Knocked down, but not knocked out

Knocked down, but not knocked out

In season 2005 / 2006, I was a member of the first football team of Sportclub Markelo.

After a long season of football, the apotheosis of the competition was a decider match between us and VOGIDO Enschede. After 120 minutes of football VOGIDO proved the stronger and won 2-3.

It was devastating. Players were laying on the grass while we watched the other team celebrate their championship.

A whole season of hard work and no result.

The walk back to the locker rooms was the longest ever.

However, during that long walk I realized that although we had lost the championship, we could still promote via the promotion / relegation games, for which the runner-up automatically had qualified.

When I walked into the locker room it felt like a morgue. Particularly, the younger players were extremely disappointed.

I remembered my previous realization, and told them:

“We are knocked down, but not knocked out. We can still win the promotion / relegation games”.

The only thing we needed to do was to beat three opponents in five games within three weeks. Although this seemed impossible at first, our players went from being skeptical to becoming believers

Centimeter by centimeter, goal by goal, game by game we gave everything we could. We played with our hearts.

Three weeks later; we actually did it. We had beaten all three teams.

It was fantastic!

And it taught me a valuable lesson.

Even though something seems too big, keep working. Don’t give up.

You’re only knocked out, when you don’t get up.

It can smell, but it can’t stink

Whenever you tell a little white lie, you might think it doesn’t hurt anyone.

But it just might.

Therefore, don’t tell anything to anyone that you would be embarrassed about when it gets out into the open.

It can smell, but it can’t stink.

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It was so dark that I saw lights everywhere

Loesje is a Dutch poster issuing organization wants to make the world a better and more beautiful place. The organization has been active since 1983 and has released thousands of posters.

One of my favorite ones was released on December 1, 1994:

“Het was zo donker dat ik overal lichtpuntjes zag.”

In English:

"It was so dark that I saw lights everywhere."

The quote has stayed with me for almost 30 years and has been a guide for many challenging situation.

Especially when times are extremely dark, the small positives shine so incredibly bright.

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I wish you a wonderful weekend.

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Yours Sincerely,

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Bas