Dreams will take everything from you. What do I mean by that? What I mean is that if you have a dream that motivates you, a dream that makes you want to get up in the morning and go chasing after it. A burning desire deep in your heart that you no will never completely go away. That this thing, as wonderful and beautiful as it is, can also drive you essentially mad and take everything from you.
Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Whenever we look at the elite of something whether it’s in sports, business, or any other field, what we’re looking at is often very unbalanced individuals. Not always but more often than not. These are not people that spent their lives making well balanced decisions so they could live even and relatively peaceful lives.
No these are people who are more often than not obsesssive, that spend hours and hours on a subject that fascinated and drives them to no end. Whether that’s a scientist making a discovery, an athlete working at his sport, a craftsman working at his trade, and so on and so forth. To achieve greatness you have to be willing to do what others aren’t willing to do and do that day in and day out.
Greatness is born of a madness of sorts. An infection that won’t go away and can’t leave you alone. A disease of the mind and heart that can lead to great things, but that will take much from you.
How To Stick With Something When All Have Given Up
First off you must find what you desire most in your heart. Not what you say you desire most but what your actions tell you, that you desire most. For example if you say you want to get in shape more than anything else yet spend all your time laying around and eating bad then that’s not what you want. What you want most is to be comfortable. And you must look at that first.
Why is that? Look at what your actions tell you and then ask why. Why do you do those things? What does it give you? Everything gives you something. What is so important about it that you’re having trouble giving it up for something else. You need to really dig deep and explore yourself, your thoughts, feelings, and subconscious wants and desires. And above all of that what your actions tell you about what you value and desire.
Actions don’t lie and at the end of the day are the most accurate measure of what is valued in your life. Look at what your actions are telling you and go from there. Figure out why “why”. Why do you value what you value? What does that do for you? Everything gives you something, even if not good for you. For example say that you say you want to get in shape but spend your time sitting around and not eating good. What this means is that comfort is more important than getting in shape.
The next step is not to despair but rather to figure out why this is. Why is comfort more important to you than getting into shape? When you look at the why, the motivation you can start to address it and strike the problem at the root. Address the why and other things often will fall into place.
How To Stick With Something Forever
Speaking of which if you want to be elite at something, to be the best at something, or to accomplish a big worthy goal you have to be at least part way obsessed with it. And to do that you have to have a strong why for why you want to accomplish something. Now you may not consciously understand or know your why. Maybe you just know there is a certain direction in which you want to go and what you want to accomplish and don’t know much beyond that.
That’s a great start and will take you far. Beyond that you need discipline, understanding, and perseverance. A big thing is to look at the goals you want to accomplish and times the time you think it will take to accomplish it by five or more. So say you want to be a successful entrepreneur with a six figure business. Read books, do research, talk to those that have done it, and think about how long you think it’ll take you.
Then multiply that number by five. That’ll very often give you a more realistic gauge of how long it’ll take. Mastery of a skill or the accomplishment of a large goal isn’t something that’s going to happen in a year. A year is a small game, stuff like that takes decades. And with a more accurate look at it you can tell if it’s still worth it to you or not. Most people have big dreams or goals but the fact of the matter is that truthfully, it isn’t always worth it for them to accomplish it.
Sometimes to cost is just too steep and that’s the truth of the matter. They should still have goals of course, it’s just the big giant ones might not be in their future and that’s fine, so long as they have goals that motivate and drive them and keep them moving forward and growing.
You’ll stick with something forever when you have a powerful why, a compulsion to it and then combine that with a sober and realistic view of what you want to accomplish and then combine that with putting in work day by day and you’ll go where few have gone.
One Last Point
Which brings me to another point. Success and the accomplishment of grand goals is a marathon not a sprint, put another way you want to be the tortoise and not the hare. Little work done day by day, week by week, year by year, decade by decade that’s what adds up and makes the big difference over time. Not crazy hard work for short sprints. Sure there are times when you’ll do more work and times when you’ll do less but overall you want to be steady above all else.
Find you why, your compulsion. We’re all built differently when it comes to our deep drives and while we may share similarities there are things that’ll send one person on a lifelong quest while get a bored “meh” from another. Find what gives you the burning desire, the lifelong quest. Then understand that it’s going to take way more time than you think it will and the work required will be way more than you think it will.
And if you’re okay with that proceed to step three and that is put in daily work little by little building your dreams and accomplishing that which you want to accomplish. Rome wasn’t built in a day it was built brick by backbreaking brick over years and years and years. It takes time and effort to create. It won’t be any different for you.
But that doesn’t mean it won’t be worth it. So find what motivates you and go after it.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
