The only right choice

One of my favourite quotes is attributed to Churchill, eventhough no one seems to be able to find the source for it:

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

It however sound very good together with another quote, which can be traced back to Churchill:

For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use to be anything else.

With the definition of the pessimist and optimist from the first quote, it is obviously true. We must see the possibilities in the difficulties, not the opposite. There will undoubtedly be trouble - Churchill had his fair amount of trouble in his time; but only by taking the difficulties as challenges and doing our best to overcome them we have the chance to get something better. Pessimism and negativity merely lead to apathy, resignation and fulfillment of the apocalyptic prophecies one creates for oneself. And that will bring no joy - at least not, if one ignores the extremely poor and stupid one of the kind it is to be able to say "I told you so!"
(Translated from Det eneste rigtige valg, originally published February 24th, 2017)

Going beyond the comfort zone for expertise

I recently read an interesting point on expertise - the point being that if you are interested in becoming an expert in a field, it is not enough simply to repeat the same routines over and over again until you become an expert. A golfer does not become a champion by standing in the same place and repeating the same stroke to perfection. A car driver does not become a good driver just by going back and forth to work every day, and an artist does not become a good one just by painting the same type of image again and again.
If I want to be an expert, I should of course allocate plenty of time for the disciplines I want to become an expert in. But most notably, I will have to leave my comfort zone. I have to try something new; hit some more challenging balls from different angles; artistically experiment with more challenging subjects or with choice of colour; drive my car in a closed circuit to get out of the comfort zone without putting other people's lives and livelihoods at risk.
And I must accept occasional failure - and find an acceptable level of failure to avoid killing the motivation, without excellent results every time, as that would only indicate lack of challenge - and thereby lack of proper improvement.
(Translated from Udenfor komfortzonen efter ekspertisen)