There is a difference - I tried

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By Jonathan Reyes

‘Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential, impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.’ –Muhammad Ali.

There is a difference in saying ‘I tried’ and knowing ‘I tried’. Saying it, is when you go to the fight promoter and ask, ‘Can I step into the ring?’ He flat out says, ‘No’, then you go home and say, ‘I tried’.

Knowing I tried

Knowing it, is when you go to that promoter and ask, ‘What does it take to prove I deserve to be in that ring?’ And no matter what that promoter says, whether he laughs in your face or tells you exactly what you need to do, from that moment on, you train.

You train relentlessly, you give it all you’ve got, no matter how long it takes. In all aspects of life you prove you deserve that shot. You sacrifice everything and anything it takes. Day after day, week after week, hit after hit, you fucking train.

I continue to persist

You wait for your opportunity to step into that ring and prove you belong. It may be tomorrow or it may be years from when that promoter laughed in your face. But you continue to persist and resist.

Persist in your passion and in your ‘why’ and you continue to try. Resist in anything else that isn’t helping you out in your path. All the why’s and why nots, the quit in your body after every drop of sweat has been drained from your body.

You will know you tried

In due time your shot will come up and when it does, you aggressively step the fuck up. You stand proud and firm in that ring, knowing you belong. Knowing this is what you’re trying for, and no matter the outcome, whether you lay under the lights in defeat or the referee raises your hand in victory…

You will KNOW you tried. Then it’s on to the next ring in life, the next decision to either say you’re going to try or know you’re going to try.

Reproduced with permission, originally published here