Cross That Finish Line

This is a very famous quote from Theodore Roosevelt. It is one of my favorites. The text reads as follows:

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered with failure, than to take ranks with the poor spirits who never enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that know not victory nor defeat.

These words now hang in our dressing room, reminding me everyday to keep trying even if it fails miserably. In a world that values perfection, winners, influencers and being number one, it is important to keep doing even if we end up at number two. That sounds horrible when you think about how much we worship winning, and yet number two was still in the race, still held their own, and still has a chance to do better next time.

Every winner at one time or another was a loser. They lost, they failed, they sat down and cried about how badly they performed. The real message is that they didn’t give up, they kept going. No matter how many times we fail we need to get up and try again. It makes us better, stronger, it makes us work harder and want it more. Failure also makes victory that much sweeter.

Let us never forget that winning is tremendous, losing is the battle we keep fighting that makes than victory so much more meaningful. Nothing worth winning was ever won in one try. Keep going, get dirty, wipe yourself off, and try again. Then savor the sweet feeling of winning the moment you cross that finish line.