Do you know the difference between a goal and a dream?
A goal is something that you are actively working HARD for while a dream is just something you wish would happen to you.
I bet that many of you reading this are sat there thinking "I'm working hard for my dreams". I bet many of you post how dedicated you are on Facebook and Twitter and love the odd motivational picture on Instagram (don't we all).
I love that, I really do. I'm all about people working hard towards a specific goal that will help them live the life they want.
However there seems to be a growing number of people out there who have forgot what HARD WORK actually is.
There seems to be a large number of people who have an entitled out look on their goals. People who seem to think that just because they are good at something, that people should support them and financially fund them towards their goal. Or even worse, that success will magically happen if they just keep doing what they love.
This is not the case.
I don't care how good you are, how many medals or shows that you have won or what kind of champion you are.
YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO ANYTHING.
It is your responsibility to finance, fuel and provide the hard work necessary to achieve YOUR goals.
They are no one else's.
Let me give you a hypothetical example of what I am talking about.
Say we have an athlete that is very good at their sport. They live at home with their Mother and Father and have no job except becoming better at their sport.
They practice every day, working on the sport that they love. They don't consider it 'work' as it is an activity that they love with all their heart. Now say that this individual has had some success on the competitive circuit. They have won a few local torments and placed well at a few international ones as well.
They then decide that either a trip to a well established training centre, a trip abroad to compete or some other kind of trip that costs a large amount of money will benefit them and their goal. The individual does not work but decides to set up a Just Giving page or something similar to gain the funds necessary to make the trip. They then ask all their friends, family, training partners etc to give them money so that they can continue to chase their dream.
They are basically begging for free money to take a trip.
I'm sorry but this just isn't right! Where is all the 'hard work' you said you were putting in? Where is the 'Grind' you talked about on Facebook? Why should anyone help you when you won't even help yourself?
People like this are just plain lazy. If you are not willing to put in hard work to support yourself then any should anyone else?
Here is a list of things that an athlete I know did every week so that they could save up to travel to New Zealand to train. The individual is a full time student living in privately rented accommodation.
- Train 11 sessions a week.
- Study full time (second year University student studying Biochemistry)
- Work 2 jobs. 1 weekend job, 1 night time job.
- Cleans the training facility 3 times a week (to train for free)
- Cares for his two dogs.
He also asked for zero money to take take the trip. Not a penny. Not from parents, friends, training partners or sponsors. He did it all on his own.
Now I'm not saying that dreams shouldn't be chased. I'm a firm believer in chasing the life that you want. I tell all the kids in schools when I give talks that they CAN have the life that they want but they have to work for it, that their goal can be their reality.
Most of the time it won't come through traditional channels, or even come at once. But the deciding factor in realising any goal is that you must work hard (harder than you think). There is always struggle, there is real sacrifice. There is always a huge amount of failures before success.
There is always HARD WORK!
We seem to have forgotten that to achieve any dream you must WORK HARD. This involves doing things you don't want to do. This is early mornings and late nights, finding a way to support yourself and not ask for handouts, finding a way to turn DREAMS into GOALS and into reality.
If you can't put the work in then you can't have it. Everything has a price whether you like it or not. Not willing to pay the price? Can't have it. That's the universes law not mine.
No one should be supporting your dreams more than you.
Work hard.
Mike
