NEVER quit.

What makes a person quit?

When I was a much younger man (19 to be exact) I decided to try something unimaginable for a frail, skinny, white-boy.

I joined a boxing club.

NOT because I was a great athlete. NOT because I was exceptionally quick or agile. But because I was frail, skinny and white and it gave me the chance to “beat” on other humans without fear of the law.

At the time I as dirt poor and I felt life was unfair and I was angry. I just wanted to vent my anger so boxing became my best option.

I learned SO many great life lessons by standing in front of another highly skilled (mostly more skilled than me) athlete who was trying to knock my block off.

Two really valuable lessons I learned was that I was NOT a great fighter (and shouldn’t make it my life’s work) and that even when you win… it still hurt… bad.

But recently (as I read about a father who had decided to “give up” trying) I was reminded of the time our boxing coach put us through a horribly grueling experience.

First he had us all (at the same time in different parts of the gym) face another fighter in an adjacent weight-class and spar furiously for three rounds consisting of five minutes each.

As an FYI… nobody does five minute rounds. But even worse was that we only had thirty seconds between rounds to rest. That… is grueling. Even for an extremely in-shape fighter.

When the timer went off and we were done, almost all of us dropped to our knees in exhaustion. But as I looked around, I started to see and be engaged in a team celebration. Everyone was excited that we had accomplished such a feat and we celebrated together.

We were celebrating our experience and our exhaustion… together.

But then our coach surprised us all and said, “Okay. times up. It’s time to start the REAL competition!”

We all looked at him like he was crazy because we thought it was over.
That’s when he told us… “That was just the warm-up; now, it’s going to get real.

We are going to see who is the PLANK KING!

I looked around and sized up my competition. I wasn’t the best fighter. But I had a LOT of HEART.

Some of these fighters… especially the more skilled fighters… I was not so sure.

My chances weren’t great. But they weren’t zero either.

The coach challenged all of us (exhausted fighters) to do at least 5 minutes in a plank.

Most of us had never done 5 minutes in our lives. But we were fighters, right? So we took the position.

Then as we were coached through the process and taught to tap into the pain of our bodies and use it as fuel, almost all of us were able to make it to the 5 minute mark.

But nobody stopped. Nobody quit when the five minute timer sounded. So, the coach took advantage of the situation.

Then he told us to push ourselves to see how far we could go. And the real competition… WAS ON!

Time slowly… slowly… went on.

Slowly… and painfully… more and more of us dropped. But some kept on going.

When we passed the 14 minute mark there were only four of us still planking.

The pain was excruciating. I could see the three others I was competing against were committed.

I’ll never forget feeling like sweat was pouring out of every pore of my body. My mind started to break. “Why am I doing this? I’m in the final four. That’s good enough.” My body was screaming at me to stop. STOP!
But I resisted. I’m a fighter, right?

Then another fighter quit. And I was rejuvenated… but only momentarily.

“Final three. That’s good. I can be proud of that.” I could feel my body starting to shake violently. I looked over at the other two still in the competition. One of them… SMILED at me. And all of a sudden… I dropped to the floor.

I was discouraged that “A SMILE” had broken me. But the competition was still not over.

The final two guys were going head to head. These guys were tough. They were hard. They were from really tough neighborhoods and both of them had faced some pretty scary stuff in their lives.

We all started cheering wildly. GO! GO! GO! Except for me. I couldn’t breathe.

They were going head-to-head with each other to see WHO WOULD QUIT FIRST!

At the end, one fighter did twenty-nine minutes. CRAZY!

Crazier… was that for four of those minutes he did it… ALONE. AFTER his final competitor had dropped!

Show-off!

When he finally collapsed, he was so excited he had tears in his eyes. He said he didn’t quit because he had a team behind him cheering him on pushing him to be more and reminding him WHO he was and that he simply couldn’t quit.

We all could have stopped after 5 minutes. But we didn’t. We kept on going. We were taught… and learned how to use our pain as fuel to push through… in a matter of minutes.

The lesson has never left me.

Never quit. Not without the biggest fight you can muster.

Many of us end up (figuratively) quitting because we don’t want to feel pain.

Many of us end up quitting because when things get too hard we can’t see a CLEAR way forward.

But the main reason that many of us end up quitting is because we don’t have people around us who will help us see that we are STRONGER than we think.

I want you to know…

YOU CAN DO THIS.

Whatever it is you’re facing… even if it seems unbearable…

YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK.

If you need a cheerleader, I’m here for you.

Never quit. Either figuratively or literally.

Keep pressing forward. One step at a time, one hour at a time, one day at a time. With faith and courage.

And you may be surprised what you can do.

But NOT ME! I won’t be surprised… AT ALL!