One of the early light bulbs that went off for me after meeting my mentor, Jim Rohn, was when he shared this powerful statement with me:
Succeeding is easier than making excuses or apologies!
Jim’s point hit me directly between the eyes. I quickly did an inventory and reviewed all my internal dialogs I had going on at the time like:
- worrying about how much time and energy I would invest in a project and then after all the hard work and effort is invested the possibilities it might not work
- looking at how much effort and work I was investing while others seemed to have much more free (and fun) time
- weighing the price I was paying to achieve my goals – was it really worth it?
- noticing all the knowledge and skills I lacked and would it be possible to learn and grow?
- needing to build a team yet knowing I’m an entrepreneur, NOT a manager
- etc, etc, etc.
That’s a lot of energy and time invested in asking myself if and why my goals were even worth achieving or even possible to reach.
Then the pearl of wisdom from Jim helped me realize, I really did want to achieve financial independence versus struggling to pay my bills. I wanted to live where I wanted to live, drive what I wanted to drive, go where I wanted to go. Plus marriage and raising a family is challenging enough, why add money problems to the equation?
And when it came right down to it, I really did not want to have to explain why I couldn’t do any of the above, much less apologize. Right then and there I decided to take Jim’s advice and simply go for it. To commit to the process, invest the faith and effort in going for what I wanted to achieve and to not look back. We’ve all heard it said and it is SO true, time is going to pass anyway whether you’re pursuing your dreams or just getting by.
Did it come overnight? No. Was it easy? No.
But neither is always struggling to get by. They both have their cost.
Now I know many people called to do much, much more worthy and life-changing things than I’ve ever attempted to do who are not compensated in such a way that financial independence would seem like a reasonable goal. But are they successful? Clearly, YES!!
The beauty is you choose your definition of success.
And remember that achieving your goals will be easier than having to rattle off all the excuses and apologies of not going for them at all.
Thanks Jim, one more time!
To Your Better Future,
Kyle Wilson
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Kyle Wilson is the founder of LessonsFromNetwork.com, Jim Rohn International (JimRohn.com) and YourSuccessStore, he also is the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur’s Soul. To learn more about the Lessons From Network click here!