Don't Leave Anything on the Field !!!

Don't Leave Anything on the Field!!!
By Tami Eggleston (c)

OK—two scenarios for you to think about. Scenario number 1 you go into a situation (work, personal, sport, etc.) and you only give about 50% of what you possibly could give and then you fail. How bad do you feel? You know you could have done more and succeeded. Scenario number 2 you go into a situation (work, personal, sport, etc.) and you give 100% of what you can give at that moment and you fail. How bad do you feel? You did everything you could; you tried your hardest, now you have learned what else you need to do to succeed in the future, but this time you failed. Can you get back up, dust yourself off, and learn and go out and give 100% again and keep learning and trying and improving?

I think most of think, yeah Scenario 2 is better you should always give 100%, but I think if we are HONEST and I mean down and dirty honest, some of us know we don’t give 100% all the time. We hold back, we wait, we are tentative, we lack confidence, we don’t give it our all. And then if we fail, maybe we can feel like, “well I failed because I didn’t give 100%.” And maybe that makes us feel a little bit better—but here is the deal , we will never be the best we can be if we keep leaving something on the field and we don’t give 100% of what we have to give. If we don’t give 100% we can’t push and learn and get better. When we give 100% and fail we have to do more analysis—why am I still failing, what do I have to learn, what do I have to do different, what do I have to get better at?

In drag racing, do you feel better when you try really, really, really hard you are prepared and worked hard and were mentally and physically the best you could be and go red by .001 second or when you were slacking a little and didn’t have your head on straight and cut a .089 light? Both situations are bad, you lost both ways—but what way can you fix? What way is going to win you more rounds in the long run?

So think about this—do you want to go out and give it your all? Are you willing to be brave and give 100% of yourself even if that means failing? Why are you holding back? What are you waiting for? When are you going to give 100%? If not now, when? The best racers, the best athletes, the best people, they give 100% every time to the things they care about. Start right now and decide if you are going to push and learn and grow and risk failing while giving 100% or are you going to make yourself feel better by holding back and not giving all you can give?