Step 2A: An Inspiring Story

Here is how Abe Lincoln described his response to the dark and gloomy news that Stephen Douglas had beaten him in the race for United States Senator (from Doris Kearns Goodwin, 2006).

Lincoln started to walk home on a slippery path and his foot slipped from under him, knocking the other one out of the way, but he recovered himself. He said to himself, “It’s a slip and not a fall.” Lincoln understood that his defeat for the Senate was only a single slip and not a permanent fall.

As if that’s not inspiring enough, consider that just two years later he was elected President and on another dreary night four years after that, he was re-elected to a second presidential term.  

What do you think of Lincoln's attitude?