This November, thousands of college wrestlers throughout the country begin a four-month journey that will culminate with the 2005 NCAA Championships in St. Louis. Come March, more than 300 will make the trip to wrestle at the NCAA finals, and only 10 will go home with a gold medal. What does it take to be one of the 10? It starts with a denial of selfish wants, a willingness to endure hardships and a relentless, total commitment to the cause.

This year, the world of baseball gave us a very good example of perseverance. The Boston Red Sox, down three games to none against the New York Yankees, did not quit. They defied the odds and made something happen — something their organization had been incapable of doing for 86 years. They won the World Series. The Red Sox dug in and won eight straight games against probably the two best teams in baseball, the Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals.

When NASCAR drivers head to Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, they know that they will need an extra dose of patience. Going into the 2004 Food City 500, Kurt Busch, looking to win his third consecutive race at Bristol, said, "There's no real reason to get in a hurry at all." Easy to say until you find yourself going 140 mph on the short half-mile track with forty-two other cars. Busch seems to know a little about winning there, holding off Rusty Wallace for his third win in a row and fourth of the last five races at Bristol.

Every Wednesday night at about 6 p.m. I hear these words: "We need to get in the right place before Saturday!" This is the charge given to his team by Coach Randy Walker, head football coach at Northwestern University. He challenges his team, staff and everyone present to get in the right mindset mentally, physically and spiritually before they play on Saturday. He is constantly encouraging his team to get in the right place.

Michael Phelps, exposed in a British tabloid by a photo showing him smoking marijuana, came clean and admitted that the picture was authentic. He said, "I engaged in behavior that was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment. I'm 23 years old and, despite the successes I've had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me."

Officials in the USOC expressed their disappointment because he is a role model for millions of young athletes. But others thought it would not affect his sponsorships or other marketing relationships because it was “only marijuana.” They would simply have him "lay low" for a while to let people forget about it.

What happens when we get asked a question we are not prepared to answer? If you are anything like me, one of two things happen. The first option could be your heart beats rapidly and you blabber incoherently for a few seconds in an effort to form an answer. The other option is to pause, take a deep breath, and calmly say what is on your heart. By the Lord's grace, I experienced the latter recently.

While preparing for an upcoming presentation on Leadership and Career Development to a group of aspiring young athletic professionals, I was blindsided by a question in a conference call with the symposium leader.