A Four Letter Word Called WORK

Photo Credit: crossfitmass.com

"We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work."
​-Thomas A. Edison

There's a four letter word that people don't like to talk about, it is called WORK! I love this quote by Thomas Edison. We've never been immune to hard work. Brandon started a paper route and working at a young age. I started babysitting and doing odds-and-ends jobs ever since I can remember. For the both of us, learning to manage work, school and athletics at a young age was the breeding ground for having a 'do whatever it takes' mentality. Through college, we were the student-athletes that not only got good grades, but stayed later in the weight room and never short-changed our summer workouts. I am not telling you this to brag, but to simply illustrate that you are way more capable than what you think you are capable of.

Any time we have the opportunity to speak in front of a crowd of any size, we always talk about changing your result. We believe if you want to change your results/outcome you have to change your activities/input, but first you must change your thought process/mentality. So many people want to change their outcome without changing their mentality first. While others, have the right mindset, but need to put in some action. Changing your thought process and the production of your actions, requires focus and attention, but most importantly requires, work. You cannot have one without the other!

Strengthening that mental muscle
Becoming stronger mentally and more intelligent emotionally takes work. It is easy to get lured in by social media and other streaming media, like tv and music, but it takes focus to fill those time gaps or downtime with things that are going to build your mental muscle, like books, audios and podcasts. Napoleon Hill states, "Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle." Our society makes it easy for us to compare ourselves to others, to make us feel like we are not good enough and to feed into the negative of the world around us. It takes a conscious effort to create new programming in our brain, not only to combat the pessimism, but to also live in a more optimistic state. We believe what you put your attention on, grows. If you boost your ability to stay focused, you can improve at almost anything. Being intentional in growing your mental maturity and emotional capabilities is critical to getting optimal results from your activity.

Have faith and just do the work
I am going to write this very candidly. When it comes to putting in work, especially when there isn't authoritative pressures, people struggle. People have become lazy, weak-minded and procrastinate. People like to do as little as possible, but expect to get paid the most amount of money. When it comes to entrepreneurship, that is simply not how it works. For us, it was 2-5 years of very focused efforts, where we had to intensely discipline our finances, lose some sleep, decrease social activities and even spend less time together. We put a lot of time into putting ourselves in a position where we could free up time in the future. Now, life is very different, because we spend every day together and choose our efforts. Hard work is working intelligently and diligently at a given task to complete it with maximum efficiency. You must define and set a standard for hard work, but this definition must be congruent and support your definition of success. It's no secret that success doesn’t come easy. The truth is that if you only invest a little, the reward will also be small. It is directionally proportional. How do you define hard work? What are your standards for creating success in your life?

I love what Thomas Jefferson said. He remarked, "If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve must be willing to do something you’ve never done." Isn't that the truth! My goal is not to get into a political or social rally, but the reality is that we've made life too easy for many. We reward effort and don't allow people to fail. Failure, in fact, is necessary to have success in life. Work, also, is necessary to have success in life. Challenge yourself... eat healthier, drink more water, sleep less, get exercise, but most importantly, practice a positive mental attitude, and I promise you; you are far more capable of achieving those goals that you've been telling yourself you are too busy or too tired or too...whatever... to achieve. Today is the day you turn the page on justifying your excuses.

Just do it! 
Brandon & Amanda