This poem always challenges me to demand more from myself!

The poem below is an extract from the Success Classic, Think & Grow Rich.

Any time I am resigned to a mediocre existence and I come across this poem, it jolts me back to life and demands that I raise the bar on my expectations and sense of deservingness ; reminding me of the possibility of living above and beyond my current, perceived limitations.

I don’t want to get to the end of my life filled with regrets, knowing that I could have had more but settled for less.

“I bargained with life for a penny
And life would pay no more
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty score.

For life is a just employer
And will give you what you ask
But once you have set the wages
You must bear the task.

I worked for a menials hire
Only to learn dismayed
That any wage I would have asked of life
Life would have willingly paid.”

- Jessie B Rittenhouse