“Get results fast!”
“Three shakes a day and the weight will fall off!”
“Make more money in less time!”
“Take the work out of working out.”
“Just $10 a month!”
“Get more clients without leaving your house!”
All of the buzz words and phrases that inundated us. Various industries: fitness, financial, business, personal development, etc… all promising great results with minimal effort. This is the time of year where we set up goals for ourselves, where we ask “where do I want to be next year?” But what’s the secret? How do we reach our goals? If you really want to reach your goals, there are ONLY three things you need. Hard work, dedication, and trust the process.
That’s it. Any goal that you have in life can and will be achieved by adhering to the three listed above. So let’s dive into what each of those mean and look like.
1. Hard Work. What does it actually mean to work hard or be a hard worker? Is it a certain amount of time that you spend actually working that makes you a hard worker? Being a hard worker has nothing to do with quantity, rather it has to do with quality. It’s the amount of effort and energy that is put towards a task. It’s maximizing your time. I often hear others brag about how much time they spend doing a task.
“I was at the gym for three hours today.” Ok. Well. What were you doing in those three hours? Were you maximizing your time? Did you spend every minute on improving your fitness? “I was at work until 8 last night.” Awesome. Did you spend that entire time making sure that you were doing your job to the ABSOLUTE best of your ability?
Hard work hurts. Hard work means pushing through discomfort toward results. Hard work is scary. It’s scary to know that you are going to put yourself in an uncomfortable situation. However, hard work also means leaving a task with no questions. If you put in quality work, hard work, you never leave a job saying “I could have done more.” Hard work means no regrets regarding your time spent on a task.
2. Dedication. My favorite definition of dedication: putting off instant gratification for the long term result. Dedication is the daily practice that you have towards the long term goal or result. One of my favorite examples of dedication is my friend Stephanie. Last year her New Year goal was to get 10,000 steps everyday. After Steph had a long day at work and outside of work activities, and she finally gets home; all she wanted to do was go to sleep. But then she sees that she was 2,418 short, do you know what Stephanie did? She walked the hallways of her apartment complex until she got her 10,000 steps.
The daily process. What do you need to do TODAY that helps you reach your year long goal? Your three year goal? Your five year goal? We often have the mindset that “one day won’t make a difference.” But how many “one days” are you taking? If I was building a house and was making my foundation with bricks. But I replace one in seven bricks with paper mache, how strong is my foundation? Can I start making my foundation stronger and maybe start using more bricks and less paper mache?
The summation of the small habits and daily practices that make up the end result. Saying no to the things I want right now, so that I can say yes to my goal. If I want to save money, I might have to say no to fun weekends with friends, so that in a year I have saved the money. If I want to run a marathon, I may have to say no to hitting the alarm in the morning so that I can get my run in. If I am dedicated to the process that means what I am doing right now determines where I will be.
3. Trust the process. Essentially it takes time for results to be revealed. There are ups and downs there are good days, great days, garbage days. But if you continue to rely on “secret” 1 and 2 all you need is a little bit of trust. Trust the process. Eating the right amount of high quality foods is a scientifically proven process that will help you lose weight. You need to be dedicated to the daily practice of eating those foods and put some work in, like measuring those foods, and add in a trust to the process, in time you will notice the results.
You need to trust the process and have patience. Results don’t happen over night. If they do happen over night, they can probably be lost over night too. One of the best examples that I have experienced is in my fitness. I didn’t suddenly wake up with an “ability” or a “knack” for lifting. I have lots of bad days, but I have worked hard and remained dedicated, and suddenly two and a half years go by, and now I can do things that I never thought possible.
Trust the process. Appreciate the process. Appreciate where you started to where you are. Look forward to all that you have to gain.
There you have it the secrets to success. Results that last are not cheap, easy, or fast. Keep that in mind next time you see advertisements for the latest product that promises results with minimal work, resource, or time. No one profits off of your hard work, dedication, or patience.
I dare us all to work hard, remain dedicated, and have trust in the process.
Because She Dared 