Rising to the Challenge: How I Refused to Give Up

You lose it, those of you out there. And you don't deserve to lose.

You put in the work, you worked hard, and you lose it. And I need you to do me a favor.

This is the year to turn that around. Yet you were rejected the last time, but go for it again. You were overlooked the last time, but show up again. Why?

Because you are not finished. It is not over. You are not done. It is not too late.

But what separates a dreamer from Doer?

Let me break that down. Three words: consistent, follow-through.

Imagine the basketball player shooting hoops. How do you know if that stop will be inserted? How do you know if that person is a shooter? You know how you become a shooter. You know how to knock it down. It's all in the follow-through.

I know about tough times. They can either make you or break you. Come on, now. Come on, bring it.

God's not giving us a spirit of fear. So I didn't have time to be fearful. I had to replace fearfulness with being fearless and creative and take the initiative to do something else with my life. I am going to make it.

This is my compact story. It takes place when you step into your purpose. It takes place when you step into your destiny. It takes faith to step away from everything familiar and into uncharted territory in order to become the person you were born to be. It takes place.

So from the start, you must decide that you will refuse to remain where you are.

Have you ever thought about inspiring someone else? Have you ever thought about lifting someone else?

We need you to be a light in the darkness. This world's gone crazy. This world needs you to rise up. This world needs your dream. This world needs you to be you.

Give as much time and energy to your dream as you do to your fears.

This opens the door for miracles to appear in your life. I need you to acknowledge this fact. Acknowledge that you lose it. Are you reading? Acknowledge it. Own it. Own up to the fact that I'm losing. I'm losing financially. I'm losing. I'm losing in my marriage. I'm losing. I'm losing with my kids. I'm losing personal development. I'm losing. And I'm tired of losing. I need you to own up to it. I'm losing. I'm a high school dropout. I'm losing. I work for minimum wage. I'm losing. I'm getting in trouble with the law. I'm losing my mother because she isn't communicating with me in our strained relationship. I'm losing.

I'm asking you to control what you can control. You can control going to bed. You can control getting up. You can control being on time. You can control going to class. You can control showing up. You can control your attitude. You can control being nice. You can control whether you do what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it.

It's your boy saying you want to be a winner and you want to stop losing.

You minimise the air and make the most of the rest of your life. Even when it looks like you're losing, you're winning.

Never let uncertainty or doubt be the reason you quit. Don't underestimate yourself.

You do what you can, and God will do what you can't. Take the initiative. Learn something new. Throw your neck over the other side. Be ambitious. Reach. Ask for help, not because you're weak but because you want to remain strong.

Make up your mind and expect things to get better for you. You must walk into your future in complete condition, ready to seize the people who believed in you before you reached the top.

Go back and get them. But first, you've got to condition yourself. Come on.

Who am I talking to? I'm talking to that person who is stirred by where they are.

You have to find a way. You want to find a way to get back up. This is not the answer. You will not quit. Do not take this life for granted. Live every moment, knowing you will have no regrets.

We are alive and breathing and capable of more than we can ever imagine. See, we all have these tough moments in life.

Well, Disney filed for bankruptcy seven times, and he had two nervous breakdowns. Oh, he was bent, but he wasn't broken. No, he kept creating. Someone stole his first cartoon, which had a lot of potential. Somebody on his team stole it from him. His heart was broken, but he didn't stay there, being angry and bitter and talking about it. He created Mickey Mouse. Had that person not stolen his first cartoon, Mickey Mouse would not have been born.

Many times, when one door closes, another door opens. But we often spend time looking at and talking about the closed door. We don't see the open door.

Giving up is easy. Succumbing to how you feel is easy. But hanging in there when you feel like you don't have anything left, now, that's hard.

So are you willing to make the tough decision?

Are you willing to stretch yourself?

Are you willing to get up every time you fall?

If you're going to get to the top, you've got to know what it feels like to be at the bottom. You have to know what it's like to crawl through the dirt and mud and everything else that makes you uncomfortable.

What do your eyes see? What is your mission? I need you to commit to it. Whatever just went through your mind right now, I need you to be big, and I need you to commit. I need you to be big. I'm thinking I need you to commit. I need you to make a plan that I need you to follow through on.

That is all the success you will need to succeed. without failures or challenges. There could be no success. Man, you will get up, and you will go up.

Miracles happen when you give as much energy to your dreams. A dream of picking up the pieces and starting all over again The goal is to land on your back if you are knocked down in life. Because if you can look up, you can get up a dream that when a doctor looks at you and says you're terminal and you say no, you determine the diagnosis. God determines the prognosis. The dream that this would not happen has come true. When you give as much time and energy to your dream, to this new vision of yourself, I'll give you all your eyes and let you see.

Focus on this greatness within you. There are so many people counting on you.

You've heard this a million times: the cemetery is full of potential. And that's true because that person didn't do what they needed to do.

We are all born and will all die as a result of the dash. Now, I'm going to ask you a question. What are you going to do with your dash?

Thank you.