Ten Quotes To Inspire Perseverance To Achieve Your Goals

With the Tokyo Olympics taking place in Japan at this present moment, I feel it's quite a fitting time to talk about human attitude and mindset. All the athletes who are competing for their respective countries have had to wait five years for this competition, since the last Olympics were held in Rio De Janeiro back in 2016. For some of them, it will be an opportunity to experience Olympic glory once again, but for most, it will either be their first opportunity, or perhaps another opportunity, to taste that Olympic glory for the first time, something in which they are desperate for, yet never achieved. Whilst it is an honour in itself to represent one's country at the Olympics, each athlete is out there to win a Gold medal, which is naturally their ultimate personal goal. Four years is a long time to wait for a chance at success, with this time around being five years. It's a harsh reality, but blow your opportunity, and all that hard work, training, time, and effort put in between games, in those four long years, can quite often feel wasted. In between games, these athletes may taste such personal accomplishments as world titles and championships, but I'm sure most athletes would tell you that level of success doesn't compare to winning a gold medal at the Olympics. Imagine how frustrating it would be, winning all these championships, and being crowned the best athlete in the world, in a particular sport, but continually failing to achieve that elusive Gold medal, come Olympics time. One individual, that comes to mind, who has dominated competition in her sport for numerous years, yet always seemed to fall short of glory at the Olympics, is Australian canoeist Jessica Fox. That was, until last week.

With both her father and mother having previously represented Great Britain and France respectively, at the Olympics, in the sport of canoeing, it's no surprise that canoeing would run through Jess's veins also. She began competing at international level at just 14 years of age, in 2008, before making her Olympic debut at the 2012 London Olympics. Fox was evidently talented in both the K1 (kayak single slalom) and C1 (canoe single slalom) competitions, and it didn't take her long to become a recognized name in the sport. In just her first Olympics, she managed to secure a Silver medal in the K1 event, missing out by just 0.62 seconds on the Gold medal. At the age of 18, that was a damn good feat in itself. Then her career began to really accelerate. Over the next seven years, Fox went on to win fifteen medals in total, at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, including 10 Gold, 3 Silver, and 2 Bronze medals, in the K1 and C1 events. 7 of those 10 Gold medals were individual participation medals, and the other 3 were team participation. As a result of her 7 individual Gold medals, and having become a 7 time World Champion, she became the most successful paddler in World Championship history, for either men's or women's competition. When you look at that record alone, that is about as successful as it can get, in any sport, even without Olympic Gold. She is an absolute sporting champion. In those 7 years, between 2012 and 2019, was the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics, of course. Fox was labelled as the clear favourite to win the K1 event, however a crucial 2 second penalty cost her, not only the Gold medal, but the Silver medal also, as she had to settle for a Bronze. Two Olympics down, and still no Gold for Fox.

Last week in Tokyo, Jess was as determined as ever before, to win that Gold medal in the K1 event, at the Olympics. Such has become her dominance in the sport, she breezed through qualifying, and was once again labelled a clear favourite to win. Come the final, Fox produced a time of 102.73. This time would have given her the Gold medal by nearly 3 seconds, however she incurred 4 penalty points for touching two gates on her run, leaving her with a time of 106.73, dropping her placing down to yet another Bronze medal. Fox was clearly shattered, as another Olympic Gold medal dream had eluded her. She knew inside that she was clearly the best in the world in her sport, and yet she was continuing to fall short on the big stage. In these games, she at least had another shot at a Gold, as she would also compete in the C1 event, just a couple of days later. She would have been feeling extremely dejected, flat, disappointed, and disheartened going into this event, as the K1 was her strength, over the C1. Instead, Fox entered the event with a positive mindset and attitude, and she was going to fight as hard as she can to win that Gold medal. 9 years after her first Olympics in London, and over 13 years of hard work and training in the sport, her perseverance, patience, and determination finally paid off. She went on to win the C1 event by 3 seconds to claim her first Olympic Gold medal, bringing her an immense amount of satisfaction and joy, whilst making the nation of Australia extremely proud in the process.

To me, Fox is the epitome of a typical driven and determined individual striving to reach their goals, and someone deserving of the success she has earned herself. She has worked so hard, for so long, and even though she had several successes and extraordinary achievements along the way, she wasn't reaching that ultimate goal she wanted to achieve. On 3 different Olympic occasions, she failed to achieve what she wanted to achieve, and in the knowledge she would have to wait another 4 years each time, to get another shot at it, it would have been soul crushing for her. Even as an elite athlete, she is still human. She would have no doubt been hurting big time, suffering through all these failures in events she knew she was good enough to win, and well and truly warranted to win. She perhaps may have experienced times where she wanted to just give up trying, or believed that such success was just never going to happen for her, or that she just wanted to break away from all the hard work and effort she was applying to improve herself. She would have experienced all those thoughts and emotions, the same as those that run through our head after we experience failure, in something we are striving for. The thing with Jess, and all those who have ever experienced the success of achieving goals they have been striving for, is that she never gave in. She never allowed failure to overwhelm her, and ultimately, never allowed herself to succumb to it. She persevered, and persevered, and persevered some more, until she achieved that Golden goal. We are talking 13+ years of hard work, commitment, effort, dedication, and training here, combined with several setbacks and failures along the journey. That's a long time to wait for success, but with ongoing perseverance, the longer you wait for that success, it only makes it sweeter to achieve. Without perseverance, patience, and determination, there cannot be success. It doesn't matter how long it takes, or for how long you have put the work in for, if you keep persevering, that success will come. Maintain that positive attitude and mindset, and use the failures to fuel your determination further. Just don't stop trying! Below are ten quotes to inspire the perseverance within you to achieve your own personal goals. To Jess, I not only send out a massive congratulations to you, but also a big thank you for being such an inspirational individual, and a role model for anyone who is striving to achieve their goals.

1.- "Perseverance, secret of all triumphs."

- Victor Hugo

2.- "Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained."

- Marie Curie

3.- "I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."

- John D. Rockefeller

4.- "Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did."

- Newt Gingrich

5.- "I strongly believe that through dedication and perseverance, one can overcome adversity to achieve success."

- Ginni Rometty

6.- "Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th."

- Julie Andrews

7.- "The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't."

- Henry Ward Beecher

8.- "Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure."

- Benjamin Disraeli

9.- "Success is the child of drudgery and perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price and it is yours."

- Orison Swett Marden

10.- "Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams."

- Ben Carson

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