Man Up Monday: To Reach Your Potential Is an Expectation, Not An Anomaly

You’re on this earth for a very brief moment and you’re tasked with one thing: To squeeze the most out of your gifts and talents that you possibly can while you’re here. To fall short of this task is one of life’s greatest tragedy’s, the tragedy of talent left, wasted. You’re here not to dream, but to work; not to promise, but to act; not to worry, but to practice. (Read this: Forget Finding Your Passion. Just Work)

It’s your duty and a human to make the most of your time here and the body and the mind that you’ve been blessed with. You’re here to be as gritty as you can be, to find out how tough you can be and endure those things that you fear may break you. You’re here to be as kind as you can be, as generous as you can be, as charitable as you can be. You’re here to experience what it means to be at your best and what that means for the rest of the world.

Mediocrity is failure. Laziness is sin. You’re here to hustle your ass off in what little time you have in order to see what greatness you can accomplish. You’re here to die with nothing left in the tank, your life-force spent, burned out in the glorious blaze that was your brief existence.

Get to work!

Pursuing your potential is your duty, though it’s something few ever realize.

You have to pursue your potential for kindness, for giving, for hustling and winning. You have to develop discipline, for without discipline no man’s potential is in reach.

And yes, these are “have to’s”. They’re non-negotiable expectations as to what’s expected of you, one of the few who have made it into this world as a healthy human, one of the few who is still breathing…

… One of the few who realizes that power you wield, the control you have over your thoughts and actions and your destiny. (Read this: How to Reach Your True Potential)

Trying to knock 15 things of your daily list? Maybe even 5? What happens? You spend your time on the non-essentials, then when it comes time to focus on the essentials, you’re either out of time or out of energy.

Have one thing to accomplish everyday, after that has been completed, you are then permitted to add to that list.

We set goals and we tell the world about our goals, and in this prophesizing of our intentions, we gain a satisfaction that should only come when the goal has been attained.

If we would only DO what we set out to do, instead of talking about it or wishing it true, we’d be far happier, and we’d be far more valuable to the rest of humanity.

The idea that we’re “too busy” is rarely a fact. We’re usually too busy because we’re spending time doing things that aren’t essential to our happiness or our success. (Read this: The Truth About Happiness and Who Controls Your Fate)

To be effective at anything, you have to understand what yields results – be it increasing your happiness or your bottom line – and what doesn’t. Focus on the things in your life that matter, FIRST, everything else should be second.

The hard times in your life are the greatest gift you can be given. For it’s these hard times that you grow and develop. They are blessings, not curses, they’re challenges.

Embrace the struggle, the tribulation, the journey up the mountain, this is where you grow, evolve, and become a winner.

You have the capacity to do anything you want to do because you have the ability to persist, you also have the ability to be disciplined, you have the ability to work harder than anyone.

If you’re working when others are partying, spending, distracting themselves from the struggle, and if you persist and remain consistent, there is no one thing that can stop you unless you stop yourself.

Success is rarely easy or flashy, when you realize that it takes time and effort as much as talent, you open yourself up to real possibilities and real options.

Believe in the power you have over your fate, your future, your dreams. Believe in the power you have over your thoughts, your actions, your emotions.

There are people in this world who worry about where their next meal will come from, if tomorrow will be their last day on this earth, if they’ll get raped or tortured or killed.

Worrying about what others think of you is not a valid fear.

Worrying about what clothes to wear is not a valid worry.

Worrying about how you look is not something you should spend time stressing about.

You have an opportunity. Fight the evil that keeps people living in a world of fear, do something with the talents you’ve been given and the opportunities you have.

Don’t, however, spend another moment worrying about things that are so insignificant and detrimental to who you are and the man you can become. (Read this: Be Bold as a Lion)

Instead of watching TV on a work break, read, run, do push ups or world downs…

Grit is developed in doing things you don’t want to do and growing to like them in a twisted way because even though they cause you discomfort or even pain, they make you better, stronger, and more resilient.

Who you spend your time with, who you talk with, who you give your energy to is very, very important. You can’t spend another moment wasted on humans who gossip, on humans who complain, with humans who envy who you are and what you’re doing and try and undercut you at every opportunity.

Don’t tell them why you’re not talking to them, it’s a waste of breath. Don’t tell them that this is the end, you’re not that important that you have to announce every move you make.

Just get them out of your life. Done. Over. Onward and upward.

Now get to work. (Read this: 7 Relationships Every Man Needs)

Hard work breeds confidence, but it also develops humility. To work hard you have to be humble enough to understand that whatever you’re doing in life, you need to work hard to become a master or to find success.

Arrogance breeds laziness. It’s develops the notion that “everything will work out”, even if you don’t do anything to MAKE IT WORK.

Work hard, and always stay humble.

Living is an action, it’s not a state.

Living is subjective. To some it consists purely of breathing, of a heart beating. To others, the term “living” requires more meaning. Living, if you’re going to experience life and joy and pain and what it is to be a human and truly live a life, must mean more to you than the biological processes of being alive. (Read this: What is Living?)

Living needs adventure, but it also requires of us some kind of service to others. It means using your talents while also giving them to a greater cause.

Living means experiencing, both joy and pain.

Living also means realizing your potential.

To leave something in the tank as you lay your head down for that final rest would be a tragedy.

Therein lies the lesson: live your life as if you’re trying to empty your tank at the end of every day for you never know when that end of the day will be your last.

No one wants to look back and wish they’d done more. I’m sure we can all agree with this. Yet most of us push our “doing more” or giving more or daring more to tomorrow.

It’s illogical. We know that we want to die without regret, yet we’re willing to push things off to a time that isn’t guaranteed.

Now is all that’s guaranteed. The past cannot once again be, and the future may never become. Work hard in the present, adventure in the present. That’s all you can do, yet so few of us actually do it.

Life is a matter of doing, not talking or dreaming or wishing. Simply by doing while others dream you’re going to be one of the few on this planet who lives a full live.

Live life like a blaze so grand that at some point you’ll have run out of things to burn.

More Man Up Monday: Let Go of Your Excuses  and You’ll Find Opportunity