Get up!! That simple phrase is what moved me to action every day. I would wake up in the morning and try to hit my alarm clock before the first beep. The phrase “Get Up” meant more to me than just pulling myself out of bed.
Those words meant, “Cornell how are you going to get better if you lay in bed”? It was a challenge that I posed to myself. Over the years I used the same phrase numerous times after a workout, or a run that took everything out of me.
I don’t allow myself to lay down right after. It was my way of showing the workout that it couldn’t break me that I knew the pain was temporary, and I was going to recover and be back again tomorrow. That phrase has never left my life and never will.
Today I use the phrase in all aspects of my life. Adversity has knocked me down plenty of times, but it can’t keep me down. I wont allow it. The two words that I use when I’m tired, or sick, or lethargic still apply when life hits me with a haymaker. I absorb the hit, learn from it, and get off the canvas.
Some of us are hit a lot harder than others. Life throws punches in bunches and we feel that no matter how many times we get up we keep getting knocked back down. The problem lies in how you look at it. If you look at how many times you’ve been knocked down it becomes a negative thing in your mind. Instead look at how many times you’ve gotten up.
I’ve mentioned the movie “Rocky” a lot in my blogs because no matter how hard he was hit he always got back up. It doesn’t mean he didn’t lose fights. Getting up might not happen right away. It might take days, months, even years, but sometimes its not when you get up it’s if you get up at all. Cancer patients don’t beat the disease in the first day of chemo. They fight, get knocked down, get back up, get knocked down, and hopefully they get up and then stay up.
Fighters know that when they step into the ring there is a good chance they’re going to get hit, but they take that walk anyways. It’s the same thing with life my friends. You’re going to get hit. Life is going to knock you down. Those are two things you can count on. Just remember no matter what get up and keep fighting.
