A while I ago was chatting with my friend Dwayne about . . . well, I can’t remember. Life in general I believe it was, and we were talking about work and success, and how things don’t often go according to plan.
And how we should always be prepared for not necessarily the best – but the WORST to happen.
Hey, don’t get me wrong.
It’s all well and good to EXPECT the best, but what if that happens in a manner and (perhaps more importantly) TIME not of your choosing?
What if the “worst” were to be something that “was slated to happen” in order for the best to happen?
And curiously enough, that is how it usually DOES work.
When you’re at the bottom of a tall, tall mountain with nowhere to go – guess what.
It’s GREAT NEWS – because you have got only one way to go.
UP!
Henry Ford famously once made the comment along the lines of “when everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplace flies AGAINST the wind, not with it”.
So true, my friend.
So true.
It is only after experiencing the nadirs of FAILURE that one can rise to the heights of success, and after studying scores of successful men and women, I cannot think of a SINGLE case to which this didn’t apply (and usually not just one failure either – several massive failures).
If you’ve never failed at anything, chances are you’re never truly succeeded at that thing either.
Point here though isn’t that failure is required in order to achieve true and lasting success.
That it is, but what Im saying is here is what WHEN the mishaps occur.
Do you sink – or find it in you to SWIM – often times against a mighty tide doing all it can to keep you DOWN – and OUT?
Simply answering yes to the above question isn’t enough.
You must DO the thing.
And the key to this, my friend lies not only in what Dwayne very correctly said – – but also what Claude Bristol said in The Magic of Believing.
Success is a matter of never ending application. The minute you pause to rest on your laurels is the minute it takes wings and FLIES away.
Paraphrased, but the gist is what I just wrote.
And if there ever was a comment that rang true with yours truly THIS IS IT!
(and that’s what Dwayne was talking about with regard to “I’m the chump that keeps working”. And if you want to listen to someone that’s BEEN there and DONE the thing, and then some, well, that’s the man.)
I cannot think of how many times in the past Ive done something successfully.
Built up the momentum. Felt great. Built up several small victories.
And then inexplicably I slacked off. For no good reason, I’d let things “slide”, thinking that the momentum I created would be enough to keep things humming.
It wasn’t, of course, and I found that out the hard way.
Right now, every time I embark on a new biz venture or even something fitness related, I think long term and do NOT let the small successes or failures alter my overall emotional state either way.
You gotta be in it for the long term, and this holds true for fitness too.
Here today, gone tomorrow holds true if you stop to “admire yourself in the mirror” and forget that WORK, solid WORK is still required – and that, my friend, is the topic for today.
Chew on it some, and let me know what you think!
Best,
Rahul Mookerjee
P.S. – The exercises in the 0 Excuses Fitness System are NOT “one trick ponies”. In fact it is a challenge even for the baddest mofo out there to MASTER any of these exercises in its entirety – even the humble pushups. And there is a very good reason I keep working on the basics despite my “advanced” status at all this, and why YOU should too.
Find out more about the System here, and get ROCKING now – https://0excusesfitness.com/0excusesfitnessystem/