Life will hit you with all sorts of hell. It will bring you to your knees. You will fail.
You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging.
It will wear you down, break your spirit, force you to quit. At times, it will test you to your very core. The storms will come.
There are times when the nights will be long and dark and you will be alone. We're in a place that it feels like nobody else is in this place. I'm here all alone.
And I did not see it going like this. There will be times when the darkness seems to consume everything. But don't let it consume you.
You must be your very best in the darkest moments. You need to be calm. You must be composed.
Your physical power and your inner strength must be brought to bear. Right now, you're being tried. You're being forged.
You're being tested by fire and by pain. That's the test. Don't fail the test.
Don't give in. Don't quit. Don't ever quit.
The deep is not for devastation. It's for preparation. The darkest and deepest places of my life have prepared me for the greatest victories of my life.
When your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. It is literally at the darkest moment when it dawns. You don't really even get to the next level until your darkest moments.
No matter what you've ever been through, you had to go through it to get right here. So that's why I'm saying stop tripping when it get dark and you running. You running from your success.
And I'm telling you, when you come up against that thing, you gotta out do that thing. And you can't do it when you get there. You got to already make up your mind before you get to cancer.
You got to already make up your mind before you get to the exam and pass that exam. You got to make up in your mind when you talking to your husband, when you talking to your wife, when you talking to that sickness. You got to look at it before you even get to it.
Speak to your soul, say, don't give up. Speak to your mind, say, don't give up. And I don't know who you are and what's been pressing you, but I'm begging you don't give up.
Don't give up because it's hard. Don't give up because you can't see the future. Don't give up because it hurts.
Don't give up. No matter how bad it is, don't give up in that place. No matter how bad it hurts, don't give up.
Even if others gave up. There's something on the other side of this for you. Come on, you need to remember, this is not your first rodeo cowboy.
This is not the first time you cried. This is not the first time you were short of breath. This is not the first time you didn't see a way clear.
This is not the first time you were hurt. This is not the first time your heart was broken. This is not the first time you didn't have enough money.
This is not the first diagnosis that came up from behind. And we will get through this. We will get through this.
I don't care how hard it is. I don't care how difficult it is. I want you to practice.
Never give up. And never give in. Why?
Because some skill is not going to get you through certain things. But phenomenal will will allow you to get through everything. Buster Douglas got past Mike Tyson.
Why? Mental toughness. Muhammad Ali got past George Foreman in his old age.
Mental toughness. So don't you ever give up. As long as you got breath in your nostrils, don't you ever give up.
Don't you ever give in because I never told you it would be easy. But with mental toughness you can get it done. It's a portion of heart, a portion of will, and an unyielding dedication to see that through.
I can tell you how it's hard to get off the couch and take that one step towards greatness. I can tell you how hard that is. I can also tell you how hard it is, ten times harder, looking back on your life as time expires knowing you could have been great.
I can tell you how the worst failure in life isn't the person that fell down, it's the person that never got up to try. There's a million examples on how failure is made. Success is written every single day.
Planning it out, having everything in line to ensure success. Thinking before acting. It's always the last inch that matters the most.
Both of them are just as valuable as this one. But our will is shutting down. Our desire is shutting down.
Failure is setting in. The pain is increasing. Right now when it's hurting, do we go on or not?
Do we welcome it? Or do we run from it? Every storm has an expiration date.
No matter what storm you're in right now, that at some point, the winds, the waves, and the rain have to subside. No matter what is happening, no matter how hard the fight is, as long as you keep fighting, you win. Only surrender is defeat.
Only quitting is the end. Because the darkness only wins if you've let it. Do not let the darkness win.
Fight. Fight through the storm. Fight through the pain.
You can get out of the storm, and you will get out of the storm. And when you get out, you're gonna see the sun again. It will not be easy.
Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often. But if you take some risks, step up when the times are the toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden, and never, ever give up, you will succeed.
