Face to Face

Excerpt from my conversation with myself this morning in the mirror - "This week is the last real week of 2008. The last full week to make 2008 the year you hoped it would be on December 15, 2007. It is truly the bottom of the ninth and you are the batter that the game is riding on. This is your fourth and goal with no time outs. The pressure of the inbound play with 2.4 seconds left on the clock and you need a 3 pointer is nothing compared to what is riding on this week. Now you know what it feels like to have to chip in from the rough to win the Masters.
So what are you going to do? Do you have it in you? Is it possible that everything else that took place this year all comes down to this moment? Nothing else matters. Not what did or didn't happen the way you thought it should. The outside forces that changed your trajectory mean nothing now. The tough calls you made that put you in a tough spot are in the past and you have moved on. The naysayers and critics hold nothing over you in this moment, they stand coldly by in the shallow safety of the stands secretly wishing they had the chance that you do right now.
This is the moment that everything else in your past has prepared you for and it comes down to a very simple question: 'Will capture it or just let it slip?'"

Or another way to say it:
"Pain is temporary. Quitting last forever." - Lance Armstrong

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." - Mario Andretti

"It is always too soon to quit." - Norman Vincent Peale