Real Effort

As I said earlier, we give up too easily. But it’s not really our fault.

Often, we forget that it takes a lot of effort to become an expert at something, from playing football to computer programming. We might get inspired by a violin concerto, and that causes you to buy a cheap violin and begin to practice. Many times, we can practice really hard for a while, but many people give it up after a few weeks.

Why?

We’re used to seeing stories of inspiration all around us, how the subject of the story worked very hard to achieve their dream, and they usually do. That sets us up for failure, often causing us to quit when we see that we’re not achieving our goal in the amount of time we expected, ranging anywhere from, as I said above, several weeks, to even years.

We must internalize the fact that any kind of goal often takes years to master. This can range from a hobby, like skateboarding, to a job, like sales. The idea that we get from media is that it might take a little time, but very soon you’ll be able to reach your goal. That’s not true!

We have to be realistic about the amount of time we're ready to put into achieving something. If not, we may never accomplish anything that we're really proud of.