For when you feel like giving up

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

So let's get straight to it.

It's February 2018 and some of us may not just be feeling those amazing, ground-breaking, self-achieving goals we set on 31st December, 2017 or 1st January, 2018. In fact, some of us have just outright had it. Like, we're just done. It seems not to be werking.

The first week of 2018 seemed so amazing, full of promises and goals we set out to achieve for the rest of the year. From those weight loss and healthy-eating goals, to spiritual and working-on -your- relationship-with-God goals, to that career change or big leap of faith in starting a business that you imagined you would start this year, or that skill/knowledge that you decided to acquire without any excuse, or that language you were determined to accomplish this year...or the books you've always wanted to read and said you would get on this year or the blog you said you would start or that big project you promised you would see through or that one thing you decided to abstain from...

Oh, the list can go on and on. 

It is easy to have just waited till the sixth month of the year to have posted this because it could be assumed that by then, the steam of 1st January 2018 would have run out, but guess what? its already the end of February (because you know February waits for no man) and for a good number of us reading this right now, our steam has run out, not because we want it to, but because "life happens". Right? WRONG!

For most of us, we have slowly given up the race, the dream or goal we had at the beginning of the year and have sunk back into "reality" hoping that January 2019 comes round fast so we'll be ready to go...again. For some, the 1st day of every month is eagerly anticipated so we can "start afresh", while some of us have adopted the "Abeg I cannot come and go and kill myself" mantra (which by the way, is the most convenient to say. But really, it's the funniest thing. LOL). 

And so you've found yourself just living each day as it comes, on auto-pilot, just barely getting by. And after the first few weeks of the year, it is safe to say that you might have faded out. The very thing you thought you could abstain from this year seems so impossible to stay away from and so you believe that you'll forever be "addicted" to it or there's just no way out. You've fallen back into that pit you promised yourself you would emerge from this year and soar. Once again (or maybe for the millionth time), you've found yourself groping around in the very darkness you promised yourself you would escape from.

The small step you decided to take in the realization of an important goal now seems too big and scary to accomplish. There are now too many reasons why all of it can go wrong and the one reason why it can go right is proving difficult to find. And so it seems safe to just remain in the comfort zone where nothing goes left and everything goes right. 

If you wrote down your goals at the beginning of the year or as we like to term them, "New Year's Resolutions", this would be a good time to take a look at them. If you did not pen them down, it would be a good time to pause and reflect on three of the most important that you determined you would set out to achieve this year. It's not too late to start all over.

If you've started out on any of those goals you penned down but in the process, have gotten overwhelmed by everything else going on around you (and I kid you not, getting overwhelmed is pretty easy...I've been there and sometimes I still am!), then this is the best time to encourage you not to give up. Perhaps responsibilities, work, obligations, life and everything else around you have clogged up your time or resources that you barely have the time to breathe. 

But hey, don't give up. 

It may seem like a lot to juggle, but stay strong and believe in yourself! If you've been making attempts from the beginning of the year till now but none seem to work and all you've been left with are mistakes, remember that "Each mistake teaches you something new about yourself. There is no failure, remember, except in no longer trying. It is the courage to continue that counts.”  If you're just downright discouraged and thinking that you cannot do it, try and try. Keep trying. And if you fall down, get back up and keep going.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla (in case you don't know him, the man who is trying to make human species multi-planetary or in a more exciting phrase, make it possible for humans to go to mars easily and possibly inhabit it) stated in an interview on three rocket launches that had failed and the success of the fourth launch.

"I messed up the first three launches. The first three launches failed. And fortunately the fourth launch, which was, that was the last money that we had for Falcon 1. That fourth launch worked. Or it would have been — that would have been it for SpaceX. But fate liked us that day. So, the fourth launch worked." 

A lot must have gone into each of those launches. Money, time, hardwork, late nights, sweat and blood, tears, emotions, hope, expectations and so on. It must have been discouraging having to go through all of that three times or even more in other endeavours that he has pursued in the past, but the most important thing was not giving up and this eventually paid off. 

Sometimes, all you need is just to give it that extra push. Sometimes, all you need to do is try one more time. 

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison.


I love the lyrics to the song "Try Everything" which is a soundtrack in one of my favourite Disney animated movies "Zootopia" and the song says:

"I messed up tonight
I lost another fight
I still mess up but I'll just start again
I keep falling down
I keep on hitting the ground
I always get up now to see what's next
Birds don't just fly
They fall down and get up
Nobody learns without getting it wrong

I won't give up, no I won't give in
Till I reach the end
And then I'll start again
Though I'm on the lead
I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail
I won't give up, no I won't give in
Till I reach the end
And then I'll start again
No I won't leave
I wanna try everything
I wanna try even though I could fail

Look how far you've come
You filled your heart with love
Baby you've done enough that cut your breath
Don't beat yourself up
Don't need to run so fast
Sometimes we come last but we did our best

I'll keep on making those new mistakes

I'll keep on making them every day
Those new mistakes

Oh oh, try everything"

So for every time you feel like giving up, don't.