I suppose if I were to assess my life: what is done and left undone, I would attribute the accomplished more to the following quote than any other practical thing I can think of.

Tender handed stroke a nettle,

And it stings you for your pains,

Grasp it like a man of mettle,

And it soft as silk remains. Aaron Hill. 

Stinging nettles if brushed against, will sting like a bee; I know by experience.

But if you grasp it firmly it will not; that I don't know by experience, but the principle remains. 

I think the quote is summed up by another this way ---

 “Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;

Begin, and then the work will be completed.”  

Photo by Clayton Bruster