The things you can't quite "GET" on your own, the things you work hard for, those are the things that really mean something. The things you fail at over and over and over again, those are the things that get us defeated and try to break us. That's when the voices in our head, say, you're never gonna "get" it, you're never going to fix it, you're just never ever. And then most of us quit. I quit because I like to catch on to things fast, and if I can't do it today or tomorrow, than I don't want to do it. I want to pick the things I am already good at. But when I do that I miss the sweet victory of something better, something harder, something that means so much more.
For me today that was as simple as a movement I have been trying to get for a year. You can watch here. A muscle-up was my goal last year and stringing them together is my new goal. In the grand scheme of things, that is a non-important goal, one that will not save the world, or really matters in the grand scheme of things.
But here's what that seemingly small, hard win does for me. It trains my mind that I can do something I work hard at. I can fail and fail, and see progress down the road. It might take days, months, even years or many years, but one day I will "GET IT."
So when something really important, something that really matters in the grand scheme of life, that is REALLY hard comes my way, my mind will be trained to say, "This is just how we do." We try, try, try, fail, fail, fail, get back up and try again, until we get it. We dig and we grind, and we get frustrated and we keep doing it, because we remember we have done it before.
The more I fail, the more effort I put into it, the sweeter the victory. And for me, it motivates me to keep going.
So try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, will just start to be a natural part of me. The part of me that doesn’t quit but that knows one day I will see progress. Most days will be failures, but then one day I will just get it, not because of luck, but because I put in the work.
What are the things you are really working hard at?
What are the things that make you feel defeated, but you keep trying it anyways?
What progress have you seen to keep you motivated and going?
Where do you feel stuck or that it's never going to change? It could be a job, an idea, a relationship, or something more simple that you just know you can do, but have to keep working at it. Keep trying, keep failing, train yourself to know what that feels like, so when the big things come knocking you will know this is just "how you do."