The Struggle

 Self-improvement. Weight Loss. College Degree. Promotion. World Champion.

I think 90% of the population in America could claim that at least one of these things is a personal goal for them. Each of us sees who we are today, and desires something better in the future. Whether that is a financial goal, or a developmental goal, we all have visions of what we want to be. Unfortunately, when we set goals, we immediately discover that there is “no free lunch”. Everything good in life takes work, and the best things in life take a lifetime of work to achieve. When we discover just how much work our goals are going to take, we often give up or decide to wait till a more opportune moment. As we age, we realize that such opportune moments are few and far between and often so short that you miss them before you are aware of their existence. I suppose all that seems rather depressing, but don’t lose hope! There is a solution!

God has endowed the human race with the ability to achieve greatness on any number of levels. We are created to be adaptable, intelligent, and stubborn. These attributes are what make humans more creative and accomplished than any other creature on the planet! The trick to achieving, is to find the right recipe of all three and apply it to your goal. You can choose to adapt to a bad situation in such a way that you learn how to cope with it and continue to live in it, or you can adapt in such a way that you make yourself stronger in order to leave the situation or change it from the inside. You can use your intelligence to discover ways of doing without what you want, or you can apply yourself to discovering how to get what you need. You can stubbornly refuse to follow the advice and wisdom of others, or you can stubbornly refuse to give up when life tries to drag you down and keep you from your goals.

You see, each of the three attributes (adaptability, intelligence, and stubbornness) have positive and negative sides. Finding the necessary balance of each can make you able to overcome the chains that hold you back from becoming the best person you can be! When you are tired, fed-up, frustrated, or just un-motivated, take a look at each of these three ingredients and decide which one of them you need more of in order to accomplish your goals. Also remember, that “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Of the five goals listed at the beginning of this post, none of them can be accomplished in just one day or with just one decision. It is the accumulation of 1,000 tiny decisions that leads you into success. If you have a goal, and you are positive that it is healthy for you and beneficial to others, GO FOR IT! Don’t wait for tomorrow and don’t give up because of your fears. Find the recipe that will make success in your life possible!