✳️ Hard Work ✳️ Hustle ✳️ ...and when 100% is not enough ✳️

Hey everyone! I hope your day is going well. Let's talk about what it means to hustle.

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The term hustle, for all practical purposes, refers to your hard work towards a particular goal. I already mentioned the importance of making a decision to go after a goal in a previous post.
Now, once you make the decision to pursue a goal, you have to follow through ...and THAT is the hard part.

Follow Through

Why is it hard to follow through? What makes it difficult for most people to reach their goals? Here is what I have always noticed (and I mean always).
Life has this funny way of challenging you, almost without fail, as soon as you make that decision to become more than you were. Then, guess what? You have to make another decision right after that - I just hate that sometimes. 😊Why can't I just pursue my goal, with no obstacles, and get it done?
I WISH 😀
That has never happened to me - not once. This is where your follow through comes in.

As I mentioned, life has a way of challenging you every single time you make "The Decision." Why? Because if you're not serious about your decision, you get weeded out. That sucks, but it's the truth. That's when we tend to give up on our goals.
My journey included:

• Working 6 days a week when I first started teaching (before kids)
• Often, no days off to build my business
• Having to paint a house to make extra money to start my business. A bank loan was not in the cards
• Two of my sister-in-laws died
• One of my best friends lost his wife
• Worked while I had the flu
• Worked while I had strep throat
• Worked while I had bronchitis (which was nearly pneumonia by the time I got to the doctor)
• Building a business while taking care of two special needs children
• Practicing guitar 6-9 hours a day (forgoing parties and hanging out usually)
  

This list could go on and on. I am not saying you should risk spreading the flu around. 😊But, quite often, we get a little cough, and that gives us an excuse to NOT pursue our goals at that moment. Sometimes we even think to ourselves, "I'm tired, I'm giving 100%." What we don't realize is that often 100% is just not enough.

When 100% is Not Enough

Those of us who are/were athletes know the feeling of running to get in shape for football, volleyball, track etc. Remember how you struggled to get in those first laps, first mile, first few times up and down the bleachers? You struggle, and struggle to the point of wanting to quit, but then you make a decision to "push through" the agony of continuing on. That, my friends, is where the magic happens. It is in this moment, AFTER the agony and pain barrier that you find your success. Giving 100% just might get you to even ...not above, not below, just average.

The Take

• Make a decision to pursue your goal
• Expect the obstacles and barriers
• Make another decision to "push through" those barriers
• Rinse and Repeat 😊

Some people want to reach their goals without having any "skin in the game."
Having skin in the game refers to the "battle scars" you get from having to fight for something. If you don't have any skin in the game, chances are, most often, that you will quit striving for those goals when an obstacle gets in your way. Worse yet, is half-heartedly pursuing a goal. The tendency, most often, is that life does indeed weed you out; you loose what you don't have to hustle for.

Let's do something great today!!

gif by @stellabelle
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