It pains me when people decide to change for the better, but never follow through.
The first step you take is a choice and the most important one. However, it is not the choice that gets you the results, it’s the work. Without doing the work, you get nowhere.
New Year’s Resolutions are quite popular. I have written two blog posts on it, one in 2021 and another in 2022. How many of us stick with them? Have you ever achieved your resolutions?
I have, and I can say that it is a wonderful feeling…
However, what do we do when we do the work required to achieve our goals? We reap the benefits and then set new goals – and I think that’s a good thing.
For those of us who have done the work and continue to do the work to achieve what we want in life, we eventually have to wrestle with more complex life questions. Questions such as “why am I doing all this work in the first place?” or “how much work do I have to do to get to where I want in life?”
These are valid questions, but I think the more important ones are as follows:
If you have not come across these questions, then you may have more work to do.
I classify work as the following: is every area of your life optimized and where you want it to be?
For example:
How are you with your finances? Are you in debt? Do you make enough money? What are your savings and investment goals? Are you living the kind of lifestyle you want? Do you have the physique you always desired? Are you strong or fast? Are you eating healthy food? Are you getting enough water? How is your sleep? How is your social circle? Do you have a social group to invest in? Are you volunteering to better your community hence bettering the world? Are you a proficient individual who can take on life’s challenges head-on regardless of what comes your way? Can you achieve all of the above and still be the person God has called you to be?
There are many more questions I could pose, but I think you get the picture.
If the answers to most of these questions are negative, I highly suggest you take action at solving them one step at a time. If you have answered these questions positively, congratulations! You are well on your way to becoming the strongest version of yourself.
What’s funny is that if you are on point in most of these areas, strange things will happen to you: you will be more confident, focused, charismatic, funny, attractive, knowledgeable, prominent, and most importantly, discerning. What you will find is that opportunities present themselves to you with little to no effort as you have already put in the effort beforehand. So, don’t be surprised by the results as it may seem that opportunities are abundant with little effort, but it is because of the 5-10 years of hard work that they presented themselves to you in the first place.
What I have come to learn is that you should not shy away from the successes and opportunities in your life – if you have done the work that is. I had to come to terms with this and still struggle with this from time to time. My understanding is that I shy away as I never thought I deserved them, and so have always been grateful for whatever comes my way.
So, if hard work is the answer to most of life’s problems, why don’t more people do it?
Well, look around you…
Everywhere you look there is an abundance of everything calling your name. Why restrict your calories when there is pizza, burgers, sushi, and steak available to you within a few taps on your phone? Why level up in real life when we can distract ourselves with leveling up in a video game?
The answer to these questions is also simple: Work is hard, and hard work is even harder.
When we do the work that is required to get what we want out of life, well, we start to get what we want out of life. Do not be angry, bitter, or resentful of those that do not do the work. They simply do not want to get the most out of life and thus will not get the most out of life.
For those of us who do the work, we start to realize that we only have one life. And if you are like me, I firmly believe that if we pursue the things that God has called us to do, we will live a life well lived.
If you want to start doing the work in your life, start now.
Take that one step forward, and then the next step, and the next step. The process is a marathon, not a sprint and I will tell you it is well worth every second you put into it.
There’s not much else to say but this:
Do The Work.