TIMANTHES

"It is better to be young in your failures than old in your successes." - Flannery O'Connor

Try Again

Over 2,000 years ago a young Greek artist named Timanthes studied under a respected tutor. After several years the teacher's efforts seemed to have paid off when Timanthes painted an exquisite work of art. Unfortunately, he became so enraptured with the painting that he spent days gazing at it. One morning when he arrived to admire his work, he was shocked to find it blotted out with paint. Angry, Timanthes ran to his teacher, who admitted he had destroyed the painting. "I did it for your own good. That painting was retarding your progress. Start again and see if you can do better."

Timanthes took his teacher's advice and produced Sacrifice of Iphigenia, which is regarded
as one of the finest paintings of antiquity. The concentration today, isn't in the pictures or paintings of Timanthes in themselves, but in the "betterness" of what we all can achieve if we can take our eyes off, our past successes.

When we place all our focus on our past successes, or we concentrate too much on them, we tend to retard our growth. That is, we lose the ability to excel in new areas. You might have achieved so much in 2015 so far, I want to congratulate you. Better than that, I want you to take your eyes off the past, concentrate on the greater things you can still achieve. Brace yourselves!