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Winning Isn’t Everything

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust, sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows great enthusiasms and great devotions; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt

I have had these words pasted on my bathroom mirror since the first time I read them when I was 16 years old. Growing up as a student athlete, having to be in bed early every night while my friends were out doing regular teenage things, travelling to golf tournaments with an extra suitcase of books so that I could make up for the classes I was missing, having to balance the ups and downs of competitive sport with my education, it was hard to ever find anyone that could empathize the life I was living. But I knew in my mind that I wanted to achieve extra ordinary things, for which, I could not lead an ordinary life. To #Dreambig, is to find it within yourself to break the barriers of normalcy and to know that “as you sow, so shall you reap”. It is to find joy in the process and not solely in the outcome.

It is to accept that though there will be failures along the way, it is the lessons you learn from them that will make taste of success that much sweeter. #Dreambig by setting out with a purpose and a goal, knowing that at the end of it all even if you fail, at least you will fail while daring greatly, so that your place shall never be with the cold and timid souls that know neither victory nor defeat.

JJ