I was finished, I was done, and I was ready more than ever to finally throw in the towel. After so many disappointments, feeling emotionally drained, who wouldn't be? I'm not someone who gives up easily, I never do. Not even when playing a board game.

I have always been extremely competitive, I hate losing with a passion and I'd rather not participate than lose.

I was that terrible video game player who'd unplug your remote if you were beating me and tear up cards if you beat me in a card game.

Even as a young athlete a second place on the podium was basically a loss for me.

But as time passed there were a few times I have lost hope, and being second didn't seem so terrible anymore. I felt tired and drained. I basically had to drag myself out of bed, to classes and training, to work and finally, home, where I couldn't wait to sleep.

Sleep to me seemed like an escape. An escape from all my responsibilities, from people and basically from life. But when I woke up, I felt the same, unchanged.

I remember waking up with a sigh and calculating my hours before I'd be able to go back to sleep.

I felt like a piece of me died, and so did my competitive spirit. I basically felt like a zombie, and that life just consumed me.

This was such a tough time in my life emotionally, and I had to deal with this alone. I believe we all go through stages in life where we just feel so tired and done.

Days where we feel hopeless, especially if the unexpected happens.

After failed relationships, maybe failing in something you tried or set your heart to, maybe giving up a dream or saying goodbye, maybe dropping out of college or a failed business, losing a loved one, even losing everything you love and failing so many times that there seems to be no way that you'll ever feel OK again.

We have all been there. We all have failures, we all have disappointments, but whatever it is we have to get back up again and fight.

To me, giving up is never the answer, even if I felt like I've had enough. Even if I had to drag myself wherever I needed to go, I went.

I went to a sermon on Sunday, and to me, this was just part of my normal routine. I'd go to church, listen to the sermon, walk out and hopefully review and remember.

But this Sunday was different. I am blessed to be part of a church called South Coast, where the leading pastor is known as John Breland.

In the sermon, it felt like this message was made just for me. Because somehow I walked out of church with hope again.

I thought I was going through a tough time, but sitting next to someone who was more broken than I'd ever be, changed my perception.

Sitting next to someone who cried from the beginning to the end, made me cry. It made me sad to see someone who is crying out for help in such a broken world.

It made me sad to realize how many broken people this world has, and that people are too self-centered to notice because, for a while, I remember feeling like I was the only one dealing with hurt, and no one else mattered but me.

I was busy writing my own self-centered story full of negativity and hopelessness thinking that everything revolved around me and what I felt.

In this sermon I had learned that I had to write the story of my life, but this time positively. I had to get up and fight for what I want. I had to regain confidence, and I had to follow my heart.

I had to follow my dream and stop pondering on failures because otherwise, I'd end up working for someone who followed their dream.

We never know how close we are to finally reaching the goals we set for ourselves. It could be one second, one pound, one try to finally get it right.

But if we give up, we'd never know how close we came to success, and then we live with regrets.

We regret giving up early, we regret even trying and we lose confidence. This is how we are robbed of the life we deserve. This is how we are robbed of happiness and success.

In order to be successful, to regain my competitive spirit and to try again, I had to believe that my future is taken care of. That whatever happens to me, no matter how horrible it is, is just a small part of something so much greater.

I had to learn to be patient.

I had to believe, and I had to regain faith.

I had to speak life into the future. This means no more negative talk. No more criticizing myself, other people or my body image. No more speaking about the worst.

I had to be more positive, I had to believe the best, and I have to encourage others to do the same. If we speak life into our futures we will be blessed more than we deserve.

This is probably my ultimate favorite Bible verse, explaining that if we speak life into our futures we will be blessed more than we can even comprehend.

Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

Lastly, I had to commit and move toward the future. I had to commit to my plans and dreams. I had to get up from the ashes, dust myself off and never look back.

I had to accept that my failures are in the past, and I'm not moving in that direction.

If we keep looking back to the person that we once used to be, to the mistakes we made or our regrets we will never be able to be successful in the future.

If we keep waking up with a sigh, with a spirit of tiredness and lost hope we"ll never be able to reach the goals we deserve. We'll never reach our potential or live our life to the fullest.

If we keep giving up, we will waste our talents entrusted to us, and we will never make a change in anyone's life.

Because in the end, we all are here to make a change, to leave a mark and to be remembered.

Let people see you struggle, but never let them see you quit. Success could be right around the corner.

You might think your story is over, there is nothing you can do and you are done for.

But, God isn't done yet. He is not done blessing you. He is not done writing your story better than you can imagine, and He is not done helping you through tough times.

We just have to keep believing, we just need to trust and let God lead us. I have accepted my failures, and I will keep on writing my story.

I will not deny my story as this will define me, I will own the story and write a brave new ending. I will write my story, one day, for everyone to remember.

I will write the story of my life.