What Does It Mean to "Give It All You Got?"

    "Give it your best shot", "Go for it", "Go big or go home", "Just do it", and "Give it all you got" are just a few of the inspirational encouragements you might here as you enter a challenging situation, athletic endeavor, or in pretty much any locker room speech that is being given to a collection of team members preparing to do battle on their chosen field of play. We have all heard it, more than likely we have probably even said something similar to any of the above subscribed cries, yet have we ever put thought into what it actually means and what "giving it all you got" really entails?
     When we want to encourage someone, a group or even a team, the tendency is to give them a little pep talk and then expect that they are automatically going to go out and "give it all they got" for the sake of accomplishing the very challenge you laid out for them to do. The truth is it isn't that easy for many of us. From childhood many people face defeat, loss, and other devastating life events that beat us down to thinking that, "it doesn't matter what I do, I'm just going to end up losing in the end, that's what always ends up happening. I'm just not lucky, talented, capable, ... ", you get the idea you fill in your adjective. That defeated type of mentality becomes a mindset in many people's minds, maybe it doesn't always surface as a defeated before I try attitude, yet deep inside it becomes easier and more common to say "I'll give it a try" or "I'll do all I can do", or maybe even " well I don't think it will matter but I will give it a shot". Or possibly you might be someone that gives 100% but when it isn't going your way or things just seem to still not be working out the way you imagined you throw in the towel, "No since in wasting more energy and resources on something that isn't going to happen anyway". I get it, life isn't a bowl of cherries and there is split milk and when the going gets tough some of us just want to go home. For me that type of thinking and the option of quitting just aren't available and are not in my vocabulary or my DNA for that matter.
     When we talk about the mentality of "giving it all you got" it has to become something deeper than what we say on the surface in conversation. Especially if on the inside we have doubts or reservations that what we are doing will actually work or that the task can actually be completed successfully regardless of what we do. No this type of mentality or mindset is something that has to become ingrained in you, it has to be something that you don't even think about outcomes you just know that you are going to give it all you got and that's just the way it is.
     If you are reading this and saying to yourself, "yea, so what's this guy trying to say, I know this and that's how I live my life already", congratulations you aren't someone that stands on the side of the pool, you are one that dives in to the deep end head first. I wish everyone was ready to try a back flip off the high dive , but the truth is that in life something or some things happen to many people and they just don't grow the right way from it. Instead of learning from their mistakes and growing from their adversities, those life events become traps of defeat and despair. In some cases it is the memory of someone telling them that they just aren't good enough or that they won't be successful anyway so why try? At the end of  the day what this person hears is "see I told you so" or "I knew it wasn't going to work anyway". Regardless of the source nature or nurture this is a mindset of defeat and it will never allow you to "give it all you got".
     Okay this is where I get to the point of today's thought. I don't live in the world of giving up. I have been knocked down and I got back up. I have coached for over thirty years and during that time period I have won some and I have lost some. I have had undefeated championships and I have had one season that our team did not win a single game of any set in any match we played. But you know what we kept going out, giving our best, working our hardest, and honestly never giving up and at the end of the season we were all the better for it, self included. In my professional and business life, I have faced what would appear to be insurmountable mountains, in some cases I reached the peak and in some situations I tumbled down to the bottom of that mountain, but even in those situations I have gotten back up and started back up that mountain again. I have faced giants, but just as David, I slung my rock right at the forehead of my obstacle and if that didn't work I attacked at the ankles and worked my way up! The bottom line here is I will not give up! You may beat me but you will have to do it. I may not succeed, but it won't be for lack of trying. You may even think I have failed, but I don't believe in the word failure until I quit or give up, then and only then will I label myself a failure. That is where you have got to go, that is who you have to become, and that is who you have to inspire those that you have influence over to become.
      If this is foreign to who you are, if you are reading this and are thinking that this is too impossible for you to do, then stop and start retraining your mindset. Start small, find a task, skill, or goal to set and choose to persevere through to the end. Whether it is related to your job, your family, your own life, or whatever it is you choose do not give up, see it through to the end. At the end you will either have succeeded and accomplished your task, or if for some reason it didn't turn out the way you envisioned it turning out, stop and reflect on the whole process. Flesh out what went wrong or what you could do differently the next time you are in a similar situation. Guess what you have just grown from a setback, and at the end of the day it will not be a setback but instead it will be the knowledge obtained that may equal success for you the next time you encounter similar circumstances. Remember it isn't over until you quit. You aren't defeated as long as you get back up and keep plugging away at what is in front of you.
     I'll end today's Flat Tire Ministries Thought with a story about a legendary United States Marine Corps legend, Lieutenant General Lewis "Chesty" Puller. Puller is the most highly decorated Marine in American History, having fought in World War II and the Korean War plus several other instances of fighting against guerrillas in Central America. During the Korean War Chesty and his platoon found themselves surrounded by North Korean and Chinese forces in what could have been deemed a no win situation. Puller gathered his troops together and provided them with this call to duty. Paraphrased but something to the effect, "Men we have been searching for our enemy all over this jungle. Now the enemy is to our north, to our south, to the east of us, and to the west. We have them right where we want them, they can't get away from us now!" If that doesn't get your blood pumping you may want to get to the ER and have yourself checked out! Don't ever quit, don't ever give up, and always do your best! I'm giving it all I got, how about you?
Coach Carter