Business Mindset

Is It Possible to Enjoy The Push for Success?

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I sometimes wonder if I would have come as far as I have, had I known how relentlessly tough it would be.

When I started blogging in ’07, it was with a desire to uplevel myself as a personal trainer who offered more than most, as well as with the vague idea that I could ‘get somewhere’ with my writing and finally with the knowledge that online was the way to go, certainly if I wanted to escape trading time for money and become a lifestyle entrepreneur. Whatever that was 🙂

I didn’t have a business plan, an income plan, a strategy or even a blogging plan.

And for most of the time since then I’ve beat myself up about that, imagined how much faster I could have progressed.

But at the same time I can’t help but ask myself –

If I’d known what I was in for, would I have set out on this path? Yes, I now own a multi-national company that generates multiple-6-figures each year and is doubling in profitability annually, but I’ve really only reached that point in the last 18-24 months and it’s not as though I could have predicted it sooner. Both the income, and the lifestyle that goes with it.

And the getting there? Was bloody hard work.

What’s more, the truth is that it still is and still must be. Just for a lot less time each day and a lot more money 🙂

I think at the very least I’d have wanted some sort of guarantee in exchange for my 4-5 years of working my ass off before the money and lifestyle really happened.

So it’s damn lucky that I didn’t have even an inkling how hard it would be; how long it would take, isn’t it?

Now.

I don’t want for a second to imply that in order to create YOUR dream life you must first dedicate 4-5 years – or indeed any particular period of time – to slaving your guts out.

Nor do I want to imply that it was not enjoyable hard work. I love writing. I love creating. I love inspiring and guiding people. But no, I can’t say I loved worrying if I’d ever ‘make it’ as a writer or an entrepreneur, and worry I did on those long days, weeks and months when it seemed at times as though I wasn’t getting anywhere and perhaps never would.

Worry, and also wonder at times if I shouldn’t just go back to what I knew – being a super-busy and super-successful personal trainer.

So here is what I want to say to you, if you’re at a point right now where as much as you love it you’re also scared that it’s not really going anywhere –

Firstly.

It can’t be just about the outcome. You HAVE TO enjoy the journey. If you don’t? Change your attitude or change the path you’re on.

And secondly. Nobody ever promised it would be easy, this success thing; this dream life creation thing. Did they?

And if they did? There’s a damn good chance they’re all talk and no real results.

So let’s talk about you. About your dream. And I’m going to make some basic assumptions. At some point – perhaps even from the very beginning, from before you can remember – you stepped away from following the road well traveled and you decided to take responsibility. To CREATE this beautiful life of yours. To find a way to have the financial, time and joy abundance you desire rather than that which the world dishes out to you.

And even though you knew it wouldn’t just ‘happen’ there was part of you that thought that choosing – heck even knowing you COULD choose – was the really big work. And that now that the choice had been made and that you were COMMITTED to your success, reaching it was a sure thing.

And so you did the work.

You SHOWED UP.

You laid out your goals and dreams in your journal and to friends and you took action every damn day, or close to it.

You did the courses, the inner work, the outer work. Hired coaches. Did research. And you started to create your dreams for your business and life.

Filled with excitement and anticipation of what was to come, what was already underway.

Onward and upward you pressed, ignoring the helpful warnings from family and friends, ignoring your own inner doubts when they occasionally popped up.

PUSHING. Demanding your birthright, your right to live the life you choose.

And then one day, all of a sudden although probably not suddenly at all, that doubting Thomas within you suddenly grew some guts. Because although you tried not to go down this path, you couldn’t help wondering why it was taking so long. Why it had to be so damn hard. Why everyone else was doing so well and you just seemed to be battling to get ANYWHERE.

And whether perhaps your efforts were in total vain anyway. Whether you truly COULD create the sort of incredible life you’d been dreaming of for so long.

And where you’d been flying, unstoppable, filled with energy and inspiration you suddenly started to feel heavy, uninspired, unenthused, and exhausted.

Every day became more overwhelming, less aligned, more of a drain than a delight.

But yet, for some reasons you don’t even fully understand yourself, and despite how obvious it might seem to others to do so, you just couldn’t bring yourself to walk away. Couldn’t, and can’t.

Because the problem with knowing that you do have a choice in how your life plays out?

Is that you know.

And once you know, how can you not keep pushing?

Really, how can you not?

So back you go. Back to dreaming, to journaling, to creating that beautiful vision of yours.

Back to PUSHING.

Because that’s what it’s all about, really, isn’t it?

The push.

And you do it every damn day.

And if you truly refuse to give up, if you INSIST that success and living your dream be yours, then you push even when you don’t feel like it. Even when you’re not inspired. Even when you have no idea how.

And sometimes pushing means being willing to stop, to reflect, to make the tough decisions about what to strive for and what to let go of, and sometimes the pushing is emotional, sometimes mental or spiritual and sometimes even physical, but what it never is and never will be is half-hearted or dependent on ‘hoping for the best’.

What it is about? Pushing is about giving more than you’re able. More than you want to. More than you CAN. It’s about ‘I can’t, I won’t, I don’t know how, but I WILL’

And mostly, if you want to actually live your dreams now, it’s about learning to enjoy the push. To stop waiting for one day. To become one with that pushing rather than to continually fight it.

Yes, even when it’s hard.

Even when it’s relentlessly so.

Even when it HURTS, goddammit it.

And, of course, when it’s so damn good you want to dance down the street, laptop in hand, and your dreams paving the way both before and ahead of you.

I wonder, had I have had a crystal ball, if I would have forged on ahead to this life I’ve created, had I known just how tough it would be. Had I have known just how much that pushing would hurt, would at times tear me apart.

And the truth is of course that I can’t say for certain.

But what I do know is this.

I’m ready to keep pushing baby. I’ve got big dreams still to create.

And by damn am I going to get them out.

So firstly – let’s commit, together, to keep pushing. Creating. Demanding our birthright, and make space for our dreams every damn day.

Secondly, let’s commit to choosing to enjoy the process. You know you can, right?

And thirdly, let’s commit to relentlessly chasing our true dreams not just the ones we think we should settle for.

Because if you’re going to push? You might as well do it for something that counts.

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