Never Give Up

image: lemerg.com

Not because Thomas Edison never gave up nor Henry Ford never gave up nor Benjamin Franklin never gave up nor William Shakespeare never gave up nor Steve Jobs never gave up nor Richard Branson never gave up nor Larry Page never gave up nor Barack Obama never gave up nor Donald Trump is not giving up. 

No. Not because all the rich successful people didn't give up. It's because that's the only way to make the most of your life. You have to show above average commitment to something, even when it seems not to be working out and the average guy would have quitted.

Life is not going to be fair to you a lot of times, but it's not just to you, it's like that to everyone. Excellence doesn't mean perfection; it is a relative term that means you are doing better than most people. And the only way to achieve excellence in any aspect of life is to give it a never giving up attitude. 

A lot of people consider me an excellent writer and when I ask why it always boil down to the fact that I write a lot more than the average person. I write daily. The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award I got, I like to say I got it out of luck but the truer reason is Microsoft considered me excellent because I went further with my Excel knowledge + sharing than the average Nigerian.

Never give up doesn't mean to be like Romeo and give up your life instead. Life is not a long stretch of tough times interlaced with short periods of relief. Rather, it is the opposite. The tough times are relatively very few and sometimes very far between. And those are the times people will notice your courage and steadfastness. But you'll make a lot more progress in life when you don't reserve your courage for only the tough times. Never giving up could be dedicating one hour a day to acquiring that skill you've always wanted. It could be having a positive attitude always. I call it taking your own sunshine with you everywhere you go. It could be seeing the good side of people always. It could be always having a smile for everyone. All I am saying is never giving up is more about the little things that fill our daily lives rather than the occasional hard time we face.

I have written over 1,200 articles. I didn't write them under pressure of a one month NaNoWriMo writing marathon contest. I don't have any special talent towards it. I did it simply by writing something a day for the last 3 years. It's one of those little things that add up. Like the almost invisible grain of sand that the ants carry over time to build their impressive anthill. And that's what I want to encourage you to do. Don't worry too much about heroic stuff or breathtaking courageous feats. Pay more attention to the little things that fill your daily life and put in a little more consistent effort in them.