A Coach’s Diary: Endurance

“Don’t give up! Don’t ever give up!”

This line from Jim Valvano’s ESPY Awards speech is considered by many as one of the most memorable and impactful speeches ever given in the realm of sports.

A man with a respectable college basketball coaching and commentating career plagued by the dreaded and aggressive disease of cancer. His resilience to fight such a battle has led to many rallying around the Jimmy V Foundation, a leading organization of cancer research.

Every individual walks through trials in life. And how you perceive them, approach them, deal with them, manage them, fight them, embrace them, grow from them, recover from them–however they are described–says much about the character of the person.

The sentiment of overcoming trials may not be any stronger than the unfolding stories of the character Rocky Balboa.

“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are. It will beat you to your knees and it will keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.”

Starting is often easy. Pushing through the initial fear of new beginnings allows many to spread their wings and begin to fly. Developing a new skill. Starting a new job. Beginning a new season in life. The passion, interest, and hope of what could be generally provides the necessary nudge for writing the first words of the next chapter in life.

Life is challenging. The fairytale many of us dream about is met with the reality of our own limitations. Hurdles are often higher than we expected. Rivers are wider than we remembered. Hills are harder to climb. Oceans are more vast than the pictures indicated.

The challenges of developing professional habits and skills, communicating with colleagues and superiors, prioritizing personal responsibilities and personal desires, navigating financial and family expectations. And the list goes on. Suffice it to say, life isn’t as simple in reality as it is in our dreams.

Intensity is exhausting. The pace at which life requires you to live to maintain sustainability can have a very chaotic rhythm. Think of life’s activities containing a warm-up, activity, and cool down periods. And each activity fits into a season of life.

Warming up is a period of stretching and preparation. The scoreboard isn’t turned on yet but you know it’s near time for tip-off, first pitch, opening kickoff. So you train at a torrid pace to be prepared when the lights come on. Once the activity begins, you feel as if all eyes are on you. The mental gymnastics of perfecting every move to appease your audience can weary your mind and body to no end. The cool down period is meant for self-care; reflection. But you spend that time replaying every decision to craft your skill to be better than before.

Adolescents and teens often have a schedule created by parents. Generally, school, extracurriculars, social time, and rest. Young married couples, especially with babies and toddlers, have a totally different rhythm. Parents of teens and empty-nesters, again, different rhythm. But no matter the season, personal expectations and the appearance of a watching world create a full throttle mentality where we must live as close to perfection as possible to gain notoriety and approval from a world we think cares.

Success is fleeting. There are people who work incredibly hard to win. They diet, exercise, complete repetitious activities. They train. Show restraint. Have unmatched self-discipline. Put their bodies through so much. And it’s really something to admire and appreciate the hard work and dedication they have. But for what? A trophy? A ribbon? A pat on the back?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m ultra competitive. And I love to win. At all costs, really. And there have been seasons of life where I’ve worked really hard to win my own trophies and accolades. But the reason success is so fleeting is because this cycle of always trying to win makes finding a sense of accomplishment so difficult to attain. The ‘success’ driven personality is always looking for one more competition to win as the world around them continues to set the bar seemingly out of reach.

Endurance is rewarding. Lots of us, especially older generations, have been taught the principle of ‘finish what you start.’ This line of ‘quitters never win and winners never quit’ has been etched in many-a-mind. Not everyone can finish first but there’s something about personal success and building confidence in one’s own mind when you overcome the odds of simply finishing some of life’s most difficult task to the end.

I’m not a charismatic person. My personality isn’t magnetic or contagious. I’m a pretty simple guy. More of an introvert. But what I do often requires that I move to the forefront instead of remaining in the shadows. I’m getting older, too. I don’t move like I used to. I’m not as agile. Nor versatile. So, I’m re-thinking, more realistically, about the dreams of my teens and twenties and the reality of my forties and soon to be fifties.

I’m beginning to realize that I don’t have to be the most accomplished person in the room. Not the strongest. The loudest. Nor the smartest. But the goal is to remain in the room. By remaining in the room, I mean staying where I am until the job is done. Enduring the struggles, the trials, and even staying the course when others may pass me by. I’m learning to compete against older versions of me. Developing a strict habit of perseverance. Faithfulness.

I don’t want to tap out because life was too hard. I don’t want to flame out because I was bored or burn out because I was fatigued. I want to fan the flame on the candle of my existence to continue lighting the path to my destiny. Most of us know that getting to the end we want requires a fight. A fight against comfort. A fight against staying the same. A fight with fear. A fight against others’ opinions. But resilience runs deeper than the cowardice to quit.

In saying all this, it’s really not me. It flows much deeper than my self-will and self-determination. By the grace of God, I will finish. Paul, while writing to a group of people in Philippi, reassured them in this way, “God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won’t stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns.” God has a plan for your life and mine, certainly a good one, that He intends to see unfold resulting in the riches of His perfect love and grace for us when it is finished.

Life can be challenging, causing us to question some of life’s most important decisions. But we must remain committed to what we know is true when our thoughts and feelings begin to get the best of us. God’s plan for us to discover and develop the gift of life He has made available to us. “You need endurance so that after you have done what God wants you to do, you can receive what he has promised” (Hebrews 10:36). Stay committed. Persevere. Remain faithful. Endure to the end. Finish well. The reward of our faithfulness can be heard in Him saying, “Well done…come and share your master’s joy” (Matthew 25:23).