“Get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding, you will be yourself. Relaxed. You wouldn’t be driving with your brakes on. That’s what would happen.”

Anthony de Mello in “Awareness”

More in a fable on P.58 “There’s a lovely saying of Tranxu, a great Chinese sage, that I took the trouble to learn by heart. It goes: ‘When the archer shoots for no particular prize, he has all his skills; when he shoots to win a brass buckle, he is already nervous; when he shoots for a gold prize, he goes blind, sees two targets and is out of his mind. His skill has not changed, but the prize divides him. He cares! He things more of winning than of shooting, and the need to win drains him of power.”

Tags: "Awareness" book, "I" vs "Me", Effort, Failure, Fear, Illusion, Self, Skill, Soccer, Success, Winning