Sometimes its hard to see ourselves. It is hard to accept our flaws. It’s hard to own up to our mistakes.

Sometimes who we desire to be and who we are just doesn’t measure up.

The more we try to break old habits and routines the harder it gets.

The more we try to see the bright side of life and things, the darker it seems to get.

For some the darkness just seems to stretch on for eternity.

Many  have already given up.

They are animated and move as if they have life but that spark and zest just doesn’t seem to be there any more.

To lives as such  is to  live a defeated life.

A defeatist is one who gives up and throws in the towel before he or she has made it to round two of the prize-fight.

He or she see’s the mountain as it looms in the distance and it looks too big to scale.

He or she see’s the competition and walks away.

looking in the distance, the road seems to be long and winding, and so they choose not to run.

We are not made to be defeatist. 

“Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do. More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.”
― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

We will fail not because we are not good enough.

We will fail because we don’t try.

“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.”
― George E. Woodberry

We fail when we see the road and by its length, judge the outcome before we even begin to run.

We don’t succeed because we call the game before we even set out to play.

Our future is always undetermined, until we make a determination regarding how we live it.

“Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.”
― Bruce Lee

The competition is stiff.

The road is long.

You will get knocked down quite a few times in the fight.

You will want to give up.

But don’t

King Solomon in his moments of solitude and contemplation thought of the human race and it ends. Thusly, said

^” I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”  Ecclesiastes 9:11

Victory is not merely for those who are the most skilled, or have the most strength. Talent does not guarantee victory. The true winners and achievers in this life are those who do all they can to endure, who put forth their best effort, and who have faith that all things will work out in the end.

When it’s all said and done.

There are many who look back after years of struggle and effort, and take notice of what they have achieved and are awed.

When they started out they couldn’t see the end.

During the course they couldn’t separate the forest from the trees. All they had was their belief, that in the end all would be as it should be. This is the life we must lead.

For the most part we are unable to see.

While you are running, and stumbling to make paths, its hard to see the  lives you touch along the way. Their visages blur because of your velocity.

You can’t  see the rainbows left from the rivers of tears. We weren’t meant to look back but only towards what shall be.

You can’t see those  in the shadows ambling along the path you are paving.

You can’t see, because what drives us to be great is not what we see, but our faith in what can be, of the possibilities. This is what makes us work harder, longer, and keep going.

Don’t give up before you have begun.

You must look at the mountain and think of what is on the other side.

Take the hits, and don’t bow under the pressure, keeping on fighting, for its only making you stronger.

Your reward is just around the corner.

Look at the road as a journey.

Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble’s a ton, or a trouble’s an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it.
And it isn’t the fact that you’re hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?

You are beaten to earth? Well, well what’s that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It’s nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there – that’s disgrace.
The harder you’re thrown, why the higher you bounce;
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn’t the fact that you’re licked that counts;
It’s how did you fight and why?

And though you be done to death, what then?
If you battled the best you could;
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why the critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,
And whether he’s slow or spry,
It isn’t the fact that you’re dead that counts,
But only, how did you die?”
― Edmund Vance Cooke