The greatest glory lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Yesterday I was exhausted.

Worse than usual.

I woke up thinking that maybe I should throw in the Lose to Win towel.

Every single part of my body is sore.

My house is a shithole.

And I feel like I am missing out on time with my kids.

But I managed to drag my ass to the Y and take 2 classes in the morning.

I was tired, and hungry, and I couldn’t stop looking at the clock.

It was 90 really long minutes of complete and total suckiness.

So when it was time to take Number 3 and 4 to swim practice last night, I considered letting them skip it and staying home.

But I had told a woman whose daughter wanted to play with Number 4 that she would be there after practice to hang out.

I didn’t want to blow the little girl off.

So I dragged my ass back there a second time last night.

I swam for an hour.

It sucked.

Then I did the elliptical for 40 minutes.

That sucked too.

But you know what didn’t suck?

Coming out of the cardio room and seeing this:

And then, seeing this:

There is a white board in the weight room at the Y.

It usually has some sort of inspirational quote written on it.

This was the last one:

I hated every minute of training, but I said ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’  ~ Muhammad Ali

I don’t know how many people pay attention to what is written on that board.

But that quote got me through every minute I spent at the Y yesterday.

I repeated it over and over.

And over.

I think some people think I’ve gone a little overboard with this whole Lose to Win thing.

But it’s not really just about this program.

Actually, I don’t know if it’s really even about Lose to Win at all anymore.

I mean, yeah, I want to win.

But I really just want to prove to myself that I can.

That no matter how hard things are, I can rise to the top.

Because life is really fucking hard sometimes.

Because right now, there are a lot of other things in my life that are, um,

well,

not ideal.

To put it mildly.

Financially, things are not good.

And when I say not good, I mean pretty bad.

To the point that lately I have felt hopeless.

And I need to prove to myself that I’ve got what it takes.

To get through anything.

No matter what.

That whatever life throws at me, I can handle it.

Kids.

Marriage.

Finances.

Whatever.

If someone raises the bar, I am going to reach it.

And surpass it.

I want to remind myself that I’m strong enough to take on anything.

So I’m forging ahead.

Cause like Mr. Ali, I want to live the life of a champion.

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