Don't quit

I'm a big Survivor fan. I like the idea of 40 days off work, on an island, no cell phone, no Internet, just me, a beach, and a bunch of people who want to kill me. Sounds so relaxing, doesn't it?

But the thing is, doesn't matter if you saw this season or not, I'm behind a day because of work. Eric, when asked what kept him going when he could quit, said it was his kids. How could he tell his kids they can't quit if he quit. He had to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

Not quitting is a big deal to me. I'm not sure when it became a thing, but there have been times, not that long ago, some a while back, and some chronic over years, where the only thing to do was keep going and keep working towards a goal. Even if there was very little hope of success. Sometimes it's not about hope. Sometimes it's about putting in the work and not stopping.

Not all the time... sometimes the odds are terrifically stacked against you and it seems like everybody wants you to fail and the task is too hard. Without getting too personal/specific, sometimes it seems all there is is work, a mountain of NO to climb, and a world aligned against you and all that's left is standing on the beach as the tide comes in and screaming into the teeth of the storm but not moving, not backing down and not giving up.

Work right now is a trial. The press isn't working right. I don't know why. I was FINALLY working fine... and then we changed shells and now it's dead. It's fixable. I just have to find that thing, that one thing that isn't right and make it right. It's exhausting. It's tiring. It's frustrating.

But, Eric's speech, this all started with a Survivor guy, remember lol, about not being able to quit because that wasn't the lesson he wanted to teach. That's a real thing and it resonated with me and it wasn't about being able to do it... it wasn't about winning or beating anything or succeeding it is/was about never giving up. You lose all the battles you don't fight, but at least you fought.

Last week at work someone complimented me. They saw me working on the press again. I saw them looking at me shaking their head and I smiled and waved, I'm a friendly S.O.B., and he came over and he said, "You have a lot of try in you buddy. A lotta try."

That's a big compliment to me. I've never heard that expression before. I liked it applied to me. I'm glad someone noticed.

Don't give up. Don't quit.