I have found this to be very inspiring!
(Please note **This poem was written before modern day political correctness and as such the words "man" and "son" are best interpreted according to the rules of traditional classic prose as representing "mature adult" and  "offspring" of unknown gender.)

"IF"

      If you can keep your head when all about you
      Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
      If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
      But make allowance for their doubting too,
      If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
      Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
      Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
      And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

      If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
      If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
      If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
      And treat those two impostors just the same;
      If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
      Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
      Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
      And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

      If you can make one heap of all your winnings
      And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
      And lose, and start again at your beginnings
      And never breath a word about your loss;
      If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
      To serve your turn long after they are gone,
      And so hold on when there is nothing in you
      Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

      If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
      Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
      If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
      If all men count with you, but none too much,
      If you can fill the unforgiving minute
      With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
      Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
      And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

      --Rudyard Kipling

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