What dream have you given up on because the road became too difficult or the possibility of success seemed too remote?
All of us have dreams.
Things we would like to accomplish.
Goals we hope to achieve.
Visions that excite us and energize us as we pursue them.
Inevitably, life throws a monkey wrench into our plans.
Every year, 32 NFL teams begin the season with one goal in mind:
Winning the Super Bowl.
Along the way things happen.
Star players get hurt.
Coaches get fired.
The ball bounces the wrong way.
Officials make questionable calls.
Promising seasons suddenly unravel.
And at the end of the year, only one team is left standing.
It isn’t always the most talented team that wins.
Often, it is the team that navigates adversity the best.
The team that refuses to give up when things become difficult.
As a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan, I vividly remember watching the Bills lose four consecutive Super Bowls.
They were one of the most talented teams in football.
In the first Super Bowl, a last-second field goal sailed wide right and a championship slipped away.
Most people remember the losses.
What they forget is the resilience.
The Bills came back.
Again.
And again.
And again.
To this day, no other team has appeared in four consecutive Super Bowls.
Only two teams in NFL history have even returned to the Super Bowl after losing it the previous year.
What often gets overlooked is the incredible resilience required to keep showing up after that level of disappointment.
And the story didn’t end there.
Bills fans endured the Music City Miracle.
They endured thirteen seconds.
They endured nearly two decades without a playoff appearance.
Yet every year they return.
They fill stadiums.
They travel across the country.
Sometimes they seem louder than the home crowd.
Perhaps the brutal winters build resilience.
Or perhaps resilient people are simply drawn to Buffalo.
Either way, there may not be a more resilient fan base in sports.
They never stop believing.
The dream you’ve set aside may still be possible.
The goal you’ve placed on the shelf may still be waiting.
The opportunity you abandoned may be far closer than you think.
What if the next attempt succeeds?
Don’t quit three feet from gold.
