If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. But the truth is, you can plan to succeed, yet you fail. You can plan all you want, but if you don’t consider the hard work as the most prerequisite element to your success, you are still going to find it hard to succeed. You don’t just need a plan. You need the discipline to follow through. There are only three formulas for failure: procrastination + laziness + quitting = failure.
Many of the time, failure do not happen by accident, but a compounding habits overtime which culminate into failure. Procrastination leads to laziness, laziness turns to quitting and then when you finally quit, you began to see yourself as a failure. Ask anyone who failed, they didn’t plan it that way. It all started with a symptom. At some point, they procrastinated, and then they allowed their procrastination to climax, which leads to loss of interest, leading to laziness, and at a point they don’t have any reason to continue, and then their dreams are buried with time, and when they discover that they no longer have time on their sides, they began to see themselves as failure. Because I believe that everything that we have to be and do in this life is tied with time.
Success can be superficially deceptive. Just like a brass glossed with icing. You may be easily tricked into thinking that it was just all glossy until you break the inside. In other words, sometimes, we may admire greatness and successful people but underestimate the hard work and sacrifice behind it. With all the glamour, the accolades and the awards, you can be easily tricked into believing that it was all there is. But those were just like the tip of an iceberg. Beneath those glitz are loads of hard work and perseverance. This is because we have been wired to admire success more than what leads to success. Which is event over process.
Most people admire athletes, because of what they see on the pitch and on the TV, but when you are taken behind the play field to witness the rigorous pains of exercises and trainings that come with it, you may be tempted to change your mind. When you see the musicians perform, it seems flawlessly, but you didn’t know that the songs were mot mastered in one day. It takes a lot of hard work and practice. It cut across all walks of life. What about movies you enjoy? “oh it’s a great movie,” you said, and then you finished it under one hour, but you didn’t know that it has taken weeks and months to produce.
It’s a great book, and you finished it in one day or two, but it has taken months and even years to be written, and published. Because you are oblivious of the amount of the research, rewriting and editing that goes into it.
Michel Angelo, one of the greatest artists of all time once said that, “if people knew how hard I worked to attain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”
That is hard work. And to most people, it was the most negligible part of the process because, it was barely seen.
This is where most people give up from their goals and dreams because it was getting hard. And they didn’t expect it to be that hard.
So here are the five important reasons why most people fail in life
- You underestimated the hard work: You think it would be easy, because you only focused so much on the end result. You were simply delusional, because those who are doing it made it look so simple. You concentrated so much on the outlook, but looked down on the work it takes to achieve the result you desire.
- You Lack the Right Mentorship: When we talk about having a mentor, it doesn’t meet you need to pay a huge amount of money to sit under the feet of Aristotle or Socrates to learn whatever skill that is required to be whatever you want to be. It simply means you have to follow the right footsteps and guardians of people who have accomplished the things you want to accomplish. In other words, you may not necessarily need to see them face to face, but keeping in contact with their materials.
- You Lack the Right Push at the Right Time: related to having a mentor, sometimes you need that words of encouragement to take the next step, and to keep going. No matter how strong you think you are, you don’t always remain full of strength. Sometimes, you may simply need to be motivated, and there is nothing wrong with it. It doesn’t mean you are not hardworking. Every successful person that I know today would point at someone who have lifted them up in their lowest moment.
- Negative Mind Set: This has to do with how you perceive the world and how you think of yourself. Someone said, ‘if you think you can, you are right, if you think you cannot, you are also right’. There is no point working hard on something that you do not absolutely believe in. If you are to succeed, you need to adopt a mindset that would help you to succeed. Some call it a paradigm, prosperity mindset, and it’s very important. You need to cultivate that.
- You Simply Lack Help or Leverage: This may sound like someone seeking for an excuse, but it’s not all about shifting responsibilities. Sometimes, it comes to a point in your life when you simply need help. As a business man, you may need investors to scale up your business. As a musician, you may need the right record label to reach more audience. As a writer, you may need the right publishing deal to sell more books, etc.
It’s good to always retain the mindset that no one is coming to save you, but at some point, that “someone” may be the only thing you need to succeed faster, otherwise, you may struggle for so long. This is one thing I discovered common to most successful people (although not all) at some point they were discovered. However, it doesn’t mean that you must have to be discovered to be successful, but, it can accelerate your journey. This is where luck, connections, and being at the right place at the right time plays a big role.
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