What is your heart inspiring you to do today?

This week’s Inspirational message and interpretation is about perseverance. It’s about how you handle yourself when you’ve finally reached the ultimate test and fall short.

“It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get back up.” – Vince Lombardi

I realize that everybody who reads this blog may not be football fans, but I hope you’ll read a little further for this week’s message. About a week ago many of us watched a less than thrilling Super Bowl. It had all of the makings of an epic showdown between premiere quarterbacks – the legend or GOAT (Greatest of all Time) Tom Brady facing off against the rising, young superstar Patrick Mahomes. Depending on who you were rooting for probably dictated how much you enjoyed the fairly lopsided game. But as the camera panned across the benches of the two teams with a couple of minutes left on the clock – one team being ecstatic, smiling, and slapping each other on the back, confident of their lasting legacy of a Super Bowl win; the other being dejected, alone, and angry having reached the pinnacle and come up short – it was obvious that one team felt they had fulfilled their destiny of the moment, while the other questioned “why” they were unable to rise to the challenge.

Watching the end of the game reminded me of a picture that went viral on the social media circuit during this year’s college football playoffs. For context, #9 Georgia (8-1) was playing #8 Cincinnati (9-0) in the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day. Although it was an incredibly close game throughout, a 53-yard field goal by Georgia with three seconds left in the game dashed Cincinnati’s undefeated hopes, capping a brilliant season with a devastating loss. Once the game ended, the Cincinnati bench quickly cleared and dejectedly headed straight for the locker room, not wanting to experience the Peach Bowl ceremony as the Georgia players and fans relished their win – with the exception of one player, Justin Harris. Fortunately, Chris Milton was able to capture this moment and shared the screen shot on his twitter feed with the following caption: “Next year, THIS will be the most dangerous man on Cincinnati’s roster. He stood and watched THE WHOLE trophy presentation BY HIMSELF after they lost to us in the Peach Bowl. #4 Justin Harris, I see you. TAKE IT PERSONAL. To me, this is powerful.”

I find the Justin Harris story both motivational and aspirational. It’s very similar to the pictures of last year's 2019-2020 play-off score between Ohio State and Clemson (29-23) that hung in the Ohio State weight room the entire following year as a motivational reminder of what it felt like to come up short. For me it signifies the following message: Don't be angry at your opponent for pulling out a better performance than you in that dire moment. Instead, remember and use that unfulfilled feeling to drive you every time you think you've done enough and are ready to give up. Ask yourself if that opponent is giving up too. Then dig deep down to push through one more rep, take one more step. Challenge yourself to conquer that which might otherwise end you on the field and push you to stand up a little longer against it.

Losing is never easy – in sports and in life. Regardless of how well (or poorly) we performed at the individual or collective level, we can’t help but dissect why the ultimate outcome didn’t result in our favor. Rationalizations and justifications abound to help assuage our unrelenting frustration. We usually start first with excuses about external forces that conspired to stack the cards against us before eventually coming to the internal realization that in life, sometimes even our best efforts come up short and that our true measure is not defined by how many times we fail, but instead by how many times we’re willing to put ourselves back in the arena to compete. Life has a funny way of teaching us that you sometimes have to get knocked down lower than you have ever been in order to stand up taller than you ever were.

If you made it this far in the blog, thanks for braving my football-heavy message this week. As a reward, I’ll share with you one of my favorite motivational quotes that I re-read every time I try to motivate myself to step back into the ring after experiencing a crushing defeat:

“It’s impossible,” cautioned pride.

“It’s risky,” warned experience.

“It’s pointless,” lamented reason.

“Give it another try,” whispered the heart.

You’ll never know until you try… and every attempt gets us a little bit closer to that ultimate peak, as long as you strive to persevere. What is your heart inspiring you to do today?