Every day is an opportunity to give your best shot and make progress in achieving your goals. Good better best; never let it rest until good is better, and better is best. The gym is an excellent example of the One More Try mentality; real progress starts when it hurts, and we can feel the pain. Whether running on the treadmill, lifting weights or engaging in other fitness activities, the more we can go beyond our perceived pain threshold, the quicker the progress. Boxing legend and former world heavyweight champion Muhammed Alli was a proponent of this philosophy; he once said: “I don’t count my sit-ups; I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count.”

Solitude is from Latin solitudinem (nominative solitudo) and Old French solitude “loneliness” (14c.). It is a state of being alone or remote from society. Most of us got a real glimpse of what it means to be alone for a long period of time during the COVID-19 pandemic lock down. Solitude is different from Loneliness: It involves being alone without feeling lonely, while loneliness is often a state of isolation. As the 2020 pandemic showed, solitude can bring out the best in us through more self-introspection or self-awareness, and it can also make us engage in destructive or negative behaviour that might not be in alignment with our ultimate purpose in life.

American tennis prodigy Venus Williams was offered three million dollars on the eve of her first professional tennis tournament. On the eve of playing her first competitive tournament in three years, a Nike executive spotted an opportunity and offered her a lucrative footwear deal. As per the movie King Richard, the Nike deal was only valid before she played her first game the following day. Venus and her family decided to decline the offer as they believed that once Venus began to play, she would attract more lucrative offers. In the movie, Venus’s father, Richard Williams, said:

We don’t rise to the level of our goals and intentions, we fall to the level of our preparation and training. We play the way we train, sweat hard in training and game day will be a breeze. Anytime I tell most people about my newest challenge, such as running a sub-3 hours marathon or participating in my first Iron Man, most people remind me how hard the task is, and I usually smile. I am generally not worried about the challenge because I am constantly training to motivate myself to achieve the goal. As the saying goes, “Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.”  Whether it is reaching a fitness goal or a business objective, the key is to stay prepared and always be prepared to get the got done.

American former world No. 1 tennis player Billie Jean King is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time. In her illustrious career, she won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women’s doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. One of her most famous sayings is, “Pressure is a Privilege.”

 Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung once said, ‘Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.’ To make the needed change in any area of one’s life, one must first become aware that change is necessary. What got you here to where you are will not get you where you want to be. We all set goals or wishes at the beginning of the year, but most of us will not follow through due to many factors.

Every day is an opportunity to start over again with new vigour, making thousands of tiny choices that can lead to sustainable excellence and greatness. We are all given 24 hours, 1,440 minutes and  86,400 seconds to begin afresh, realign our priorities and live our values to the best of our abilities. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift that is why it is called the present. Today is the tomorrow you looked forward to yesterday, seize the day and make today count. Excellence is ultimately achieved by making every single day a masterpiece by showing up daily and doing your very best. Embrace the gift of starting over daily and taking baby steps toward achieving your goals.

In her speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in support of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, former First Lady Michelle Obama famously said:

Going High is about being strategic. If your aim is to change, you’ve got to consider if your approach is going to allow change to happen. It means you are thinking of a broader point outside of your own anger, hurt or pain. This is passion matured into purpose. One has to mature one’s passion,