Never Regret Trying Your Best
If you didn’t already know, I was born and raised in Wisconsin, and in our state the Green Bay Packers are religion.
On football Sundays every city around turns into a ghost town while we all tune in to cheer on the Green and Gold.
Growing up, my first memories of watching the Packers were of Quarterback, Brett Favre — the gunslinger from Mississippi who played the game with an unmatched renegade and sometime reckless style.
No matter if we won or lost Brett Favre would always leave you wondering “how the hell did he just do that?” and at the same time “why the hell did he just do that?”
Favre is not only one of the best players to ever play the game, but he was one of the most exciting and enjoyable to watch.
On Saturday, August 6th 2016 Brett Favre was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio and secured his in sports history.
While accepting his induction, Favre gave one of the best speeches I’ve ever had the honor of listening to.
His speech was a lot like his career — unscripted, passionate, and you never knew when it was going to end.
It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me reflect on a lot of important things in my own life.
However, two stories Brett told resonated with me more than any of the others and I want to share those with you, and hopefully inspire some reflection of your own life.
For about the first fifteen minutes of his speech, before even mentioning a word about his time
in the NFL, the championships, the records, Favre talked exclusively about his family.
And this brings me to the first important lesson in Favre’s speech: family is everything.
I needed no reminder of this, but I think far too often some people do.
When perusing greatness, scratching and clawing to get to get the top, and chasing enormous goals, people sometimes forget what’s most important in life and that’s the people we love and share the journey with.
Because the worst possible endgame I could imagine is achieving all your hopes and dreams and finding yourself standing on the top of the mountain all by yourself.
When I first started my own career, I found myself with the opportunity of a lifetime, making more money than I knew what to do with, and the world at my fingertips.
I would constantly be told how lucky I was, life couldn’t get any better, that I was living in paradise.
And you know what, I was miserable, depressed, and hated every second of the day.
I was in a place I didn’t want to be, alone, and without purpose.
I tried everything in my power to climb out of this darkness, but nothing worked.
It wasn’t until I got back to my family, to a city I loved, with people who meant the world to me that I was able to begin to heal my wounds and find my purpose in life.
There’s much more to that story and maybe one day I’ll tell it.
But I believe without family, without the people you love and who love you, your endeavors in life will be empty.
When life hits you’re the hardest you WILL fall without a team by your side.
So on your journey, whatever it is you hope to achieve, do it together with those you love, never take them for granted, and make every second count.
The other lesson I want to share from Favre came from something he said towards the end of speech.
“Don’t ever regret trying your best”.
When I watched the teary eyed Favre repeat this line a few times, these words cemented themselves in my soul.
Because there’s going to be times in life when you do everything in your power to succeed, yet you will fail.
There will be moments where murphy’s law keeps beating you down no matter how hard you try.
And there will be moments when you feel like giving up.
These moments will be the hardest of your life and make you feel worse than anything else you’ve ever experienced.
Times like these will either make you or destroy you, and a big part your ability to persevere comes from knowing you tried your best.
There’s an unbeatable feeling of power knowing you put your entire soul into something that matters to you.
When you half-ass your mission, fail to put in 100%, that’s not the will of a Champion.
Champions pour their heart into every single second of every single day no matter how big or small the endeavor.
And knowing you did… builds a mindset of “I will not be denied”.
You may have setbacks and fall down, but you will always get back up and eventually you will succeed.
In the end your effort is the only thing in life you can 100% control.
So once again, in Brett Favre’s eternal words, never regret doing your best.
