The Art of Victory

Hear the war cry going on in my head? The intimidating screams that will etch an unrelenting fear in the hearts of the enemies. Hear the man in the distance shouting his last orders? He tells you to take no prisoners, he asks you to fight for the wife and kids that you love and he asks you to fight and colour this soil with the sweat from your brows. He tells you that victory is beyond that horizon, let the fearful not near it but only the brave. Let the brave conquer the fear and conquer the horizon.

The soldier knows no gargantuan dream. The simple man he is all that he desires is to live another day in dignity amongst those he so very loves. His one step forward will give hope for his family while the same step backwards spells doom for him and his kind. The fear his heart thumps with, oh the fear he feels. Masking those fears he grits his teeth and clenches his sword. He raises his shield and protects the man on his left. The muscles on his body, right from his calves to his jaw, contracting and forming a turgid statue of himself. He stares the enemy in the distance, boring a hole through their shields with such intensity. He knows that today, there is only two outcomes. Either he walks a free man or he feeds the vultures above.

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Victory never comes without pain. Pain in it’s nimiety brings about the gratitude for when victory tastes sweet. For that honour you so die for and wish for there is a price that you have to pay. For those very people who you once trusted will now turn against you and show their back to you because you took a step, a bold step forward. Now there is silence around you, the gay chatter of those trusted now replaced with quiet. Positively, you can now focus better. There isn’t anyone who shall distract you from the dream you made. Make your dream and think about only that dream.

Abraham Lincoln failed to make into congress on more than one occasion. If my memory serves me right, he failed on seven attempts and made it on the eighth. Today, he is touted as the one President who has etched a permanent respect amongst Americans. Today they have erected statues of him, in his glory so that the world shall remember him. Abraham Lincoln, is a legend. Had he chosen to give up his dream after so many attempts, today his name would not be resounding in history. Or it may, only that perhaps he may have been recognised as the man who gave up his dream for the fear of failure. Had he been reticent to push past the failures, today America may not have become what it is.

Thomas A. Edison made several attempts before he invented the electric light bulb. His every failure drew him closer to discovering that very invention that now dominates the way we live. He never allowed the travail of his pursuit put an end to his will. Instead, those daunting moments he lived in created and built doors in place of where there were once walls.

Every luminary in history had a trying story to tell. Not all were born with a silver spoon. The beauty about life is that people have a choice. People choose when to pursue and when to detach themselves from their goals. Once you detach yourself from your goals, then all that you ever worked for now would count for nothing. What good is your experience then? Once you imbue those dreams within your mind, concentrate on why you want it and remember that and that only.

People fail because they take their eyes off their goals. They fail because somewhere along the way they lost the vigour and fortitude they began with. They concentrate on the failure they have become and in that moment they forget why and what their dream was about. Every runner is taught not to look at ten feet in front but to stare into the distance. To look straight at the finish line and only the finish line. Do not look left, do not look right, what your competitors do is none of your concern. Do not take your eyes off your goal.

Sure, there will be times where you feel like giving up. Sure there may be times you are so broke you would consider slicing a part of yourself for food. And the biggest pain lies in the want to continue to pursue that which you have and perhaps now have found a lost cause in. Because, people feel emotions. Because people feel sad when they lose, they feel angry and frustrated when things do not go according to plan. People feel desperate when they’ve tried more than one attempt at attaining that goal. But I’d say to them, to hell with those times you tried. To hell with those people who didn’t trust you enough. To hell with those people who didn’t have the guts to reject you in your face but instead led you in a merry-go-round chase. To hell with circumstances to hell with those who put you in it. It is them who ought to be ashamed for they never realised the purity of your intentions. Now put that aside and move on to the next. The longer you dwell in such grieving nuances the deeper your desolation is going to be.

Every sunrise means there is yet another opportunity. Every sunrise means that you still have another day to turn it around. Every sunrise means, that you have lived another day, to try yet another time. So make use of that opportunity, turn it around and try every single day until your last breath shall run dry. And by the time you take that last breath, there can be only two outcomes. When you read this line, think about what that outcome will be for you.

Create your circumstances, not be a victim of it.