Sacrifice is needed to reach your destination

As a college professor and army officer I often have conversations with my peers about my students and soldiers. Unfortunately a lot of my conversations end with “he/she has potential.” While my goal is always to help those around me develop their own personal abilities in order to reach their goal, I often see them fall far short. Too often I see students with the ability and tools but without the desire to reach their goals. This usually leads to multiple conversations about what they want to accomplish just to see them stagnate.

It takes more than simple desire to reach one’s dreams.

So, what is the required ingredient for success? Some would call it grit, others a tolerance for pain. Ultimately one must to be willing to sacrifice in order to reach one’s goals. Students must be willing to make the changes in their lives to ensure that they are successful. It goes beyond simple desire to sustained desire under stress. For a college student, that might mean giving up time spent on socializing or playing video games to study more. For an employee, it might mean taking on duties that no one else wants to in order to display his or her ability to handle tasks beyond his/her job descriptions in order to get promoted. While for many the need to complete a goal will not be pleasurable or desirable, but being able to reach that goal will be.

Please don’t get me wrong. The willingness to make sacrifices alone will not make you successful. I have seen a lot of individuals that were willing to throw themselves into their work but had no clue how to get from point “A” to point “B,” nor any of the tools to complete their tasks. The trick in life is to develop clear plans on how to reach a goal. Everyone should seek out the help of those that have made the journey to aid them along their path.

People must learn from the mistakes of others before they make the same mistakes. If someone is forging a new path, they can seek out the help of anyone willing to aid them. Sometimes aid may be nothing more than encouragement. It’s easier to reach a goal with a solid plan and support system. The next step is to add grit in abundance. Completing any task that one can truly be proud of will be painful in some way or another. This pain separates those that truly wish to be successful from those less motivated.

When I was younger, I had the opportunity to train with the Air Force Para-Rescue. That unit made a point to separate the “wanna-be’s” from the “gonna-be’s.” The simple shift from saying “I want to be ‘X’” to “I am going to be ‘X’” may just provide a person enough grit to complete the task. It changes a student’s goals from options to requirements. This simple phrase change can dramatically impact how we psychologically process the challenges that come with completing our goals. This changes those painful experiences from something that could be avoided to a requirement for success and reaching our goals.

I challenge everyone to stop being “Wanna-be’s” and start becoming “Gonna-be’s.” Stop wanting to be a college graduate. Make the sacrifices to ensure that you are going to be a graduate. If I can promise one thing, it is that it is going to hurt in some way or another. But if students are going to experience the pain, they might as well taste the reward.

Learn to start interpreting pain a challenge.

Reach down deep and find the grit that will lead to success.