I wanted to document the top three most essential elements of “Never Giving Up.” I’m documenting this because not everyone is able to fall and get back up and keep trying.

For some people, it takes time to build back up and keep trying; for others, some don’t get back up because of how hard it is, so I want to encourage and challenge the reader to apply these elements to their everyday life for a better shot at their goals.

I’m also documenting this for myself. I often find myself stuck in situations where I feel like giving up, and I know that giving up is not something that will get me to where I want to be but something that will hold me back from who I want to be and what I want to accomplish.

I hope that by reading this, you’ll begin to realize that sometimes it’s not about learning something you don’t already know, but about truly understanding what you do know. Because there’s a difference between knowing something and recognizing what it means for your own life. Sometimes the answers we’re searching for have been right in front of us all along. We just haven’t taken the time to recognize them, understand them, and most importantly, apply them.

Purpose

Why am I doing this?

Purpose: I chose purpose as the first element for two reasons.

The first one being it’s the foundation of “Never Giving Up.”

Purpose gives meaning to the struggles and sacrifices we face.

When someone has a purpose that really matters to them, the difficulties they face become something they are willing to endure rather than something that makes them give up.

The second reason is because if you don’t have a strong purpose, finding the motivation to recover becomes significantly harder; either you won’t be able to get back up and keep going, or it will be extremely hard to.

This is the strongest element.

I say this because purpose creates both discipline and resilience depending on how important that purpose may be to you.

How do I discover my purpose?

Have you ever felt like you’re simply existing rather than living? Waking up every morning, going to work or school, coming home, sleeping, and repeating the same routine without knowing what you’re working towards?

I believe everyone has a purpose, but not everyone has discovered theirs yet.

Finding your purpose isn’t easy. We live in a world with billions of people, countless responsibilities, struggles, and distractions.

Sometimes, we become so focused on surviving that we forget to think about what we actually want out of life.

That’s why I believe discovering your purpose begins with allowing yourself to dream.

And when I say “dream,” I’m not saying you have to become famous, wealthy, or accomplish something extraordinary in the eyes of others.

Your dream could be to become a professional athlete, provide a comfortable life for your family, or simply reach a point where you are genuinely happy with the life you’re living, and I mean GENUINELY.

But here’s something I want you to think about: Why do you want what you want?

Are you pursuing something because it genuinely matters to you, or because you want recognition and approval from others?

There’s a difference between chasing something that brings temporary satisfaction and pursuing something that gives your life genuine meaning.

So ask yourself: What kind of life would make me feel truly fulfilled, even if nobody else was watching?

You might not discover your purpose immediately, and that’s okay. But the moment you begin seriously questioning what you want your life to mean, you’ve already taken your first step toward finding it.

Developing your purpose

Now that you’ve discovered your purpose, what’s next?

Knowing what you want out of life is one thing, but knowing how to achieve it is another. You might have a dream that means everything to you, but you have absolutely no idea where to begin.

That’s where developing your purpose comes in.

You have to start searching, exploring opportunities, and trying new things.

You can’t expect to figure everything out by simply sitting around and thinking about what you want.

Sometimes, the only way to discover the right direction is to experience different paths for yourself.

And here’s something important I want you to understand: Just because something doesn’t work out doesn’t mean you haven’t made progress.

Every time you try something, you give yourself an opportunity to learn from it. Maybe you discover a new skill, recognize a mistake, or realize that a certain path isn’t right for you.

What matters is what you do with that experience.

Take what you’ve learned from what didn’t work and apply it to your next opportunity. Each lesson can help you make better decisions and move closer to achieving what you want.

You don’t need to have your entire future figured out today. You just need to be willing to explore, learn, and keep moving forward.

Because developing your purpose isn’t about knowing the perfect path. It’s about discovering your path through the progress you make along the way.

Applying your purpose

Now that you’ve discovered your purpose and started developing it, it’s time to apply it to your everyday life.

What does that mean?

It means that the way you live your life should reflect on the purpose you’re trying to achieve.

Think about someone who dreams of becoming a professional boxer.

If becoming a professional boxer is truly what they want, then their everyday decisions should reflect on that dream.

They can’t constantly allow parties, distractions, or other things that don’t contribute to their goals to take priority over what they’re trying to accomplish.

The same applies to whatever your purpose may be.

You have to start asking yourself whether the decisions you’re making are bringing you closer to the life you want or pulling you further away from it.

This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy life or have other responsibilities. It means understanding what matters most to you and making sure your choices reflect that.

Your purpose shouldn’t just be something you think about when you’re feeling motivated. It should be something that guides the decisions you make every day.

Because if you truly want to achieve something meaningful, the way you live today should reflect the future you’re working towards.

Discipline

What am I willing to do for it?

Discipline: I strongly believe discipline means becoming comfortable with the difficult things that you need to familiarize yourself with to become the person you want to be for a better tomorrow.

Discipline is driven by purpose, so the more meaningful the purpose, the greater the discipline becomes.

Discipline develops through repeatedly facing difficult but necessary challenges until you become comfortable with being uncomfortable, but this doesn’t just necessarily mean becoming comfortable with uncomfortable things; rather, it means becoming better equipped to handle them.

For example, running six miles every day isn’t easy, especially for someone who isn’t used to it.

However, through consistent practice, your body and mind gradually adapt to the challenge.

Running six miles may never become effortless, but over time, you become mentally and physically better prepared to handle it.

The difficulty doesn’t necessarily disappear; instead, your ability to overcome it grows.

Discovering your discipline

Having a purpose gives you something meaningful to work toward, but having a purpose alone doesn’t guarantee you’ll achieve it.

Discipline is not something you’re simply born with. It’s something you build through the decisions you make and the challenges you’re willing to face.

Think about someone who dreams of becoming a professional boxer. They might genuinely love boxing and want nothing more than to succeed, but what happens when they’re exhausted, uncomfortable, or simply don’t feel like training?

You have to understand that achieving something meaningful will require you to do things you won’t always feel like doing. And if you’re constantly waiting until you feel motivated, you’re allowing your emotions to determine how much progress you make.

Discovering discipline begins with understanding that you won’t always feel ready to do what’s necessary, but you can still choose to do it.

Developing your discipline

Now that you understand what discipline is, how do you actually build it?

The answer begins with facing the things you don’t feel like doing.

Think about something you’ve been avoiding because it feels difficult or uncomfortable.

The first time you force yourself to face it might be the hardest. But when you do it again, you’re more prepared than you were the first time.

It’s not necessarily that the challenge becomes easier. It’s that you become stronger and more capable of facing it.

But here’s something important: building discipline doesn’t mean you’ll never have moments when you fall short.

Imagine you’ve been training consistently for months, but one day you lose motivation and skip a session.

Does that mean you’ve lost all your discipline?

Absolutely not.

What matters is your willingness to return.

I like to think of this as a cap breaker.

You’ve reached a point where your discipline is tested, and by choosing to return instead of giving up, you prove to yourself that one setback doesn’t have to control what happens next.

Discipline grows through repetition, but it also grows through your willingness to get back on track after failure shortly after.

Applying your discipline

Think about the purpose you’ve discovered. Think about the person you want to become and everything you’re working toward.

Now ask yourself: Am I willing to do what’s necessary to achieve it, even on the days when I don’t feel like it?

Applying discipline means holding yourself accountable for the commitments you’ve made to yourself.

Imagine someone who dreams of becoming a professional boxer. They know that training is necessary to achieve their dream, but some days they’re tired, distracted, or simply don’t feel motivated.

Those are the moments when they have to remind themselves why they started.

Instead of allowing temporary feelings to determine their decisions, they make an effort to follow through with what they’ve committed to doing.

If you want to become a better student, you have to make time to study. If you want to build a successful business, you have to put effort into developing it. If you want to improve your life, you have to make choices that support the future you’re trying to create.

This doesn’t mean ignoring your health, responsibilities, or need for rest. It means learning to recognize the difference between genuinely needing a break and allowing temporary discomfort to become an excuse.

And remember, you’re not going to be perfect every day. There will be moments when you fall short of your expectations.

What matters is that you don’t allow one moment of weakness to become a reason to abandon your commitments.

Because applying discipline isn’t about being perfect. It’s about consistently choosing to do what brings you closer to your purpose, even when the easier choice is to do nothing.

Resilience

How will I rise when I fall?

Resilience: Resilience is the last of the three elements but the backbone of the three.

Why?

Because having a meaningful purpose and developing discipline alone doesn’t mean everything will go according to plan.

You can dedicate years of your life to achieving something, make sacrifices, stay consistent, and still experience failure.

But here’s what I want you to understand: Failure doesn’t necessarily mean you’re incapable of achieving your purpose. Sometimes, it means the approach you’re taking isn’t working.

I believe resilience isn’t just having the courage to get back up after failure. It’s having the courage to get back up and learn from what caused you to fall.

Think about it.

Imagine someone who has been working toward a goal for years, but despite all their efforts, they fail.

They have two choices.

They can get back up and continue doing the exact same things, hoping that eventually something will change.

Or they can take a moment to reflect on what went wrong, recognize what they could have done differently, and use what they’ve learned to approach their goal more effectively.

Both individuals have the courage to try again, but only one is making an effort to improve their chances of succeeding.

And listen, I’m not saying that failure won’t hurt. Sometimes, failing at something that means everything to you can make you question your abilities, your decisions, and even the purpose you’ve been working toward.

But what matters is how you respond to those feelings.

Instead of allowing failure to convince you that you’re incapable, ask yourself: What can I learn from this experience, and what can I do differently moving forward?

Maybe you need to improve a skill, change your approach, seek guidance, or recognize something you hadn’t considered before.

Whatever the situation may be, don’t allow your disappointment to prevent you from recognizing an opportunity to grow.

And remember, getting back up doesn’t mean you have to recover immediately. Sometimes, you need time to process what happened before you’re ready to move forward.

Resilience isn’t about pretending failure doesn’t affect you. It’s about refusing to let failure be the only thing that determines what happens next.

Because at the end of the day, you cannot control every outcome in your life, but you can learn to control how you respond to those outcomes.

And that response can make all the difference in the person you become.

Now that you understand the three elements of “The Power of Never Giving Up,” how would you approach your current or future goals?. Would you apply these elements? Or would you agree with them but are unsure if you should apply them to your everyday life?

I’m going to be as honest and truthful as possible. Knowing and applying these elements to your everyday life won’t guarantee success, but let me tell you, they will increase your chances of succeeding.

What separates a person that is willing to make change for a better tomorrow and a person that doesn’t is if they choose to apply the three elements.

You choose which person you want to be.

But I want you to ask yourself something: How meaningful is your purpose to you? Is it meaningful enough that you’re willing to make sacrifices, face challenges, and take action even when you don’t feel like it?

I believe that us humans don’t realize how limitless our lives are.

We settle for less not because we want to but because we feel comfortable where we are at.

Everyone dreams of a comfortable life, not worrying about your next meal or not knowing if you have enough money for next month’s rent.

We have the power to change that.

We also don’t understand how short our lives are and how fast time goes.

Well, how do we live life to the fullest and make the most of it?

I mean, if I really think about it, living life to the fullest and making the most of it would be reaching my goals and dreams. How do I do that?

Well, I know that if my dreams are to become a basketball player, I know that I have to work on my craft everyday until I perfect it.

Will it be easy?

No, I will fail; I will feel like giving up. I will feel like all the work I’m putting in is getting me nowhere.

I will feel like I’m not good enough, and I will feel like being a basketball player is just not for me, and I should try something else.

Living life to the fullest isn’t just necessarily about achieving every goal or dream you have.

It’s about having the courage to pursue them, even when you know failure is possible.

It’s about getting back up after falling, learning from your mistakes, and continuing to work toward what matters to you.

Because even if you don’t achieve everything you hoped for, you can still look back knowing that you gave yourself the opportunity to try rather than spending your life wondering what could have happened.

But what happens when you stop trying? What happens when you slowly begin giving up on the dreams and goals that once meant everything to you?

Well, there is a dark side to this. I want to make this as clear as possible. This documentation that I’m writing is not meant to scare you; instead, it aims to broaden your perspective and help you understand the possibilities that come with these choices.

When someone begins giving up on themselves, I believe there are three stages they may experience: self-doubt, avoidance, and hopelessness.

• Self-doubt – The destruction of purpose
• Avoidance – The erosion of discipline
• Hopelessness — The collapse of resilience

The first stage is self-doubt.

I believe self-doubt is where giving up on yourself can begin. Think about it.

When you have a purpose that means a lot to you, you’re willing to make sacrifices and face challenges to achieve it.

But what happens when you keep trying and things don’t go the way you expected?

You start questioning yourself. Am I good enough? Am I really capable of achieving this? What if I’m putting all this effort into something that I’ll never accomplish?

Now, don’t get me wrong, questioning yourself after failure is normal. We all do it.

But the problem begins when you start believing those doubts instead of learning from what caused you to fail.

You slowly begin losing confidence in yourself, and the purpose that once gave you a reason to keep going starts to feel less meaningful.

It’s not necessarily that you don’t want to achieve your goals anymore; it’s that you start believing you aren’t capable of achieving them.

And that’s what makes self-doubt dangerous.

You can end up giving up on something that once meant everything to you, not because you couldn’t achieve it, but because you stopped believing in yourself.

The second stage is avoidance.

Remember when I said discipline means becoming comfortable with the difficult things you need to familiarize yourself with to become the person you want to be?

Well, avoidance is where you begin doing the opposite.

Instead of facing those difficult but necessary challenges, you start finding reasons not to.

You might tell yourself, “I’ll start tomorrow,” or “I’m just not feeling it today.” And listen, I understand that sometimes we genuinely need a break.

But what happens when taking a break becomes something you do every time things get difficult?

Tomorrow becomes next week, next week becomes next month, and before you know it, you’ve spent so much time avoiding the things you need to do that you’re no longer making progress toward your goals.

The discipline you once worked to develop begins to weaken because you’re no longer practicing it. And the scary part is that avoiding these challenges can start to feel comfortable.

You know what you need to do, and you know why you need to do it, but you continue choosing not to.

Eventually, you may find yourself wanting a better tomorrow while doing very little to make that tomorrow possible.

The third and final stage is hopelessness.

Now, this is where I believe things can become really dark.

Hopelessness is when you start losing the belief that your life can change, even if you try.

But now, you might begin asking yourself something much more concerning: “What’s the point of trying anymore?” You start thinking that no matter how much effort you put in, you’re just going to end up failing again.

And remember what I said about resilience? Resilience isn’t just having the courage to get back up; it’s also learning from what caused you to fall.

But how are you going to learn from failure and try a different approach if you’ve convinced yourself that nothing you do will make a difference? That’s where hopelessness becomes dangerous.

You may stop looking for opportunities to improve because you no longer believe improvement is possible.

The dreams and goals that once gave you something to look forward to begin feeling further away. And eventually, you might start accepting a life you never wanted, not because you’re incapable of creating a different future, but because you’ve lost hope that a different future is possible.

But I want you to understand something: feeling hopeless doesn’t mean your situation is hopeless.

It means you’re struggling to see the possibilities that may still exist.

Take a moment to think and process everything you just read and make a summary in your head before you continue reading. I think this step is important before you start the final part.

Now that you’re familiar with these three stages, what do you think about giving up now? Do you think giving up is worth it? Are you afraid of failure? Have these three stages shifted your mindset and how you think about approaching your everyday life?

My name is Williams Maria. I was born in the capital of the Dominican Republic on March 4, 2007.

Growing up wasn’t easy for me. My family struggled, but I never felt like I was missing anything. From the ages of three to eight, I spent my days living with my grandparents. I attended school Monday through Friday, spent Saturdays with my cousins, and never missed church on Sundays.

I would say my childhood was great. I never felt alone or like my life could’ve been any better. I didn’t have any dreams or goals at the time. I was too young to even think about those things. I was just a kid enjoying life.

At the age of nine, my mom requested that I fly out to the United States to live with her and my stepdad. At first, I was sad because I knew I would no longer see my cousins and grandparents, the people who had raised me my whole life. I was leaving everything I had ever known to live with my mom, someone I had never actually met until then.

When I first met her, it wasn’t as weird as you might think. Everyone had always told me she was my mom, and there were pictures of her holding me all around the house. So even though I had never met her in person, I knew who she was.

It was me and four of my siblings living in the apartment. We got along well, and I’d say we had a fun and great childhood together.

But time passed quickly.

As the years went by, my family started to separate, and our household got smaller and smaller.

My high school experience wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst either. At first, I made a few friends who I would do everything with. We would go out, hang out with girls, and party. I didn’t think much of it because I was young.

But as the years went by, we started smoking and stopped doing the things we were supposed to be doing. We lost good friends along the way, and people started looking at us differently.

By my junior and senior years, I found myself in one of the darkest points of my life.

I wanted to end my life, and I came close to doing so.

I hated almost everything about my life. I had completely let myself go. I looked terrible, my grades were bad, my relationship with my parents was terrible, and I was constantly smoking. Overall, I felt like I had nothing going for myself.

I was blind. I was lost. And I didn’t know what to do with myself anymore.

I would look around and see the people I had grown up with looking at me like I was a stranger. It seemed like everyone around me had their lives figured out while I was falling further and further behind.

I felt left out. I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere.

And that was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to end my life.

Toward the end of senior year, something happened that I never would’ve expected to make a difference in my life.

I accidentally signed up for a field trip to Hudson County Community College.

On the day of the field trip, I remember telling myself, “Yeah, definitely not doing that.”

But my guidance counselor wasn’t having it. He insisted that I go and practically dragged me onto the bus.

So there I was, stuck with a bunch of kids on a school bus, heading to Hudson County Community College in Journal Square, New Jersey.

During the field trip, we toured the college, and at the very end, we were seated in front of computers. My guidance counselor made sure I signed up.

At the time, I didn’t think much of it.

But looking back now, I believe that was one of the moments when my life slowly started to shift.

As we got closer to the end of the school year, I met Aryana, who is now my partner.

At first, I didn’t think anything of it. She was just a girl I would constantly snap on Snapchat.

Over time, I grew apart from my friends, and she became the only person I really talked to. Even then, I didn’t think much of it.

I was still depressed about my situation.

I was sleeping on my mom’s couch, and to this day, I’m still here.

Things had gotten so bad that I would threaten my mom with a bunch of pills, telling her I was going to kill myself.

And I almost did.

One night, I was up late. I had taken an acid tab, and after it wore off, it was around three in the morning.

I started thinking to myself, “What am I doing with my life?”

“This isn’t me.”

I ran to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror.

I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.

I looked like a monster. My eyes were black, and I was so embarrassed by what I saw that I could barely keep looking at myself.

I started crying.

And I mean crying.

I felt weak. I felt ashamed. I felt like I had reached the lowest point of my entire life.

At that moment, the only thing on my mind was Jesus.

I got down on my knees and cried out to Him. I prayed for forgiveness and for a better life. I told Him that I was giving my life to Him and putting everything in His hands.

And right after I said that, something happened that I’ll never forget.

I felt chills.

But not the regular chills you get from a cold breeze. This felt different.

It felt like a hug. A hug of reassurance. Almost as if God Himself was telling me that He was with me and that I wasn’t alone.

I was scared, and I quickly went back under the covers.

But that moment stayed with me.

Ever since that night, I’ve prayed and tried my best to live a righteous life. From that moment on, I knew in my heart that Jesus was real.

I started reading the Bible more and becoming more honest with myself.

As time went on, my relationship with Aryana grew stronger, and we became closer.

But there was something I had been hiding from her.

My situation.

You see, at the time, I wasn’t proud of the life I was living. I was sleeping on my mom’s couch, struggling mentally, and trying to figure out what I was going to do with my future. I felt like I had nothing to offer her.

And the more I started caring about her, the more scared I became of telling her the truth.

I would constantly think to myself, “What if she finds out how I’m really living? What if she looks at me differently? What if she doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore?”

I didn’t want to lose someone who was slowly becoming one of the most important people in my life.

So I kept everything to myself.

But as I got closer to God and started becoming more honest with myself, I realized something. How could I expect someone to love me for who I truly am if I was too afraid to show them who I really am?

Eventually, I built up the courage to tell her everything.

My living situation. My struggles. The things I was embarrassed about. Everything I thought would make her see me differently.

And believe me, I was expecting the worst.

I thought that once she knew the truth, she would slowly distance herself from me. I thought she would realize that I wasn’t the kind of guy she wanted to be with.

But what she told me was something I never expected.

She told me that she didn’t care about my living situation or what I was going through. She loved me for who I was, and we were in this life together.

My heart dropped.

I didn’t know what to think.

Here I was, someone who had spent so much time feeling like I wasn’t good enough, and there was this girl telling me that I didn’t have to have everything figured out for her to love me.

I couldn’t believe it.

I had always thought girls wanted a guy who was already successful, financially stable, and had his life together. I thought the kind of love where someone stays by your side even when you have almost nothing was something you only saw in movies.

But there she was, proving me wrong.

And what made it even more meaningful was that she wasn’t loving some future version of me who had already accomplished everything.

She was loving the person I was right then, even when I was struggling to love myself.

That meant more to me than I could ever explain.

For so long, I was afraid that telling her the truth would make me lose her. But instead, telling her the truth allowed me to see just how much she truly cared about me.

And ever since then, she’s been by my side, supporting me through everything.

I still have a long way to go, and I still have so much I want to accomplish. But knowing that I have someone who believes in me, even during the times when I struggle to believe in myself, is something I’ll never take for granted.

As time went on, I started growing wiser.

I started school, began doing better, and eventually started working. I also got involved in business programs that offered internships and opportunities to grow professionally.

The first program I joined was the All Stars Project of New Jersey.

It was a fun experience, and it pushed me to step outside my comfort zone.

I eventually earned an internship placement at RBC Capital Markets.

But unfortunately, I wasn’t able to follow through with that opportunity.

I got into a fight and was arrested.

Before that fight, I remember thinking terrible things. I was so angry that I told myself not even God would be able to help that kid from what I was going to do to him.

Looking back, I realize how far I had allowed my anger to take me.

Eventually, I stepped back and prayed.

I was later able to get the charges expunged, and I took that entire experience as a lesson.

Once again, I found myself back at a starting point.

But I wasn’t going to let that be the end of my story.

I eventually got involved with Year Up United, a program that’s stricter than the All Stars Project, lasts longer, and requires much more of my time and commitment.

The program offers the opportunity for a paid internship after completion, along with support in finding job opportunities afterward.

I believe everything I’ve experienced in life has happened for a reason because, looking at where I am now, I’m in a much better position than I once was.

Right now, I’m attending school online and preparing for the spring semester, which will be my last semester before graduating with an associate’s degree in science.

My plan is to transfer to Stevens Institute of Technology and pursue finance or business.

I’m also an on-demand team member at Target.

And I’m an amateur boxer.

Boxing has become something really meaningful to me. When life feels like too much, boxing gives me a place to escape from everything going on in my head.

But it’s more than just an escape.

Through boxing, I’ve been able to discover parts of myself that I didn’t even know existed. It’s helped me become mentally stronger and taught me things about myself that I probably wouldn’t have learned otherwise.

Now, I don’t want anyone reading this to think I have everything figured out.

Because I don’t.

I’m currently $1,500 in debt. I’m still sleeping on my mom’s couch. I have responsibilities, struggles, and so many things going through my head that sometimes I don’t even know where to begin.

And believe me, I’ve been through a lot more than what I’ve written here. If I included every experience, this would probably be one of the longest stories ever.

I still struggle with my faith and lust. I still make mistakes. I still have days when life feels overwhelming.

But through everything I’ve experienced, somehow, I still haven’t given up.

And the funny thing is, I don’t even know exactly why.

I just keep going.

I can’t stop.

No matter how difficult things get, there’s something inside me that keeps telling me to move forward.

I continue praying for a better tomorrow, and I strongly believe my future holds something special for me.

I don’t know exactly what that is yet.

But I have faith that I’ll pull through and that the hard times I’m experiencing right now won’t last forever.

I believe I’m here for a reason.

I believe I have a purpose.

I dream of one day working for a well-known corporate company, building a successful career, and mentoring kids who are going through situations similar to what I’m experiencing now.

I dream of being able to look back at everything I’ve been through with the love of my life standing beside me, knowing that all the weight I’ve carried throughout the years is finally off my shoulders.

And I know that day won’t come without effort, sacrifice, patience, and personal growth.

But I believe it’ll come.

Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not next month. Maybe not even next year.

But I believe that if I continue working toward the person I want to become, I’ll eventually reach a place in life that once seemed impossible.

And no matter what happens, I refuse to give up.

Not because I believe life will always be easy.

Not because I think I’ll never fail again.

But because I believe I have a greater purpose in this world, and I’m not finished discovering what that purpose is.

My reason for continuing is the love of my life, my family, my grandparents, and the future I want to build.

Those are the people and the things that give meaning to my struggles and sacrifices.

And that’s why I won’t give up.

Because I’m not just fighting for myself anymore.

I’m fighting for the person I want to become, the people who believe in me, and the future I refuse to stop believing in.

I want to make one thing clear.

I haven’t mastered the three elements of never giving up.

I’m not a perfect human being. I still struggle, make mistakes, and have moments when I feel like giving up.

But I understand these elements, I believe in them, and I try my best to practice them every day.

I’ve lived through them, I’ve used them, and I continue to use them as I grow.

I’m not telling you that you have to live by these three elements just because I believe in them. Instead, I encourage you to give them a try and see how they can make a difference in your own life.

Because I’m still learning myself, and no matter how difficult life gets, I’ll continue to believe in my purpose, practice discipline, and build resilience.

We know the person we want to become, and we have an idea of what it takes to become that person. So we tell ourselves, “If I already know what I need to do, why don’t I just do it?” Right?

So we try.

We try to change everything all at once, expecting ourselves to live up to the standards of someone who has spent years growing, learning, and developing those qualities. And before we know it, we’ve overwhelmed ourselves to the point where we give up.

But here’s what we fail to recognize.

Sometimes, we’re not giving up because we’re incapable of becoming that person.

We’re giving up because we’re expecting ourselves to become that person all at once, without giving ourselves the time to grow into them.