If you are motivated by the belief that your efforts will make a significant long term beneficial difference to your life, go for it.
But what if it really isn't true? What if for each thing that appears to be obtained through your own effort, there are plenty of other random factors in your life that interact with your apparently-obtained gains and tend to cancel out the benefits by making something else worse?
Then you'd be labouring under a convincing illusion. One that probably can be examined by people interested in studying it.
If it could be studied, would you rather know the truth, or would you rather not even look, so you can stay motivated?
(Btw, I'm a fan of the quote as well. Above is written from a devil's advocate sort of approach.)
But what if it really isn't true? What if for each thing that appears to be obtained through your own effort, there are plenty of other random factors in your life that interact with your apparently-obtained gains and tend to cancel out the benefits by making something else worse?
Then you'd be labouring under a convincing illusion. One that probably can be examined by people interested in studying it.
If it could be studied, would you rather know the truth, or would you rather not even look, so you can stay motivated?
(Btw, I'm a fan of the quote as well. Above is written from a devil's advocate sort of approach.)