Forced to Quit

There will be times in your life where you are forced to quit. You will not be given the choice of whether or not you want to continue, no matter how much you want to. It’s a cutthroat world out there, and you just didn’t make the team. What do you do then? Wallow in depression? Say mean things to yourself? Give up? Or do you use it to better yourself?

They'll never find me in here. I'll never disappoint anyone ever again.

As a youth, I was fortunate enough to have parents who saw the value in allowing me to try various sports, even if it was for just a short while just to see if I liked it. One of the sports I really enjoyed was soccer. I played all throughout elementary school on the community ed teams. I wasn’t any good, with my asthma, lack of limb-ball coordination, and great ability to get bored and distracted easily. I got moved from forward, to half back, to goalie, and finally settled in the fullback/defense position (as it put me in a position of the least amount of responsibility). I couldn’t control the ball while running, or even stationary. I had only ever made one goal in my entire soccer career, and that was during a practice with an open goal. I was terrible. But I really liked it. 

And then one day, I found out that in order for me to continue playing soccer, I had to play through the school system, on a team, because community ed activities were only for grades 6 and below. So of course, I tried out for the team. And of course I didn’t make it. That was the end of my soccer career. If I was allowed to continue, even on a remedial team, I probably would have still quite enjoyed myself, and developed my skills even more. 

On the flip side, another sport that I was actively participating in and enjoying at the time was martial arts, namely Taekwondo (turns out, I like to kick things). 

Thankfully I didn't have to defend my choice of wardrobe.

I also wasn’t great at it, but the difference was that I got a lot more instruction on how to improve my skills, and my progress depended solely on how much time and effort I put into practicing. It didn’t matter if the person next to me was better than me, or even if I was the worst person in the room. I was still allowed to stay, I was still allowed to participate. They never forced me to quit. Because of that, I was able to improve in a way that allowed me to actually be invited onto a traveling competition team, where I got to go to some fun places all over the country and the world, and experience things I never would have otherwise. Years later, I even entered in an MMA tournament last minute for fun while on vacation in Asia! This was all because they let the slow kid have an opportunity to continue. 

James Harrison and Michael Jordan are other great examples of kids who were kicked off teams in grade school, not allowed to play, and turned that into their motivation to excel. Albert Einstein was told he’d never amount to anything. 

You also don’t have to want to be great at something to do it. If you enjoy it, that’s enough reason. Isn’t that enough reason to do most anything?