It’s ain’t over til it’s over… til the fat lady sings… til the clock reads :00. As a Michigan State University alum and fan I have been taught this lesson over and over again. I’ve seen certain victory turn into heartbreak loss. In recent years, I’ve seen improbable situations turn into thrilling last-second victories. I’ve seen it all. The one lesson I’ve learned is that no matter what is happening, it is never over. Never!
Yes, this post is self-serving, but I write this to help you understand what I have learned. I also want you to know that this is not really a sports-related lesson – it is a life-lesson of the highest order. So, I will be the 1,000th person in your life to teach you this lesson and hope that you can apply it to your life.
Example #1: With 10 seconds to go, the University of Michigan was beating MSU 23-21. U of M decided to punt the ball on 4th down. The punter mishandled the snap, panicked and shoveled the ball into the hands of a rushing MSU defender who sped 38 yards to the endzone. Bizarre, crazy, unlikely… yes.
Example #2: Having not been able to score a touchdown all night, MSU found itself down 13-9 to undefeated Iowa in the Big 10 Championship Game. MSU got the ball with 9:30 to go. They preceded to drive the ball the length of the field on 22 plays, taking up 9 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3BqPwidXbM
Lesson #1 – Stay Humble: While at the Big 10 Championship game, an Iowa fan actually picked up his things and headed for the exit with 9 minutes remaining. I politely asked, “Where are you going? The games getting interesting.” His response, “This game’s over.” No matter how well things are going, never let your head get too big to fit through the door. Stay humble, don’t celebrate too early, don’t underestimate the situation and don’t rest on your laurels.
My college roommate and I took an elective class entitled, “Art History.” We both studied for the mid-term and got A’s. As the final approached, he said it was easy and decided not to study. I stayed up most of the night reviewing notes, slides and the book. Sure enough, I got an A and he got an F. I earned an A for the course and he earned a C.
Lesson #2 – Never Lose Hope: I talked to several MSU fans who turned off the television before the Michigan game ended. They learned hours later that MSU won in dramatic fashion. They missed the excitement and the drama. Football games are 60 minutes long, not 59:50 seconds long. If there is time left on the clock, there is still a chance.
My favorite picture from college was a picture of this frog who was about to be swallowed whole by a bird. Somehow the frog wrapped it’s web-shaped hands around the throat of the bird. If you keep your composure, keep working, keep believing, keep breathing, you still have a fighting chance. Life will teach you this lesson over and over again. I believe that it’s the ones who learn this lesson that end up on the winning side… most of the time.
Your Turn:
- Can you give an example of how you learned these lessons in your life and/or how you applied these lessons to your life?
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You should always keep going and never give up. If your down 5 points in the 4th quarter with 30 seconds to go you should not give up on getting those 5 points. This teaches you to keep going though think and thin and never give up in life. life gets hard sometimes but you got to stick up and go for it. Good Luck!!!
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Yes!
In running over the years I’ve seen amazing this happen when people don’t give up. A runner was in second place by a good 400 meters, and the first place runner became complacent. The first place runner didn’t kick and the end; whereas, the second place runner did. The first place runner ended up getting second at the line. It all came down to who didn’t give up or become complacent.
Author
Running is the classic example. It doesn’t matter who is winning at the halfway point… the 3/4 point or 1 yard from the finish line… It only matters who broke the tape. Great example.
IN this example, i am a diabetic and when i give up, i get sick. so i keep trying and ill take care of my self to the bitter end
push forward never fall back and just keep going
Never quit!
An example of this for me was when I was going to run for president last year. I found out someone with more friends than me was running and I got scared. So I didn’t and now I’m in the same situation this year. Lol
No matter how hard something maybe you should never give up. Something could change at any given moment. If you give up you are throwing away your chance at success.
I didn’t study for a test and got a bad grade. I procrastinate and dint think I was gonna do too bad, I got an F. Sad day. You can use this in real life such as for a job when you get one.
I was playing a basketball game and we were down 35-36. There was 4 seconds left and we had the ball under our basket. We got it in and one of our players ran baseline and made a basket right as the buzzer rang. We won 37-36 and we didn’t give up until the very last millisecond of the game. We had played the same team before and lost to them but now we came back and beat them. Hardwork pays off.
There has been times when I wanted to quit something and just give up, but then I realized what good would it do to quit. Once you start quitting your gonna quit everything that becomes challenging to you. Never give up keep pushing forward.
Very true. You should never give up until the end. Last year l stopped doing my homework a few weeks before the summer. My parents finally got me to do some of it but if they hadn’t, I would have ended up with a worse grade than I did. My lowest was a c.
One year I was playing Summer baseball and we were winning, 11 to 1. All we had to do was get 3 more outs and the game would be over by us 10 running them. We ended up losing 12 to 11 because we took them for granted and thought we could easily get the 3 outs but they hit the ball and ended up winning and going into the championship. If we mentally stayed in the game the entire time, we could have won the championship.
I learned these lessons when I was horseback riding a few years back, I got in a bad accident and thought I wouldn’t be able to recover from it and do the things i used to be able to do, and when I was about to give up on the things I loved doing I discovered that there was a way I would be able to. If I had given up I would have never been able to accomplish the things I have accomplished since then.
I think that when you give up on something when things get thought, you can miss out on a lot of opportunities. Always keep trying until the end no matter how bad it might look
At one of my soccer games I was picked to shoot a penalty. I wouldnt think I would miss it because my shots we’re pretty accurate and I practiced them for a while. When it was my turn I looked for a position to hit it at but I didn’t focus on how I was going to hit it so I just went for it. It ended up hitting too under the ball and going over the goalie net, making me realize not to get too confident and takemy time.
During the football season we had a game where we were around 14-0 . During halftime we talked about what was going on . We went back out and turned the game around and won.
A time that I learned these lessons was when I was at a soccer game and I gave up because there was only a couple minutes left. I should of known not to give up because we could of scored at least once more. I will apply this to my life when I need to study or motivation to persevere.
When i played basketball I never gave up but some of the players did and then you don’t win without your teammates so never give up when you play any sport and never give up when you watch a game
It doesn’t matter who is winning during the half of the race , because the person who is losing most liking will catch up and win.
When watching this game live, I was routing for Michigan. I still have feelings and a sour mouth about their flop. However, this is a good example of never giving up til it’s over.
I think that it is very important not to give up even when the odds seem against you. You never know what will happen in the end.