I am a small and insignificant person by comparison

It’s important, I think, to reflect back on your accomplishments from time to time as a means of motivating yourself for future success. It’s easy to forget the hurdles you have crossed, the challenges you’ve overcome, and the ways in which you and your life are separate from the crowd. But knowing these things is important.  By reflecting back upon them and reliving these moments in our minds, we find the strength and the willingness to accomplish more.

I was feeling pretty good about my life, feeling like I had accomplished much and overcome even more, when I read the most remarkable obituary in all of human history and realized that I have done nothing by comparison.

Nancy Wake, the White Mouse of World War II.

One of the most remarkable people on the planet and my new hero.

Just a few of her accomplishments from the obituary (you should read the entire obituary) include:

She hid downed Allied servicemen at her home and led them over the Pyrenees to the safety of neutral Spain. She later helped organize thousands of French resistance fighters known as the Maquis, by meeting Allied arms drops, distributing weapons and training 7,000 partisans in preparation for the Normandy invasion.

As her involvement in the war deepened, Ms. Wake was trained by the British to kill with her bare hands (she delivered a fatal karate chop to a sentry at an arms factory), parachute into enemy-held territory and work a machine gun.

With her highly motivated force, Ms. Wake planned and executed a successful raid on a Gestapo garrison and an arms factory in central France in 1944.

I suddenly feel like I have a lot more to do.