When I’m Done

There’s only one individual, if you will, who knows when you’re done. The truly great competitors know this truth if nothing else. This is why injury is but an obstacle to the Kobe Bryants and Steve Nashes. “When I’m Done” is not a dependent clause to the truly elite. It’s not a construction built in the minds of people who surmount setbacks and defy the imagination. To the point, people like the ones I mentioned say, “I’m not done but I’ll let you know when I am.” Then they never do.

When I played, I learned to trust coach with my threshold for pain and conditioning. “He knows when I’m about to die and he’ll stop just short of it…I hope,” said the 17-year old college freshman. Everybody is injured, uncomfortable, coming off losing seasons at some time or another. And maybe the saddest of these stories is not tragic outcomes or careers cut short  but rather the mentalities that gave rise to such outcomes. Look around you and watch fathers quitting. Watch poverty stricken people decide they’d rather stay poor than fight. Watch the rich assume they have to play the game of participating in upper echelon life devoid of altruism. People are deciding to be DONE. But it’s not ours to choose.

“When I’m done…” is as seemingly arbitrary as a game of musical chairs. You don’t get to choose when to be done for to do so is to forfeit a win. And raise your hand if you’re into doing that? Didn’t think so. When I’m done, people will reflect or they won’t. They’ll praise you or deride you but no matter what happens after you’re done with whatever you’re doing, now’s the time to decide how you’ll DO, not WHEN YOU’LL STOP. What you’re doing isn’t worth your time if it isn’t waging war. Parenting, coaching, teaching students, creating a service in the community are on the list of war agents to combat the ill fated paths of least resistance (i.e. pleasure seeking, quitting a pursuit of professional sports prematurely, giving up on passing the Bar, etc…). Forget about when I’m done and decide today that you won’t be until HE pries your hands from the great thing you’ve been put here to do.