The final stretch

Imagine that you have a goal in mind. What lengths would you be willing to go to achieve that goal? One of my goals was to complete a doctorate. That meant that I had to complete all the required coursework including statistics and write a dissertation. The coursework was doable since I had taken countless classes during my education. I had never written a dissertation before and that was where I ran into what felt like a brick wall. I was in the final stretch of my degree and could not reach the finish line without the dissertation. I had heard of the large numbers of doctoral candidates who were ABD (All But Dissertation) and never crossed the finish line. I had to decide how important it was to achieve this goal and apply myself to the work required. There were times when I felt like giving up, but the idea of earning a doctoral degree was enough to motivate me to push on. Believe it or not, it took eight years to finish that document. Persistence paid off. The closer I was to finishing the dissertation, the more determined I was to achieve my goal. The feelings I had as I crossed the stage at the commencement exercises made all the time and hard work worth it. What goal are you determined to achieve no matter what it takes in the final stretch?