The Road to Victory in Your Endeavours… The Long Game
Instant gratification is expected and demanded in all facets of life today – open a web browser and you expect your home page to load in a second, make a phone call and expect an instant answer to your call…
Now, this is all well and good because it’s how we’ve advanced with technology, the problem is this mindset has bled over into all areas of life.
Society is so fixed on instant gratification that if ANY level of effort is exerted into a monumental task such as transforming your physique or building streams of passive income and an instant result, an outcome or a win is not acquired then it’s a waste of time, a failure or its simply not worth it.
To put this in perspective the average attention span of a gold fish is 9 seconds, in 2013 the average attention span of an American adult is 8 seconds (this is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000).
Let me tell you a little secret, if you want to win, if you want to succeed, if you want to achieve your goals you have to play the long game.
Henry Miller said it best:
“In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.”
Don’t get caught up in the day to day.
Don’t be the guy running a dodgy fly by night business operation expecting to get rich quick.
Don’t give up on your new year’s resolution of weight loss because you haven’t dropped a substantial amount of weight after your first 2 workouts.
When we see someone who has reached the echelon of success in their field as an outsider all we see is the glory, not the story. Yes, if that other guy has achieved what you want there is no question as to whether you lack the ability or circumstance to replicate this success – it comes down to whether you’re willing to walk down and endure that thousand mile road of struggle, failure and frustration… if you’ve got the grit, work ethic and perseverance to see it through however it all pays off.
You’ve heard it before but due to its truth I shall repeat it.. The satisfaction and value of your endeavour or end state is not found in the end product itself whether this be a shiny new car, six pack abs or a few additional figures in your bank account, but rather the struggle and cost we paid (In time and hard work) to obtain it.
Leonardo Davinci, deemed a genius, a prolific inventor and one of the smartest men to live spent years enduring failure after failure… No one mentions that today though do they?
In short, pay the price and endure the hard road because it will pay off.
Promises of overnight success are a marketing ploy aimed at suckers.
Are you playing the long game? What’re your thoughts on it?
Let me know in the comments below!