If You're Not Going to Try for 1st, Why Try at All?

As I was commenting on my friend, Michael Hanover's, most recent post about losing, I realized that I had a lot to say on a closely related topic. I have found that I have been slipping into this groove of doing just enough to get by and no more. Although I have been fairly successful in doing this, I realized that I am not the kind of person where getting by is okay. After our Golf team lost the State Tournament by one stroke, there were so many things running through my mind. Everything I do in life lately, seems to be close but not there. I have tried and, as people put it, "come close," in a fair amount of things in the last 5-6 months and I realized that there is a definite pattern in all of these failures. My work ethic is not what it needs to be. I was not able to play in the state tournament because of my lack to practice the most out of the others on my team. Even though I was an alternate to the state team, to me it didn't feel like it mattered. Once again I was close but, just not there. In every situation in which I am coasting by as being close, I am failing.

There is no other way to put it, if I'm not succeeding then I can't consider myself winning in any way. I need to get my priorities straight which brings me to my final and most key point. If I'm not going to try for the best, then why try at all? The more I think about this the sicker I get to my stomach. I now feel that I have a better handle on how I am going to try and approach every situation in life from now on. It's either all out or not at all.

Giving it your all: Five principles for Creating a Culture of Excellence

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