“To be without optimism,
that core of reasonless hope in the spirit rather than the brain was a fatal
flaw, the seed of death."--Anne Perry
In Greek
mythology, the greatest of the Greek warriors in the Trojan War was none but the
Achilles himself. At infancy, her mother placed him in the hearth of fire to
immortalize him and later bathed him in a powerful river {Styx} to fortify him
invulnerably.
Subsequently,
he became a formidable warrior of his time except for the heel by which he was
held by his mother. Alas, it was by that very heel that he was wounded and eventually
met his ruin.
A mere heel turned
out to be the greatest flaw of the greatest warrior of Troy.
Drawing from
this historical legend, we need to analyze our own flaws for their potential fatality
before they bring us down like Achilles. Now, I will use the definition of Encarta
dictionary to further express my thoughts on the meaning of the heel of
Achilles as:
“A
weakness that seems small but makes somebody or something fatally vulnerable.”
Successful people
examine themselves with brutal honesty by asking again and again, “What is the
single bad habit that is holding me back from my best?” And like them, you and
I will be wise to emulate their good example, every now and then.
I don’t know what
it is for you, but almost every interesting person has at least one. It may be
selfishness, greed, anger, arrogance or pride. And funny enough, it will seem
like it is not a big deal at times but in the end; it can deprive us of our
greatest accomplishment in life, if it is not thoroughly taken care of—on time.
Many relatively
good people lost their freedom and are presently rotting in jail simply because
they could not control themselves in their moments of weakness. Whereas a
serious effort beforehand to accept and remedy their deficiencies would have
made them better, and thus kept their honour and dignity—sometimes, even their
lives. Thank God, Kanye West is saved from such a fate. And if the hip-hop guy
can do it, so can we. He said:
“One of my biggest
Achilles’ heels has been my ego. And if I, Kanye West, the very person, can
remove my ego, I think there’s hope for everyone.”
The essence
of this piece is for us to recognize and willingly accept any flaws that can be
potentially fatal to our success and achievements. Subsequent write-ups will address the tactics
to adopt in changing them.
Today is
for us to accept the fact that we have a flaw and if left unaddressed, it could
be fatal to our ambition. Until we truthfully answer that question and admit
this painful reality, we will always be vulnerable to ruin.
