THE POWER OF DELAYED GRATIFICATION
The path to success is a marathon with hurdles—not a sprint.
I was talking to a friend the other day, and she was telling me all the things she wouldn’t do even as a friend to any guy. The point was she was minimizing anything near intimacy so as to make sure she kept her body for the right person (marriage).
Judging from her age, personally, it’s quite too early to tell how disciplined she is. But she seems to be intentional about it, which I praised her for.
The day you plant the seed, is not the day you eat the fruit
The average person wants to work right now, eat right now, and get rich right now. And in reality, it doesn’t work that way. Most careers aim to get you competent first, before you talk about wealth.
In fact, how most people i know got into their careers was from looking directly at the external rewards and using them as motivation to pursue that dream.
The power of the internet
Luckily for us, the internet honestly has broken some of the artificial barriers to getting rewarded.
Good news! Your customers have the final say. And you can get rewarded regardless of how long you’ve spent (in public) honing your skills.
A lot of people can’t deal with it. They’re always the ones reminding you how, “What comes easily, goes easily.”
And yes, they do have a point.
It takes years to build Character
Regardless of how many opportunities to speedtrack success you experience, character takes time and intentionality to develop.
Take, for example, without financial education, money disappears fast. And everything acquired with such a shallow foundation, including relationships, can also easily disappear.
Climbing the right ladder
I look at my life right now, and I wonder how many mistakes I’ve made by making decisions because I was thinking of only how it affected me “in the now” without much thought about the consequences in the long term and how I could be able to deal with it or nah.
For me most of my choices, have always been what i’d enjoy doing long term. Key ones include choosing entrepreneurship, the quality of my relationships and friendships, my present habits and daily choices, etc.
IKIGAI + Discipline
Yet I found there has to be a balance between chasing what you enjoy vs. being disciplined to do whatever it takes to succeed. Some people only go for the latter with little or no thought on the former, and frankly, these people, when they’re good, experience the fastest growth in any organization.
While people who focus on only the former are hardly good to work with. And they never see any fun climbing ladders they don’t wish to in the first place. The balance for me was where entrepreneurship came in (choosing my battles with little influence from bosses, etc.) and going all-in (if I wanted it to succeed).
No one is coming to save you
Delayed gratification is super important to succeed in life. Discipline is the secret ingredient.
Discipline in this case is choosing what you want most over what you want now.
It all boils down to this: Get disciplined. Get freedom.