Don’t Give Up Too Soon (Lessons from a Radish)
Meet Roger the Radish. Sounds silly, but there is a lot we can learn from a radish plant…like don’t give up too soon.
Don’t give up too soon. Keep pushing until you achieve your goals.
After I filmed this video, I went for a run and it dawned on me that it was incomplete. See, the Roger analogy works with fitness and with life. Roger really needs three things to succeed – sun, water, and time. Let’s focus on the latter two.
Our goals and our dreams need time and water. The water for your dreams comes from two places – sweat and tears. Understand that pain waters your dreams and helps them grow. You don’t get where you want to go by sitting on the couch. You’ve got to move. The most painful experiences in our lives are the ones that shape us and allow us to grow. Sometimes the water is the sweat of hard work and sometimes the water is derived from tears. Either way, you have to water your dreams to let them grow.
My favorite Lance Armstrong quote is:
Pain is good, because it teaches your body and soul to improve.
If you think about your greatest learning experiences and your greatest times of growth, the chances are they hurt like hell. The death of my father was the worst time of my life. The lessons I took away from that experience have shaped me into the man I am today. I still draw strength from those moments because I know that if I could deal with that, I can deal with anything. No mountain is too high, and no struggle too fierce, when compared to those months.
It may be physical or it may be mental, but it’s the struggle that moves us forward. Yet, our sense of self-preservation often won’t allow us to embrace this. We push away pain because it doesn’t feel good. I’m not telling you it’s going to feel any better.
What I am telling you is that your dreams need water just as much as Roger does and if you are doing things that make you uncomfortable, pay attention and find the lesson. It just might be a seminal moment in your life. So, whatever you do, don’t give up too soon!
One-on-one mentoring may be exactly what you need. Why not give it a try?
