If, by Rudyard Kipling, is a timeless poem of a parent offering advice to a child, on how to retain balance and perspective in life.
The poem, IF, has been controversial but consistently voted one of the UK's favourite poems. Beyond the controversy, this poem was parenting advice before it was known as such and is on one level advice being offered by a parent to a child. Amongst several other understandings, it can also be viewed as advice that your older self may give your younger self and is an excellent vessel of wisdom and maturity.
Above all, the poem offers a perspective that is calming, almost meditative that increases balance and can help motivate and inspire you during tough times.
It also teaches the value of taking a balanced approach, persistence and Hope (Hold on, Pain Ends)!
I've included the full verse of If, by Sir Rudyard Kipling below.
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 on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe 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!