Ask Mike Avila about the loss that shaped him, and he won't tell you about a broken neck. He'll tell you about a wrestling match he lost as a teenager.

There's a moment in every hard season where a quiet voice inside tells you to give up. Not loudly, not all at once just a steady whisper that says this is too much,

Nobody wakes up one morning, decides to run a marathon, and does it that afternoon. Everybody knows this.

Mike Avila was 12 years old the first time he said "Not Today." His father had just told him he wasn't strong enough or fast enough to beat the 14-year-old champion

Most of us treat failure as a verdict. We try something, it doesn't work, and we quietly conclude: I guess I can't do that. Then we file it away and,