckless.
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  It's asking you to be honest about which fear is actually
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  more dangerous. Falling short of a high aim?
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  Build something. Reaching a low one confirms
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  nothing. Aim higher.
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  The miss is better than the mark.
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  That's going to do it. For today, I'm Andrew McGivern,
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  Signing off for now, but I'll be back tomorrow.
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  Same pod time, same pod station with another daily quote.