It’s the Saturday before this is being posted. I’m sitting on beach in Aruba with my wife writing this post. I’m not far from where we live on the island, where I get to spend the winters far from the New Hampshire snow.
So often people tell us how “lucky” we are, and while I’m polite, and agree with them, inside I’m shaking my head and rolling my eyes, thinking “luck had nothing to do with it”. My great-grandmother, an Irish immigrant who lived in the tenements of Hell’s Kitchen said it best, in life, your make your own luck.
So, how do you make your own luck? Simple, you do the hard stuff no one else is willing to do, and you keep doing it when things go bad, even when those who started doing hard things quit. It’s all about perseverance. Don’t stop, until you have the life even you never dreamed you could have.
I can’t take credit for the list below, but it was given to me by a mentor many years ago when I was going through a tough patch. I had it in hard copy in folder in a desk, and it seemed like I always stumble across it at the times I needed to be reminded of it most. I’d read it, laugh, pull up my big boy pants, and keep going.
Funny thing about once you learn how to make your own luck. It’s kind of hard to stop. Before coming to the beach today, my wife and I made an offer on an investment property that we never would have dreamed of back in a day when we bought our first FDIC foreclosure home, after selling everything of value we owned and could do without at a flea market to get the down payment.
She looked at me after we gave the realtor the offer, laughed, and said “we’re crazy”. I replied “yup, and crazy has always worked well for us”.
I hope this list can do the same for you that it did for me. Keep plugging away. You’ll get there!
19 Hard Things You Need to Do to Be Successful
You have to do the hard things.
- You have to make the call you’re afraid to make.
- You have to get up earlier than you want to get up.
- You have to give more than you get in return right away.
- You have to care more about others than they care about you.
- You have to fight when you are already injured, bloody, and sore.
- You have to feel unsure and insecure when playing it safe seems smarter.
- You have to lead when no one else is following you yet.
- You have to invest in yourself even though no one else is.
- You have to look like a fool while you’re looking for answers you don’t have.
- You have to grind out the details when it’s easier to shrug them off.
- You have to deliver results when making excuses is an option.
- You have to search for your own explanations even when you’re told to accept the “facts.”
- You have to make mistakes and look like an idiot.
- You have to try and fail and try again.
- You have to run faster even though you’re out of breath.
- You have to be kind to people who have been cruel to you.
- You have to meet deadlines that are unreasonable and deliver results that are unparalleled.
- You have to be accountable for your actions even when things go wrong.
- You have to keep moving towards where you want to be no matter what’s in front of you.
You have to do the hard things. The things that no one else is doing. The things that scare you. The things that make you wonder how much longer you can hold on. Those are the things that define you. Those are the things that make the difference between living a life of mediocrity or outrageous success.
The hard things are the easiest things to avoid. To excuse away. To pretend like they don’t apply to you.
The simple truth about how ordinary people accomplish outrageous feats of success is that they do the hard things that smarter, wealthier, more qualified people don’t have the courage — or desperation — to do. Do the hard things. You might be surprised at how amazing you really are.