NEVER GIVE UP

The miner was burnt out.

He had been stumbling about in the darkness with only his torchlight…

Fighting for his place in the world.

He had never been successful at anything, which is why he found himself mining. He retreated to the darkness looking for something shiny, something precious that would elevate him to the top of society. If he found gold, gems, rubies or emeralds…

Perhaps he might finally hold his head up high.

He had tried everything else to gain such confidence through success. He chased recognition on the city streets as a market stall seller, a barber, a Wall Street trader – he was even an amateur boxer at one point trying to make it as a pro. He had no such luck.

In truth, he was a man who gave up too easily. When he had a new idea or vocation, he was full of motivation but as soon as he met an adversity he was struggling to overcome…

He was done.

He had never won his success because he just didn’t see anything through. He knew it, which was why he was so committed to mining as deep as the earth would allow him, looking for the stones that would launch him to the top. He wouldn’t stop until he was holding his weight in gold, but could he hold this pace with his body burning out?

That was something he was going to have to figure out along the way, because he would not stray from the path this time. He would mine and mine until he struck success. He would swing his pickaxe with bloody and blistered hands for as many consecutive days as it took, to look upon a precious stone or metal. That was his mental state and it would be the positive fuel for his body until he hit!

After a full year of swinging his pickaxe to find nothing, he felt that familiar feeling. Giving up and starting something new, was what he wanted to do. He knew this time had to be different, but he couldn’t help how he was feeling with each swing. His body was giving up and only his MIND could convince it otherwise, yet when he looked for positive thoughts they were no longer getting through.

He half-heartedly threw his pickaxe into the rock and called it a day. Maybe he would come back tomorrow…

Or maybe that was the last throw of the dice?

His pickaxe stayed pierced in the rock as he walked away with his head hanging low, coughing and spluttering the dust of defeat. It really didn’t look like the miner would be back tomorrow at this point unless he could find the strength from somewhere: was there some secret power within he was yet to channel?

That evening, the miner sat at the dinner table, baffled by his lack of success. He really had delivered his blood, sweat and tears into everything he had tried. He might have given up when the going got tough a few times too many, but he really was doing his best, wasn’t he?

Maybe I’m not, he thought. 

He had given up at critical points in his endeavours so far. He could have made it as a successful seller, barber, trader, even boxer if he had just kept on swinging. By now he was sure that something would have hit if he had carried on…

Or maybe he wasn’t strong enough?

Maybe he wasn’t one of the tough people in this world that endure until they make it, no matter what. He had not persevered for long enough to know if he fell into that elite category. Only a small percentage of the population can keep on swinging. Only a handful of people in the grand scheme of things have proven their metal, have proven that their mental state can burn through the body’s cries to stop. Only those at the top know the secret to what that feels like, right?

The miner called it a night but as the hours drew closer to morning, he was no closer to sleeping than when he first went to bed. He couldn’t get his head around his questions and his inability to strike success. Every shot with his pickaxe had fallen short, which felt like a metaphor for his entire life. What did those who made it to the top…

Have that he did not?

What secret kept them swinging?

The next day, he woke after just a few hours of sleep as close to giving up as he could be. He wearily dragged himself out of bed and into the shower, where he allowed the warm water to soothe his head as he lent against the wall. In the space of that defining moment, he decided he would go back to his tool one last time. His MIND had convinced his body to give it one last swing!

An hour later, the miner was walking towards his pickaxe, which was still half-heartedly pierced in the rock wall. He grasped his tool with both hands and for the first time in his life, he swung with all his might through the barrier of adversity that he had never been able to break before. As he did, the rock crumbled to the floor rather easily…

To reveal a shiny wall…

Full of precious stone!

Diamonds shone back at him in his torchlight, illuminating his face to a sight that anyone would love to see. There stood a man who had overcome adversity to break through, a man who was no different to you or me.

A few months later, after making his mark upon the world with his find, the miner found some time to contemplate on the answers that he finally had. What did those who made it to the top…

Have that he did not?

What secret kept them swinging?

The answer was…

NOTHING!

In a world where we are constantly told on the likes of social media that there is a secret something, a secret sauce to succeeding, the miner had learned that it is all just a show. Now he knew that there is absolutely nothing that anyone else has that he did not, there is absolutely nothing that keeps any man swinging for his success…

Other than his choice to continue doing so.

No man is more special than another. Nothing separates one man’s swing from another’s. He had uncovered the truth. He was living proof that any man, in any moment can strike gold (or diamond) as long as he keeps on swinging. There is nothing more to it than that!

In fact, the miner was almost upset that it was that simple; it hurt his ego. He wanted to know that there was a secret to success, he wanted to attach to some sort of special formula or identity but now he knew, that all a man has to do, is continue swinging until he strikes.

That might not get the likes on social media. The bloody and blistered hands of a man who keeps on swinging until he hits, might not be a social hit and be fame worthy, but what is not glamorous is necessary for success: nothing less will do.

He was proof that winning, succeeding, is guaranteed for the man who keeps on swinging. The final swing can change a man’s life forever…

So like the miner…

NEVER GIVE UP!

Raiden