How to Know if You’re Close to The Victory

In previous posts, I've used the comparison of giving birth to a child ... to giving birth to a dream. This analogy helps us comprehend how we could possibly know whether we are close to finally achieving a goal or reaching our dream.

Think about the first struggles you faced after setting a big goal. At first the discomfort, as in labor, is just bad enough to get your attention, but certainly tolerable. Near the end, the pains are (for many) as if you're at the door of death itself.

During that final transition, the surges come so quickly and then last so long that it would seem there is no relief in the middle whatsoever.

When they come that way, fast a furious, back to back, it's nature's way of saying that it's almost over. Each pain is associated with progress, though it often cannot be measured, and sometimes appears fruitless.

So if you have a dream, and things are looking really, really bad, and you're getting hit by one challenge after another with scarcely room to catch your breath in the middle, you are poised for the most glorious success you can imagine if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Sometimes the relief only shows up at the moment you have come to the absolute end of all you can do. So, you simply cannot allow yourself to give up any sooner. Sometimes it comes when you've cut off all possibility of retreat.

A person who has not experienced this level of commitment could never possibly feel the exhilaration of the victory that corresponds to it. There are no words to describe it, although you may experience a degree of it vicariously through others who've had books or movies made about them, like Rudy Rutteger or Will Stoneman.

To sum up, I love how this poet makes the point:

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;

And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,
It might be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

(Author Unknown)

So now it's your turn. Be the hero in your family. Don't give up on your dream for freedom, and show it by taking yet another step forward.