I have been an admirer of Vince Lombardi since I read the book, Instant Replay, by Jerry Kramer. Jerry Kramer played Offensive Guard for the Green Bay Packers in their late 1960’s Championship Years. He had a front row seat to the transformation that Vince Lombardi brought to the Packers when he became head coach in 1959.
Lombardi coached the Packer Teams to five championships, two of which were the first two (1967-68) Super Bowls. It was because of his coaching expertise that the current Super Bowl Trophy (Lombardi Trophy) is named for him.
I was watching the program A Football Life airing on the NFL Network. Jerry Kramer was telling the story of how Coach Lombardi would say to the team, “We will relentlessly pursue perfection knowing full well we’ll never catch it, because nothing is perfect. But in the process we will find excellence.”
What was he communicating? You may not always achieve what you aim for, but if you aim high enough you’ll exceed your expectations.
Robert Browning in his poem, Andrea del Sarto, communicated the same idea when he penned, “Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?”
What we relentlessly pursue we may not completely attain. But what we relentlessly pursue will often determine the things we do achieve.
You are pursuing something. There is an ideal you are looking toward. There is an achievement that you have in your sights. Look beyond what you are pursuing. Reach a bit further than what you believe you can grasp.
You are not what you once were. You have yet to attain what you need to be. It is time to pursue what you desire to be.
Never give up on what you can be in light of who you are currently. Hope is the ignitor of dreams. Pursuit is the fuel that feeds your dream. Relentless is the type of perseverance needed in the pursuit.