One More Try.

Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach.

Every day is an opportunity to give your best shot and make progress in achieving your goals. Good better best; never let it rest until good is better, and better is best. The gym is an excellent example of the One More Try mentality; real progress starts when it hurts, and we can feel the pain. Whether running on the treadmill, lifting weights or engaging in other fitness activities, the more we can go beyond our perceived pain threshold, the quicker the progress. Boxing legend and former world heavyweight champion Muhammed Alli was a proponent of this philosophy; he once said: “I don’t count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count.”

“Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one-yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touchdown.” – H. ROSS PEROT American billionaire and former U.S. presidential candidate”

Busting Open the Piñata

Life is like taking swings at a Piñata It’s also an excellent metaphor for how to understand the impact of One More Try. There’s no external evidence that we’re making progress and that’s why people often quit before getting to the part of their lives where the candy comes out.

“The perfect example of this is from a few years ago when I went to a birthday party for a 5‐year‐old. At the party, there was a pin˜ata, and one by one, the kids put on a blindfold. They stepped up, were given a bat, spun around, and then told to swing at the pinata.

The first couple of kids grazed the pin˜ata. They were disoriented and didn’t know which direction to swing. Even with some well‐intentioned help from their fellow partygoers, they did no apparent damage to the pin˜ata. Or so it seemed!

Those kids got a little frustrated when nothing came out. What they didn’t realize is that inside, the pin˜ata was slowly breaking down.

The kids who went up later figured out the game a bit more. They stepped up, bat in hand, and took their swings. Many of them made solid contact and did some damage, whether they knew it or not.

The compounding effect of pounding on that piñata, even if it seemed like the piñata was holding firm, was making a difference. Every time a blow landed, those kids made invisible progress, growing ever closer to the ultimate goal of busting it wide open. All the kids shrieked with anticipation after each thump. After a few more whacks, they sensed the paper‐mache beast was weakening. Still, the piñata would not break.

When all of the children had taken their swings, mom blindfolded the birthday boy and he stepped up for his turn. That little man reared back, and with the mightiest “One More Try” you’re ever going to see, he busted that piñata wide open. You know what came next. More than a dozen children scurried to gobble up all the treats and goodies that had fallen from the piñata. Was it that one shot that busted the pinata wide open? Absolutely not. It was the compounded accumulation of all those hits that contributed to achieving the goal of getting the candy.

Too many people quit their business, their workouts, or their relationships before the candy comes out! Although they’re making progress, it doesn’t always show up externally. Just like the children, you’re making invisible progress in your life. Unfortunately, most people don’t stick around long to realize the outcomes from that progress. However, when you know that you’re moving forward, even when you can’t directly see you’re moving forward, you’ll stay more focused on your processes and tasks to accomplish your goals.

Invisible progress is more than having faith. It’s knowledge you’ve acquired because your efforts produced results on other things you’ve attempted in the past.

Meditations

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Humour

Sometimes in the obstacle course of life, every little stress and challenge seems like it means the world. Often, we miss out on opportunities to enjoy life because we take things so seriously; everything feels like it is life or death. Sometimes, we need a reminder that life is precious and fleeting, and there are limitless things to be grateful for.

“The cosmic humour is that if you desire to move mountains and you continue to purify yourself, ultimately, you will arrive at the place where you are able to move mountains. But in order to arrive at this position of power you will have had to give up being he-who-wanted-to-move-mountains so that you can be he-who-put-the-mountain-there-in-the-first-place. The humor is that finally when you have the power to move the mountain, you are the person who placed it there–so there the mountain stays.” ― Ram Dass, Be Here Now

Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – Watch and Learn

When we are not directly involved in the action, dialling out may be natural. When we stop paying attention, we squander a chance to study what is happening. We miss out on an opportunity to pick up a trick or two.

Daily Trip with Jeff Warren – Somebody to Love

Podcast