From the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships in La Crosse
Former Crestwood prep Nathan Ahern is an all-American for Wartburg in the 800 finishing 8th in a time of 1:49.96
We have a problem.
Somewhere along the line, “Playing multiple sports is good!” turned into, “you have to play all of your sports simultaneously year round!”
We’ve lost the plot. Kids cannot play a baseball, basketball, and football season all at the same time.
When you fail, two voices show up.
The first voice is reasonable.
It says, "Let’s find an easier path. No need to endure this."
It sounds like wisdom, like it's protecting you.
"Let's find a safer path. You don't need to expose yourself to this."
The second voice is miserable, but convincing.
It says, “You don’t have what it takes. It’s over."
It sounds like panic, full of doubt.
"You’ll never recover. There’s nothing left to do.”
Both voices lie.
They're just versions of quitting. Justify it if you want. It’s quitting on your journey, on yourself.
And why . . . because you failed?
The quitting voice wears a mask of wisdom to hide the truth of its weakness.
Who are you to deserve a journey without painful failure?
If you quit because you leaped and fell short, you failed more than the leap. You failed the lesson.
The fall is there to teach you something.
Blaming refuses the education.
Complaining refuses the education.
Getting defensive refuses the education.
Quitting refuses the education.
I've watched this pattern for twenty years.
Someone attempts something meaningful.
They fall short.
Instead of examining why, improving, and trying again, they shrink back.
Instead of stepping on the gas, they pull the emergency brake.
The same challenge arrives again in a new form.
They fail again.
For the same reasons.
Because they never learned the lessons from the first failure. So they repeat it.
The same gap keeps appearing on their path until they learn how make the leap and overcome it.
There is no promise they do. They often don’t.
But those who leap-learn-leap-learn-leap, until they make it, earn rewards of excellence and fulfillment that others don't.
They understand themselves and the world in a way others don't.
That's the wisdom that can only be gained by making courageous leaps and enduring painful falls and failures.
Resist the urge to quit. Don't listen to the quitting voices offering you relief from the struggle. Stay in the lesson.
The fall is teaching you, but only if you keep making the leap.
Track & Field Preview: 𝐊𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐍𝐂𝐀𝐀 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 & 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬
The Knights will compete at the 2026 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Alabama on Mar 13 (Fri) - Mar 14 (Sat).
🔗: https://t.co/Fuq2suhlMS
#GoKnights x @WTF_knights
✏️ Giving away 3 copies of “Bring Your Own Pencil”
📖 Bill Walsh + Leadership
✈️ Short enough to read on a plane ride.
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🏆 Winners announced after the Game!
“It’s a process. It’s a way you go about doing things. It’s a high standard, high expectation, it’s accountability. It’s discipline, commitment, toughness, work ethic, pride. It’s wanting to be great vs. wanting to be normal,” Curt Cignetti
The difference is within you.
I am sure that when the field expanded to 12 teams with 4 first round byes, everyone knew that the first team with a bye to win a playoff game would happen in year 2, and be the mighty blue blood, Indiana Hoosiers
The more you do something, the better you get.
The better you get, the better you feel, and the more you like it.
The more you like it, the more you do it.
-@SuccessHotline