When The Going Gets Tough, Work Harder

Daily Blog #342

When the going gets tough, what are you more likely to do? Are you more likely to give up on yourself and allow your fears to control the life that you live? Or are you going to be somewhat of a badass and fight with every last ounce of energy until you achieve what it is that you want to achieve?

The last week or so has been somewhat of a struggle for me. Work has been consuming my life, and I have been allowing the stress of work to dictate my emotions. It even got to the point where I was asking myself if it was really worth it to be chasing my dreams, or if I should just be settling for something more mediocre in life.

I’m not going to lie, part of me still wishes I were taking the easy way out. At least that way I wouldn’t have to be dealing with rejection and anxiety.

At the same time, however, I know that taking the easy way out will never get me any closer to achieving my dreams. The minute that I give up on myself and everything that I believe in, my life goes from what is or what could be, to a life full of thinking what if. What if I would have worked harder? What if I wouldn’t have given up on myself?

No offense to anybody else in the world, but that isn’t really how I want to live my life. I don’t want to look back when I am older and regret my past. And you shouldn’t either. That’s why when the going gets tough, you need to work harder.

Every single one of us is going to face our own roadblocks in life. But that doesn’t mean that we should give up. It means that we should find a different route to our destination, and work harder than we had been working before. If what we are currently doing is not getting us to where it is that we want to be, then we need to be willing to work harder.

I work a commission based job. The end of the month is when all of our reporting is due, and when we have to turn in our final numbers. This month, I am absolutely tanking it. I am doing the same thing that I have always been doing, but the results just aren’t reflecting that.

No matter how badly I want to give up, and no matter how badly I want to raise the white flag, I know that I would only be hurting myself by doing so. Not only would I be making less commission than I am already going to make, but I would also be teaching myself that it’s okay to quit on myself when I experience a roadblock.

Instead, I have gone into work each and every day, clawing for every single penny, and giving it my best despite making little headway. Why? Because that’s what I need to do in order to succeed. I don’t want to make less money. I don’t want my reporting to look bad. And I definitely don’t want to fall into the habit of giving up when an obstacle stands in my way. That’s why when the going gets tough, I simply work harder.

I’m not perfect, and I have excepted that. I’m not the most talented person either, and I have accepted that as well. But if you throw me into a room of a group of strangers, I know that I will be the hardest working individual in that room. Not because I think I am better than anybody else, but because I have an end goal that I want to achieve, and I am not going to stop for anything until I achieve it.

The point is, everything in your life is a result of your decisions. If you are satisfied and content with where it is that you are in life, then I apologize for wasting your time as this was probably not for you. But if you want to achieve bigger and better in your life, if you want to accomplish your dreams, and if you want to be happier, then you need to be willing to invest in yourself and go all in.

Every single day life is going to present new obstacles and challenges that are going to test your will. Again, though, this doesn’t mean that you give up. When the going gets tough, work harder. If you don’t, you will never know what you are truly capable of achieving.

Michael Bonnell

4/7/2019

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