“You can always tell when you haven’t done enough, but you can’t ever tell when you’ve done too much.” – Charley Pell

Charley Pell was a pretty good football coach and he intrinsically knew the value of preparation. I can assure you that upon reaching a major goal you will never be able to identify the extra effort that wasn’t necessary to be successful. On the other hand, failing to reach a goal you will be flooded with tens, if not hundreds, of things you could have done that would have made a difference. Moral of the story? Give all you are capable of giving and even if you are not successful on this attempt, you’ll be extremely happy with the new growth that always occurs when you stretch yourself.

Long after the crowd had left and the cameras had moved, a lone runner entered the stadium to complete the 26-mile-long marathon in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Injured earlier in the race during a fall, he stumbled along, more than an hour after the others had finished. Hurling himself to the finish line, John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania finished dead last. But before you judge him as a loser, take careful heed of the words he uttered when asked why he did not quit earlier when he had been injured:

“My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it.”

“The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. “

General George S. Patton

“When a person of self-esteem chooses his values and sets his goals, when he projects the long-range purposes that will unify and guide his actions—it is like a bridge thrown to the future, across which his life will pass, a bridge supported by the conviction that his mind is competent to think, to judge, to value, and that he is worthy of enjoying values.”

Dr. Nathaniel Branden

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”

Mahatma Gandhi