You’re never a loser until…

You’re never a loser until you quit trying. – Mike Ditka

What does that mean?
To me, it says that as long as you are trying there is hope.  Once you quit, it’s over.  Said another way, “If you will not advocate for yourself, whom will?”  If you aren’t trying, working and planning to accomplish something, you have quit advocating for yourself, you have given up.  Once you do that, loss is inevitable.

Why is perseverance important?
Like Iron Mike says, as long as you’re trying, you have a chance.  Perseverance is the skill of getting back up each time you’re knocked down.  If you’ve played any football (which Mike Ditka played, as well as having coached), you’re used to getting knocked down.  Practically every play, you spit out the grass, and stand back up.  Over and over again.  For hours on end.  Eventually, it becomes automatic.  As soon as you hit the ground, you simply stand back up.  Once you reach that place, it’s a different game.  You stop talking about how much you hurt, and look forward to the next play, if only to even the score.

Where can I apply this in my life?
There are multiple ways to approach this.  Each is a part of the whole. You may be really good at one of these things, but not so much so with some of the others.  Work on becoming a little more balanced.  And don’t forget to use your own personal intuition and experience to guide you in your pursuit of the practice of perseverance.

Practice having an indomitable spirit, to always have a can-do attitude, ready to bounce back from any situation.  This skill, so far as I have understood and experienced it, can only be honed by adversity.  It is a matter of mental toughness and a willingness to do it again and again (using intelligence and courage) until you find a way over, under or through the difficulty.

You already do it, to some extent.  When you’re headed somewhere, and there is a road block (construction, accident, volume of traffic), you find another way around.  Unless you decide it’s not worth it and just turn around and go home.  Another is waiting in line.  On occasion, time pressure requires us to leave, but most of the time we wait.  We don’t have to enjoy it, but we don’t give up (again, usually – extraordinary circumstances notwithstanding).

Work on planning for alternatives, for as surely as night follows day, it’s not going to go according to plan.  As an unabashed Anal-Retentive, I tend to plan a project in excruciating detail.  I often plan out alternative branches, should some of the more obvious difficult sections not go according to plan.  It saves a lot of aggravation later, but I have a minimum level of certainty I must achieve before I’m ready to move forward.

To practice, I would at least outline anything that isn’t trivial.  Then look for places where things could go wrong, and try to come up with an alternate path or two, so that if things do get sideways, you have already put some thought into other possible paths forward.  Rather than plan out every possible branch, others prefer to go with the flow.  Which brings us to the next aspect of perseverance.

Work on flexibility, to be able to change with the situation.  This differs from planning, in that in planning, you prepare for disruptions.  In flexibility, you react smoothly to disruptions.  The best way I have found to practice this, and become better, is to have children.  Things change so rapidly that it can be difficult to plan anything (in the classical sense of planning).  I have learned to make an outline for the day, and fill in as we go, changing, adapting and modifying as the day progresses.

For those without children,  you might try day trips with a group of friends, and plan the day as a series of events (ball game in the afternoon, BBQ in the back yard for dinner, hitting bars/clubs/movies/etc after that).  Then just go with the flow.  Vacations are also a way to work on flexibility.  My mom used to plan the vacation in 15 min increments (not really but it felt that way).  It worked for her, later for her & dad, but with two rambunctious boys, not so much.  Vacations tend to be about one of two things: a race to see all the sights or a relaxing series of days, in which sights are seen.  One sounds a little more flexible, just from the description, right?

That’s the tip of the iceberg.  Each of these three broad categories unfolds like a flower into hundreds of petals.  And you may divide the problem of perseverance in a different manner, resulting in different names and even a different number of topics.  The point is to not give up.  Try and try again (with the occasional pause to reconnoiter, reflect, re-plan).  And that Yoda guy, forget him and his silly quotes!  He’s just a puppet!  8)

From: Twitter, @Inspired_Ones
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mikeditka357629.html