by Dave Miller
The 6 demands of success are nothing new. You will have a hard time finding the person who coined the list, yet it is still making the rounds and for good reason. These are not the demands after success, they are the demands for success, and natural law seems to make sure these stay around.
1. Hard Work
There is no shortcut to success. Muddy boots, bloody knuckles, and reimagined thinking will not guarantee success, but one will be hard pressed to find success without it. You may have heard it said, ”Work smarter, not harder,” granted. But you will not find the results you are looking for from being smarter, but working smarter. There will always be work involved. Work is the path, not the obstacle.
2. Patience
Don't rush the process. It has been said that first nothing happens, then it happens slowly, then suddenly all at once. Everyone notices stage three but most people give up at stage one. If you are losing the battle with patience you are losing the war. The battles are where your head, heart and hands are trained for proficiency and resilience.
3. Sacrifice
The fear of missing out (FOMO) short-circuits success and disrupts patience, not because someone isn't willing to sacrifice, but because what they want most is usually what comes right now. The change begins when when your intentional YES list automatically creates your NO list. If you don't sacrifice for what you want, then what you want becomes the sacrifice. “No sacrifice“ is not an option, because we are limited people. You must learn to make choices, or let your choices be made for you.
4. Consistency
To be effective you need core competencies. Habitual core competencies will be affective. Improvement on habitual core competencies will be more affective. Strategic Emphasis on habitual incompetencies, while executing habitual core competencies, will create breakthrough. Excellence is born from consistency. Habits won't be life-altering today, because habits are life-altering tomorrow.
5. Discipline
Consistency requires focus. There are roughly 90-100 hours left each week after sleeping and basic life for contributing to our community and purpose. No one has the energy to give at peak performance for all 100 hours each week, but the issue is rarely too much discipline. Rather, the issue stems from the wasted hours of little to no discipline for our purpose. This little act could the start of something great. Remove distractions, do 2-4 hours of focused work, repeat daily. 25 hours weekly with intentional focused purpose and tomorrow will be life-altering, if you are patiently working hard on what matters most. When you don't feel like it, sacrifice that feeling to push through.
6. Faith
The hope that tomorrow can be better than today, does not guarantee tomorrow will be better. The other option… waiting until you are sick and tired of being sick and tired… this just delays the truth that you must begin step 1, Hard Work. The Bible teaches work itself is of value, the contribution to those around you is affective, and the community working together changes things. If something or someone should and can be different, push past the current reality to what could be to what should be.