Life is freaking hard. It’s easy to give up on your dreams.
It’s cushy to settle into comfort. But, laziness leads to a challenging and non-productive life. Working hard and exercising discipline also make life difficult. Either choice is difficult, but one leads to poor health, constant struggle, few accomplishments, and low life satisfaction.
If you’re comfortable in mediocrity, then you’re in for a world of disappointment. If you’re unable to look at your surroundings and change things at will, then you will always remain where you are.
If I dropped you into the middle of the woods, could you see building supplies and resources? Or do you just wither and die?
You are responsible for your life. Choosing laziness means a constant struggle with finances, romance, family relationships, etc. No one desires to share a life with someone who is unwilling to change.
So you can choose relaxation, or you can choose to build through hard work.
I chose the productive hard road. You don’t have to follow me. Follow your own hard road. It will lead you to new knowledge, more money, new friendships, and an overall sense of purpose.
It’s all hard. Life is hard. But like my pops told me, “the time passes anyway.” Your tomorrow may as well be better than today.
When I was pursuing Urology, I spent a short time in small-town Illinois at a regional hospital. I was blessed to have friends in that small town and spent the two weeks in a guest room. I finished my time in the hospital and packed up my belongings on Friday night. Saturday morning, I carried my two bags and book bag down the stairs. When I opened the door, my car was gone. Sh**!
I ended up filling a police report and booking a bus ticket back to Chicago. I rented a car to drive to an interview the following week because my car hadn’t been recovered. After about 2-3 weeks, my car was found stashed near an apartment complex. There was damage to the undercarriage due to joyriding.
During residency, I got a dog. But I didn’t register the dog with the apartment complex. I’d had the dog for nearly two years before I got a letter in the mail from the property manager. I submitted paperwork on the dog, but they told me I needed to leave because the dog broke the breed policy.
I ended up moving into my fiance’s grandmother’s empty house. It was rundown, small, and in a deeply wooded area. I did some simple renovations over 2-3 months while still working 80+ hours each week in residency.
I bring up these stories to illustrate that struggles come whether you’re striving for something or not. Make the strife worth something to you. Learn from it. Get better. Get stronger. Get more efficient. Make more money.
Here are your Doctor’s Orders.
Start small. Do one thing today that you’ve been putting off.
Gain momentum. Do the next logical step tomorrow. It may mean repeating the action from before if repetition is necessary.
Develop some consistency, even if the actions are small. Get 1% better each day.
Be easy my people.
