I do have high standards. I look at everything I have done and think, 'Why wasn't that better?' Part of my motivation is from crippling self-doubt - I have got to prove myself wrong.
Interpretation
High standards drive self-improvement, despite self-doubt.
Michael Palin expresses how his high standards and critical self-reflection push him to strive for better results. He acknowledges that his motivation often stems from a deep-seated self-doubt, which compels him to prove to himself that he is capable of more than what he has achieved.
In practice
In a motivational speech addressing young professionals: 'I do have high standards...'
I've never had a particular skill. I can't cook, dance, play an instrument, speak a foreign language. This used to worry me. I'd think, when I'm grown up, at 18, then I made it 21, it will be clear what role I should have in life. It never happened. I never signed on the dotted line as the sort of adult my father wanted.
Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life
John Hall, my geography teacher at school inspired me to a lifelong interest in geography and a curiosity about our world which has stayed with me through my life. Geography is a living, breathing subject, constantly adapting itself to change. It is dynamic and relevant. For me geography is a great adventure with a purpose.
Despite having seen a fair amount of the world, I still love travelling - I just have an insatiable curiosity and like looking out of a window.
When I read profiles of myself, I sometimes think: 'I have spent my whole life struggling to understand my motivations and impulses, and I've never quite sorted them out.'
Armageddon is not around the corner. This is only what the people of violence want us to believe. The complexity and diversity of the world is the hope for the future.
The fundamental challenge of achieving anything you wish is first to convince yourself to do it. Once you are totally convinced of its value, you'll find a way to get it done.
Remember why you started, remember where you're headed, think of how great it will be to get there, and keep going.
I'm almost shocked that I'm still around after all of these years... and always grateful that I get another turn to do something.
Keep working. Don't wait for inspiration. Work inspires inspiration. Keep working.
Never sell tomorrow short. There's plenty to get excited about. Be filled with expectation, hope and confidence. Believe something good is going to happen - and it usually will.
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
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