“Nil sine magno labore” which is latin for “nothing without great effort” has become my life’s motto! Everything that I have accomplished in my life has been a result of my perseverance and determination. Recently I asked my first grade class to write their New Year’s Resolution. One of my students wrote, “My New Year’s Resolution is to never give up because giving up only makes you fail and get angry at yourself". Wow! This from a 6 year old! If only we could bottle this attitude and use it for when we need a reminder of how capable we are of accomplishing anything we want!
Now what does "great effort" really mean? Well, it means that it isn’t always easy to reach our goals. It may require sacrificing time, money or comfort. Sometimes when we think about the amount of sacrificing it takes to achieve our goals we instantly get discouraged and come up with all sorts of reasons why we can’t do it! I am guilty of doing this myself. For years I delayed going back to school but I knew it would be a really big sacrifice of my time! AND IT WAS! But I never gave up and after two years of sacrificing my evenings, weekends and sleep! I finally accomplished my goal of earning my Masters degree and I am so glad that I did!
Losing weight was also something that I put off for years. I used every excuse in the book. Not enough time in the day, I hate working out, I’ll start next month! I always knew that losing weight would require me to spend some real time exercising something that I hated doing. But I was determined! So I joined to gym and started working out with my trainer. But after the first few weeks of sacrificing food, time and comfort. I started to get that feeling of discouragement because I wanted to see instant change and it was taking too long. That is when I started remembering my favorite motto “nil sine magno labore” and believing that I will see change if I just keep working at it and I am so glad I did!
I have so many more goals I want to accomplish, as I know we all do! I hope that the attitude of my student can inspire us all to never give up on our goals whatever they may be because perseverance really does pay off!
