Something that I got through a while back has really amped my motivation for things I pursue. I had a talk with the youth group I'm in at one of our events.

We discussed so many topics. One topic that stood out to me was the discussion of giving up. That nowadays people do it too much. Now we hear all those cliche quotes on how you should never give up or quit.

I literally heard that all the time but I didn't think that was going to really apply to me. Just didn't think I'd ever be in a situation to where I was at that mindset. I never questioned if I was strong enough. Giving up wasn't anything I thought I'd resort to. Something I can agree on is a lot of times we give up because it simply gets too hard, and I never thought I'd be pushed in that position. The image that pops up in my head on giving up is like an arm wrestling match.

You know both arms are neck for neck and the game is intense. You begin to see both opponents necks just puffing and their arms just shaking. So let's just imagine they're playing for a hundred. Now realistically I don't know who would ever play for that much, but let's just open up our thought bubble. Well anyway both opponents are so matched in strengths that you wonder who's going to fall. Ok let's pause for a second that moment describes my senior year of high school and beginning of college.

My life was seriously, well majority of it was all about basketball, like I was that kid saying "ball is life!"

Long story short I gave up on it, and I didn't think it was going to hurt me the way it did. Back then I was weak minded and couldn't get past all of the thoughts that ran through my head. I was seriously drowning in discouragement. I tried to give excuses like "it isn't fun anymore" or " It's just a sport I don't care about it" when honestly basketball just got too hard. I had so many thoughts come to my head like " you didn't play good enough in high school.

Why play college!" And so many others. Those thoughts were something I should of ignored. Don't get me wrong I did had some looks from a few colleges, but they weren't anything I was interested in or I was just discouraged once again.

When I quit after senior year it was like that moment in a arm wrestling match and you lose all power in that arm and just let it fall. Then you sit and wish you just gave that extra push to win. That's what I realized it may be hard but it's worth it! It's so easy to say that though then actually going through it. I literally became lost once I gave up. Over my years in college God started revealing my other gifts to me. Then I started growing a desire to seek him and take heed to see how he wanted me to use them, and now he is definitely working on me. So my motivation is not giving up on myself; the pain is temporary.

One thing that is amping me through my journey is this quote: "Make up your mind that you're not going to quit until you see the fruit of what God has placed within you."

One other quote that resonates with me is from one of my favorite dancer and he asked a simple question.

"What will happen if you don't quit?" So try it out guys don't quit!

Seriously life may take you to rock bottom of a well, but don't act like there isn't no rope to help you back up! Try it out!