The other day I made an off-handed pessimistic remark, and an old friend of mine rebutted with a quote from Rocky: “It’s not how hard you hit, it’s how many times you get hit, and get back up.” Which is basically what Confucius once said, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.“, just restated in a modern boxing epic, with a little more punch. And I do enjoy reading motivational quotes to inspire and reenergize myself, whenever I’m in a rut. One of my favorites is from Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach: “What seperates the winners from the losers is not lack of strength, or lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” And the Founding Fathers also left us plenty of wisdom. For Instance, Ben Franklin said, “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Although this one is not as electrifying as the previous, it still has wisdom and truth.

But, no matter how inspiring these words can be, in the end, they’re still just words. They are not magic words or a spell. When you’re down on your luck, and no one in the world believes in you ,including yourself, what good will these words bring? It’s easy to think that: “Sure persistence pays off for Rocky, but I’m not Rocky. I’m not a fictional hero. I’m not a Founding Father, or a revolutionist. I am not like them.” So then I thought… ROACHES!! ! If you lack the confidence to compare yourself to a real hero, surely you can consider yourself mightier than a roach. Or at least deem yourselves equals?

And roaches are packed with resiliency. Have you ever had the pleasure of trying to deal with a roach infestation? Well, if you haven’t let me tell you, those critters are really tough to get rid of. Here are a few other remarkable facts about them.

“This six-legged critter can live without food for an entire month and hold its breath for forty minutes if necessary. Even if you cut off its head, it would still run round the house for about a week before dying of thirst because its brain is not in its head.It’s scattered throughout its body.”
http://www.essortment.com/all/cockroachanthro_ryoa.htm

One of my favorite movie quotes is from “The Edge” :”What one man can do, another can do!” So in this case it would be “What one roach can do,…”

If you’re wondering where I come up with this stuff, in this case I think I might of inhaled a bit too much fumigation vapors. Also I thought it would be a little bit more memorable using the shock-value of a cockroach. But anyways resiliency isn’t something you’re born with and it doesn’t come from a quote, although they do help. Resiliency comes from failure. Resiliency is like a muscle, and it needs to be maintained and developed. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. No pain, no gain. I’ll end this post with another quote, to complete this ‘quotation fullhouse’, or uh…roach hotel. ” Success is nothing more than going from failure to failure, with undiminished enthusiasm.”- Author Unknown (atleast to me.)