What Does It Take? Don't Quit!

September 3, 2013

What does it take to accomplish a feat that most would not be able to do? The ability to never quit.  That's just what Diana Nyad did as she swam her way into the record books as the first person to swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys.  The 64 years young Nyad first attepted this record when she was in her late twenties.  Despite many obstacles and set backs she finally made it on her fifth try and thirty five years later.  So what is it that makes her so special?

Other than her willingness to succeed, nothing.  Quitting just isn't in her.  Her determination to accomplish her goal outweighed any thoughts of giving up.  It was her ability to choose the more difficult rather than to surrender to the easy.  Mile after mile she kicked her legs and stroked her arms through turbulent waters infested with deadly sharks and poisnonous jellyfish. 

At the completion of her journey her inspiring message to all was "never give up". She said regardless of your age there is always an opportunity to become successful.  She also mentioned that at sixty-four she was "in her prime" and that maybe she would consider a rocking chair when she reached her nineties.  Now that's a mantra we can all live by.

Here's a few more people who didn't give up.  Did you know Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade?  Thomas Edison was told he was "too stupid to learn".  Colonel Sanders was rejected by more than 1000 restaurants before he sold his first chicken recipe. Marilyn Monroe was told she wan't pretty or talented enough to be an actress.  Even on a personal level my friend Greg Larocca was told he was too small to make it into professional baseball but after 12 years in the minors and his unwillingness to quit he became a superstar in the Japanese Baseball League.

So many of us have been told by others that we are somehow "not good enough".  The reality is we are all are born with the ability to choose. The difference between is some choose what is easiest and some choose what it right.  We all have had people in our pasts that have told us what we were not capable of doing. 

I still can hear the naysayers telling me I would never bench press 500 lbs.  At thirty-four I still hadn't accomplished that goal. Then at thirty-five after years of atempts I finally did it.  In fact, eleven years later at forty-six I broke the Masters World Record at 501.5 lbs.

There is a champion in all of us. Whether on the job or at home we are never too old to realize our goals and dreams. We have struggled but survived many difficult times in the recent years but as a nation our resolve has endured.   Our will to go forward has always been the hallmark of who we are.  All it takes is the unwillingness to quit and a resolute determination, THE CHOICE IS YOURS!  May you flourish and prosper. Rocco

Diana Nyad