We’ve been conditioned to look for quick answers and instant gratification. If you’re fat it’s not your fault and no of course there’s no need to take a look at your habits. Rather just take this pill here. And you you’re depressed well then you’ll just take this pill over there. And you you want to be rich then just take this one mini course for a couple of grand that’ll give you everything you need. You get the point. People expect there to be an easy answer to everything.
You might think “Well yeah, but that’s fat loss and get rich quick schemes not becoming a man and making the most out of life”. Yet nevertheless the indoctrination can still affect even the most resistant of us. It takes time and effort to get good at something. You can’t just read a couple articles about the nature of women and expect to be pulling gorgeous women left and right nor could you spend a few weeks in the gym and have knockout power punches. Whatever your goal is (granted that it’s a worthy one) it’s going to take herculean effort to achieve. And this is a good thing. I’ll explain why.
Worthy Goals
The first thing you need to make sure of is that you have worthy ones or if goal isn’t a word you like then replace it will ideal. The point is you have something you are striving for that is worthy. For example losers set goals like lose ten pounds over the next six months, that weak and won’t get you much even if you do accomplish it. You need to set ideals that are high and worthy. For example living entirely of passive income by this time next year, competing in and winning a local martial arts tournament, doubling my current income, and so on and so forth.
If a goal isn’t going to change your life in some way then it’s not really worth going after. My point is success is something that means something. When you achieve it it drastically changes your life. Success isn’t losing a couple of pounds, saving some money so you can go away for one weekend, or sleeping with that average looking girl. Success is going after great bold things and conquering them. The dragon slayers are remembered not the medium sized rodent slayers.
How Much Effort Will It Take?
Now that you’re mind is right and you are pursuing goals that are worthy you now are probably wondering how much effort is it going to take? The short answer is more than you thing. As a matter of fact you should double whatever you thought it was going to take and then double it again. So for example if you thought twenty five practice sessions would prepare you for the fight do one hundred. If you thought reading ten books on sales would be enough for you to get your head around it read forty. No matter what you think it will take add on more to it.
If you thought you’d “retire” after writing one book you’re a fool. Write twenty and then start thinking about “retirement”. The point is no matter what you want in life you are underestimating the effort that it’s going to take to achieve it. Regardless if it’s a transformation of your finances, of your physique, of your sex life, or of your life itself. It’s going to take more hard work and effort than you anticipate. So be ready to dig in and dig deep.
Overshoot
Now that you have you’re mind right and have a general idea of the effort required it’s time to put in the work. For example I wrote about how it generally takes 1,000 posts for a blog to begin getting enough organic traffic to support itself through selling of books or a product. Now that I know this I write everyday to reach that 1,000 mark, while still maintaining quality. Sure many blogs (especially if they’re good at marketing) earn their owners good money before this point but that’s not the point.
If I start making enough money to live off at post #500 does that make shooting for post #1,000 a waste of time? Of course not. It just means I got there faster. If I’d have shot for 500 I would have wasted more time. Shoot above what you believe you need to. Likewise if you had to bench 225 to beat your competition but you were training to bench 315 would you have done yourself a disservice? Of course not. Always shoot above what you think you need to. Over fight, overwork, and over prepare. Always exert more than you think you need.
Summary
Success is going to take more effort than you think. So shoot above what you think that you need to do to succeed. It’s better to overestimate your competition in training than it us to underestimate them. No one has lost a fight because they overestimated their opponent and then trained for that yet many have lost because they underestimated them and were undone when the gloves went on. Aim high then go even higher.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.
-Charles Sledge
