Full Tilt

“Take every minute, one at a time. Don’t be fooled by a perfect sea at any given moment. Accept and rise to whatever circumstance presents itself. Be in it full tilt, your best self. Summon your courage, your true grit. When the body fades, don’t let negative edges of despair creep in. Allowing flecks of negativity leads to a Pandora’s box syndrome. You can’t stop the doubts once you consent to let them seep into your tired, weakened brain. You must set your will. Set it now. Let nothing penetrate or cripple it.”― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

I’ve been waiting for the new movie Nyad to come out on Netflix.
Watched it last night with friends.
Outstanding, inspirational and ass-kicking.
In 2013, I remember the television coverage of Diana Nyad coming up on shore after five attempts to swim Cuba to Florida.
Exhausted beyond measure, stumbling on shore, pausing to say three things:

“Never, ever give up. You’re never too old to chase your dreams. It looks like a solitary sport, but really a team effort.”― Diana Nyad

Four failures, victory on the fifth.

“I failed and faltered many times, but I can look back without regret because I was never burdened with the paralysis of fear and inaction.”― Diana Nyad

And she did it at 64 years old! – 110 miles. 53 hours. The first person to do this without the use of a shark cage for protection.

Amazing feat and wonderful reminder to keep going, do the work over and over, and not give up or be deterred by failures along the way. True grit, focus and toughness.

“Whatever your Other Shore is, whatever you must do, whatever inspires you, you will find a way to get there.”― Diana Nyad

So here’s to the “other shores” in life and to the resilience, commitment and hard work to keep pushing to get to the other side imperfectly, with failures, detours, delays and always getting up one more time than we fall.

Keep dreaming and pursuing. Never too old.