You can’t control the final score. You can control how hard you run in the fourth quarter.

Outcomes are assembled from a hundred things, most of which have nothing to do with you. Effort in the last stretch is one of the few pieces that stays entirely yours, which is why it keeps being the thing people measure themselves by afterward. It also happens to be the part you remember longest, regardless of the result.

When something is clearly slipping away, pick the piece still under your hand and do that part fully. Losing while giving everything leaves a different residue than losing while already gone.