I come across a lot of people with pretty good ideas. While their ideas aren’t quite the next Facebook or Google, they certainly have plenty of potential. With the right mix of hard work and dedication, plus a lot of prayer, their ideas might just stick.
Recently, I was at a weekend away with one of my sons as he attended a junior surfing camp at what is known as the High Performance Center. When one of the coaches asked who wants to be a professional surfer, naturally all of the hands went up.
However, the one thing I note so often is that, while the idea or opportunity is in front of us to make it as a success in whatever it is that we desire to be successful in, so often, sheer hard work is missing.
The idea is good enough, the opportunity is clearly there, but often it is simply a lack of hard work, dedication and perseverance, absolute keys to success, that are missing.
As Christians, prayer is a wonderful thing, but there is a time where we simply need to get down to work and be prepared to work long and hard at whatever it is that we want to be successful in.
A few mornings each week, I have to wake up one of my children just after 5am to get to their training session before school. Just this morning I told him that this is the ‘champion hour’ of the day. As we drive past all the houses with their lights still off, all tucked up in their warm, comfortable beds, the sporting champions are up and out the doors, sacrificing sleep for a short at sporting success.
If you’re not an athlete, then you don’t need to be up that early, so don’t fee bad if you are still asleep at that hour of the morning. But my point is that there is often no replacement for hard work. You can pray and pray and pray, but ask anyone who is successful how hard they have worked and they’ll be quick to tell you that they have had to make a lot of sacrifices to get to where they are.
As adults, we need to be self-motivated. Proverbs 6:6-11 tells us to consider the ant: that it has no ruler, yet it works hard to gather its provisions. It’s one of my favorite scriptures because it is God’s Word telling us that we need to be diligent and hard working; that there are no short cuts.
How bad do you want it? In today’s competitive age, you need to want it badly. You may need to study more, or work a second job, or spend your nights and weekends watching Youtube, reading books and blogs on subjects to improve your knowledge.
Are you prepared to do what it takes to get to where you want to be?
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Matt Danswan is the CEO of Initiate Media, publishers of Christian Woman & Co. He is also the author of NOT Business As Usual.
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