Accomplished Facts

Put all your passion and energy into the battles of life, but care not for the outcome and be at peace, a peace that will descend upon you as soon as you have detached yourself from the results. If the results do not depend on you, it is madness to live oppressed, humiliated, and in shame by the ghost of failure.

Once you have tried your best, the fight is over and everything is consummated. Wisdom and common sense tell us that it is nonsensical to waste time in lamentations and to smash your head against the indestructible wall of accomplished facts. Efforts depend on you, but the outcome does not; it depends instead on an imponderable series of casualties.

What is done, is done.

It is useless to shed tears and to lament uselessly burning up energy in a sterile fashion. Feel humiliated?!? Under no circumstances. Feel shame?!? Not at all. Feel sad?!? None of that. Lock up the past in oblivion and tomorrow return to the battle of life in the fullness of your energies.

From the book “The Art of Being Happy” by Father Ignacio Larrañaga