“So be sure when you step, step with care and great tact.
And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act.
And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you’ll move mountains”.
Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
Some days, I have to back up, sit down, take ten quick, sharp breathes and ask myself: “Am I just lazy or this just isn’t for me?”
And then I remember I need to calm down to take the right decision.
And I go:
(And get me something sweet to give me the sugar rush I need ? )
But don’t you just hate those moments?
Nothing is more work than work that bears no fruits.
It’s insanely nerve-racking, and the longer it remains this way, the closer we are to breaking.
And maybe a nervous breakdown.
It all looks like a waste of time, resources and energy.
And a couple of times, it unfortunately is.
However, somewhere between throwing in the towel and persevering on, is taking a moment to ask ourselves: “Is there really something here for me, is this worth holding on to?”
Too many people keep fighting battles that have been lost right from the beginning, and more give up just as victory’s around the corner. And so it’s important to take time out to ask and answer that necessary question, once and for all.
And how do you decide if your answer should be positive or not?
One Condition I totally believe in :
The Only Time You Should Keep Working At Something Producing No Results Is When You Know It Should Be Producing Results.
Let’s face it: Our guts and personal perceptions of ourselves are hardly ever wrong.
A good number of times, we know some things are meant to be, and others, well, we can’t be so confident.
Say I’m given a project to write twenty poems under a week, I won’t get paranoid.
If I have to learn an instrument under a month… well, I’ve owned a Harmonica since I was ten.
All I got is the first line of “Here Comes The Bride”.
You picture how that’ll turn out.
However, when I say “…When You Know You Should Be Producing Results”, I’m not referring to your self-confidence, or your belief that you do deserve it.
I’m not even talking about how hard you’ve been working at it alone.
And apart from our gut feelings, there are four key traits that if possessed, I have come to see are sure to guarantee results, sooner or later, and you only need to hold on a teeny-weeny (or a lot!) more.
And what are these factors that should help you know?
I’m talking Potential.
I’m talking Knowledge.
I’m talking Passion.
I’m talking Skills.
You should be seeing them.
Anyone around you should be seeing them.
Crystal clear.
You should ooze and reek of them.
You should live and breathe and eat and sleep them.
I really do not know of anything that kicks these four off their spot. Nothing stands in the way of an embodiment endowed with them and a couple more extras. Nothing.
Why should you fancy these factors as much as I do? Let’s pick at them individually.
With Potential, comes an edge. It represents that likelihood.
That chance, that possibility.
It’s that power — resources, that most likely have been left untapped or lie underdeveloped.
So examine that situation for yourself, do you just know it that this is still attainable for you?
Are there resources that you believe only need to be unlocked so they can get to work?
Talents and abilities just looking to be groomed?
Is there a chance that doing less of this and more of that can lead to even a trickle of reward?
Potential is usually only looking to be polished, watered, tenderized.
Think of it as a seed.
Just because you got a seed buried in a hole doesn’t automatically mean you have an apple tree.
It is definitely awesome, and of course, the crucial starting point, but you’re going to need more than that.
Much more.
And then there’s knowledge.
If there’s something I learnt from studying Information And Communication Technology in High School, it’s that there are different stages in analyzing a data.
Same applies with Information and Knowledge.
Being knowledgeable is on another platform of its own.
Don’t mix them up.
Information is something given, something told. Most times, involving a middle man, a third party in between. Most times, unverified.
That wouldn’t do.
Knowledge is a step further, a sense of true awareness, of understanding.
It’s approaching things with clearer perceptive. It’s the ability to be more concise. Because you’ve known.
It’s going past the step of “X, Y, Z”.
It’s going a step further to “Before X and Y, U and V has to be out of the way and X and Y are products of them because there is an order to be followed”.
To hit gold, you have to dig deeper.
You have to know.
And now, this thing called passion.
Have you seen a person burning with a passion?
No, really, have you?
I swear their entire being just lights up when they’re on that passion of theirs.
I’d include a quote from the writer of my favourite book that I never stop talking about: Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert.
She had always known writing was going to be it, according to stories of her I’ve read, regardless of about seven years of rejection she faced.
I recently stumbled on a YouTube video where she gave a talk, passion related, and at a point she went (talking to her passion — writing);
“I will never ask you to support me financially. I will support both of us. I will do whatever I have to do to pay the rent and you and I will have a love affair on the side of this that is not contingent upon monetization”.
P.s- I will forever love this woman.
(And if you have never read her bestselling book, I can absolutely guarantee your addiction to it if you ever take it upon yourself to read it.)
Elizabeth went ahead to also discourage the mentality we like to carry around that your passion has to pay the bills for you.
Right from the start.
It will darling, I am positive it will, but in its on time.
So take your eyes off of that.
I like to think of passion as the all-time most important thing.
Because it doesn’t really matter what you’re into or working on, everyday won’t be a smooth ride.
Some days would look impossible. Along the line once in a while, things would get tough.
If you have zero passion or very little interest in whatsoever you’re doing, you most likely won’t be patient enough to stick around for the big reward.
I see a lot of people go into something because of monetary rewards alone, or other benefits they’ve been promised would turn up.
If you don’t carry out that thing with enthusiasm and zeal and passion, the chances of seeing those benefits are slim.
With passion, you won’t need to constantly, consistently, religiously, relentlessly, keep checking for when they start rolling in, because you’re in it for something more than that.
So if you have no love for what you do, stop doing it. Please.
If you do, believe me when I say you’re simply unstoppable.
Hang in there. Get lost in that love. It’s almost here.
And last on my list, Skills.
Too many times we forget, it’s not about working hard, it’s working smart.
And you know why most people forget this?
Because when you really take your time to place these two side by side, and then compare and contrast, working smart requires more work than working hard.
It’s more work just once though, that’s the good part.
A Give-it-your-very-best-shot-and-go-to-sleep sort of situation.
And it’s why those who succeed really succeed.
People are lazy. Simple.
People don’t want to think. It’s less work to simply conform and do what everyone else does.
We all know how to work hard: Put in all your time and effort and hours and keep doing more and keep pushing.
But for a person who’s skilled, dexterity and craftiness is the way to go.
You don’t go through the path everyone is going through — can’t you see it’s already crowded?
Instead, examine alternatives.
Find your own path.
Fish it out.
Skills are usually acquired, but require a dash of reasoning abilities and a whole lot of creativity.
You need to want to reason and think.
So, tell me:
Thinking of quitting something giving very minute or no rewards after a reasonable period of working at it?
Yes?
Tell me, with these pointers in your hands now, what do you think, do you just know you should be seeing something, no matter how little it trickles in?
This is no trick question.
I want you to ask yourself, and I want you to give an answer.
There’s no Maybe. There’s a Yes and there’s a No.
You won’t need to sleep on the matter.
You don’t need hours deciding.
It should only take some seconds of your time.
And if you’ve got a different point of view, how do you know when to quit and when not to?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, or anything really, through the comments section.
Pretty please?
And if this made any sense to you, please do me the favour of sharing with anyone you think needs to see this too.
Do more this week — I’m counting on you!
Deliciously Yours To Savour,
Ima | Loveasuquo.com.
