INSPIRATION FOR TOUGH TIMES. 

 

IF, by Rudyard Kipling

IF : If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

TRUST: If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too;

WAIT : If you can wait and not be tired by waiting;

LIES : Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

HATE: Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

WISE: And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

DREAM: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,

THINK : If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

TRIUMPH : If you can meet with trimph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same;

TRUTH : If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

WATCH : Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools,

RISK : If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

START AGAIN : And lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss;

FORCE: If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone,

HOLD ON : And so hold on when is nothing in you except the will which says to them: "Hold on!"

VIRTUE: If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,

FRIENDS : If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

COUNT: If all men count with you, but none too much;

UNFORGIVING: If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

EVERYTHING: Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,

MAN : And - which is more - you'll by a man, my child!