Perseverance Pays Off

Despite his stellar performance and effort- they lost

This weekend I watched a couple of sports matches that went down to the wire. First, I saw the Australian Open finals between Djocovic and Nadal which ended up going into the fifth set and lasted more than five hours. Along with that the match was the longest Grand Slam title match in history; a true test of the endurance of both athletes under the hot Australian sun for more than five hours. It was also an example of a rare circumstance when a player loses the first set, but wins the match for the title.

Also today I was watching the basketball game between the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls where the game went down to 2 or 3 crucial possessions in the fourth quarter. The two Eastern Conference rivals duked it out in Miami, where in the last 8 seconds Derrick Rose took a runner that would have gave them the lead- but ended up missing and losing them the game. Despite the fact that the bulls were down by 11 at one point in the third quarter, they fought there way back in it and almost closed it out.

Devils Thumb: one of the most impressive,
challenging, and rewarding climbing
accomplishments in history

Both of these matches- athough very entertaining - were really examples of perseverance and how far a person is to willing to sacrifice in order to win or reach a goal. This is an American value that I'm sure you've seen a million times that most assuredly extends beyond sports. This includes when Chris McCandless sacrificed his whole external world in order to reach his most important goal, to live off the wild and become completely self-sufficient.

Or when Jon Krakauer tried to climb Devils Thumb, putting his life at risk in the bitter Alaskan cold, ultimately being the first person to climb its East Ridge in history.

These stories of perseverance show that nothing is quite impossible, and that sometimes what you have to give up more than you could imagine to receive what you expected. Even though Derrick Rose didn't quite put his life on the line, he kept is team right with the best players in the NBA all throughout the game, as his final shot alone chose the outcome of the game. Djokovic on the other hand worked hard and sweated for five hours until finally he was victorious against one of the best tennis players in the world. It just shows how sometimes what you most desire (be it winning, any goal you have, or completing a death-defying feat) requires a large amount of effort and persevering through any obstacles are thrown at you.