As a child
I grew up like most -lazy - not wanting to complete the tasks I had laid upon
myself or the ones that were put upon me. My only plan was to sit around with
my friends and let life push me down its great slide of adventures. There
came a point in my life where I wasn’t living up to my full potential, my
grades were slipping and surprisingly I didn’t care. This was all before I came
into contact with football, the contact sport that drastically changed my life.
In order to be successful you must be willing to put in effort, after that
anything is possible.
Although no one ever wants to
admit they were caught slipping up, I was. This was until I signed myself up
for Cougars football. Earlier around
grade five I had tried football, but with little success, it wasn’t something I
was interested in at the time because it required effort and a better attitude.
Neither of which I was willingly going to hand over to someone who thought they
could boss me around all because their name was “Coach”. In grade seven I began
working out and making a daily routine. It gave me a sense of empowerment that
previously I was unaware of. After a year of working out I began questioning
why I put effort in at the gym I could not use. I didn’t need strength for
anything I was doing at the time and nor was I in need of big muscles. This was
all until football, it gave me a reason to workout more ruthlessly and more
frequently. Not long after I developed into a better player than previously.
Now you may ask if football wasn’t for you before what was it that made it
change? Not one thing is responsible for my new found love of football, but
there was a key contributor - Ray Lewis; this is a man who single handedly came
out of a torn house hold and made millions playing the sport he loves. Ray
Lewis became a push of motivation to become better; he credited his success to
his effort. His effort was a key contributor in why he became who he is today.
A legend among football players.
Soon after finding a new found
interest for football my grades began to rise and my love for football became
not just a love, but a passion. I had adopted Ray Lewis’ thought that effort
would get me places I wanted to be. Not only is this true, but something I
believe every person should wake up in the morning thinking. No longer did I
feel lazy or unmotivated, but persistent and relentless. Now I'm nearing the end
of my football career as I will be graduating this year, but I’m not going back
to the way I was before my passion for sports flourished. Now I have a new push,
a career which will motivate me every day to become better and put effort
into everything I do. That career is a police officer where there is no limit
to how much effort I can put into it. And that effort goes forth to help not
only myself ,but help other people realize that effort is all you need in order
to succeed.
By Thomas Slaney
I can’t
quite explain how Ray Lewis motivated me to do better but here a couple links
in order to help clarify.
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