As an NCSU alumnus, I'm very familiar with Jim Valvano's ESPY Awards speech given less than two months before he lost his fight to metastatic cancer. Even then, after battling cancer for almost a year, he advised us all to never give up.
We are all fighting a fight right now.
For some, it may be a fight against the very real and dangerous longterm effects of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure -- effects we push from our minds daily as we go about making our mundane-seeming food choices.
For others, it's a battle to protect our self-esteem and to feel comfortable in our own skins -- a battle of wills (to satisfy the cravings NOW or to tame those cravings and keep striving towards the distant goal of our best selves).
Last year, I successfully acheived my weight loss goal. I bought new clothes. I took tons of photos of the thinner me. I revelled in faster half marathon finishes.
This year, I have struggled. I have lost DietBets, joined others, and lost them too.
But I laid down my money yet again. I can't give up on myself despite the odds.
I will thank the website "The Quote Investigator" for sharing the following:
A good player never stops until he’s actually out, running as hard for first base on the almost-certain-to-be-caught fly or grounder as he would if he were sprinting the 100-yard dash.
If Henry Ford hadn’t kept going in the early days despite ridicule, we would never have seen the Ford car. It’s been much the same with almost every great man you could name. He kept plugging when everybody said his chances of making first base were nil. You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.
George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth. “The Rotarian” magazine