Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl recently, continuing to fight against father time and keep the bout far from concluding any time soon. Why hasn’t the 45-year-old quarterback retired yet?

This season began with Tom Brady walking into the neighbour’s front door of his new offensive co-ordinator. It ended with him holding his seventh Super Bowl in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers home stadium, continuing a trail of success that we will never see again.

The obvious question he faced was about whether he was coming back. He pulled a face as if someone had asked him something ridiculous.

“Oh yeah, we’re coming back,” Brady said.

I think the underlying question is ‘why?’

When you are the undisputed G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time), why not hang them up? It’s impossible to have a sweeter swan song.

I think I know why.

It’s because Brady is not willing to let his passion fade away.

This is something he has relentlessly worked for since he was a kid.

Brady doesn’t want to sit and watch games from the TV just yet. He’s still addicted to the feeling of winning, of proving the doubters wrong year-on-year, that elation of knowing you are fulfilling your inner-most goal.

He feels most alive living his passion of working on his craft, studying opposition defensive plans and running onto the turf in preparation for battle.

It’s why Mike Tyson continued to fight at 48-years-old, despite it being obvious his best days were behind him. He is a natural-born warrior. It was only after he suffered two final losses he had quit for long-term health concerns.

It’s also the reason why Michael Jordan continued to play for the Washington Wizards after his magical era with the Chicago Bulls. He didn’t play over 20 games in either season and put up less than mediocre stats.

Everyone has something in them, an activity or a pursuit, something that truly makes them feel ‘alive’.

Alive in the sense that everything else is a blur, it is unnecessary distraction to the real prize. It’s not about reaching whatever it is, but it is in the journey to it. And getting there is never enough.

Whatever it is for you, I say chase it forever- and never let it die.

As the great poet Dylan Thomas wrote, “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Because once you stop, some part of you will fade away and die forever.

I loved it when Brady said ‘what do you think?’ when asked if he was coming back.

A quote in The Great Gatsby, describes it best: “All the bright precious things fade so fast and they never come back.”

So we continue the pursuit.

For we know, just like Brady, if we stop something will be lost, part of our spirit that is so gleaming and real. We must continue the fight, the chase, the life-long endeavour.

As Scott F. Fitzgerald continued: “We beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Six days after winning and celebrating, Brady was back doing what he truly loves. Preparing for another Super Bowl run.

He’s not willing to let his passion die- because if he does he knows part of him will die with it.

So, just like Brady, we must continue against all that the journey lays ahead of us, in the pursuit of our passion.