Not everybody wins, and certainly not everybody wins all the time, but once you get into your boat, push off, tie into your shoes and foot stretchers, then grab your oars, you have indeed won far more than those who have never tried.
You’re happy with 50%? You’re happy because you’re successful. You’re happy for now. But what is happiness? A moment before you need more happiness. I won’t settle for 50% of anything. I want 100%. You don’t want most of it. You want all of it.
Excellence must be pursued – it must be wooed with all of one’s might and every effort that we have. Each day there is a new encounter. Each week there is a new challenge. In all of the display and in all of the noise and all of the glamor and all of the color and all of the excitement and all of the rings and all of the money, these are the things that only linger in the memory. But the spirit – the will to excel; the will to win, these are the things that endure.
In rowing… I found a sport that demanded some skill, granted, but placed a much higher premium on plain hard work and persistence. Harry Parker Harvard University
Mental toughness … I’m positive that this is what makes us extraordinary. Regardless of how I’m feeling about myself or my training, I’m inspired to work hard because of the other women (or men) around me who want the same things and work towards the same goal - we push ourselves incredibly hard to see what happens.
There's a difference between mental failure and physical failure. You can give up when that voice inside your head tells you to stop, or you can go to your limits until your body literally gives up. Only then can you say you tried your hardest and became stronger.
