KNOCKDOWN ISSNT KNOCK OUT

KNOCK DOWN ISN’T KNOCKOUT

            Followers of Heavyweight boxing will tell better–A knock down does not equal a knockout. A man may be hit down several times in a bout, but if he keeps getting up, he stands a chance to win. Great winners are not those who never failed but these who rise again whenever they fail.

            When asked his yard stick for success, George Patton said, “I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits the bottom”. Never allow the place you were hit down become your burial ground. Failure shouldn’t be your undertaker. Tony Alfonso taught his protégés, “When you miss a shot, never think of what you did wrong. Take the next shot thinking of what you must do right”. If you repeatedly try again and again, the next attempt will be the game winner.

            Michael Jordan is believed to be the greatest player in basketball history. He once said, “I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying again.” He later confessed,” I have failed over and over again -that is why I succeeded”. If you are a rugby fan you will understand that being knocked down is part of the game. It’s up to one to either stay down or pick up the oval ball and make a winning run.

            Nelson Mandela is arguable the greatest and most celebrated African ever. He told South Africans, “The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail”. How true! Little wonder Paul Harvey, African journalist and author, writes, “Someday, I hope to enjoy enough of what the world calls success so that someone will ask me, “What is the secret of it?” I shall say simply this. “I get up when I fall down”.

            There is hardly a better exercise than rising and falling and rising again. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising up every time we fall”. Always remember that the call is higher than the fall. God never sees one as a failure who has the courage to rise again after every fall. Peter was a ‘faller’. David, Moses etc had their falls at several points. But they all bounced back. Get back up when you get knocked down. The good news is: “You retain the inert ability to rise again no matter how long you have stayed down. It is never too late to rise again. Knockdown isn’t knockout. You may not get it right always, but you just need to keep it rolling at all time.