"Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you."
- Arnold Palmer
Feeling hopeless or helpless can become the ultimate deterrent while making personal and professional pursuits. Setbacks and roadblocks can test us to determine how committed we are to whatever it is we are pursuing. We decide whether or not to keep plugging away or abandon our plans altogether. If we decide to keep going, it's imperative to our odds of success to not only stay committed to our pursuit, but to become fully invested if it's something we choose to keep pursuing.
It makes sense. What is the point of pursuing something only to put forth a half-hearted and half-assed attempt to achieving that goal? We can come up with half-hearted and half-assed excuses like lack of finances, resources and time. Quite often, though, lack of motivation, faith or willpower to follow through on our plans is what can derail them for good. We may lose sight of why we even started a particular pursuit in the first place. Maybe we did not want it bad enough. That should be our first question when we find ourselves making excuses or making a half-hearted effort. How bad do I want it?
Photo by John Gibbons on Unsplash
To not want something bad enough is where the half-hearted and half-assed efforts come from. What we end up finding out is we get half-assed returns on our efforts. If we only kinda, sorta want something, we may only kinda, sorta go after it. This is especially true when we are faced with setbacks and roadblocks. When we want it bad enough, we should be willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it. We have to accept that everything may not unfold the way we intended it to, but we should not let unintended results deter us from our initial pursuit. Setbacks can be the ultimate test for determining how bad we want something.
If we choose to push through the setbacks and hurdle over the roadblocks, it should be a sign of how bad we want it. We should want to double-down on our efforts. We should want to address our excuses and tackle them from a different perspective. Victory tastes even sweeter when it is earned through perseverance and overcoming the odds. If we want it bad enough, it's on us to put forth the extra effort, especially when the odds seem stacked against us. It can end up being the extra nudge we needed to cross the finish line.
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