Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise in Star Trek, the goal being to rescue a civilian vessel in a simulated battle with the Klingons. In the 2009 movie Kirk beats the test. Spock accuses Kirk of cheating, and then reveals that the test is meant to be a no-win scenario.

Kobayashi Maru wasn’t a test of skill. It was meant to test the character and resolve of the captain when he is faced with a certain defeat.

We live in a world of motivational posters where people with sweaty arms pumping out of Nike t-shirts tell us never to give up.

I think we all come across a dragon we cannot vanquish. The people around us will slay it and move on, but it will defeats us. He makes us question our courage, and even our worth as a person. We resolve to train hard and come back. But we still lose. Every time. Yet we grow so much in our defeat.

Maybe courage isn’t winning, but doing the hard thing. Maybe this dragon we are meant to live with, not defeat.