"I was on dialysis for 18 months before the transplant, so it was important I tried to look ahead to days like my comeback this Saturday. You need those big goals to drive you on"
About this Quote
Dialysis is a grinding kind of waiting room: time measured in sessions, energy rationed, life narrowed to survival logistics. Jonah Lomu’s line snaps that claustrophobia open by insisting on a horizon. He doesn’t romanticize illness or pretend optimism is effortless; he frames it as a deliberate strategy. “Important I tried to look ahead” is athlete-speak for mental conditioning, the same discipline that turns pain into training data. The body is constrained, so the mind has to keep moving.
The phrase “days like my comeback this Saturday” does two clever things at once. It makes the future concrete and scheduled, not a vague “someday.” And it drags the story out of the hospital and back into the public arena where Lomu’s identity was forged. For a global sports icon whose body was his instrument, kidney failure wasn’t just a medical crisis; it threatened the core narrative that made him legible to fans and to himself. The comeback becomes more than a match: it’s proof that the old script still runs.
“You need those big goals to drive you on” is motivational, but not in the poster-on-the-wall way. It’s an admission that willpower is a fuel that requires a destination. The subtext is blunt: endurance isn’t just physical; it’s psychological architecture. Lomu offers a pragmatic form of hope, one built from deadlines, desire, and a refusal to let illness be the only plotline.
The phrase “days like my comeback this Saturday” does two clever things at once. It makes the future concrete and scheduled, not a vague “someday.” And it drags the story out of the hospital and back into the public arena where Lomu’s identity was forged. For a global sports icon whose body was his instrument, kidney failure wasn’t just a medical crisis; it threatened the core narrative that made him legible to fans and to himself. The comeback becomes more than a match: it’s proof that the old script still runs.
“You need those big goals to drive you on” is motivational, but not in the poster-on-the-wall way. It’s an admission that willpower is a fuel that requires a destination. The subtext is blunt: endurance isn’t just physical; it’s psychological architecture. Lomu offers a pragmatic form of hope, one built from deadlines, desire, and a refusal to let illness be the only plotline.
Quote Details
| Topic | Goal Setting |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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