The words “Give” and “Up” should never be together in your mind. Rather the word NO shouldn’t even be in your dictionary. Without diving into the details simply being part of the human race puts you in a very special group. You are one of the most resilient and strongest species to have ever walked on the earth. Your species has survived thousands of years and you have dominated every single specie on earth by getting right to the very top of the food chain. Just by being a Human, you are practically legendary.

That said when you zoom in to human individuals — life is difficult and when you face setbacks after setbacks, problem after problem, it can get very hard to stay optimistic and keep this same perspective of resilience that is found at the macro level. It gets very difficult to remind yourself that you are strong and that you can get through whatever problem you are facing. When life is tough, giving up always seems like the easiest option.

The actual reality is, when you feel like giving up, there is a LOT of untapped inner strength inside of you that you probably haven’t even realized. That is why when you are in a “dark place” it can help to remind yourself of your strengths and your potential so that you can overcome the negativity that creeps into your mind.

These 15 Mantras I will share with you below in this article are simple reminders that will inspire and motivate you in your “dark times” when you just want to stop and give up on whatever you are dealing with. I have used these mantras with great success and I am confident they will help you recharge and will inspire you to keep going!

15 Powerful Reasons Why You Should Never Give Up:

1. You Are Alive And You Can

There is only one certainty in life and that is death. As long as you are alive you have no excuse to say you can’t. If you put your mind to it, you can do anything — anything is possible. This might seem like cliché advice for the first mantra but I find this to be extremely important because it reminds you of the ticking clock that is your life. Every second you are hesitating or overthinking or are frozen with anxiety is a second closer to the inevitable yet only certain thing in life, your death.

Some might say this is a morbid way to think, but frankly, I disagree because death is the biggest motivator. Understanding that my time is limited always centers me and helps me to balance my priorities. Most problems and difficulties in life when compared with the ever-looming shadow of death always seem minuscule and is a good reminder to keep going. I’m alive so I CAN continue and I will continue.

So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable. – Christopher Reeve

The only valid excuse to give up is that you are dead and if you’re reading this well…

2. You Believe In Your Dreams

Would you give up on your family, your spouse or your children? Then why would you give up on yourself? You and your dreams are worth more than that. Don’t sell yourself short and don’t let anybody bring you down. If you can dream it you can do it and your dreams and goals are WORTH PURSUING. There have been millions of dreamers before you and if they had given up the world would not have been the same.

Take the example of the Wright brothers who faced severe ridicule when they tried to make “flight” a reality. Everybody laughed at them and told them it was impossible. They proved the world wrong, and now flight and airplanes are now considered a common means of travel. If they gave up on their dreams we would still be taking “ships” across the ocean and to travel from New York to London would have taken you 3 days and 12 hours!

Be like the Wright Brothers — Never give up on your dreams!

Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. -Langston Hughes

3. You Have Everything You Need

Everything you need to reach your goal is already inside of you. You and the person in your life you may look up to or the person who is your role model are genetically 99.99% the same! This might come as a surprise to you but the reality is people who are successful are not very much different than you. So stop making excuses for yourself!

Be thankful for your God-given capabilities and strive for success. You have all the tools inside of you to persevere and keep going. Do you think great minds like Prophet Muhammad (saw), Aristotle, Martin Luther King Jr. or Steve Jobs never dealt with anxiety or difficulties? They absolutely did and their legacies were built only after they persevered, pushed through and they never gave up!

4. You Don’t Want To Regret This

Regret is the worst feeling a person can feel. Don’t put yourself in that position and do what you have to do, now. Tony Robbins created a “Rocking Chair Test” which he uses with his clients and utilizes the powerful feeling of regret to motivate and inspire people to push through their anxieties. It goes like this:

Take a moment and imagine yourself at 85 years old. You’re in your rocking chair, reflecting on how you’ve lived. Imagine your life if you did whatever it is that makes you anxious or fearful; maybe it’s changing careers, learning to fly a helicopter or taking a trip somewhere new. How do you feel? What’s your life been like as a result of the decision? – Tony Robbins

Reflect on this scenario and put yourself in a position where you don’t regret giving up and are happy that you persevered and pushed through your difficulties.

5. You Need To Prove It To Yourself

You want to prove it to yourself and the world that you can.

I want you to always have an “underdog mentality” when it comes to life. As DJ Khaled very famously says on Snapchat “THEY DON”T WANT YOU TO WIN” and this is absolutely true. The “they” in this scenario are all the successful people in the world who want to hold you back and do NOT want to give you any piece of their pie. You must fight and claw and never give up. Imagine Steve Jobs didn’t fight and let the “they” of his time win. We wouldn’t have smartphones and apps and everything else that we today take as granted.

Don’t let anything stop you from your goal. True failure isn’t when you miss the mark, but it’s when you give up. You are capable and quitting is only for weak minds.

6. Success Feels Great

There is no better feeling in this world other than knowing that you faced an obstacle and that only through grit and determination you overcame it and became successful.

When you are down and feel like giving up I want you to imagine and visualize the sweet taste of victory. This is different for everyone, maybe this is you crossing the finish line, getting your research published or as ambitious as lifting up an NBA Finals MVP trophy. Point is success feels great and the taste of victory is very sweet.

Let your desire, your craving, your thirst for this sweet taste motivate and inspire you to keep going, to never give up and to keep striving towards your goal.

7. It Could Change For The Better

It might be really tough now, but it can all instantly change. If you keep going at it you never know when you will hit a breakthrough. Don’t be like the person who dug a well for 50 meters and then gave up justifying to himself that he was digging a dry well and the person who came right after him dug for only 1 meter and he hit the water.

8. This Is Meant To Happen

Before every success, there is a vision, a dream. Only those people, those dreamers who are brave enough to know who they are and what they truly want are able to become successful. You can’t give up right now because your success is destined to happen, you must believe this mantra like it is a reality today.

You were destined to do this. Nothing can stop you but yourself. So keep going at it and never give up. #BecomeLegendary

9. You Are Strong

You have the strength to do whatever you want and no matter the number of setbacks you face you have the strength to keep going. The only way you can win is if you are first winning in your mind. If you tell yourself and believe that you absolutely cannot run a 50 Kilometer Marathon, I can guarantee you that you will NOT ever be able to run the 50km. Strength comes from within, not from big muscles or from working out in the gym. Only you have the power to stop yourself.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. ―Thomas Jefferson

10. It Could Be Worse

The situation could be a lot worse and you should be thankful for being able to face what you are facing because there are people out there who have much bigger problems.

The reality is, your problems, no matter how severe they might seem to you, historically speaking are quite insignificant and mundane compared to problems faced by billions and billions of humans who lived before you. For example, maybe you are working on new business and are burning through thousands of dollars cash every month with no sales and just want to give up. Maybe you are extremely stressed out and feel anxious every night. Sure this is stressful, and I don’t mean to put less emphasis on your problems but compare your problems to another human (who is once again 99.9% just like you) living in poverty, in worn-torn Syria with his wife and 3 children, under constant fear that a drone missile can hit anytime and destroy and kill him and his entire family.

This perspective is important because it helps to grow gratitude in one’s heart and heart that is full of gratitude will never have enough space for fear or anxiety.

11. You Deserve Happiness And Success

Everyone deserves happiness and success, including you. Don’t let these small bumps in the road take away your right.

Think about your journey to success like a long road trip. There is first a beginning that begins at home in your comfort zone. You then make a plan to travel to a destination and map out your entire route; you make a goal. After this, you start your journey and begin your drive. You travel in the rain, sleet, strong winds, and storms. Sometimes it’s dark and cold and sometimes it is hot with a blazing sun. But you keep your eye on the goal and focus on the destination because that is what brings you happiness.

You would NEVER just give up and stop halfway on the journey, would you? Don’t you deserve better than to just be left in the middle of the road trip like a stowaway? Yes, you do. You deserve to reach your destination, you deserve to be happy, you deserve to be successful and you deserve to never give up on yourself.

12. You Must Inspire Others

Who is your biggest role model? Now imagine their life. Doesn’t it seem like they have everything put together and that their life is all in order… Well, this is completely false. The grass really does look greener on the other side and the person you call your role model might be under a very huge amount of stress and anxiety. For example, when NBA All-Star Demar DeRozan opened up about his battle with depression and anxiety, people were shocked! Like how could this 6’7″, 220 Lbs Tower of person, competing at the highest level in the world feel any pain? All of us are human and all of us have our own demons and battles, Demar isn’t any different than me and you.

So when you feel like giving up I want you to remember that someone out there is looking up to you. So sure you might feel weak, you might feel overwhelmed, but when lfie is tough you must keep going because you are teaching those looking up to you how to properly react when they are tested with difficulties in their life. Become an inspiration for others. Refuse to give up and try your hardest; you never know who is watching. Your hard work and dedication could be the spark that was needed to light the dreams of those around you. You never know who is watching.

13. Failure Is Normal

It’s impossible to reach success without first facing failure, so don’t let anything stop you. Failure is a normal process in life. It’s not the end but just a stream changing directions before it finally reaches the ocean.

There is not one successful person alive today who has not tasted failure in their life — think about failure as a necessary ingredient to becoming successful. For example, salt is an essential part of most baked desserts. If you look at it separately you might be like wait WHAT?! why would you put salt in a sweet cake. But if you look at it overall, a small amount of salt will bring out and enhance the other flavors of the cake. So sprinkle some problems and failure into your “Success Cake”, trust me, in the end, it will make it that much sweeter! 🙂

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. -Michael Jordan

14. Things Can Only Get Better

By sticking to your goal and being persistent things can only get better. If you’ve hit rock bottom or feel you’re on your way down. Remind yourself that with the right amount of hard work what comes down must go up.

Being in a really dark place in life can actually be a quite positive space to be in. When you are the top of the world and everything is going perfect you will always have fear of losing your success. But when you are in darkness and have hit rock bottom, you should have satisfaction knowing that things can only get better, and with the right mindset, they will! Hard work and determination can get you anywhere in life.

15. It’s Always The Darkest Before Dawn

Understand that the hardest trials are the ones that come right before the breakthrough. So stay persistent because at any given moment you are at the tipping point and success awaits you.

Commitment leads to action. Action brings your dream closer. – Marcia Wieder

Best of Luck!