Another Reminder

[Dave McNeill]

This reminder is from an old friend and fellow martial artist, John Mariotti (aka Shark Bait). His weekly blog is almost always a nudge to myself to be better. This weeks missive is a poke we all need from time to time. 

Sunday Story…Work First

Go get your Webster’s dictionary out. Look up three words…results, success, and work. We all know what these mean…I’m mostly interested if you notice the order in which these words appear. Results show up first, then success, and lastly work. This is the only place that this occurs.

Work always comes before success or results. If you don’t work nothing else matters. If you aren’t willing to sacrifice, plan, deal with frustration and pain then you aren’t willing to work. You need to work to get results. It really is simple.

Too many of us focus on results we want. The goal we have in mind. I want to weigh 125 pounds, I want to dead lift 500 pounds, I want to be at 12% body fat. These are all results. These are all goals, the results we want from the effort we expend. But they should not be the primary focus. The primary focus is the work. 

Work is what we do to get results. Work is what is required to get the results we want work is what we do to be who we want to be. Work is the glue that puts the results together to build the life we want to live. 

I often say there is no “magic pill.” Well, I am wrong…the “magic pill” is work, and work includes sacrifice. Work includes doing some things you don’t want to do. Work requires that you stay on task as you move through the cycle to get the results you want.

We can’t just show up and think the work will get done. We need to be intentional and focused on doing the work. Results and met goals are the products of focused intentional effort also known as work. Results and success follow work not the other way around.
Forget about the results. Forget about the goals. Get your laser beam focus on the right work, the correct effort and the results will be there. Most people miss this part; they are so focused on the results, the end game that they forget about the mindset that it takes to get to that part of the game. Don’t be that guy. Don’t lose sight of the work and how you do it. That focus, that intention, that single minded effort to doing the task at hand with nothing else in mind.

This doesn’t mean that results aren’t important…they are. That would be a mistaken belief but so is thinking that results are the only things that matters. Work matters and work comes first before results and before success. Laser like focus on the work at hand yields the results you crave and need. Keep your priorities in order.

The only place success comes before work in in the dictionary.

Namaste

John

“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”

www.martialartsnevada.com

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