P<\/span>erhaps the most commendable thing we can do to honor the gift of life that we have been given is never to stop living it until our very last moment. The world needs more people who are willing to live in fierce pursuit of the life they were created for – even if it involves a pivot late in the game.<\/p>\n We’ve lived long enough to understand that many of the things that ail us are beyond our control. At the point in our lives when we consider there’s likely more behind us than in front of us, we wonder if we have achieved the greatness we dreamed of.<\/p>\n My question to you is, are you still dreaming?<\/p>\n I hope you have a crystal-clear vision of what you want that life to look like, and I hope you’re still going after it as ferociously as you know how. If you truly want to achieve greatness, you cannot ignore the indispensable importance of developing “Gameness,” the never-quit mindset that carries you through the tough moments in life. With this fighting spirit, you can still close the distance between who you are and who you want to be.<\/p>\n Tough moments, I don’t have to tell you, will never stop smacking you in the face. They’ll catch you off guard, kick you when you’re down, and stomp on your plans.<\/p>\n You know what else will never stop coming, though? Opportunities.<\/p>\n Regardless of what we fight to change about ourselves, there’s one thing about life that will never change: We will live each day in the face of adversity that demands something from us.<\/p>\n Even now, are you willing to get in the ring, fight a worthy opponent, and fail in the pursuit of your dreams? Are you willing to get back up afterward and face failure again?<\/p>\n That’s how we reach our true potential at any phase: we never quit in pursuit of it.<\/p>\n In our comfortable and privileged lives, we’ve gotten a little too accustomed to walking the paved roads that make us feel like we’re following some semblance of a plan. We don’t stop too often to question if the pot at the end of the rainbow is the treasure we were seeking.<\/p>\n Taking on the challenges of life with a never-quit mindset will cost you. It will cost you comfort, temporary pleasures, and the ease of taking the path of least resistance. You will have to rock the boat.<\/p>\n It will also pay off in ways that are currently unfathomable to you.<\/p>\n In the pursuit of your potential, maybe it’s worth pushing the limits you perceive. You may surprise yourself with what you’re capable of. That is why “Gameness” is life’s most important attribute.<\/p>\n Here’s a framework to get you started:<\/p>\n Our understanding of ourselves, our relationships, and the world, in general, begins here. We can commit to intentionally improving our perspective as we grow and undergo new experiences that teach us the valuable lessons we need to succeed. Life has a way of doing that if you’re paying attention.<\/p>\n How come we stopped looking to the future with the belief that we can be anything we want to be, or do anything we want to do? Just because we’re grown-ups now doesn’t mean we’re fully ‘grown up’ into who we will ultimately be. Don’t put a cap on your potential – pursue it doggedly.<\/p>\n Have you taken the time to evaluate the progress you’ve made toward fulfilling your purpose and achieving your dreams? I would argue there’s nothing more important if we’re truly committed to leading a productive and satisfying life.<\/p>\n I’ll leave you with this reminder: Every day, you get to decide if you will withdraw, retreat, and dodge life’s difficulties, or if you will confront each obstacle and allow this short time on earth to be as fulfilling as it was created to be.<\/p>\n I think you were built to choose the latter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Learn why “Gameness” is life’s most important attribute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13788,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[170,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-summer-2023","category-spring-summer-2023-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13720"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13927,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13720\/revisions\/13927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Manage Your Perspective<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n
Manage Your Potential<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n
Manage Your Performance<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
David Dennis is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Eckerd Connects<\/a>, a nonprofit providing workforce development, Job Corps, juvenile justice, and child welfare services across the country. He is the author of Gameness: Land On Your Feet, Not On Your Feelings<\/em><\/a>. The framework he presents in this article is the structure for his book.<\/h5>\n