Paying the Price

"If you don't get what you want, it is a sign either that you did not seriously want it or that you tried to bargain for the price. There is a price for anything worth achieving." - Richard Kipling

In the last blog I spoke about the reason most people become discouraged and give up. They fail to Count the Cost of the things they want, and so when things get difficult they give up and quit.
The way to avoid this situation is to figure out what the cost is going to be, and decide if you are willing to pay that. So what does the price tag include? Here are just a few items:

1. Hard Work
There is no way around this--you cannot fulfill your dreams without a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and more than a little elbow grease. You also might have to spend time, perhaps large quantities of time, working diligently at tasks you don't particularly like in order to prepare yourself to reach those dreams.

2. Learning
Reaching that next level will probably require you to acquire some new skills and polish existing abilities. Are you willing to devote the time, money, and energy to making that happen?

3. Discipline
It takes focus and commitment to pursue your goal without getting sidetracked or giving up. Success doesn't just happen. You have to be intentional about it, and that means "doing what needs to be done, whether you feel like it or not."

4. Emotional Stamina
On your way toward your goal, you're going to stumble, and most likely take a few hard falls. When that happens, you've got to have the RESILIENCY to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get going again. Do you?

As you think about the price of reaching your goal, remember that the specifics vary from goal to goal. The only way to find out for sure how much you'll have to pay is to find someone who is already where you want to be and ask them about the cost. Find out what they DID in order to DO what they do.

It's up to you. If you know where you want to be but aren't there yet, stop making excuses and start working to make it happen. Don't put it off until tomorrow because that may be too late. As you begin, remember these 3 truths about what you end up with when pursuing a dream.
1. Reaching that goal will be different than you imagined it would be.
2. It will be more difficult than you ever imagined.
3. And it will be better than you ever imagined.
Start today!

Counting the Cost

Now that the competition season is in full swing, wrestlers are starting to see if the visions in their heads are dreams or goals. I have never met a wrestler (or any person for that matter) that starts out with the intent to fail. Early season talk is always about the championships, awards, and honors they are going to win. Yet, within just a few weeks, the majority of them will be relegated to "hopefully qualifying" or just getting close to success. What happens to those wonderful thoughts of glory? How do they go from visions of winning the "big matches" to settling for keeping the score close during a loss, or "at least not getting pinned?"

The answer is Reality. Too many wrestlers go into the season holding some superficial, positive, middle-class, I can-do-it "picture" in their minds and then run into some mean, hungry, determined SOB that rams their slick new technique down their dainty little throats.

Why does this happen? Because so many people try to buy championship success at bargain-basement prices. The fact is, the cost to reach those dreams is often much higher than people are willing to pay. I've seen more examples than I care to count. Wrestlers start "working out" a week or two before the season, or they've picked up a new move or two. They have lots of energy and enthusiasm, only to fizzle out when they find out things aren't going to be as easy as they thought. If they had counted the cost first -- if they had seriously investigated what it would take to make them successful in wrestling -- they may have competed in the off season, or worked harder in the weight room. Instead, they're right back where they started- dissatisfied and unfulfilled.

The good news is, You can avoid this scenario. In my next blog I'll discuss how to turn those dreams into goals, by "Paying the Price."