When I was younger, I hated work. It didn’t matter what kind of work it was, I always found a way to avoid doing anything that required a significant amount of effort. On the rare occasions I did work I never did any more than the absolute minimum that was required of me.
This is how most people operate. Most people see work as a dreaded necessity in their lives and will do almost anything to avoid it. It’s been said that people are naturally lazy, but I don’t think that’s the problem. The problem is most people don’t see why hard work is necessary.
When I first started lifting weights I found it very difficult, but I continued because I thought that eventually working out would become effortless. As you might imagine, I was wrong.
As I became stronger, and began lifting more weights, working out actually became more difficult. As I progressed to lifting more and more weight I began to realize the strongest guys in the gym weren’t the strongest because they had been lifting the longest. They were the strongest because they were able to work through the most pain. They were the ones willing to work the hardest.
Another interesting thing I noticed, was that although most people dreaded having to work out, the strongest guys actually looked forward to it, and many even considered it the best part of their day. The strongest guys loved working out because they saw it as being necessary. The strongest guys worked out because they knew it was the only way to reach their goals.
Seeing their perspective had a great impact on me and the way I thought about work. Work was no longer something I had to do, but something I wanted to do. It was still difficult, but it became something I enjoyed.
When I was in track in middle school, I ran the mile. I set a new personal best every single meet my 8th grade year, and even though I was always exhausted at the end of my runs, I loved them. The feeling of constant improvement was wonderfully fulfilling.
Over time I began to adopt the same mindset towards all the work in my life. Lifting, and writing weren’t enjoyable at first, but I knew they had to get done to accomplish my goals.
I think the biggest breakthrough I had was that eventually hard work was no longer an annoying life requirement, but an exhilarating opportunity to improve myself, and progress toward my goals.
I began to love working. Television, and other low level activities were no longer interesting to me because I knew they weren’t going to help me get to where I wanted to go.
I currently spend almost all of my time writing, making videos, or juggling (I’m looking into incorporating juggling into my motivational speeches). Although most people think my life would be boring because I spend so much time working, that’s a matter of perspective. I see their lives as being boring.
When I think of exciting activities the last thing that occurs to me is sitting on a couch in the living room staring at a box. The average American spends almost 5 hours per day watching television, and how any of them see it as anything more than a poor temporary escape from reality is beyond me. Watching television is among the least intelligent ways you could spend your time.
Why would you ever want to escape from reality? Your life is still going to suck when you turn the TV off. Why not improve your reality instead?
It can be difficult to admit that you don’t like your current circumstances, but if you’ve neglected to put any hard work into your reality you can’t expect to get anything more than subpar results.
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