I remember my younger days when I played football and was having the season of my life as the first time those dreadful words touched my eardrums. I was at the age where I had to move up an age group the following year. This meant I would go from being one of the older kids on the team to one of the younger kids. I was continually hearing others say to me, “You won’t make it, no way you will be able to do what you did at the next level.” You know what though, I went on to the next level and did it all over again.
My brother tore people up his middle school years as a track athlete, and everyone said he would struggle in high school. He went out and set the Canadian Junior Record in the 100. People said well wait until he goes down to the NCAA, he is going to get it there. Even with all his rough bumps he still came out an All- American. When he was a pro, there were doubts that he had what it took to be one of best in the world yet he went on to the Olympic Games in 2012. In 2013 he also won a bronze medal in the 4x100m relay at the World Championships.
Remember This
95% of people will have no faith in you until they see you do something big. That 5% that believe in you, is usually made of your loving parents, best friend and maybe a girlfriend. Most people just can’t see you or don’t want to see you do well.
The Solution
Use this is as one of your strongest motivators in life. How can you not? How can you accept someone saying you are not capable of making it, and then just lying down and proving them right? No way, when they say you can’t make it, write their name down on a list.
A lot of times you offend people when you tell them you have huge dreams. It hurts them because you are striving for so much more than them. Since they believe they are not capable, they convince themselves that no one else is either.
Every rep you lift in the weight room, every rep you do at practice, every injury you sustain, and roadblock you overcome, remember those people who have always chosen not to believe in you. If you think you can, then YOU WILL.
But hey, “you won’t make it.”
“Champions are made from something they have deep inside them a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, and they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.” – Muhammad Ali
