success is born out of discomfort, uncertainty, and risk

When I look back at the times when I have succeeded in life, and believe it or not there have been a few, one thing strikes me as germane ~ I wasn’t sitting in a comfy chair pondering the sharp changes in the price of booze since 1970.  Whenever I achieved something important and worthwhile I was uncomfortable, I wasn’t living in the humdrum of my everyday existence, I was operating well outside of my comfort zone.

When we take risks we feel nervous and uncertain, afraid and uncomfortable.  If it’s taking risks with our career, leaving a shitty and dysfunctional relationship, going all-in on a game of cards, or trying to run our first half-marathon, our biggest wins are always born out of discomfort, uncertainty, and risks.

Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, and difficulty.  ~  Theodore Roosevelt

Usually the more uncomfortable I felt, the greater the risks I took, the harder something was to do, when it was almost impossible, then the bigger the success I achieved, the more self-confident I became, and the greater sense of achievement I felt at the end.

And that’s why true success is so rare, why so few people accomplish anything important, and why so few people ever do anything different ~ most people don’t like effort, pain, and difficulty.  Most people don’t even like hard work.

Anytime you try to do something important you will be swimming against the tide.  The people around you; family, friends, co-workers, your partner, will all tell you that what you want to do is stupid, impossible, and wrong.  The more challenging, unique, and off the wall your project is, the stronger the criticism and negative judgementalism will be.  All the people who think they know you will not like you doing something different.  You are not only challenging yourself, you are also challenging their cosy little worlds too.

Ignore the critics, the Job’s comforters, the gainsayers, and the judgemental; you get on and do what you want to do to achieve your dreams, have your hearts desires, or just escape the shit life you are living right now.

There will be setbacks, things will go wrong, you will think you have bitten off more than you can chew, you will wonder WTF made to think you could dream the impossible dream, and then make it happen.  Ignore all that and just keep on keeping on.  It might be hell, but keep on going.

Learn how to be determined, learn how to adapt your plans and schemes to meet changing circumstances, learn how to ignore the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, learn how to be fucking relentless.

Some say that it’s better to stay safe than to take any risks at all.  And that it’s all just too difficult, and I want to watch my soaps instead.  All I know is that faint heart never won fair lady ~ and you can trust me on that one.

~

jack collier

jackcollier7@talktalk.net

there was a time when Churchill stood alone against the might of Nazi Germany