Every champion has felt it. Every king has felt it. Every winner has felt it.
Every soldier has felt it. Every victorious person has felt it. The urge to quit.
I don't care if you don't have the money. And you don't have the help. And you don't have the family for it.
And you don't have the friends for it. Don't you give up on your dream. I want you to hold on.
It may not happen in the time that you think is going to happen, but I want you to know something, if you quit, it's never going to happen. If you quit, if you give up, if you stop, if you do not persevere, you will never see it. See the thing is, for many people, they've tried the same path you're on and they failed.
As you walk this journey, you're gonna see carcasses all over the place of people that didn't quite have it. That should inspire you because you've gotten further than that person and that person. But you're not looking to get further than them, you're looking to finish.
I didn't get here through academics. I got here because I refused to quit. I said, I've been through enough pain, I got to get a reward for it.
So often the key is that we just keep running. We stay positive. And we never give up.
Life is not a marathon. It's not a sprint. It's a series of sprints combined with a boxing match.
We're not just running, but we're getting hit along the way. And here's the key, our optimism is a competitive advantage. Our belief.
Our positivity. Why are we afraid of bloodshed? There might have to be some.
There might have to be some crying, and some separation, and some letting go. It's okay. All of these things that are happening to me right now, they're just temporary inconveniences.
They're not stronger than I am. I'm in charge here. Too often you have a dream of creating this or getting involved with there.
But at the end of the day, sometimes this fear of "will I fail? " "Will I make it? " "Will I achieve it?
" The challenge is is learning to punch that fear right in its mouth. I'm talking about the fear of that voice in the back of your head that makes you think that you can't. And you know what?
Maybe you'll make a mistake, but you're failing forward. The thing that we have to continue to passionately, uncompromisingly not give in on is the fact that I'm not staying stagnant. I'm moving forward.
Because what I feed will grow, and what I starve will die. Every time you're doing what you're supposed to do and it don't look like it's supposed to look and people get in your ear and all of a sudden you don't feel comfortable no more and you feel under pressure, instead of you going in the pocket and being who you're supposed to be, you start running another way. Why you keep crying about pushing through obstacles?
Listen. You got put through that because what that does, that tension produces greatness. You fight on the street, but when your teacher give you a math test, now you want to punk out.
Somebody tell you to write a five page paper, now you're scared. Don't back up on no test. You approach the test the same way you approach somebody who approach you on the streets.
You don't quit, you don't give up, you don't run. Stop running from it and run to it. Stop telling me what you're going through.
The greats, they get to it, they go through it. Stop running and face it. And the harder it is, the better.
Keep on moving. Keep on moving. Don't try and stop and pull people out of the race to come look at blood dripping down your face.
Don't feel sorry for yourself and try and organize a pity party. The shots are part of the program. It's necessary that you develop stickability.
That you take a stand. That you dig in. It's necessary to know there are going to be some difficult times.
That when you are in transition, there's going to be a drop in your energy. You're going to be tired. That's why it's so important, that when you get up in the morning, when your feet hit the ground, you stand up getting up, alright life, I'm ready for you.
I'm fortifying myself. I'm meditating. I'm reading my goals.
I know it's possible and I know it's necessary that I put my soft stuff to the test. So I'm coming out here, I know I'm going to have to take some blows, to find out how strong I am, can I stand up? I know I'm going to experience some rejection and disappointment.
I know I'm going to have some cash flow problems. Some relationship problems. I know there are going to be some hard decisions to make.
I know there are going to be some moments when I don't know what to do, that things are going to be so uncertain that I'm going to feel overwhelmed and feel like I can't handle it. I know, I know I'm going to experience all of that. Why?
It's necessary. It's a part of life. All of that will create you into a certain kind of person.
That as you go through that experience, what you become in the process, the goal itself will be anticlimactic. You'll discover a part of you that you did not know was there. So you can look yourself in the mirror with respect.
