On April 23rd, 1910, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered a speech entitled Citizenship in a Republic before the Sarbonne, the University of Paris. The speech is sometimes referred to as The Man in the Arena in deference to a paragraph within the speech where Roosevelt encouraged his listeners to spend themselves in a worthy cause:

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. 

Citizenship in a Republic was greeted by acclaim and has since inspired leaders of many generations and cultures. If you'd like to read the speech in its entirety, you can download a transcript here. Consider specifically, however, the learning from Roosevelt's allusion to the one whom he called The Man in the Arena...

How would you contrast the critic and the man in the arena?

What's your gut response to Roosevelt's words: resonance or dissonance?    

How does Roosevelt challenge your preconceptions around failure and success? 

Contemplate Roosevelt's statement: "If he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat."  

A beloved mentor once counseled, "It's easier to define yourself by who you're not than by who you are." Where's the truth around this statement? How might you define yourself to another in language that is proactive rather than reactive? Are you expending yourself in "a worthy cause," bigger than yourself?