No substitute for hard work and determination

I really hate sharing ambiguous thoughts that have so many parallels to the cancers that plague our society. But there is no substitute for hard work and determination. Not everybody gets their way the first time. Not everybody has the courage to get back on the horse. I will grant you that some who have been knocked down are abused while they are trying to regroup and lack the fortitude to expend additional energy. But for those who can, there are good things ahead.

My daughter is obsessed with American Ninja Warrior. She is not particularly athletic, which is to say she lacks technique and discipline to push herself, and to know when to exert her energy. She goes to the ninja gym every week and plays on the obstacles. Sometimes she is determined to succeed and sometimes she gets a little lazy and gives in when it gets tough. Lord knows she does the monkey bars at home from one end to another, but she gives up on the step ladder at the gym.

The gym has a number of warped-walls for athletes to practice on. She mastered the eight-foot wall in relatively short order…she is a big girl, so her mere height had her most of the way there…but the ten-foot wall has been a challenge. She had not absorbed the strategy, which is to run as fast as you can to get as far up the wall as possible and jump as high as you can…she just jogs up and then slides down, seemingly content with not reaching the top and enjoying the ride down. It was getting to a point where I was losing faith in her commitment to heed the instruction of her trainers so that she would make progress and beat that wall…

And then, when you least expect it, all your hard work turns into a giant accomplishment. I walked into the gym at pickup time, and saw her at the top of the wall…I was asking myself, ‘did she just make it up the wall? Or is she just goofing around up there?’ Somehow I caught her eye, she saw that I had arrived and she knew there was something she needed to show me…class was winding down, but she asked her trainer if she could do the wall again…she went running but fell considerably short…she definitely had something to show me. She asked to try again. There she went, up the ramp, and just when it looked like she had come up just an inch short, her little fingers rolled over the lip and she was hanging on for dear life…if she didn’t give up, she would have not only accomplished her goal (again), but have done it with her daddy watching. One big umph and she yanked herself up over the piping, all the way up. I couldn’t do anything but scream and clap. It took months of effort with seemingly unfruitful results…only until those results became fruitful…

No matter how long the road seems, your goal is achievable. Maybe not today or tomorrow or even anytime soon. But your determination will lead you forward, however slowly, and will propel you to success.