How many times have you promised yourself something because you wanted to motivate yourself? A nice watch. A promotion. Maybe even a gorgeous girlfriend. We all have done this. The real question is this: Do you follow through?

For many of us, unfortunately, the answer is no, we don’t. We’ve long learned that it’s so easy to plan and dream, but so damn hard to actually get there.

In 2010, fitness trainer Jay Garcia told himself that he would do several things in a decade’s time. One of those things was to get a red sports car. The goal was for last year, obviously, but…you know, pandemic. But he did make good his pledge to himself—even though he’s not really a car guy. Just because he wanted to reward himself and use his new Mazda Miata as a testament to his hard work.

As you can see, the sports car isn’t red like he had promised to himself. It’s black because he’s a huge fan of Kobe Bryant. Below is his message to the Los Angeles Lakers legend. Read it and be inspired.

Dear Kobe,

It’s not red as planned 10 years ago, because I want something that will represent you. When you left us last year, I had this itch to finally finish these written goals of mine because I felt that I didn’t deserve to preach about mamba mentality when I myself couldnn’t finish my own goal.

I’m not really into driving. I’m the type of person who can live without a car. I’m sure that most of the time, this car will stay in the garage, but I really want to have it around because this is part of the contract that I signed with myself 10 years ago and I should honor it. For some, it’s just a cheap, ordinary car. Others will say it’s an unnecessary purchase. But for me, this isn’t a car. It’s my Larry O’Brien trophy. This is hard work, this is early mornings, this is late nights, having no weekends. This car is just a vessel. A physical representation. What’s more important to me are the lessons learned along the way. Learning that it’s not achieving the actual goal that’s important, but it’s the person that you must become in order to achieve a particular goal. Now I finally understand what you really meant in this speech of yours:

“Those times when you get up early and you work hard. Those times when you stay up late and you work hard. Those times when you don’t feel like working. You’re too tired, you don’t want to push yourself, but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. And if you guys can understand that, then what you’ll see happen is you won’t accomplish your dreams: Your dreams won’t come true—something greater will.”

It was supposed to be my tribute to you last Mamba Day (8/24), but the pandemic has its way of delaying things, so it was delayed for a few days. But finally, here it is. I did it, master. Job’s finished.

Thank you for sharing the gift of mamba mentality with us. I’ll do my best to keep your legacy alive by representing your teachings in everything that I do.

Thank you, Kobe.

Thank you for making hard work and not giving up so cool.

And lastly, thank you for teaching us that we have the choice to be better every day.

This is for you.