Never give up...

Have you heard the recent story about Diana Nyad? Oh my goodness, this woman is so inspiring!! At 64 years of age, Nyad was on her 5th attempt to swim this challenging 110 mile swim. She did it! She swam for 53 hours only stopping for food/drink but  never got out of the water. Here's a quote from one of her interviews, ‘‘I have three messages. One is, we should never, ever give up. Two is, you’re never too old to chase your dream. Three is, it looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team,’’ she said on the beach." Her first attempt at this was in 1978. Can you imagine holding on to a dream for that long? I read in one interview that her mother had passed away and she was going through her life and the dream of completing the swim resurfaced once again.. 35 years later and it was still there. I believe if you REALLY want something bad enough and you don't give up on yourself along the way, you'll get there. Does it really matter how long it takes? We aren't in a race with anyone else it's just you alone. There's no one at the finish with a prize. The real prize at the end of the race is finishing. So many times I've heard people say that it's going to take too long and after a few weeks they give up. I think we get it in our minds that the people that accomplish their goals don't struggle with wanting to quit, they don't have those times they literally have to force themselves to keep moving forward. That is not true. If you want something you have to fight through. How do I fight through? You just do :) When the feeling of quitting pops up, you just don't quit. When the excitement is gone and you don't know where the motivation went, you just keep going. I think I've said this before but too many times we base what we do on how we feel. We allow our feelings to determine our sticking to something or just giving up. There are mornings I have to force myself to get out of bed and start the day all over. I have had many moments of tying my shoes and walking out the door when my hearts not been in it but I still put one foot in front of the next and force my feet to hit the pavement running. You see, if we based our decisions on if we were in the mood or if we were excited about it.. then yes, at some point you will give up. You will quit. You'll be making the same goals for the rest of your life but never reaching them. It's an all too sad common story...
I think about the swimmer and how she had to will herself to keep going. She kept her eyes focused on her goal. She wanted to finish. That was her goal. Make that your goal. To finish! You'll meet some roadblocks along the way and you'll have some times where your motivation will carry you and then you'll have some times where just your determination will have to drag you. It doesn't matter how long it takes as long as you get there!! I like the quote that says,

“Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.”

You might as well do something now!

http://www.boston.com/2013/09/02/bgcom-swim/gPMJoRHgxuehPpRaLaLYUN/story.html?rss_id=Most+Popular