“I feel so fat and it is really affecting my self- esteem, I can’t just get myself to lose some weight” Yea right, you will remain fat until you decide to hit the gym!
“I am always broke and it causes me so much pain” You shall remain broke until you decide not to remain broke!
“I hate my job, I hate my boss and I hate my life” Quit the first two (after all, advising you to quit your life will mean asking you to commit suicide, you shouldn’t resort to that as it is a lazy man’s escape route) and do something that will make you happy.
A lot of people spend every day of their lives complaining about almost everything, everybody or every situation. There is a situation you are displeased with, nothing will change by merely disliking the situation, there is need to take conscious efforts to make the situation better. You cannot possibly want to improve your grades in school, (you don’t really need to if you have discovered a new dream) knowing that you are nowhere near being a genius and you still do not take time to study. You cannot want to lose weight and still eat junks more than the manufacturers (save if you want to be on the Guinness Book of Records as the fattest person on earth!).
While some person find it hard to determine a cause of action about some things in their lives, to think knowing the cause of a problem is equivalent to solving the problem is to think holding the steering of a vehicle makes the vehicle move! There are many roads to success (success in this context is relative), a great man once told me that ambition is as important as discipline to anybody that is visionary! In other words, it is not enough to conceive an idea, or to wish for something, but the issue remains whether or not you are disciplined enough to go after your dream. The word ‘discipline’ can be used in various contexts and in this particular context; I shall adopt the popular interpretation which is a system of rules of conduct or method of practice. No doubt, excellence is a habit, you do not become an expert overnight, you cannot lose pounds of weight over night, neither can you make money over night (even betting takes some level of mastery), and it is all about consistency and being disciplined as an individual.
This involve staying true to your goals, dreams, aspirations or desires, not minding the fact that you will certainly fail once in a while, but the mature approach is to see every ‘failure’ as a lesson. You want to be richer than you are; to begin with, the question is why are you not rich (I bet you have a thousand and one answers)? Then ask yourself what can you do to become rich (the mistake a lot of persons make is having their eyes on money rather than providing value!!!). The harsh reality is if you dedicate your life to giving value, money will be one of the many rewards you will get for providing a particular value or for solving a problem in the world. If you think I am wrong, read about achievers, you’d realise they offer a particular service and they solve one or many problems in the world, hence, the business man is different from the entrepreneur. Make no mistake of thinking they made their money over night, it took many years of providing the same value, years of failing and learning while on the job, the most important thing is they discovered their voices and they were disciplined about achieving their goals.
I do not intend to recommend any quick fix, but the approach is simple, to get any desired result, there is need for you to be disciplined about getting the result, the truth remains every victory comes with a loss, every action comes with an inaction, every gain comes with a sacrifice, thus Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best in the world because he sacrifices a lot of his visceral needs and dedicates his time more to getting better, Serena Williams is the best at what she does because she always wants to get better. Thus, losing weight means being disciplined, cautious and conscious about what you eat or drink, getting good grades means dedicating more time to studying and reducing time spent on things that will not add any value to you academically, achieving your dream means defining your path and staying true to your goals.
To keep yourself on track or to know whether or not you are disciplined, always take time out to answer this question which I describe as “Reality Check”; “What value does the activity which I’m engaged in add to my long term goals? If it doesn’t improve your life in any way, please ignore it, I do not advocate a boring life, of course, entertainment is therapeutic and we all need that once in a while, I only suggest that once you have determined a cause of action, do not give up until you achieve the desired result and this entails you being disciplined. Do not participate in activities because you feel like, because in reality, the world is for thinkers and not feelers, in other words, you have to subdue your visceral needs or desires.
Of course, the chronometer will never wait, and why are you alive if you are not adding any value to the world? You deserve no right to go to the grave as someone with potential; all the inherent skills you have will remain as potential if there are no conscious efforts to transform it to entelechy (actuality). Remember, in the words of Serena Williams, “nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream”, i.e. thinking keeps the adventures of life bottled in your head, and acting (with discipline) makes you a hero!
About the Author:
Damilola Oyebayo
LinkedIn: @ Oyebayo Damilola, Twitter: @Oyebayod, blog: http://www.alpinedna.com
Damilola Oyebayo is considered one of the world’s young motivational writers and speakers and is the founder of Reality Check, a consulting column that helps readers discover their dreams, improve their skills and lead value-oriented lives with the aim to make the world a better place.
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