A goal is something that we aim and has a deadline. Deadline is a must because if not for this the goal will be a goal forever, there will be no failure nor success. You will not feel pressure and have no necessity to move. Your goal will be taken lightly, you will be unfocused and take things for granted. In short words, goals are there to alert you that you need to move within a period of time. A goal is something that forces you to take action even if you don't feel like moving.
Sometimes even if you work so hard, even if you give everything you've got you will still miss the deadline. No matter what you do you cannot figure out how to win and hit the target. And sometimes even if the deadline was extended you cannot still win because you just can't do it. It is not that you are not moving but you just can't find a way to win. It's like being trapped in a rat race forever, no matter how fast you move you still can't reach the finish line.
If the game is already over and there is only 5 minutes remaining before the deadline then what you should do is build a little momentum. Even if you already failed you still have to work hard and push like there is enough time remaining to get your goal. That is the only reward you can give to yourself, establishing a little momentum. That momentum will carry on to your next goal, your hunger will still remain and the willingness to win will never die. On other words you are just establishing a habit of not quitting even if the show is over.
Most people when they already knew that they lost, they will never exert a winning effort, they will just let the losing take over. And that is a bad habit because the next time you are competing or pursuing a goal you will never give your 100 percent effort because you already established a habit of quitting, you quit when the going gets hard. Quitting when you already knew that you don't have enough time to do it is still quitting. It is no different from quitting at the beginning. So even if you knew that you already lost you still don't have to quit. You still need to exert a winning effort because that is what champions are made of...fighting even if defeat is coming.
So then, the mentality should be you are always willing to give a fight no matter what stage of goal is. You should be willing to fight at the beginning until the end, the effort should never change. You should continue building a momentum even if that momentum makes no sense to others. They may be wondering why are you still fighting even if it is obvious that you already lost. They don't know that you are just building a habit of not quitting regardless of any situation. That momentum that you get will give you an edge for the next fight or the next goal.
