“
With a hint of good judgment, to fear nothing, not failure or suffering or even death, indicates that you value life the most. You live to the extreme; you push limits; you spend your time building legacies. Those do not die.
”
”
Criss Jami (Venus in Arms)
“
I later discovered that in order to be a good athlete one must care intensely what is happening with a ball, even if one doesn't have possession of it. This was ultimately my failure: my inability to work up a passion for the location of balls.
”
”
Haven Kimmel (A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small In Mooreland, Indiana)
“
Isn't post-modernism really one big cover-up for the failure of the French to write a truly interesting novel ever since a sports car ate Albert Camus?
”
”
John Leonard
“
if you gone come in second, you're just the first loser!
”
”
Tiger Woods
“
I'm playing; I'm here. I'm going to fight until they tell me they don't want me anymore.
”
”
Steve Nash
“
I have failed many times, and that's why I am a success.
”
”
Michael Jordan
“
Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding.
”
”
Jim Valvano
“
Glaring at the Gasman, ter Borcht said, “Your time is coming to an end, you
pathetic failure of an experiment. Vhat you say now is how you vill be
remembered.”
Gazzy’s blue eyes flashed. “Then you can remember me telling you to kiss
my-”
“Enough!” ter Borcht said.
”
”
James Patterson (Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports (Maximum Ride, #3))
“
When you feel that others are lacking and failing ....
first assess the skill, style, quality, results, mindset,
support, professionalism and spirit with which
you yourself play the game.
”
”
Rasheed Ogunlaru
“
You can perhaps, in a number of circumstances, tell yourself that you can't have more than you have until you do better than you're doing, but by all means steer clear of its reverse, the creed of defeat, in saying that you can't do better than you're doing until you can have more than you have.
”
”
Criss Jami (Healology)
“
Drinking is something people do; it's not what you are. But when it becomes what you are, you need to think about becoming something else.
”
”
Tim Cowlishaw (Drunk on Sports)
“
Often the difference between success and failure is belief.
”
”
Jon Gordon (You Win in the Locker Room First: The 7 C's to Build a Winning Team in Business, Sports, and Life (Jon Gordon))
“
There must be a bad chromosome somewhere in man that urges him to wound that which he can't conquer, deface that which is more beautiful, misunderstand and befoul the work of another.
”
”
Bill Murray
“
Fishing in a bucket. The total hopelessness of the activity was very soothing. It was the perfect sport. Without the emotional stresses of success and failure, she was entirely free to enjoy the pleasures of the moment... It was a good hobby, and cheap, and if more people did it more often
”
”
Hilary McKay (The Exiles (The Exiles, #1))
“
Mistakes made me matchless.
”
”
Amit Kalantri
“
The burn is my girlfriend, failure is my ex. I'm married to the track and engaged to success.
”
”
Andre Bramble
“
there are just two activities that are significantly correlated with depression and other suicide-related outcomes (such as considering suicide, making a plan, or making an actual attempt): electronic device use (such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer) and watching TV. On the other hand, there are five activities that have inverse relationships with depression (meaning that kids who spend more hours per week on these activities show lower rates of depression): sports and other forms of exercise, attending religious services, reading books and other print media, in-person social interactions, and doing homework.
”
”
Greg Lukianoff (The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure)
“
Side note: Down here, you're either an Amundsen guy, a Shackleton guy, or a Scott guy. Amundsen was the first to reach the Pole, but he did it by feeding dogs to dogs, which makes Amundsen the Michael Vick of polar explorers: you can like him, but keep it to yourself, or you'll end up getting into arguments with a bunch of fanatics. Shackleton is the Charles Barkley of the bunch: he's a legend, all-star personality, but there's the asterisk that he never reached the Pole, i.e. won a championship. How this turned into a sports analogy, I don't know. Finally, there's Captain Scott, canonized for his failure, and to this day never fully embraced because he was terrible with people. He has my vote, you understand.
”
”
Maria Semple (Where'd You Go, Bernadette)
“
Schoolmastering kept me busy by day and part of each night. I was an assistant housemaster, with a fine big room under the eaves of the main building, and a wretched kennel of a bedroom, and rights in a bathroom used by two or three other resident masters. I taught all day, but my wooden leg mercifully spared me from the nuisance of having to supervise sports after school. There were exercises to mark every night, but I soon gained a professional attitude towards these woeful explorations of the caves of ignorance and did not let them depress me. I liked the company of most of my colleagues, who were about equally divided among good men who were good teachers, awful men who were awful teachers, and the grotesques and misfits who drift into teaching and are so often the most educative influences a boy meets in school. If a boy can't have a good teacher, give him a psychological cripple or an exotic failure to cope with; don't just give him a bad, dull teacher. This is where the private schools score over state-run schools; they can accommodate a few cultured madmen on the staff without having to offer explanations.
”
”
Robertson Davies (Fifth Business (The Deptford Trilogy, #1))
“
Women and gay guys always get stuck with that image that they couldn’t possibly be interested in the game itself—it had to be the guys. I mean sure it’s a fringe benefit but when the game is on the last thing you’re thinking about is the bodies of the men. You’re concentrating on that red leather oval ball and if it will make it between the triad of poles that will either signify glory or failure.
”
”
Sean Kennedy (Tigers and Devils (Tigers and Devils #1))
“
I always turn to the sports page first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures. - Earl Warren
”
”
Max Allan Collins (Supreme Justice (Reeder and Rogers, #1))
“
[...] insist upon remembering. Because we know that the lessons of yesterday's loss become the fuel for tomorrow's win.
”
”
Abby Wambach (WOLFPACK: How to Come Together, Unleash Our Power, and Change the Game)
“
Nothing else will show your true character than how you lose
”
”
Ken Gleed (Life...Intercepted!: Life Changing Lessons Learned From Moments of Failure)
“
The highest goal of human life is the enhancement of pleasure and the reduction of pain. Life should be organized to serve the pursuit of happiness. There is no ethical purpose higher than facilitating this pursuit for oneself and one’s fellow creatures. All the other claims—the service of the state, the glorification of the gods or the ruler, the arduous pursuit of virtue through self-sacrifice—are secondary, misguided, or fraudulent. The militarism and the taste for violent sports that characterized his own culture seemed to Lucretius in the deepest sense perverse and unnatural. Man’s natural needs are simple. A failure to recognize the boundaries of these needs leads human beings to a vain and fruitless struggle for more and more.
”
”
Stephen Greenblatt (The Swerve: How the World Became Modern)
“
Listen, you have to understand something. In all of the history of professional sports, the Cubs are the ultimate symbol of complete failure. The championship of baseball is something called the World Series, and it’s been so long since the Cubs have won it that no one who is alive could remember the last time they won it. It’s so long that no one alive knew anyone who was alive when they won it. We’re talking centuries of abject failure here.
”
”
John Scalzi (The Human Division (Old Man's War, #5))
“
Twenge finds that there are just two activities that are significantly correlated with depression and other suicide-related outcomes (such as considering suicide, making a plan, or making an actual attempt): electronic device use (such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer) and watching TV. On the other hand, there are five activities that have inverse relationships with depression (meaning that kids who spend more hours per week on these activities show lower rates of depression): sports and other forms of exercise, attending religious services, reading books and other print media, in-person social interactions, and doing homework.
”
”
Jonathan Haidt (The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure)
“
Exceptional people are resilient. Resilient people react to failure by finding something they can cling to, some hope for the future.
”
”
Bob Rotella (How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life)
“
The 95 percent on the failure curve tend to accept the heroes society plants in front of them: film stars (America’s version of royalty), rock stars, sports stars.
”
”
Jeff Olson (The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness)
“
In all of the history of professional sports, the Cubs are the ultimate symbol of complete failure.
”
”
John Scalzi (The Human Division (Old Man's War, #5))
“
Mountaineering gives me strength to keep moving in life irrespective of how many failures comes in my path. What is your source of passion and strength?
”
”
Bhawna Dehariya
“
I counsel people to laugh at what other people perceive as failures. I tell them not to care if other people think their goals are crazy.
”
”
Bob Rotella (How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life)
“
Breaking out of your comfort zone to do the things that are not only difficult but even seemingly impossible, can bring incredible results.
”
”
Ken Gleed (Life...Intercepted!: Life Changing Lessons Learned From Moments of Failure)
“
Step up your game and success will step up to you.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
In sports, failure is outwardly observable, which is to say it is a sign—look, there it is, the tennis ball that bounced twice. In the rest of life, failure is mostly complex, nuanced, secret.
”
”
Sarah Manguso (300 Arguments: Essays)
“
Antarctica is the highest, driest, coldest, and windiest place on the planet. The South Pole averages sixty below zero, has hurricane-strength winds, and sits at an altitude of ten thousand feet. In other words, those original explorers didn’t have to just get there, but had to climb serious mountains to do so. (Side note: Down here, you’re either an Amundsen guy, a Shackleton guy, or a Scott guy. Amundsen was the first to reach the Pole, but he did it by feeding dogs to dogs, which makes Amundsen the Michael Vick of polar explorers: you can like him, but keep it to yourself, or you’ll end up getting into arguments with a bunch of fanatics. Shackleton is the Charles Barkley of the bunch: he’s a legend, all-star personality, but there’s the asterisk that he never reached the Pole, i.e., won a championship. How this turned into a sports analogy, I don’t know. Finally, there’s Captain Scott, canonized for his failure, and to this day never fully embraced because he was terrible with people. He has my vote, you understand.)
”
”
Maria Semple (Where'd You Go, Bernadette)
“
She didn't like it," he said immediately.
"Of course she did."
"She didn't like it," he insisted. "She didn't have a good time."
He was silent and I guessed at his unutterable depression.
"I feel far away from her," he said. "It's hard to make her understand."
"You mean about the dance?"
"The dance?" He dismissed all the dances he had given with a snap of his fingers. "Old sport, the dance is unimportant.
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
“
Here’s another one,” he continued. “Do you know about the three main achievements of the Revolution? Healthcare, education, and sports. Do you know about the three failures of the Revolution? Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
”
”
Regina Anavy (Out of Cuba: Memoir of a Journey)
“
The question then was not what other countries were doing, but why. Why did these countries have this consensus around rigor? In the education superpowers, every child knew the importance of an education. These countries had experienced national failure in recent memory; they knew what an existential crisis felt like. In many U.S. schools, however, the priorities were muddled beyond recognition. Sports were central to American students’ lives and school cultures in a way in which they were not in most education superpowers. Exchange students agreed almost universally on this point. Nine out of ten international students I surveyed said that U.S. kids placed a higher priority on sports, and six out of ten American exchange students agreed with them. Even in middle school, other researchers had found, American students spent double the amount of time playing sports as Koreans.
”
”
Amanda Ripley (The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way)
“
As we get older, failure is not so inconsequential anymore. What’s at stake is not some arbitrary grade or intramural sports trophy, but the quality of your life and your ability to deal with the world around you. Don’t let that intimidate you, though. You have the best teachers in the world: the wisest philosophers who ever lived. And not only are you capable, the professor is asking for something very simple: just begin the work. The rest follows.
”
”
Ryan Holiday (The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living)
“
Have you ever thought of taking one more chance?
one more chance for not giving up on your dreams
one more chance for taking the first step
one more chance for tasting failures
one more chance to taking the wrong turn
just to reach to your goals at the end.
”
”
Bhawna Dehariya
“
For the social phobic, any kind of performance—musical, sporting, public speaking—can be terrifying because failure will reveal the weakness and inadequacy within. This in turn means constantly projecting an image that feels false—an image of confidence, competence, even perfection.
”
”
Scott Stossel (My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind)
“
Passionate people don’t wear their passion on their sleeves; they have it in their hearts. They live it. Passion is more than résumé-deep, because its hallmarks—persistence, grit, seriousness, all-encompassing absorption—cannot be gauged from a checklist. Nor is it always synonymous with success. If someone is truly passionate about something, they’ll do it for a long time even if they aren’t at first successful. Failure is often part of the deal. (This is one reason we value athletes, because sports teach how to rebound from loss, or at least give you plenty of opportunities to do so.) The passionate person will often talk at length, aka ramble, about his pursuits. This pursuit can be professional. In our world, “perfecting search” is a great example of something people can spend an entire career on and still find challenging and engaging every day. But it can also be a hobby.
”
”
Eric Schmidt (How Google Works)
“
We build resilience by learning how to think flexibly and accepting that we are not defined by our failures. We build resilience by acknowledging what we need and knowing when to ask for help. We also build resilience when we seek out pleasure and sources of enjoyment, from food to sports to sex. Yes, having fun helps build our stores of resilience!
”
”
Wendy Suzuki (Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion)
“
Specifically, there are seven common fears you must learn to defeat if you want to live a happy and successful life: 1) The fear of what other people think. 2) The fear of change. 3) The fear of making the wrong decision. 4) The fear of missing out on something better. 5) The fear of not being good enough. 6) The fear of failure being permanent. 7) The fear of being “due” for a setback.
”
”
Darrin Donnelly (Victory Favors the Fearless: How to Defeat the 7 Fears That Hold You Back (Sports for the Soul Book 5))
“
To try is to risk failure. But risks need to be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing. They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel change, grow, love and live. Chained by their certitudes, they are a slave; they have forfeited their freedom. Only a person who risks is free. —Leo Buscaglia
”
”
John O'Sullivan (Changing the Game: The Parent's Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes, and Giving Youth Sports Back to our Kids)
“
99 Problems is almost a deliberate provocation to simpleminded listeners. If that sounds crazy, you have to understand: Being misunderstood is almost a badge of honor in rap. Growing up as a black kid from the projects, you can spend your whole life being misunderstood, followed around department stores, looked at funny, accused of crimes you didn't commit, accused of motivations you don't have, dehumanized -- until you realize, one day, it's not about you. It's the perceptions people had long before you even walked onto the scene. The joke's on them because they're really just fighting phantoms of their own creation. Once you realize that, things get interesting. It's like when we were kids. You'd start bopping hard and throwing the ice grill when you step into Macy's and laugh to yourself when security guards got nervous and started shadowing you. You might have a knot of cash in your pocket, but you boost something anyway, just for the sport of it. Fuck 'em. Sometimes the mask is to hide and sometimes it's to play at being something you're not so you can watch the reactions of people who believe the mask is real. Because that's when they reveal themselves. So many people can't see that every great rapper is a not just a documentarian, but a trickster -- that every great rapper has a little bit of Chuck and a little bit of Flav in them -- but that's not our problem, it's their failure: the failure, or unwillingness, to treat rap like art, instead of acting like it's a bunch of niggas reading out of their diaries. Art elevates and refines and transforms experience. And sometimes it just fucks with you for the fun of it.
”
”
Jay-Z
“
Steve [sports psychiatrist] had already taught me to try and stop worrying so much about pleasing everyone. We knew that this was one of my most draining flaws and he again used three groups to clarify my thinking. There would always be some people, Steve said, who would care about me and love me. In contrast there would also be a select group of people who would never warm to me - no matter what I did. And in the middle came the overwhelming mass who were largely indifferent to any of my failures or triumphs. I needed to understand that most people didn't really care what I did or said. All my anguish about how they might perceive me was redundant. Steve helped me realize that I spent too much time trying to please those oblivious people in the middle or, more problematically, the small group who would never change their critical opinion of me. I should concentrate on the people who really did show concern for me.
”
”
Victoria Pendleton (Between the Lines: The Autobiography)
“
The term ‘political correctness’ has evolved out of the Marxist and Freudian philosophies of the 1930s to become a tool for multicultural-ism, multisexualism, multitheism, and multi-anythingism. It was created to discourage bias and prejudiced thinking that discriminates against an individual or group. It has become society’s way of not offending anyone, whether it is an individual, a group, or a nation. In many instances, however, it is a simple, disarming way of ignoring or deflecting the truth about a situation. Today, the use of political correctness has become so abused that anyone who voices his or her opinion contrary to ‘politically correct think’ is immediately tagged with some form of disparaging label, such as racist and bigot. This exploitation has gotten so out of control that this name-calling accusation is used as a simple and mindless means to manipulate academic, social, or political discussion. The result is a social paranoia which discourages free thought and expression. It’s like living in a totalitarian state in which you are afraid to say what you think. Now who wants to suffer that?
So people keep quiet. Their opinions are held captive to fear. How handy for the Islamo-fascists, the American-hating, Jew-killing, Israel-destroying, women-abusing, multireligious-intolerant Muslims. Oh! Excuse me. Did I say something not quite PC?
This social paranoia is similar to the attitude that developed in the late 1980s and 1990s, when people became so concerned about children’s self-esteem that failure could not be acknowledged or misbehavior corrected. ‘Now, let’s not hurt their feelings’ was the standard approach. This degree of concern led to teachers giving passing grades for poor performance and youth sport activities where no one kept score. And what has been the fallout of all that psychobabble? High school kids who can’t read their diploma or make change for a dollar, internationally embarrassing scholastic performance scores, and young adults ill equipped to face the competitive lifestyle the world has to offer. They are left watching the television show The Apprentice, not competing to be an apprentice. America got itself into a mess by not upholding the high standards and expectations it once had, instead giving in to mediocrity; and we’re getting into a mess now with political correctness.
”
”
Brigitte Gabriel (Because They Hate)
“
It is strange when we expect all students to do well academically and ignore the fact that individuals' abilities vary.
If a child/kid/teenager cannot do well in academics and shows signs of distraction, it is an indication that his mind isn't in the strict form and obligations of the school curriculum.
His cleverness and creativeness could show in other aspects of life. It could be in arts, sports, photography, computer world, gardening, carpentry, or any other field in life.
Judging students' based on their grades and accusing them of failure is an excuse for the limited space the educational system provides to students to succeed in life.
”
”
Noora Ahmed Alsuwaidi
“
They have confirmed my belief that the ideas people choose to have
about themselves largely determine the quality of the lives they lead. We
can choose to believe in ourselves, and thus to strive, to risk, to perse-
vere, and to achieve. Or we can choose to cling to security and medi-
ocrity. We can choose to set no limits on ourselves, to set high goals and
dream big dreams. We can use those dreams to fuel our spirits with pas-
sion. Or we can become philosophers of the worst kind, inventing ways
to rationalize our failures, inventing excuses for mediocrity. We can fall
in love with our own abilities and our own potential, then choose to
maximize those abilities. Or we can decide that we have no special tal-
ents or abilities and try to be happy being safe and comfortable.
”
”
Bob Rotella (How Champions Think: In Sports and in Life)
“
One more thing about the kind of audience that football has decided it wants: the clubs have got to make sure that they're good, that there aren't any lean years, because the new crowd won't tolerate failure. These are not the sort of people who will come to watch you play Wimbledon in March when you're eleventh in the First Division and out of all the Cup competitions. Why should they? They've got plenty of other things to do. So, Arsenal... no more seventeen-year losing streaks, like the one between 1953 and 1970, right? No flirting with relegation, like in 1975 and 1976, or the odd half-decade where you don't even get to a final, like we had between 1981 and 1987. We mug punters put up with that, and at least twenty thousand of us would turn up no matter how bad you were (and sometimes you were very, very bad indeed); but this new lot... I'm not so sure.
”
”
Nick Hornby (Fever Pitch)
“
This kind of parenting was typical in much of Asia—and among Asian immigrant parents living in the United States. Contrary to the stereotype, it did not necessarily make children miserable. In fact, children raised in this way in the United States tended not only to do better in school but to actually enjoy reading and school more than their Caucasian peers enrolled in the same schools. While American parents gave their kids placemats with numbers on them and called it a day, Asian parents taught their children to add before they could read. They did it systematically and directly, say, from six-thirty to seven each night, with a workbook—not organically, the way many American parents preferred their children to learn math. The coach parent did not necessarily have to earn a lot of money or be highly educated. Nor did a coach parent have to be Asian, needless to say. The research showed that European-American parents who acted more like coaches tended to raise smarter kids, too. Parents who read to their children weekly or daily when they were young raised children who scored twenty-five points higher on PISA by the time they were fifteen years old. That was almost a full year of learning. More affluent parents were more likely to read to their children almost everywhere, but even among families within the same socioeconomic group, parents who read to their children tended to raise kids who scored fourteen points higher on PISA. By contrast, parents who regularly played with alphabet toys with their young children saw no such benefit. And at least one high-impact form of parental involvement did not actually involve kids or schools at all: If parents simply read for pleasure at home on their own, their children were more likely to enjoy reading, too. That pattern held fast across very different countries and different levels of family income. Kids could see what parents valued, and it mattered more than what parents said. Only four in ten parents in the PISA survey regularly read at home for enjoyment. What if they knew that this one change—which they might even vaguely enjoy—would help their children become better readers themselves? What if schools, instead of pleading with parents to donate time, muffins, or money, loaned books and magazines to parents and urged them to read on their own and talk about what they’d read in order to help their kids? The evidence suggested that every parent could do things that helped create strong readers and thinkers, once they knew what those things were. Parents could go too far with the drills and practice in academics, just as they could in sports, and many, many Korean parents did go too far. The opposite was also true. A coddled, moon bounce of a childhood could lead to young adults who had never experienced failure or developed self-control or endurance—experiences that mattered as much or more than academic skills. The evidence suggested that many American parents treated their children as if they were delicate flowers. In one Columbia University study, 85 percent of American parents surveyed said that they thought they needed to praise their children’s intelligence in order to assure them they were smart. However, the actual research on praise suggested the opposite was true. Praise that was vague, insincere, or excessive tended to discourage kids from working hard and trying new things. It had a toxic effect, the opposite of what parents intended. To work, praise had to be specific, authentic, and rare. Yet the same culture of self-esteem boosting extended to many U.S. classrooms.
”
”
Amanda Ripley (The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way)
“
For a start, we should recognise that the idea of being deeply in love with one special partner over a whole lifetime, what we can call Romantic love, is a very new, ambitious and odd concept, which is at best 250 years old. Before then, people lived together of course but without any very high expectations of being blissfully content doing so. It was a purely practical arrangement, entered into for the sake of survival and the children. We should recognise the sheer historical strangeness of the idea of happy coupledom. A good Romantic marriage is evidently theoretically possible, but it may also be extremely unlikely, something only some 5 or 10 per cent of us can ever properly succeed at – which should make any failure feel a good deal less shameful. As a society, we’ve made something normal that’s in fact a profound anomaly. It is as though we’d set up high altitude tight rope walking as a popular sport. No wonder most of us fall off – and might not want to, or be able to, face getting back on.
”
”
Alain de Botton
“
Great athletes practice, train, study, and develop. So do great learners. As students empowering ourselves with knowledge, what can we learn from Olympic-caliber athletes about success, and how to achieve it?
1. Preparation = Success!
“If you fail to prepare, you're prepared to fail.” —Mark Spitz, Gold Medalist, Swimming
2. Learning is lifelong
“Never put an age limit on your dreams.” —Dara Torres, Gold Medalist, Swimming
3. Failure is opportunity
"One shouldn't be afraid to lose” —Oksana Baiul, Gold Medalist, Figure Skating
4. The only person who can stop you is yourself
“This ability to conquer oneself is no doubt the most precious of all things sports bestows.” —Olga Korbut, Gold Medalist, Gymnastics
5. Learning is fun!
“If you're not having fun, then what the hell are you doing?” —Allison Jones, six-time Paralympian
6. You have to be in it to win it
“Failure I can live with. Not trying is what I can't handle.” —Sanya Richards-Ross, Gold Medalist, Track & Field
There are always new skills to learn, new challenges to overcome, new ways to succeed. The only guarantee of failure is if you don’t get started in the first place.
”
”
Udacity
“
There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it. The first part is easy. All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it’s going to hurt. That is, it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground. Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard. Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties. One problem is that you have to miss the ground accidentally. It’s no good deliberately intending to miss the ground because you won’t. You have to have your attention suddenly distracted by something else when you’re halfway there, so that you are no longer thinking about falling, or about the ground, or about how much it’s going to hurt if you fail to miss it. It is notoriously difficult to prise your attention away from these three things during the split second you have at your disposal. Hence most people’s failure, and their eventual disillusionment with this exhilarating and spectacular sport.
”
”
Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Omnibus: A Trilogy of Five)
“
Sophie thinks you were offering her a less than honorable proposition before we came to collect her, and modified your proposal only when her station became apparent.” Windham took a casual sip of his drink while Vim’s brain fumbled for a coherent thought. “She thinks what ?” “She thinks you offered to set her up as your mistress and changed your tune, so to speak, when it became apparent you were both titled. I know she is in error in this regard.” Vim cocked his head. “How could you know such a thing?” “Because if you propositioned my sister with such an arrangement, it’s your skull I’d be using that splitting ax on.” “If Sophie thinks this, then she is mistaken.” Windham remained silent, reinforcing Vim’s sense the man was shrewd in the extreme. “You will please disabuse her of her error.” Windham shook his head slowly, right to left, left to right. “It isn’t my error, and it isn’t Sophie’s error. She’s nothing if not bright, and you were probably nothing if not cautious in offering your suit. The situation calls for derring-do, old sport. Bended knee, flowers, tremolo in the strings, that sort of thing.” He gestured as if stroking a bow over a violin, a lyrical, dramatic rendering that ought to have looked foolish but was instead casually beautiful. “Tremolo in the strings?” “To match the trembling of her heart. A fellow learns to listen for these things.” Windham set his mug down with a thump and speared Vim with a look. “I’m off to do battle with the treble register. Wish me luck, because failure on my part will be apparent every Sunday between now and Judgment Day.” “Windham, for God’s sake, you don’t just accuse a man of such a miscalculation and then saunter off to twist piano wires.” Much less make references to failure being eternally apparent. “Rather thought I was twisting your heart strings. Must be losing my touch.” Vim
”
”
Grace Burrowes (Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish (The Duke's Daughters, #1; Windham, #4))
“
Whatever doesn’t kill you only serves to make you stronger. And in the grand scheme of life, I had survived and grown stronger, at least mentally, if not physically.
I had come within an inch of losing all my movement and, by the grace of God, still lived to tell the tale. I had learned so much, but above all, I had gained an understanding of the cards I had been playing with.
The problem now was that I had no job and no income.
Earning a living and following your heart can so often pull you in different directions, and I knew I wasn’t the first person to feel that strain.
My decision to climb Everest was a bit of a “do or die” mission.
If I climbed it and became one of the youngest climbers ever to have reached the summit, then I had at least a sporting chance of getting some sort of job in the expedition world afterward--either doing talks or leading treks.
I would be able to use it as a springboard to raise sponsorship to do some other expeditions.
But on the other hand, if I failed, I would either be dead on the mountain or back home and broke--with no job and no qualifications.
The reality was that it wasn’t a hard decision for me to make. Deep down in my bones, I just knew it was the right thing to do: to go for it.
Plus I have never been one to be too scared of that old imposter: failure.
I had never climbed for people’s admiration; I had always climbed because I was half-decent at it--and now I had an avenue, through Everest, to explore that talent further.
I also figured that if I failed, well at least I would fail while attempting something big and bold. I liked that.
What’s more, if I could start a part-time university degree course at the same time (to be done by e-mail from Everest), then whatever the outcome on the mountain, at least I had an opening back at M15. (It’s sometimes good to not entirely burn all your bridges.)
”
”
Bear Grylls (Mud, Sweat and Tears)
“
Vitamin D3 boasts a strong safety profile, along with broad and deep evidence that links it to brain, metabolic, cardiovascular, muscle, bone, lung, and immune health. New and emerging research suggests that vitamin D supplements may also slow down our epigenetic/biological aging.29, 30 2. Omega-3 fish oil: Over the last thirty years or so, the typical Western diet has added more and more pro-inflammatory omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids versus anti-inflammatory omega-3 PUFAs. Over the same period, we’ve seen an associated rise in chronic inflammatory diseases, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer’s disease. 31 Rich in omega-3s, fish oil is another incredibly versatile nutraceutical tool with multi-pronged benefits from head to toe. By restoring a healthier PUFA ratio, it especially helps your brain and heart. Regular consumption of fatty fish like salmon has been linked to a lower risk of congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease, sudden cardiac death, and stroke.32 In an observational study, omega-3 fish oil supplementation was also associated with a slower biological clock.33 3. Magnesium deficiency affects more than 45 percent of the U.S. population. Supplements can help us maintain brain and cardiovascular health, normal blood pressure, and healthy blood sugar metabolism. They may also reduce inflammation and help activate our vitamin D. 4. Vitamin K1/K2 supports blood clotting, heart/ blood vessel health, and bone health.34 5. Choline supplements with brain bioavailability, such as CDP-Choline, citicoline, or alpha-GPC, can boost your body’s storehouse of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and possibly support liver and brain function, while protecting it from age-related insults.35 6. Creatine: This one may surprise you, since it’s often associated with serious athletes and fitness buffs. But according to Dr. Lopez, it’s “a bona fide arrow in my longevity nutraceutical quiver for most individuals, and especially older adults.” As a coauthor of a 2017 paper by the International Society for Sports Nutrition, Dr. Lopez, along with contributors, stated that creatine not only enhances recovery, muscle mass, and strength in connection with exercise, but also protects against age-related muscle loss and various forms of brain injury.36 There’s even some evidence that creatine may boost our immune function and fat and carbohydrate metabolism. Generally well tolerated, creatine has a strong safety profile at a daily dose of three to five grams.37 7.
”
”
Tony Robbins (Life Force: How New Breakthroughs in Precision Medicine Can Transform the Quality of Your Life & Those You Love)
“
And yes, you will encounter failures. Let me save you the suspense. When you set big goals and chase big dreams, you will fail along the way, especially at first. That’s part of the process. Failure is a necessary step on the path to making big dreams comes true. But failure along the way confirms that you’re setting big goals, and that’s good! Nothing worth doing is ever easy. But with each failure and each setback, you get closer and closer to your ultimate goal.
”
”
Darrin Donnelly (Think Like a Warrior: The Five Inner Beliefs That Make You Unstoppable (Sports for the Soul Book 1))
“
Kensi Gounden says We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.
#kensigounden #kensi #gounden #kenseelen #sports #positiveday ##rightdecision #success #hope #failure
”
”
Kensi Gounden
“
Contempt of the defeated for the victor, seemingly a perverse response, is a loser’s sentiment—denying admission of its own fault or failure and believing itself robbed of victory by some malign mischance, as in sports when a gust of wind might divert the throw of a ball, giving victory to the opponent.
”
”
Barbara W. Tuchman (The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution)
“
When we zoom out, we see that the biggest gift we can give young athletes is space and patience to develop according to their own timeline. We see that when athletic progression begins to dip and kink, it’s temporary rather than a harbinger of future failure. The line will naturally unknot itself—if we help kids ride out the turbulence of adolescence and young adulthood, encouraging and nurturing them so they don’t give up on sports and physical activity altogether, and if we remind them to have fun.
”
”
Christine Yu (Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes)
“
It’s not easy to recognize, in real time, when you’re throwing good money after bad—which is why I think analyzing progress should be a “team sport.” You have to be willing to solicit input from people who have different perspectives on the project. To overcome the “sunk costs” fallacy, this helps to change the default incentive (to keep going) so people can feel good about saying it’s time to stop. Astro Teller, head of the radical innovation company called X at Alphabet (Google’s parent company), gives failure bonuses to employees who admit a project isn’t working.
”
”
Amy C. Edmondson (Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well)
“
If you’re afraid of failure, you don’t deserve success.
”
”
Troy Horne (Mental Toughness For Young Athletes: Eight Proven 5-Minute Mindset Exercises For Kids And Teens Who Play Competitive Sports)
“
Failure is a necessary part of success. Learn to seek it out!
”
”
Troy Horne (Mental Toughness For Young Athletes: Eight Proven 5-Minute Mindset Exercises For Kids And Teens Who Play Competitive Sports)
“
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.
”
”
Michael Jordan (Sports Illustrated: Athlete)
“
Bodybuilding is about accountability: Unlike so many things in the 21-century which can be argued around—I got fired because of X, she dumped me because of Y, I would have done this if it weren’t for Z—your body is an undeniable testament to your success or failure in the sport.
”
”
Michael Gurnow
“
Given the ubiquity of the Judge’s conditional love game, I have embarked on a very different kind of game with my son to prevent a strong version of his Judge from taking hold. I start tickling him and tell him that I will only stop if he keeps giving me the right answers, which he has learned to give over the years. Here’s how the game goes, as I tickle him and stop only to hear his answers through his laughter: Me: Kian, do you know why I love you so much? Kian: No, Daddy, I don’t know. Me: Is it because you are so handsome? (Trust me, he is very handsome!) Kian: No, Daddy, it isn’t because I’m handsome. Me: Is it because you are so smart? Kian: No, Daddy, it isn’t because I am smart. Me: Is it because you do so well on your homework and get good grades? Kian: No, Daddy, it isn’t … I keep going down the list that includes his kindness and generosity, his talent in sports, his sensitivity and thoughtfulness, and so on. At some point, I feign great frustration: Me: So why is it, Kian? Why do I love you so much? By now Kian has learned to say (and he says it with firmness and certainty): “Daddy, it’s because I am me.” Occasionally I ask Kian to remind me what this answer means. He says it means that my love for him is not conditional on anything he does. It is for his essence, for the being looking back at me when I first held him the day he was born. He knows that in his essence he is worthy of love, always. He is to never worry that he might lose it, regardless of his successes or failures and the ups and downs of life.
”
”
Shirzad Chamine (Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential AND HOW YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOURS)
“
To become the best athlete you can be, you need to become really good at coping with the characteristic forms of discomfort and stress that the endurance sports experience dishes out, beginning with perceived effort and extending to the many challenges that are secondary to it, such as fear of failure.
”
”
Matt Fitzgerald (How Bad Do You Want It?: Mastering the Psychology of Mind Over Muscle)
“
of the past. We must only begin. Believe me and you will see.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.19.29–34 Do you remember, in school or early in your life, being afraid to try something because you feared you might fail at it? Most teenagers choose to fool around rather than exert themselves. Halfhearted, lazy effort gives them a ready-made excuse: “It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t even trying.” As we get older, failure is not so inconsequential anymore. What’s at stake is not some arbitrary grade or intramural sports trophy, but the quality of your life and your ability to deal with the world around you. Don’t let that intimidate you, though. You have the best teachers in the world: the wisest philosophers who ever lived. And not only are you capable, the professor is asking for something very simple: just begin the work. The rest follows.
”
”
Ryan Holiday (The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living)
“
Consciously harming others and giving himself the moral permission to do so tested Blazer’s interior monologue; he wasn’t a sociopath, and his mother hadn’t raised a liar and a cheat, but he’d developed a toxic unwillingness to admit failure. The blend of arrogance and ease of deception, coupled with Blazer’s knowledge of his players’ lack of financial sophistication, proved too much to resist.
”
”
Guy Lawson (Hot Dog Money: Inside the Biggest Scandal in the History of College Sports)
“
Failure has been the key ingredient to my success in sports and in life. Had I not known failure, I would have continued to accept “good enough.” I might be a mediocre lawyer or athlete. Instead, I’m a two-time CrossFit Games champion.
”
”
Katrin Davidsdottir (Dottir: My Journey to Becoming a Two-Time CrossFit Games Champion)
“
vital element of TPS: a deeply ingrained belief that problem-solving is a team sport. Failures are opportunities for improvement. Competent professionals are expected to successfully execute most of their tasks, so successes are not seen as worthy of colleagues’ valuable time.
”
”
Amy C. Edmondson (Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well)
“
Injury prevention training boils down to two things: Reduce the acute and chronic stress placed on at-risk tissues (common injury areas or weak points) through periodization of intensity and proper movement mechanics. Increase the stress a tissue can tolerate prior to failure. This is accomplished through building overall muscle mass and strength, connective tissue resilience, sports- or lifestyle-specific corrective exercise, and fatigue management (you’re more prone to injuries when you are tired).
”
”
Scott H Hogan (Built from Broken: A Science-Based Guide to Healing Painful Joints, Preventing Injuries, and Rebuilding Your Body)
“
Increase the stress a tissue can tolerate prior to failure. This is accomplished through building overall muscle mass and strength, connective tissue resilience, sports- or lifestyle-specific corrective exercise, and fatigue management (you’re more prone to injuries when you are tired).
”
”
Scott H Hogan (Built from Broken: A Science-Based Guide to Healing Painful Joints, Preventing Injuries, and Rebuilding Your Body)
“
It was very quiet at the hotel, as if there had been a death in the family. When you have quit the Tour, nobody really knows what to say or do. (...) Everything I'd previously achieved meant nothing; all I was now was a pro rider who couldn't finish the Tour de France.
”
”
David Millar (Racing Through the Dark)
“
In his book The Shadow Presidents, author Michael Medved relates the extreme disappointment of H.R. Haldeman over his failure to implement his plan to link up all the homes in America by coaxial cable. In Haldeman’s words, “There would be two-way communication. Through computer, you could use your television set to order up whatever you wanted. The morning paper, entertainment services, shopping services, coverage of sporting events and public events...Just as Eisenhower linked up the nation's cities by highways so that you could get there, the Nixon legacy would have linked them by cable communication so you wouldn't have to go there." One can almost see the dreamy eyes of Nixon and Haldeman as they sat around discussing a plan that would eliminate the need for newspapers, seemingly oblivious to its Big Brother aspects. Fortunately the Watergate scandal intervened, and Nixon was forced to resign before "the Wired Nation" could be hooked up.
”
”
David Wallechinsky (The People's Almanac Presents The Book of Lists #2)
“
Joy of the self, as explained in the above verse of the Gita, can be explained by understanding driving force whilst we pursue a hobby. Why is it that, when we pursue a hobby such as singing, painting, a sport, etc., we seem to have unlimited energy that comes from within? Why does self-motivation automatically take the driver’s seat during those moments of working on a hobby? Why is it that even a failure while working on a hobby does not stop us from pursuing it further? Why are we stress-free whilst engaged in a hobby? Why doesn’t this happen when it comes to our profession?
”
”
Shweta Chandra (The Gita Way: Secret recipe to achieve the purpose of life)
“
Most schools don’t do this job well at all. Instead, most children feel failure when they go to class. They could also hire athletics to do the job. For a few, sports do the job well. But for the less gifted, athletics makes students feel failure, too. So they hire electronic games to feel successful. And yet for many, even such games yield failure. So they hire friends who have feelings of failure, too—and engage in drugs and other things to feel successful.
”
”
Clayton M. Christensen (Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice)
“
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” whatever else it might be, seems to be an investigation into the possibility of durational being, which Bergson had described as “the form which the succession of our conscious states assumes when our ego lets itself live, when it refrains from separating its present state from its former states.” The succession that Bergson opposes to vitality is the realm in which the morbid Prufrock tries to imagine speaking Andrew Marvell’s line, “Now let us sport us while we may,” but then falls back on his indecision, his failure to pose his overwhelming question, and his inability to sing his love. Prufrock’s problems are shown to be symptoms of the form of time in which desire for youth runs defiantly against the remorselessness of aging, snapping the present in two. The “silent seas” that might bring relief from currents and countercurrents of time turn out to be like the troubling one that figures in Hamlet’s overwhelming question: “To be or not to be: that is the question: / Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles / And by opposing end them.” Prufrock understands but is unable to admit the ontological force of the question: the “whips and scorns of time” that threaten to reverse all his “decisions and revisions” make him wish to be merely “a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.” That synecdochic figure is as much an anachronous peripeteia for Prufrock as it is for Polonius when Hamlet taunts him: “you yourself, sir, should be as old as I am if, like a crab, you could go backwards.
”
”
Charles M. Tung
“
True, we can learn much from observation of the failure of others without having to personally suffer the same pain, but the character and memory of the wisdom gained may be more acute and long-lasting from our own personal failures. Even worse is the generational fear of failure prevalent in our culture, resulting from parents carefully programming their offspring as young as three to participate in activities intended to cultivate intellectual and sports prowess which in their design do not allow for failure. Before children can feel the pain of their mistakes, the parents intervene and deflect the taking of personal responsibility by the child. We pay for it so they do not have to. This is the most dangerous thing we can do for them.
”
”
Kevin R. Anderson (The Middle of Infinity - A Doctor's Journey Through Illness)
“
I always turn to the sports page first, which records people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.
”
”
Max Allan Collins (Supreme Justice (Reeder and Rogers, #1))
“
This is the very structure of sports journalism: deification and damnation, death and resurrection, failure and redemption. You succeed so you can falter so you can succeed again. We need a rise and a fall. We need hubris and retribution and recovery.
”
”
Will Leitch
“
Perhaps it is the fate of all great sporting performances to be forgotten somewhat if the team eventually loses. Would we care overly about VVS Laxman’s 281 or Ian Botham’s 149 without the efforts of Harbhajan Singh and Bob Willis who turned these great feats from potentially heroic failures to match-winning epics?
”
”
Keith Stael (Masterly Batting: 100 Great Test Innings)
“
When a mother extends outstretched arms to a son who has failed in sports, or school, or socially, or been deemed not smart enough, 'manly enough,' or just plain not good enough, he begins to understand what love is all about. The moment a mother extends her grace, he begins to understand that goodness in being a man isn't all about his performance. It isn't about his successes or his failures. It is about being able to accept love from another and then return that love."1
”
”
Vicki Courtney (5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Son)
“
When a mother extends outstretched arms to a son who has failed in sports, or school, or socially, or been deemed not smart enough, 'manly enough,' or just plain not good enough, he begins to understand what love is all about. The moment a mother extends her grace, he begins to understand that goodness in being a man isn't all about his performance. It isn't about his successes or his failures. It is about being able to accept love from another and then return that love.
”
”
Vicki Courtney (5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Son)
“
In 1988, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals explicitly rejected the theory Trump had sold to the other owners—that a lawsuit was an appropriate way to force the NFL to merge with the USFL. The court, in the formal language of legal opinions, chastised both Trump and the owners who went along with him. Judge Ralph K. Winter Jr. wrote that “what the USFL seeks is essentially a judicial restructuring of major-league professional football to allow it to enter” into a merger with the NFL. Calling the NFL “a highly successful entertainment product,” Judge Winter observed that “new sports leagues must be prepared to make the investment of time, effort and money that develops interest and fan loyalty and results in an attractive product for the media. The jury in the present case obviously found that patient development of a loyal following among fans and an adherence to an original plan that offered long-run gains were lacking … The jury found that the failure of the USFL was not the result of the NFL’s television contracts but of its own decision to seek entry into the NFL on the cheap.” The appeals court decision, which the United States Supreme Court let stand, was a stinging rebuke of Trump’s effort to use litigation to obtain what he was unwilling to achieve by patiently devoting time, money, and effort in the market. Years
”
”
David Cay Johnston (The Making of Donald Trump)
“
Great athletes practice, train, study, and develop. So do great learners. As students empowering ourselves with knowledge, what can we learn from Olympic-caliber athletes about success, and how to achieve it?
1. Preparation = Success!
“If you fail to prepare, you're prepared to fail.” —Mark Spitz, Gold Medalist, Swimming
2. Learning is lifelong
“Never put an age limit on your dreams.” —Dara Torres, Gold Medalist, Swimming
3. Failure is opportunity
"One shouldn't be afraid to lose” —Oksana Baiul, Gold Medalist, Figure Skating
4. The only person who can stop you is yourself
“This ability to conquer oneself is no doubt the most precious of all things sports bestows.” —Olga Korbut, Gold Medalist, Gymnastics
5. Learning is fun!
“If you're not having fun, then what the hell are you doing?” —Allison Jones, six-time Paralympian
6. You have to be in it to win it
“Failure I can live with. Not trying is what I can't handle.” —Sanya Richards-Ross, Gold Medalist, Track & Field
There are always new skills to learn, new challenges to overcome, new ways to succeed. The only guarantee of failure is if you don’t get started in the first place.
”
”
Udacity
“
It doesn't matter how much success you have in your career; if you fail at home you are a failure.
”
”
Jon Gordon (You Win in the Locker Room First: The 7 C's to Build a Winning Team in Business, Sports, and Life (Jon Gordon))
“
Baseball teaches us, or has taught most of us, how to deal with failure. We learn at a very young age that failure is the norm in baseball and, precisely because we have failed, we hold in high regard those who fail less often – those who hit safely in one out of three chances and become star players. I also find it fascinating that baseball, alone in sport, considers errors to be part of the game, part of its rigorous truth.
”
”
Francis T. Vincent, Commissioner of Baseball
“
Triumphs are usually the outcomes of countless learned-from 'failures
”
”
Rasheed Ogunlaru
“
Nothing in life is permanent. And that includes failures. Not a single failure I’ve had has ever been permanent. Not a single one!
”
”
Darrin Donnelly (Victory Favors the Fearless: How to Defeat the 7 Fears That Hold You Back (Sports for the Soul Book 5))
“
Every setback, loss, or failure is only temporary. Failure is never permanent. Unless you choose for it to be.
”
”
Darrin Donnelly (Victory Favors the Fearless: How to Defeat the 7 Fears That Hold You Back (Sports for the Soul Book 5))
“
What you choose to focus on tends to become your reality. If you focus on all the past examples of failures, you’ll be drawn to living out negative outcomes. If you focus on past examples of successful people who bounced back from adversity, you’ll be drawn to living out positive outcomes.
”
”
Darrin Donnelly (Victory Favors the Fearless: How to Defeat the 7 Fears That Hold You Back (Sports for the Soul Book 5))
“
Baseball is a sport of failure. It’s a profession where the most successful batters fail seventy percent of the time and the most successful teams have to endure sixty losses or more each season. To succeed in baseball, you must learn not how to avoid failure, but how to quickly bounce back from it—with optimism and perseverance. That is what positive thinking is all about. It’s about responding to life’s obstacles with a positive, never-back-down attitude. It’s true in baseball. It’s true in life.
”
”
Darrin Donnelly (Relentless Optimism: How a Commitment to Positive Thinking Changes Everything (Sports for the Soul Book 3))
“
Goals are eschewed by our culture. There is a chance for failure! We hide failure and never want anyone to feel the pain or shame of failing. All of life is designed for comfort and avoidance of displeasure. This starts at birth. This is why some children's sports leagues do not keep score. Many people rail against the idea of participation trophies, yet they
never think who the trophy is for. Is that trophy for the kid who knows he did not place or knows that he was last, or is it for the parent who does not want to think his or her child is bad at anything? This is society-wide and starts young. This only creates situations where entities cannot handle adversity and the first real brush with failure destroys a soul.
”
”
Ryan Landry (Masculinity Amidst Madness)
“
Before making any significant decision or taking any important action, you have to ask yourself, ‘Am I doing this based on faith or fear? Am I doing this based on confidence or worry?’ “Remember this: success follows faith and failure follows fear. Make sure you choose faith over fear.
”
”
Darrin Donnelly (Think Like a Warrior: The Five Inner Beliefs That Make You Unstoppable (Sports for the Soul Book 1))
“
I CHOOSE FAITH OVER FEAR. I have complete and total confidence that I have what it takes to accomplish the dreams in my heart. Most failures are a result of people falling to their fears and worries. I am fearless. I am fully-committed to pursuing my dreams, developing the unique talents I’ve been blessed with, and becoming the person I was born to be. I know that if I give my absolute best today, I can safely trust God to put me where I need to be and to make sure that everything works out for the best. I believe I am here for a reason and I have everything I need to fulfill my purpose in life. Success follows faith and I have unbreakable faith.
”
”
Darrin Donnelly (Think Like a Warrior: The Five Inner Beliefs That Make You Unstoppable (Sports for the Soul Book 1))
“
It was hard to invest in a person when one saw how things passed. Take the ball player, for example, who dedicates his life, gets injured, and then watches the sport proceed without him. He sits on his leather couch, watching better athletes run across his television screen, younger ones on renovated fields. And he, who sacrificed his sweat, youth, and sanity to the sport and knew coaches, teammates, and even janitors at the stadium like brothers—is forced to still live afterward. His teammates said kind words before a match, hugged him after a goal, but now seem to be focused on new seasons and new goals. He gets left behind. Did none of it mean anything? He cries for the fast world to stop and says, “Slow down. This pains me. We were just here. I used to joke with you. We said we loved each other. Wait for me. Will you just wait for me?” Those hands he shook after a victory could not care for the weeping, broken-footed man hiding in the shadows of his home, once lit by the sun, once the life of the party.
When Andrei walked into a job now, or even met someone for the first time, he thought: How long will it take you to forget me?
”
”
Kristian Ventura (A Happy Ghost)
“
To avoid getting fooled by spurious correlations, we need to consider additional variables that would be expected to change if a particular causal explanation were true. Twenge does this by examining all the daily activities reported by individual students, in the two datasets that include such measures. Twenge finds that there are just two activities that are significantly correlated with depression and other suicide-related outcomes (such as considering suicide, making a plan, or making an actual attempt): electronic device use (such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer) and watching TV. On the other hand, there are five activities that have inverse relationships with depression (meaning that kids who spend more hours per week on these activities show lower rates of depression): sports and other forms of exercise, attending religious services, reading books and other print media, in-person social interactions, and doing homework.
”
”
Jonathan Haidt (The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure)