Rudyard Kipling's IF

Here is Rudyard Kipling's IF. it was a poster in my room when i was in university.. I was in grade eight when my mom or my nanaji, one of the two, asked me to read it for the first time. amazing how you forget the details.but i never forgot the poem. i read it to my kids atleast once in a semester. to this day i go through the poem as a checklist, can i do this, how bout that, a measure of what i have learned and what i need to work on. to remind me of the growing up i need to do still.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, -- (yes I can)
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too, (I do, both actually.)
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, ( i do have infinite patience for the right stuff)
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, (why would anyone lie about me :) )
Or being hated, don't give way to hating, (that's a hard one, but yeah i guess i manage okay)
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: (ooooh, that's a hard one!)
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master, (ahhhhh.....na, not yet)
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; (ok, am trying to get there)
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same; (hmm... again hard to not be happy when good things happen, i can try and not be too sad with the bad stuff, but... so... yeah.... working on it.)
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, (ouch! painful!)
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, ( yes i have)
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: ( well.... do i have a choice? )
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, ( been there, done that, gambling is a high like nothing else, and gambling your life away, woo hooo ;) )
And lose, ( oooh yes, i did)
and start again at your beginnings (now i can't see why in the world should i bother, but as i saud earlier, do i really have a choice? i have to don't i? )
And never breath a word about your loss; ( okay, no. i need to learn that. am i failing royally or what? )
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone, ( yes, i can)
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!" ( to the point of ridiculousness ! i can. )
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, (ummm hmm)
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch, (yeah that's not going anywhere)
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; ( oh they both can! and pretty bad too)
If all men count with you, (yes they do)
but none too much, (unfortunately some do, way too much, much more than they deserve to )
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, ( am trying to)
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son! (right!! not yet sir! )
--Rudyard Kipling