There is No Shine Without the Grind

Entitled. This word is not a good one to be associated with your character. While it is not inherently bad to “expect” things, it shows a very naive and unempathetic view of the world if this is what people think of you. But why? Well it’s simple, things don’t always work out how we think they should! This world is hard to live in for many. Many people work hard, many people sacrifice, many people dream big, many people do all the small things the right way and never even get a shot at their goal. Why? Life isn’t fair. 


I write this today not to focus on how life isn’t fair, but to highlight how there is a movement of young and old people alike that think they should get everything they want. This in itself is completely illogical. If we all got what we wanted all the time how would there be any balance in the world? How would their be anyone in control? It wouldn’t exist, we’d all be trying to tell eachother what to do. In life there will always be levels of success, and while I hope for success for everyone, it will always vary in degree. 

You can’t have the shine without the grind and that what I see misunderstood the most. Many people want something, but don't actually love and want the actions that are necessities in having that “something’. For example, they may want to be a CEO, or be a founder of a company but want to live a lavish and fancy lifestyle. See, this actually isn’t how it works. Did you know to start a business you’ve got to be willing to put others ahead of yourself, especially if you want the company to grow, and yes this is especially true with finances. Everything must go back into the business and you must create opportunities for others to work for you! Another example is to want to make it to the CrossFit Games as one of the fittest athletes in the whole world but not really love to trian that much. News flash, CrossFit Games athletes would workout every single day of their life for no reason other than to be happy and sane even if the CrossFit Games never existed. My point is that if you want to be one of them and hope to beat them, then you better LOVE to workout, you better LOVE to train, you better LOVE to suffer, you better LOVE to learn. No, it isn’t good enough to just be ok with doing those things, you have to love them, have passion for them, seem slightly if not completely addicted to them. 


And the most common flaw I see is people don’t love to learn. I’m not talking about school type of learning. I’m talking about give your best effort, give all you’ve got, fail, fix, work some more and repeat the effort time and time and time and time again. Do you understand? That IS the grind. Those are the lessons that give you the edge that break you through to the next level but they are hard lessons. They can be heartbreaking, which is why they make most people want to quit. 

Can you stand the grind? Can you bear the lessons? Are you willing to try, and try, and try, and try again? Are you willing to put off your payday? Are you willing to put others first? Are you willing to sacrifice even when you don’t know if it will actually ever work or pay off? If you aren’t then you’ll never accomplish anything great. If you aren’t, then you simply want the shine without the grind and they aren’t sold separately.