Are You Paying The Price For What You Want From Life?
Posted on December 26, 2018 by Rajiv Luv, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
Whatever we want from life, we have to pay a price and if we don't pay that price willingly then we are forced to pay a bigger price, unwillingly.
Can you walk into a Mall and just pick up some stuff and walk away? No. You have to pay the price by cash, check or credit card. If you don’t do that and still insist on walking away with the stuff, you pay a still higher price by landing up in a jail. Money is not the only price you pay. You pay price in the form of hard work, sacrifice, excellence, eating wisely, exercise, and service.
“Take what you want, God said to man, and pay for it.” -Spanish Proverb
There is this story of a guy who would pray to God every day a number of times, “God, please make me win the lottery.” Then one day God could take it no more and he said, “First go buy a lottery ticket!”
We may laugh at this story but we all too are like the guy in the story. We want many things in life, things like – health, wealth, knowledge, skills, relationships, promotion, achieve dreams and goals, but we are not too willing to pay the price. Napoleon Hill says, “Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price.”
Twenty five years ago, I set a goal of becoming a freelance Trainer in Soft Skills. I would get up everyday at 4.00am in the morning, even though I was not fully awake, I would start reading a book, then on my old grandfather’s typewriter, type the learning points, type introductory letters to companies, type handout stencils for cyclostyling. By 6.30am I would be off to my job, which I had to still hold on as I needed to run my house. I would carry the book with me. I would leave a few buses so as to get my favorite seat, once the bus started, I would read for the next 2-3 hours of my journey and I did the same for my return journey.By the time I reached home, it would be around 10pm, there was just enough time to eat food and hit the sack as I had to get up again at 4am. Without the support of my newly wed wife, I couldn’t have pulled through. Then, I would record my lectures on an audio cassette and then listen to it on a Walkman on my to and fro journey everyday. During the journey, I would mentally rehearse my sessions, even note ideas on the back of tickets and then transfer it to my journal. Today, in my time management session, whenever I ask participants, “what are some of your major time wasters” Invariably, they mention ‘Travel’ Back then, I felt that the travel time was ‘gift time’ for me and I am happy that I invested that time well,it helped me to leave the job and be on my own, I have never looked back since then.Why? Because I paid the price.
Why do we hesitate to pay the price?
a) We link lot of pain to paying the price.
b) We look for short cuts, easy way of doing something.
c) We are lazy, we don’t want to get out of our comfort zones.
d) We can’t wait, we want instant results.
e) We have this fear of failure.
f) We think the price is too big.
g) We are not willing to take the responsibility.
What will happen if we don’t pay the price?
If we don’t pay the price, then we can’t expect to get all that we want from life. And if we willingly don’t pay, we may have to unwillingly pay a much higher price later on. Let us take an example: To remain fit and healthy, you need to pay a price in the form of maybe walking, gyming, aerobics, or just some simple stretching exercises, but if you don’t pay this price, then you will have to pay a higher price in the form of not feeling good, low energy levels, poor stamina, being absent from work, taking lots of medicines, getting hospitalized or worst still losing a job or life. Even when we indulge in activities which are to fool, cheat and manipulate people, in the long run, we have to pay a much higher price in the form of lost respect, dignity, integrity and honor. Does that make sense?
When should we pay the price?
In advance.
What if I told my boss, “Sir first give me a promotion and then see what results I produce.” or a student telling the teacher, “First give me good marks and then I will study hard.” We may find this absolutely ridiculous, but that’s what we expect in real life. But nature doesn’t work like that, who knows that better than a farmer. The farmer first pays the price by removing weeds out of his fields, then he ploughs the fields, plants seeds, waits for the rains to come, waits for plants to sprout, grow and finally yield food or fruit. The farmer pays all this price in advance, he doesn’t pray to God, “God, first give me the food and then I shall plough the field and plant the seeds.”
How do we know what price to pay?
Very simple, first make a list of all the things you want to be, do, have and give in life. Now for each item, write down what are some things you need to do to achieve that. For example if I want to become an excellent presenter, what I need to do is 3 things 1) develop a burning desire 2) understand the process of presentation 3) practice, practice, practice. If I don’t pay this price, I can never excel in my presentations.
One of my goal is to be an active trainer till the age of 85 and beyond for which I need to be fit and healthy. I have already started paying the price consistently in the form of eating wisely, going for a walk and exercising. I will pay whatever price is necessary to achieve that goal.
So be committed and persistent in paying the price in advance. Resolve to pay whatever price you need to pay to become the person you most want to become.
