Day to Day

My Never Quit story started when I was a kid and has continued into adulthood encompassing several different events.
Growing up, my family experienced a lot of death. I went to 5 funerals of close family members in around a 6 or 7 year time span. You can hop over to this site to know what are the basic needs in organizing this event.

The one that hit me the hardest was my great grandmother. I remember vividly going to the hospital a few days before her passing to visit her while I still could. She was on a ventilator and for whatever reason, the sight of her looking so weak and sick, got to me. During her funeral, I remember seeing my dad upset. He has always been the toughest man I know and to see him upset added to the seriousness of the situation. For whatever reason, after seeing him, I resolved to be the tough one in the family for his sake (not that he needed me to), and this was the start of me wanting to develop a never quit mindset.

Later on in high school I remember going to a week long football camp at a local college. We were doing 3 a day practices in the hot Georgia sun and early on in the week, I became sick with strep throat. Because I came to the camp on the bus with the team, I had no way of getting home except to leave with the team. Because of this I endured the longest week of my life, continued to practice, and went home with the team. Each day my muscles were more sore than the day before and everything about getting out of bed became harder and harder. To this day it is one of the best learning experiences I have had, and if I could go back I would relive it again.

Though these two stories aren’t as extreme as some of the other Never Quit stories are, I want to share some of my mindset when I went through them. In my mind, Never Quit is an every day affair. It’s when you get out of bed when you didn’t want to or when you put your body through the pain of a workout even though it’s uncomfortable.

From what I can tell, the key to developing the Never Quit mindset is to put yourself in situations where you want to quit and then don’t let yourself actually quit. Your mindset is like a muscle. Every time you do something that makes you want to quit, you push your mind into getting stronger and the threshold at which you want to quit shifts.

This method has worked wonders for me so far. I strive every day to do at least one thing that makes me uncomfortable so that I can push that threshold further. Though my Never Quit mindset hasn’t been tested by an extreme situation, the small tragedies are so much easier to handle. From funerals, to car accidents, to rough finals weeks at school, and long days at work, the Never Quit mindset for me has grown, and I’ve been able to endure much more than my friends around me.

As a closing, good luck to all of you on developing your Never Quit mindset. Hopefully my story helps some. Thank you to all of you guys on the TNQ podcast for giving a platform for people to get together and share stories and hear from world class individuals. God Bless you all. Thank you.

Author: Gage