The Truth Will Set You Free – Part 9 of 20

I recently read a post on Johnny B. Truant’s blog that really hit home. So much so that I wanted to do two things: share it with my readers and 2) think on and write about each piece of his post. The post is “20 Truths About Life No One Wants To Believe” and the eighth one I am going to tackle is:

9. Most successes happen in small steps and take a long time.
This is the cornerstone message behind my Everyday Legendary community, which is filled with people who actually understand that most things worth doing take time. Almost nothing happens in huge, gestalt leaps. Want to become a champion ballerina or start a successful company? Get a little better every day, then repeat.

I just wrote about this. Must be something to it, if it keeps coming up…

***

This truth is so important that is bears repeating (again and again).

It’s true that things can happen in an instant. Significant, life-changing, earth-shattering events do happen, like car accidents or heart attacks, but we’re (Johnny and me) talking about success. We’re focused on achieving goals and creating our lives as we want them.

Things tend to build on themselves. We develop muscle-memory and greater skill and ability with the tasks that make up our work.

We get better as we do things. As we act we learn and grow.

***

We also fail. And by “fail” I mean we do something and get an unexpected and/or undesirable result. The key here is that successful people just see “failure” as a result – as mere information.

They say: “Oh, I did that, this way, with these resources, under these conditions, and this happened.”

Successful people continue this inquiry with: “What could I adjust, add, or delete to create the result I desire?”

***

Another explanation I like to entertain is that things take time because the Universe wants to make sure we really, truly want them.

Why give someone a result, or a skill or an ability if they’re not sufficiently committed to it? I don’t think the Universe works like that.

One prime example of exception to this rule is most lottery winners, most inheritors of wealth and some well-paid ball players. So often someone comes into a large amount of money and, for myriad reasons, ends up poor or bankrupt.

The prime reason they lose it all is because they didn’t know what to do with it – they were unprepared.

***

To sum up: most things, especially good things, take time. Be grateful for the price-of-admission, you’ll appreciate your results because you’ve earned them.