You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Today, we think of Eleanor Roosevelt as a strong and fearless role model. The longest-serving First Lady of the United States, she transformed the role, taking on more leadership and political responsibility than any before her. In her autobiography, though, she described her younger self as timid, afraid of the dark and of punishment, and longing to be loved. It was only in adulthood, repeatedly facing what frightened her, that she learned, “once you have met it and lived through it you find that forever after you are freer than you ever were before.” It's a sentiment similar to one her husband famously expressed: “The only thing to fear is fear itself.” The difference is in the freedom she describes: “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”