Ever been to the school of hard knocks? I know I have!~ Sometimes I think I can’t get away from it. Getting down, disillusioned, and discouraged in life is easy to do.
You waste time then lose track of time but then wonder where the time went???
You complain, you moan and groan, you tell yourself and everyone around you how bad things are and how tough you have it. You have pity parties and don’t want to face the world. Your outlook on life seems grim and it feels like little hope is left.
It is hard, very hard, to get out of this mind frame once you're in it. The good news is that it is doable.
The first questions to ask yourself are these:
What are you going to do about it? Do you have a plan to graduate from the school of hard knocks? And if you did have a plan, would you follow through?
I eat dinner and lunch pretty much everyday sitting here at my computer pounding away on my keyboard. While it's not the most fun in the world, it IS part of MY plan. It has taken me a month of Sundays to figure some things out while others seem to be easier for me to do.
I’ve put a lot of time and effort into what I believe in. Have you?
I have a list of ‘attributes’ that are important aspects behind every one who has ever made it out of the hard knocks school. If you want to get away from the school of hard knocks you must first equip yourself.
Get out of the school of hard knocks?
Commitment – You can’t achieve anything without the commitment to do so!
Hard Work – You have to work hard and do hard work if you want to be successful.
Stamina – Are you durable? Do you have endurance? If you want to succeed you gotta do a ‘gut’ check. What are you made of? Figure out what makes you strong and what makes you weak. Then do the things that make you strong and stay away from the things that make you weak!
Patience – I think we could all use a bit of this one. When my son Lars was diagnosed with learning disabilities, my world got turned upside down. How could that happen to me? Since those early days of learning how to raise a child with disabilities I have learned patience.
Things rarely change over night. Everything worthwhile takes time.
The point is how much time do you have? If things aren’t happening fast enough then you gotta figure out how to either 1) change what you do or 2) change your approach. If you are doing all the right things then keep working and be willing to wait it out.
Willingness to Listen to Constructive Criticism – You know not everyone has what it takes! We all need help. If someone offers you advice on how to do things better, don’t get offended. Get busy instead. Listen to input from those around you who might know something about something. Learn to appreciate someone taking the time to care enough to help you. You don’t have to react to the criticism, just react to whats being said. Why are they saying what they’re saying? Do their comments have merit? Just remember that you don’t know everything~
Willingness to Put Your Thoughts to the Test - You have got to be willing to put it out there!~ If you don’t then you’ll never know what other people think!~ If you think that Bill Gates didn’t get slammed and laughed at when he was talking to others about the ‘internet’ you are wrong? He told people he had the ability to talk to people all around the world using a box and what looked like a tv screen. How many people do you think listened to him when he first started?
Devotion – If you aren’t even devoted to your own projects then who else will be?
Courage - You must be courageous and muster through the hard times. Take control of your life and strive to do better. Use the courage that you have to get you there successfully.
Strength - To have courage you must have strength to get thru the day. Take each day as it comes. Get through one day at a time and have the strength to do so.
Passion – If you don’t have passion for what you do, it will only serve you minimally. Did you get involved because you were truly interested in what you were doing or because it was what everyone else was doing?
When Rosiland Gardner came out with her book ‘Super Affiliates Handbook’, how many people do you think copied her website? She herself said it was a vast number.
We all want to get rich quick and those copied websites probably didn’t do so well at all as they weren't original thoughts. They were copied.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Come up with your own ideas. If you want to get out of the school of hard knocks, don’t expect others to do the work for you. You’ve gotta do it yourself.
That’s actually a beautiful thing. When everything comes together and things start clicking. To get through the school of hard knocks takes time. But it can be done if you believe in yourself and in what you are committed to.
