Press on

The journey is long and painful, the obstacles are large and frequent, but the prize...is worth it all.--GLV

A friend of mine called me yesterday saying that reading my blog was a wake up call. After reading all 30 of the posts and then walking into the bathroom to answer the following questions from one of the posts:

What are you doing in your life to reach your Competitive Greatness?
What are you doing to develop your spiritual life (your relationship with God)?
Are you taking care of yourself physically (eating right, exercising), emotionally (developing relationships) and mentally (educating yourself)?

He realized that he could not answer the questions with good conscience. He tried to find answers to the questions for 10 minutes with out lying and then realized he didn’t have them. He couldnt bring himself to lie to the only person he couldnt lie to...himself. So he began to break down in tears, and in the midst of that shirade had a revelation. He decided to take action. Right then and there he began to change his life for the better. After listening to his story I was obviously taken back from his statements and it made me start thinking about all that I have gone through in business and in life. After a couple of minutes of reflection, a quote I read a couple of years ago popped into my head: "The will to win — the will to achieve — goes dry and arid without continuous renewal".
This quote is one of the most honest statements I have ever read, and for most, it explains their defeats. Most things are out of our control during our long journey to greatness (whatever that journey may be), and the only way to get to the finish line is by being mentally tough, a big picture thinker, and extremely motivated. You have to "bleed love and spit fire", and if you dont, you will fail, quit, and miss out on great opportunities because of those decisions. My dad sent me an email the other day with only this quote in it: Energy and persistence conquer all things. Think about that quote and then think about all the times you have bailed out on an opportunity. Then think about what would have happened if you pressed on. Would your life be different? Would it be better? My plan is to put every effort of my being into every second of the day so when I am on my deathbed I can recite these words:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”--Theodore Roosevelt