Thought for the day: John Adams

A thought for the day from the life of John Adams, 2nd President of the United States:

On July 21, 1756, he wrote: “I am resolved to rise with the sun and to study Scriptures on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings, and to study some Latin author the other three mornings. Noons and nights I intend to read English authors… . I will rouse up my mind and fix my attention. I will stand collected within myself and think upon what I read and what I see. I will strive with all my soul to be something more than persons who have had less advantages than myself.” But the next morning he slept until seven and a one-line entry the following week read: “A very rainy day. Dreamed away the time.”

The exceptional are human too. Don’t beat yourself up for the occasional dreaming day. Taken from John Adams by David McCulloch. Cross-posted on Medium.