The theme that kept coming up OVER AND OVER again in my mastermind this week was how a lot of people in the world just simply quit.
Many people slow down or completely stop when the going gets tough. Looking at the world right now, there is a lot of blame for why people don’t have what they want. Whether it’s blaming the economy, the president, their job, or something outside of themselves, blaming is an epidemic.
Bare with me, the good news is coming up.
Working hard is necessary to change the world. Notice I said working hard is necessary. As humans and as entrepreneurs, we often mistake “working hard” for “struggling.”
You can have a blast while working hard. It can be fun. The time can fly.
When I was in middle school, my parents bought some land and started building our dream home. They were literally building it with their own hands. They worked full time jobs and as a family we built this home on nights and weekends.
As a family of six, we lived in a single-wide trailer that was on the back of the building lot. We would walk out of our trailer and literally take a few steps to be met with a project to finish this dream house. The four of us kids slept in the master bedroom and my parents slept in the second bedroom that could barely fit their queen bed. There was a tiny kitchen and a living room. We all shared one small bathroom.
And guess what? Some of my fondest memories are from living in that trailer for almost two years. We had fun. And we worked damn hard, including all of us kids.
It was an average day when I would be making dinner and helping my sisters with homework, while my brother and parents were working on a project in the house. Then we’d all go out and work after dinner until bedtime and I would get my sisters to bed while my parents typically stayed up until midnight or later to work on the house. We did this every day for two years.
Probably the reason why I own all of the power tools in my house as an adults is because as a teenager I did everything from pour cement, to put up sheetrock and drywall, to framing and finish work. To this day, I LOVE the smell of saw dust.
WE DID WHAT EVER IT TOOK. There was no going back.
While we could sell an unfinished house and move out of the trailer into a “regular” house, we were all too invested in it. We all saw the dream. We walked through the framed house and pictured our soon-to-be bedrooms and the “library” where we would watch movies as a family. We looked up at the ceiling in our new kitchen and imagined the 15 foot vaulted ceilings with a skylight.
Then we would go back into our single wide trailer with smiles on our faces and gratitude in our souls because we knew what we were working for.
We bonded as a family. And there were moments that it could seem like it really sucked. But THAT was the illusion. The truth was we could make it be whatever we wanted. And we chose the dream.
What is your dream? How hard are you willing to work for it? What are you going to tell yourself when it’s tempting to get discouraged?
After being in our dream home for several years, my dad got laid off from his job and we had to sell the dream house because my parents just couldn’t make it happen any longer. It was time to create chapter two of our dream.
Are you choosing your dream? When the dream changes, are you willing to see the next version of your dream?
Are you willing to work while everyone else goes to sleep because you can feel the dream in your soul and THAT is what drives you so you don’t notice the blisters on your hands? Do you look at your well worked hands with pride that those two hands built something bigger than you could have imagined?
Several of my mastermind members told me how they respected how I persevered and despite obstacles like losing $40,000 on my first event, family challenges, personal challenges and everything in between, I keep going. I turned a $40,000 loss into repeated 6-figure events the next year.
During those periods of time when I kept just putting one foot in front of the other, it often felt lonely. I would look to my left and not see a whole lot of people, if anyone. I would look to my right and sometimes see no one. I walked forward because I saw the dream, even if no one else did.
There is not a lot of traffic in the extra mile.
Want to know how to be different and get noticed in a sea of people who do what you do? Stay in the game. A lot of people talk the talk, and find convenient ways to not show up. If you just stay in the game and keep working hard, you have done what most people won’t do.
On a livestream I saw Ali Brown do recently, she said something that really made me thing of the tenacity it takes to be truly different. Less than 3% of the people in the US make over $180,000 per year. That means you have to think differently than 97% of all of the people out there. You are different. And some people will even call you crazy.
Really take that in.
YOU are doing this. Stay in the game. The world needs you. The more of us who stay in that extra mile the more support we have when we look around.
Your breakthrough is in the extra mile. Keep going.
With Love and To Your Success!
Angella
P.S. If you want to be part of a mastermind experience that I described in this article, contact me for a complimentary strategy session. I have a few spots available in my 2013 mastermind that is currently underway. This is for you if you know 2013 is holding your dreams and you want to make it happen. It will require hard work. And your support team to cheer you on and guide you through the extra mile is ready for YOU. https://www.timetrade.com/book/V42K6
