It’s the start of a new year, the time of year where people talk about how motivated they are. You hear it everywhere you go. They talk about their half-assed resolutions. They talk about how they’re going to lose weight. They talk about how they’re going to quit smoking. They talk about how they’re going to eat healthy. They talk a lot but talking is all they do.
By March, they’re still fat, still smoking and still unhealthy. Then they talk about how they can’t find the motivation any more and they give up. They give up because they’re quitters. And what quitters don’t understand is that motivation is not enough.
Now I know you’re not a quitter. I know you’re a winner. I know you’ve set your goals. I know you’re motivated for the new year. That’s why I want to warn you in advance. I want you to remember this when things get hard so you don’t end up like those losers. If you rely on motivation alone you set yourself up for failure.
I’m not saying that motivation isn’t important, it is. I want you to feel motivated. I listen to motivational videos every morning and you should too. But motivation is not enough to succeed. You might be motivated now but what are you going to do when you’re not motivated? When you can’t get fired up? When you wake up depressed and have to struggle just to drag your tired ass out of bed, what do you do then?
The answer is, you keep moving forward. You don’t wait for motivation because you can’t base your mission in life on a fleeting emotion. Motivation is not enough, you need dedication.
So what’s the difference between motivation and dedication you ask?
Motivation is an emotion, dedication is a characteristic. Being dedicated is who you are, how you feel at one moment in time has no effect on that.
Dedication is what separates the winners from the quitters, the men from the boys. Achievement is about dedication over motivation, will over skill.
Being motivated is a luxury, anyone can work hard when they’re motivated. Being dedicated means you can work hard when you’re not.
To accomplish anything worthwhile you need to be truly dedicated.
So what does it mean to be truly dedicated you ask?
True dedication means making a decision and closing your mind to all other possibilities.
True dedication means you take the hits and keep moving forward.
True dedication means you get back up, every single time.
True dedication means not waiting for motivation. Waiting for motivation is an excuse. Dedication doesn’t accept excuses.
So how do you become truly dedicated you ask?
It’s simple, to become truly dedicated, vow to yourself right now that you will not quit your mission for any reason, ever. That simple vow will change the entire way you view your life. You’ll choose every goal wisely because you know that quitting is not an option.
You want a great girlfriend? Approach women until you find one. You want a great business? Work like a dog until you succeed. You want a great body? Get in the gym 3 times a week until you’ve got one. You want to get organized? Take action starting today. No quitting, no exceptions.
Any worthwhile goal you have is going to be hard, if it was easy everyone would do it. In your pursuit of your goals you’re going to feel pain, you’re going to fear failing, you’re going to doubt yourself but none of that sh*t matters. Those are just fleeting emotions, dedication is forever.
So be truly dedicated, work hard and never, ever quit.
