Goethe on the Power of Commitment to Influence Destiny

by Robert Wilkinson

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is considered to be one of the greatest philosophers the Western world ever produced. This was always one of my favorite Goethe quotes, as it lays bare the essential quality to a more perfect self-expression.

For your consideration:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.”

Which is why we should never allow our limitations or fears to deflect us from a noble goal. You just never know what might happen if you get out of your own way....

© Copyright 2010 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[kachina]

Perfect, most welcome thoughts for where I am at this week.
Another piece falls neatly into in my personal puzzle..thanks so much! :)

[twitter.com/tenderness]

ha ! thank you robert ! i read these in just the right order !
: )

[cathy cataldo]

perfect for me today!:)

[Jennifer]

Yup, me too. Though I'm freaking scared of what I committed to, and things haven't started falling into place about it yet.

[Cecy Snyder]

WOW. Perfect and thank you.

[Jorge Torres]

Thank You Robert Great Universe Conspiracy on Commitment!!!!!

Sometimes Universe takes U There So I Found Your Great Posts Thank You!!!!

"Success is Often the Result of taking a Misstep in the Right Direction"
from Al Bernstein

Best Wishes !!!!

[Tara]

Dear Robert, This reminds me of Joseph Campbell in conversation with Bill Moyers in the series of interviews on PBS titled The Power of Myth:

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are - if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.

And Campbell attributes this to what he found in the Upanishads:

I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: sat-chit-ananda. The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked.

[daz hastings]

"....doors will open where before there were only walls"

[william]

not to be a dick but campbell himself lists two other parts to the saying

1. proper consciousness 2. proper being

These two by implication would therefore suffice as well.

I always tell people this, no one ever listens.

[kathryn davison]

hi robert -

a request from your hits? could i ask you to speak to arjuna? I am feeling the pull.....k

[anon]

Very timely... I just finished a design I'd been working on for months, using a language I had no prior experience with. I had no idea if I would succeed. I'm a software engineer and the design is just lines of code but they form something new. The Goethe sentiment definitely applies. When creating something that is bigger than your knowledge, you just have to jump.

[Louise]

I was just doing a Google search for another, similar quotation and came to find out they're both widely misattributed to johann wolfgang von goethe; they're fine quotes, nonetheless.
Louise

Are ye in earnest?

Seize this very minute.

What you can do, or dream you can – begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;

Begin and then the work will be completed.