If you’re like me, the word stamina brings to mind physical energy and athletic ability. It’s that physical drive that enables a person to push their body’s limits, stave off exhaustion, and just keep going.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t have as much physical strength and stamina as I’d like. Even though I exercise regularly, as I get older, the dream of greater stamina only becomes more elusive.
Renowned speaker and author John Maxwell recently put stamina into a new perspective for me. In one of his brief “Minute with Maxwell” videos, Maxwell explained,
“I think stamina is about 20% physical and about 80% mental. In other words, I think people who keep on keeping on, who stay with it, who have the energy to finish – I think it’s an attitude more than it is just a physical asset.”
Twenty percent physical and eighty percent mental – now that reframes how I think of stamina! Maxwell went on to explain that people who possess stamina are not necessarily physically superior; rather, they are the people who – like Maxwell – have cut the word quit out of their dictionary and out of their lives!
People who have true stamina are those who have an attitude of “I will not quit!” People who have true stamina are those who say, “I will be the best that I can be!” People who have true stamina are those who believe, “If it’s to be it’s up to me!”
How about you, have you cut the word quit out of your dictionary and your life?
