Law #12 – Never Give Up!
In this chapter, T.J. Hoisington starts with some recognizable examples of persistent people. The stories of Thomas Edison and Colonel Saunders are ones anyone whose reads about motivation or business would know. The one that really brought it home for me was his retelling of a scene from the movie “Chariots of Fire”. One of the athletes considers quitting on his dream when faced with what he believe are impossible odds. He tells his girlfriend, “ If I can’t win, I won’t run!” to which she responds, with a brilliant answer… “If you don’t run, you can’t win.” Giving up is a sure fire way to fail, and it is a decision that won’t even teach you what might lead to success. T.J. says: “There is one guaranteed way you won’t fulfill your dreams, and that is to simply quit on them.”
The message behind this is to not ignore the possibility of failure completely, that kind of wishful thinking may only lead to dangerous results. Keep your goals in sight and allow yourself to change the plan as you learn what works best. T.J. reminds us that wanting to be a winner is great, but we most likely will always start off losing until the skills develop. Diana Nyad teaches us in “Never, ever give up!”, the absoluteness of learning from experience is the partner of an optimistic vision. Diana set out to do something the greatest of her vocation hadn’t done in 60 over years. Even she had tried it and failed before and was given ample evidence it was impossible to succeed, but she was also given a gift. Her support team were all standing there with her during this attempt and she only had to swim to succeed. Her trusted team would do the rest. Near the end of her swim from Cuba to Florida, she was dehydrated, exhausted, and hallucinating that she saw the sun rising on the horizon. She was sure she failed again when her team called her to the boat, and they told her one thing; it wasn’t the sun on the horizon, but lights off the beach. She wasn’t there yet, so she just went on and accomplished what was impossible before her. She didn’t quit!
We are accustomed to faster response times and instant gratification, but we have lost the gifts of anticipation. Giving up before getting the prize can’t be the best solution. If you plant tomato plants in your garden in the spring, you care for them, and watch them grow. In the early fall, when the tomatoes are big and green, do you tear them all out in frustration and run to the grocery store to buy red tomatoes? Or, do you tend them some more and waiting for that first juicy bite? I know what I do and I love that first tomato each year… usually for someone I love, because there are a ton of greens ones ripening right behind the first one! Hoisington teaches us “If you believe in your goals strongly enough, and if you are committed to them, they will eventually bear fruit.”
Remind yourself of the tomatoes when feeling the fear of failure whispering for you to quit on your dreams. Imagine instead that the goal is as inevitable as the tomatoes, and while some may get eaten by squirrels, or a branch may break from too many tomatoes, we can learn how to protect the rest from this happening again. T.J. reminds us that failure is a sure path to a stronger success and it “is only the end if we let it be… use failures as learning opportunities, bringing you closer to your desired outcome.” Persistence is an encyclopedia of affirmations available to each and every one of us, and they are free. All you need is to choose them… Start with a mindset change towards success: Replace all your “If”s with “When”s and watch the momentum grow… to surpass the goals you originally set. Borrow this message from one of the worlds greatest athletes, Michael Jordan: “I have failed over and over and over again in my life and that’s why… I succeed.” Or ask yourself this: How many steps did I take to get to my successes? Now thank yourself for not giving up before taking every step!
Today I will reaffirm to myself that I will endure and persist until my goal is achieved.
Wishing you all a tremendous week!
The New Renaissance Mindset 
Good grief lol! I like what you’ve written here and the examples you’ve provided. No one is perfect. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t lied. And still the message of not giving up is an important one. Thanks for this.
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Hi K E,
Thank you for your comment. I’m grateful you liked it.
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KE–it’s true that we all lie. But most of us don’t lie all the time a la Ms. Nyad. I maintain the Nyad Fact Check site, and I can’t keep up. I’ll be adding more after Walter Poenisch, the man whose life Nyad essentially destroyed with her lies, is inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in late August.
See http://nyadfactcheck.com/#Poenisch for what Nyad did to Walter.
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Dan, I appreciate your enthusiasm for the truth, but your obvious hatred of Nyad is simply unappealing. Why don’t you share stories of people who inspire you, instead of wasting energy and time being against Nyad. The Law of Attraction has taught me that what we put energy into we get back in kind. Ask yourself what you are trying to share here. If it’s genuinely something positive, I will happily share it on my blog. If it’s only negative, as the tone of your comments have been, I won’t. I simply have no room for negative energy in my life. I choose to focus on the positive. Which, is what I did in choosing the story of Nyad. It’s not the person that mattered, it was the inspiration of the story. I will not try to convince you further of this and I invite my readers to follow my lead on this. I will not give more energy to the negativity.
I wish you happiness and peace.
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Thank you for following BrewNSpew. It’s good to meet you.
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It’s my great pleasure, Eugenia.
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“Diana set out to do something the greatest of her vocation hadn’t done in 60 over years…”
Um, two people actually did do it, and much more recently than 60 years ago.
“…it wasn’t the sun on the horizon, but lights off the beach.”
Hook, line and sinker. You’ve been caught on her PR fishing line. She landed on the beach at 2pm.
In this world of awesome accomplishments, I’m sure you could have found a better example for what you’re trying to say here. DN is a liar.
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Hi Mike,
Thank you for the fact check.
As I’ve mentioned before, my source was Ted Talks and I chose to focus on the message I got, not the messenger. I’m sure there are a great many other examples I could have cited when I wrote my article, and if my intention was to write a journalism piece, I would have sought other sources to corroborate DN’s story. I chose to take the motivation I received from the Ted talk and run with that. Furthermore, I personally have little interest in marathon swimming, so being factual about that part of the article wasn’t important me.
I am grateful that people like yourself are so detail oriented and enthusiastic enough to help me correct some oversights. However, I believe I will stumble again on facts that seem less important to my message. I maintain that I choose to not throw out the baby with the bath water. Further proof is the many arguments I’ve had about Thomas Edison’s achievements: how many were his discoveries vs how many were stolen from the less connected scientist. I still use his quotes that motivate me to illustrate some of my discussions, despite my feelings about the man or the authenticity of all his claims.
That is my choice, right or wrong.
Have you brought Nyad’s case with the curators at Ted talk? They would be very appreciative of your facts, should you share them.
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Re: Diana Nyad
As you know, when things seem too good to be true, they often are. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Diana Nyad is the Lance Armstrong of marathon swimming. Please see the Diana Nyad Fact Check site: http://www.nyadfactcheck.com/.
Also see my interview with the Lake Forest Stentor: “Did Diana Nyad ’73 Lie in her 2015 Commencement Speech?” [Ed. note: Yes.] http://stentornews.com/questioning-diana-nyads-73-cuba-florida-swim-interview-daniel-slosberg/.
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Hello Daniel,
While this news is disappointing, it doesn’t take away the point I was making about persistence. The facts about Diana Nyad or Lance Armstrong may discredit them, but they taught me many things. I’ve been able to find things about Tony Robbins, Tesla, Edison, Einstein, and most thought leaders that put the person in question.
Sadly, not everyone lives by their own words. Sometimes we need to choose the value of the message before tossing the baby with the bath water.
What they taught was more valuable than their actions. This is my own humble opinion.
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Thanks for responding! I believe people teach us much more by their actions than by their words. Nyad *says* that you can do anything if you just put your mind to it and work hard enough. But her *actions* tell us that, if you want something badly enough, it’s okay to lie and cheat to get it. I don’t happen to agree with the latter.
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Like I mentioned in my reply, I have chosen not to toss the baby with the bath water. The message resonated with me much more than the messenger. The message was also received within an experience of knowledge. I have been deep in the teachings of Tony Robbins lately and seem to hear the message of massive action leads to success everywhere I look. I also believe something I learned from Tony Robbins nearly 30 years ago now, when I first heard him speak. He explained the concept of lying with integrity, as completely believing whatever you are saying at the moment you are saying it, but give yourself the grace to have your mindset changed by new information. I don’t claim to understand Nyad’s motivations for whatever she may or may not have done, I only took a part of her message and used it for that part of my growth journey, when I heard it. As she was a top ranking speaker on Ted when I first encountered her, I had enough validation of her credentials from them to want to listen to that part of the message that helped my progress at that time.
Finally, as all this is now in the past and I am currently learning from new thought leaders, I am happy to have been able to revisit this with you. Please feel free to comment on my further posts. I am sincerely grateful that you engaged and commented and that we have been able to discuss this topic. Thank you, Daniel.
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