Everything is hard before it’s easy

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“If I have correct goals and I keep pursuing them the best way I know how, everything falls into line. If I do the right thing, I am going to succeed” – Dan Dierdorf. Human beings by nature want to have the easy things in life. Most of us are full of envy, when we see our friends driving beautiful fancy cars and living a seemingly comfortable and enjoying life in general. How we long to arrive at the so called “easy life” destination without hard work. Yet it does not come. The lazier we become the further away the good life drifts. Yes we can all achieve what we want and I believe, that is what God intended for us all. But achieving our hearts desires requires us to take bold and right steps; to make bold decisions that require a mindset change.

Personal development and self growth requires a change in our mind and belief systems. If you are to achieve your goals, there is no doubt that your attitude and mind set has to be in sink. Perhaps this could be a great start for you to set your year’s objectives and goals. The key thing is to start somewhere. Start now, plan to succeed at whatever you are intending to achieve. I believe that everything that is worthwhile is worth your effort.

If everything in life was easy to achieve or get life would have been very boring. Our bodies were designed to work, both physically and mentally. I have discovered that nature is neutral. God has blessed as with the same environment, we all have equal access to the environment. No one on this earth can claim to have more than or less 24hrs a day, I have never heard of anyone who has more or less air. We all experience the same conditions at a given time. We all tap into the same universal resources. The difference however, is how efficient and effectively we use these abundant resources that God has given us. We are all products of the same universe. We were all created in the image of God.

The question that one may ask is that how come life seems to be easy for some people? Well I believe that there is nothing that comes as easily as it seems and let me just say that life is never easy. All good things come at a cost. You must be willing to pay the price before you begin to reap and enjoy the rewards. I know for sure that for you to live a happy and successful life you must be willing to pay the price and be disciplined enough to delay gratification. Most of us want to live in the now and not in the future. We do not want to delay gratification. Even the so called easy life is not as easy as it seems. It may look easy from the outside but it is not what it seems. I remember during my earlier working days in life when we used to envy our friends who worked for bigger and “better” corporate organisations. We all would be saying “if only I worked for that organisation life would be easy”. Yet the people working for the same organisations would be looking elsewhere.

Condition your mind to start working
You will agree with me that everything that is good is worth working for. It feels very nice when you have worked for something and are enjoying the benefits. It gives me much pleasure when I have achieved a target. I have a sense of joy and my mind is always positive to even work harder. It is therefore, very important to set goals that are achievable in order that you keep a positive mental attitude. Failure should however, not be an obstacle it should be viewed as a challenge to be overcome. It should be a learning process. Every day of our lives we are constantly pushing ourselves to achieve targets. You may not realise it but everyday of your life you are achieving a target this could either be positive or negative the choice is yours.

You need to prepare your mind for success. Preparing your mind for success is important as this will also allow you to grow with your success. This will require you to take deliberate steps to conditioning your mind. If need be you may have to change your friends or get out of some bad relationships. Yes I mean change your friends. Not all relationships are actually beneficial some can be very detrimental. You may also need to move to a new location. Overtime I have personally had to make some drastic changes to my life style. This has helped me a great deal. I am more focused on what I do. Believe me some relationships can be a distraction to your progress, the sooner you identify them and make the necessary change the better. It may be difficult for you to make drastic changes right now but if you are serious about shaping your future, find a way to adjust. Do not allow friendship to hinder your progress.

Your mind plays a key role in determining your overall progress in life. What you feed your mind on a daily basis is very important. The Bible says “ for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of”. If you hang around people with a positive mental attitude you are most certainly going to have a positive attitude the opposite is also true. Everything that we do or want to do in life begins in our minds. Our minds are therefore, the workshop or the engine room of everything. Do you realise that everything that is made by man was conceived in the mind. This is how important our minds are. Apart from hanging around with positive minded people you could also start reading books and listening to audio tapes that will have a positive impact on your mind. Make a deliberate habit to change your mind and ensure that you take action.

There is no easy route
Once you have started pursuing your goals learn to be patient with yourself. You will keep on falling and failing. Every new skill or habit takes time to execute with minimum effort. Keep learning from your mistakes and be open minded to make the necessary changes. I have noticed that most of the young generation are in the habit of trying to cut corners especially in the area of financial freedom. Believe me it is not worth it. I am yet to find an easy route to success that is not short lived. Ever since I embarked on doing what I love most it has not been easy. Yes, I enjoy it but the journey has not been an easy one. I have enjoyed both dry moments and good ones. What keeps me going is the fact that I enjoy writing and hope that these articles are of help to someone. I am still very much a work in progress but impressed with my own progress so far.

From my studies and personal experience on the subject of self growth and improvement, I have learnt that cutting corners only yields short lived happiness. If you want long lasting happiness resolve to do the right things. You will have a peace of mind for the rest of your life. The small things that I have achieved so far through hard work make me feel over the moon. They maybe small but they actually count a lot to me. After all success is the sum total of the things we accomplish on a daily basis. I am not in any competition or race with anybody and therefore, will move at my own pace. Like I always say if something is worth the salt then it is worth your sweat. Everything is always difficult the first time.

Conclusion
Everything in life is hard before it’s easy. They say that it takes 21 Days to develop a new habit. You can take advantage of this theory and change your non productive habits to those that will in the process help you grow as an individual. Having the knowledge that our minds are very critical to our personal development and self improvement it is therefore very important that we learn to guard our minds and hearts. The Bible says “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” – Phillipians. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” – Proverbs. Bye for now and remember to always “standout tall and be counted”.

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