[quote style=”boxed”]You will never know where you’re going wrong unless you take your time[/quote]
Is it possible to succeed whilst taking your time?
When I look back on my past successes, it’s clear that many of them had involved a streak of failures and mishaps along the way, causing a tremendous amount of frustration and disappointment.
It’s perhaps a common theme, which every successful person goes through when learning and pursuing a new endeavor. Hardly any of them have an easy ride due to not knowing what to do and learning through experience.
There are also people however who i’ve come across who seem to have an easy time. They coast through life with no hardship with success often being a straight line upwards. This would often frustrate me to see knowing how hard it was for me going through a similar process but not having it as easy.
The truth is, there is rarely ever an easy way out
In time as i’ve gotten older, i’ve seen many of these individuals hit hard as of when they experienced an ounce of failure. It had given me the realization that failure and adversity is perhaps the most important thing when trying to succeed because without it, it is seemingly close to impossible to deal with due to not previously experiencing it and learning how to handle it.
Kathleen Caron wrote a really great article recently on her blog and asks the question whether slow and steady wins the race. She uses the ‘Tortoise and the Hare’ story and has an interesting take on it; describing the Tortoise as a bad example given the analogy of success.
How could a Tortoise succeed if it’s nature is to simply defend itself in times of danger or threat? A fair point indeed…
It’s clear that in looking at success and failure as it is, many of us are simply too afraid of taking action. This is most commonly true with people who are unaware of their thought patterns and belief systems. However I would argue that most of us given the situation are Tortoises for this very reason.
Unless we have an easy time like the Hare does, it is simply too painful for most of us to want to face rejection or hardship. This is clearly evident when looking at Advertisements. Most Advertisers are clearly aware of this and use this to their advantage in order to sell products and services.
“Look younger with just a few applications”
“7 days to whiter teeth”
“How I lost 12lb of fat in just 10 days”
Given the choice, we would much rather experience peace of mind than to go through a series of pains and frustrations in order to see results.
How to turn this around
Why we can’t deny our nature and subconscious reaction to things. It does become imperative to realize how important it is to learn how to observe our behaviors and to become conscious of it as of when it happens. For the simple reason:
We are naturally designed for comfort, which doesn’t conform well to becoming successful.
In order to succeed, we must go through hardship and challenges in order to better prepare us for it further down the line once we’re successful.
Watch the following video below where I explain this in visual form.
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To sum up, here are 2 key reasons why succeeding takes time in order to see benefits.
1) You get to experience all possibilities
Experience is essential if you’re to become successful at your chosen field. What this does is it will help you see every possible aspect of failure you could potentially come across, which will help you calibrate and make better decisions in your life.
The less of this you get to experience, the harder it will be for you further down the line. Take your time and embrace the challenge as it will better serve you moving forward.
2) The more hardship you experience, the stronger you will become
In my life, I have hardly ever met a person who had a hard time in life and not come out of it a better person. We need challenges in our lives in order to develop into stronger people, which will better serve us moving forward as of when similar challenges arise. If we choose not to embrace it, it will only serve to hinder us in the future.
What are your experiences at success and failure? Please leave your comments below. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Photo credit: quinn.anya
